Finished the game last night. The start of VEGA Central Processing gave me huge flashbacks to the Phendrana space pirate outpost in Metroid Prime, good god. Anyway, loved the game from start to finish. It ended just as I was starting to get my fill, which felt appropriate.
I can't say enough about the game's bosses. They're fast paced, dynamic, and highly interactive. Basically, they take a massive shit on damn near every FPS boss I can think of since Metroid Prime 3. Attack patterns are varied and interesting - demanding constant, specific reaction from the player (no hiding behind a wall until they make themselves vulnerable, thank fucking god). Even just with the Cyberdemon, he has wave attacks you have to jump over, aerial missiles that force you to find a safe zone, and a lock-on beam that requires you to read where it's going to settle on and move in the opposite direction. And there's cool stuff to watch out for like being able to knocking a spinning Hell Guard out of its attack, then line it up so that the second Hell Guard blasts it with some not so friendly fire. The last boss in particular has so many fucking attacks it's ridiculous - my favorite is probably the two horizontal laser sweeps that you have to jump over, then quickly crouch under to dodge. It all feels so right. If there's ever a DOOM 2, I hope id doubles down on bosses, because goddamn, not only are they utterly fantastic at designing them, but in the absence of new Metroid Prime games this is all we really have in the shooter space. Just superb work here.
Incredible game to me. So many options in combat that all feel rewarding and satisfying, engaging level and secret design that keeps the experience interesting when not in combat, fantastic technical presentation on PS4, a face-melting soundtrack, and boss designs that school nearly everything else out there when the genre has been in a massive fucking rut with them for years. Bravo, id. One of the very best shooters in years, and in ways that I never expected.
