Doom 2016 vs Doom Eternal vs Doom: The Dark Ages

Which of the modern Doom trilogy is your favorite?

  • Doom 2016

    Votes: 126 62.1%
  • Doom Eternal

    Votes: 57 28.1%
  • Doom: The Dark Ages

    Votes: 20 9.9%

  • Total voters
    203

Grildon Tundy

Gold Member
Now that the dust has settled on Doom: The Dark Ages, what's your favorite of the modern trilogy?

This week, I replayed and beat Doom 2016 and am on the sixth mission in Doom Eternal. Haven't played Dark Ages yet, but plan on doing so after Doom Eternal. Hoping it returns to a more serious tone compared to Eternal. I think I prefer the semi-serious, story-light, run-and-gun gameplay of Doom 2016, but maybe Eternal will further click as I go.
 
I only played DA so far. Great game. I'll play the other 2 eventually but seriously doubt they'll surpass it. I like being able to block and counter instead of endless strafing.
 
Doom 2016 was peak doom,turn brain off and just rip and tear.

Doom Dark Ages was a Humiliation Ritual
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I've played 2016 a lot and loved it, skipped Eternal for now as I'm pretty sure thay gameplay isn't for me, I prefer choosing my own few weapons, powering them up and sticking with them for the most part.

Dark Ages looks like something I'd really enjoy though, a nice balance of 2016 and Eternal style. The parry mechanic looks like Metroid Dread in some of ways, though I worry that fighting certain enemies who are invincible until you parry enough green attacks will be a bit boring, Dread had that to an extent too though.

The price of DA at launch put me off though, if I couldbe got it for closer to £45 I'd jump right now, at £60+ I'll wait for a sale.

I kept buying too many "AAA" games at launch and then either bouncing off them or not enjoying them at all, AC: Shadows being the latest example, I got sucked in my the graphics and the (seemingly) fun combat + destruction physics but the skill tree and general progression was pants. Not to mention the general animations for NPCs and facial animations outside the most important cutscenes was garbage and put me off.

I skipped all ACs after Unity due to the above animation and motion capture changes and I fell for this one going back to that level of quality stupidly.

Side mission's content can be rote af but as long as the actual moment gameplay is fun enough, characters are well written, have good animations and face capture it keeps me engaged. Horizon: FW is a prime example, the side stuff is mostly a bunch of fetch quests with little surprises but the actual conversations look and sound amazing so it keeps me interested enough to want to travel to the pin and do them.

Not so much with modern AC games... wtf happened, Unity was so fun for me, I loved that game. Exploring Paris was so fun and it had enough variety in the side stuff and the riddle puzzles and murder mysteries were also just that right level of challenge.
 
Doom 2016 : Thrash Metal (Slayer, Megadeth, Sodom)
Doom Eternal : Pop Metal (Ghost, Motley Crue)
Doom TDA: Epic/Viking Metal (Amon Amarth, Manowar, Bathory)

2016 will remain my favorite. Perfect game from start to finish.
 
2016 > Eternal > Dark Ages (in-progress)

DOOM 2016 is one of the greatest FPS campaigns ever made; a real celebration of blood, metal, and violence.
DOOM Eternal is a disappointing sequel. It's opening hour or two is just simply bad, and the rest of the game suffers from mechanical over-complexity that subtracts more than it adds.
The Dark Ages is a wild swing for the fences that misses. Bold ambition, but it's too far removed for my tastes. Sure looks and runs great, though.
 
Dark Ages was heartbreaking. Completely loses the plot on what makes Doom. Experimentation doesn't pay off as well as it did on Doom 3 either. Maybe revisiting later I'll be less disappointed but it's leagues beneath the others.

Doom 2016 and Eternal are great for different reasons. Eternal just has so much and it's almost all great. For that reason, Eternal.

I want to add that Eternal only clicked on revisiting to me. I just doubt Dark Ages will do the same for me.
 
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Eternal is an elite all-time classic
2016 is the next tier down
Dark Ages is better than.... some stuff. I can see it being tough to get replay value just because you've instantly got 2 far better options if you want to revisit that era of Doom. Overall, it's good.
 
2016 was just an instant classic. The best halo game we got since reach

Eternal was…a little too adhd with its movement style

Dark ages felt slower than both 16 and eternal but damn if it wasn't satisfying to 100%

2016 > Dark Ages > Eternal
 
Doom 2016 : Thrash Metal (Slayer, Megadeth, Sodom)
Doom Eternal : Pop Metal (Ghost, Motley Crue)
Doom TDA: Epic/Viking Metal (Amon Amarth, Manowar, Bathory)

2016 will remain my favorite. Perfect game from start to finish.
Doom 2016: Bag of weed. The cute girl next door. Long weekend with good movies to watch and an above ground pool in the back yard.
Doom Eternal: 28 grams of pungent scale. Handful of Cialis. A slightly-goth chick with emotional daddy issues, an axe to grind with her very recent ex and a history of substance abuse. Pretty nice room at a casino. Company AMEX because there's technically a trade show in town.
Doom The Dark Ages: Chubby single mom from the trailer park. Dominos Pizza. Plenty of Coors Light and generic cigarettes. Oh, and the kids have an Xbox One you can play.

You can't go totally wrong with any of them, but there are levels. Different types of fun too.
 
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Doom 2016 >>>>>>>>>>> Doom Eternal

I skipped Dark Ages. I try to make stupid mistakes only once.


The guys at id have no idea what made 2016 good and I'm convinced whoever did got fired.
 
Not even a question, 2016 100%.
The rest its just pretentious shit getting overexcited to put dumb convoluted shit in the game to look cool and different.
 
2016 (pinnacle FPS and Id) > Dark Ages (Fun but quite different to classic DOOM, it's refreshing but less so than 2016) > Eternal (didn't even want to play that ghastly colour palette and constant weapon/mechanic swapping deal).
 
Doom 2016 hands down, the atmosphere was right and gameplay and you could use any weapon how you liked and you were playing the story.

Eternal was constant chainsaw refill ammo mechanic, deathmatch arena to arena like a MP game with too much unnecessary wall jumping traversal with storey logs,

Haven't played the Dark Ages but it seems to be too reliant on the Shield to win and just the same fight's over and over and lacks the Doom atmosphere from what i've seen,

I am hoping for a actual Doom 2016 follow up one day personally.
 
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Not really a fan of any of them since I only like Doom 3 and it's expansion plus Quake 4 which is similar to Doom 3. But out of these three, I'll pick Dark Ages due to them having more story so it can be more entertaining watching it on youtube.
 
Doom 2016: Nothing, Chaosphere
Doom Eternal: Obzen, The Violent Sleep of Reason
Doom TDA: Contradictions Collapse, Destroy Erase Improve
 
Eternal for me. I found it hard to go back to 2016 after Eternal perfected the combat economy + the inclusion of the Marauder took it to 11 + I think the soundtrack is stronger to boot too than 2016's offering.



 
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Really struggled to get into dark ages, I'll have to go back eventually just for completion sake but I kind of wish it wasn't called doom at all, to atleast trick my brain
 
The biggest problem is that the quality of Doom 2016 is about the same quality as The Dark Ages. The formula was already perfected. ID made some gameplay changes to differentiate between the two games, but the experience isnt necessarily better. The series cannot positively evolve anymore, like an Uncharted 2 or The Witcher 3 can
 
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DOOM 2016. It was the only iteration in the new trilogy that felt like a true throwback as it contained so much content. A great campaign, fun multiplayer, and snapmap. Even in 2016 it felt alien to me as the only big budget games that contained that much content were COD.

It was also cool seeing a story that was more grounded and down to Earth IMO.

I'm a huge DOOM fan, and I've been ever since I was a kid playing it in the early 90's. But to me, it's 2016 > Eternal > Dark Ages.

I still feel like having a DOOM game without multiplayer and co-op feels wrong.
 
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I liked Eternal the most, but I would like a remaster of 2016. Most specifically get rid of the mega textures and use the current engine. Would help load times immensely as they are pretty brutal in 2016 and would get rid of the blurry textures. Plus HDR (more like Eternal and less like Dark Ages).
 
For me, Doom should be just rip and tear. No complicated story. No hub worlds. No convoluted menus or game mechanics. So, 2016 for me.
 
Eternal > TDA > 2016

2016 feels a bit too old school.

TDA feels like an evolved fps, but overall as a package is slightly below Eternal.

Eternal, most hardcore of the 3, gets blood pumping. Perfect pacing. Music is good in all 3 but this is only one where soundtrack is firmly in GOAT category.
 
While I loved Eternal and probably might have had a different opinion then, but looking back on it now, I have to give it to Doom 2016. There was something beautiful about the immaculate simplicity of 2016. The gameplay and pacing were brilliant, as was the atmosphere. The lore was much more interesting and impactful, reading up on the slayers' history and lore via the Dark Souls approach, meanwhile, Eternal just went overboard with everything.

Too many gameplay systems, some of which were added to the detriment of the game overall, especially the platforming and puzzles. The lore also went off the walls, yes, slayer is big and bad, but all of that interesting lore of heaven and hell went all for nothing, and slayer goes unga bunga through everything and kills god.

Finally, the Gauss cannon, I will never forgive them for taking out the absolute beauty that was this weapon. Using it in siege mode to clear the final level with barons crawling out from every crevice, it's surely overwhelming, and yet this bad boy charging like an ion cannon and pulling through was priceless. The ballista was a disgrace in comparison.

Haven't played Dark Ages, so can't judge.
 
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2016 for me. Perfect Doom game.

TDA second, decent. Got a samey towards the end but still great.

Eternal couldn't finish, not for me but can see why others love it.
 
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