I also have problems with that design style, I said as much when I played Doom 2016. It feels very… fake? artificial? Gamey? I know it sounds silly to say at least that last part, in freaking Doom, but i don’t like how the levels are clearly a tunnel that connects a series of ‘skate parks/arenas’, and how every time they would close the door and open it when it’s finished. That happened especially in the later half of the game, where it seemed the level designers where rushed and most of the final levels are just that (it was less obvious in the first half).
I wonder if people like AntedilivuanArk, who said…
loved it because said parts were the ones with the most intense combat, not because they were ‘combat skate park’ areas. Because you can have intense combat with a less samey and restricted level design, as many old FPS showed.
My $.02 as someone who has played a lil’ bit of Doom.
Doom Eternal is looking good, it’s a bigger & better sequel. More varied scenarios, more types of monsters with their own special abilities, more weapon accessories and new weapons, improved gore, and whole ‘Doomguy is a legendary Doomslayer that demons and even humans fear’ schtik is pretty cool.
Although it doesn’t seem to fix my previous two issue, the health system and the closed skate arenas.
For the latter I already have written a bit. I will add that one of the problems is how literally removes importance of good level design to the game, as the arenas themselves are more akin to DM maps, a series of interconnected tunnels/platforms in a closed loop pattern where the player jumps around and fight, putting all the importance in the combat. And the combat is good, but I also enjoy good and varied level design mixed in. Maybe some map is full of traps and tricky encounters, maybe another it used narrow and dark passages, maybe another it has chasms and big enemies you have to run away from, maybe another uses switches to open up new passages to old areas revealing how interconnected was everything, a la Dark Souls.
I also feel it removes importance of the exploration part of the game (keys, ammo/health, switches, secrets), and imo it’s better when the exploration part and the combat part are joined together in a cohesive whole, instead having a clear delineation.
For the first point (health system), I find the gore kills annoying, I wish they just dropped the health or ammo on spot when they die, and have it disappear after x seconds so you are still promoting a close quarter combat style if it’s what you want. In fact the mod Rekkr from classic Doom used that same system.
In addition to the ‘annoying’ factor, it messes up with the difficulty and pace of the game in ways I’m not convinced. In a way, the problem is that it gives the player enough freedom to worsen their own experience with the game. Because potentially almost every enemy can drop resources, the most efficient way of playing is abusing the system, this makes the game easier (more plentiful resources) than it should be. The solution then, if the game is easy? Just increase the difficulty. But then what you are doing is ensuring the player HAS to abuse the system, methodically goreying every enemy.