I just finished Eternal, so I am going to piggyback off your comment to give my thoughts.
Yeah, but, you can get more ammo instantly... for (almost) any weapon... whenever you want.
Yes, but doing something that breaks the usual flow of combat. For a game praised for avoiding to reload, it's a shame Eternal introduced several mechanics more intrusive than reload.
The game is fantastic and far better than Doom 2016. You obviously disagree, but Eternal is not the result of any sort of "decline." They are just two very different games that cater to different styles. The developers have said as much.
I love it too especially like midway through when you've learned all the skills then every battle turns into a puzzle kind of like a good Zelda boss battle. Maybe it's for the best I didn't play through DOOM the reboot because I had zero expectations and loved it.
How exactly? The only way that I can remember were by unlocking the barrel skill, upgrading the shotgun to get shotgun ammo, and by chainsawing?
Installed the game last week. Played for like 10 minutes and then quit and uninstalled immediately. From the get-go everything is going at 100mph. My brain can't keep up with the shit flying at you from all over the place on the very first level with the difficulty on the medium setting.
10 minutes is not nearly enough for me to make a call on a game.
In that 10 minutes I got my ass handed to me on medium difficulty. I enjoyed Doom 2016 more and actually played a decent chunk of that campaign. This Eternal is something else though and I've heard others having issues with it.
Me gaming:
Definitely disagree with this. Bethesda as a studio and publisher is definitely declining. They shelved Dishonored, made two back-to-back awful Wolfenstein games, a Doom sequel that has less content than its predecessor... Mind you, they haven't made an ES mainline game in a decade almost and the last couple of Fallout games barely function. I would call that a decline
There is a clear dominant "strategy" to playing this game. It nukes creativity and turns the levels into a chore. For all the talks of freedom, it really isn't all that open. It's closer to something like Mass Effect 2 and not something like Crysis.
I'll admit I'm no wiz kid, but the game isn't so challenging that most people can't complete it. Not to mention how op some of the abilities are.
It's challenge comes from lack of flexibility and an unnecessary layer of resource management. You have to play the "intended' way or you won't progress smoothly. I don't know if most people don't complete it but the few i know that did myself included (Hurt me Plenty only) found it a chore. Eternal's loop for me is not fun, can only take it in small doses. Even Doom 3 had more diversity in encounter approach.
The fact that the challenge comes from the lack of flexibility and resource management is such a flimsy way of making it seem like it's deeper than it truly is. Hell, I played the first couple of levels of Doom 3 on Normal and that game is INTENSE.
Time and time again we here the ammo issue but it is literally a button press on enemy fodder to get it. No different to ammo being somewhere on the map and you pressing a button to pick it up except you are chainsawing an enemy. The use of the chainsaw is completely different to Doom 2016. You had to select the chainsaw in Doom 2016 and then use it, this is one button press and not a weapon swap. All they did was put the ammo in the enemy and make you press a button that way to get. Seriously how easy do you want a game to be? It's an arena shooter, it's meant to make you think and be challenged. If you don't like it that's fine but it's not the game that is the problem. The game is actually very well designed, blaming the game and calling it garbage is ridiculous.
