Topic: Push Square Game Club Spooktacular: Resident Evil 4

@mookysam there's definitely some trigger resistance with the non-automatic weapons (including the shotgun, so you should be able to notice it from the start)

Doom Hunter Base complete! Overall a pretty good chapter actually, with a great boss fight at the end there. The Super Shotgun absolutely shreds bosses, glad I’m upgrading it!

Slow progress for me as I had a few days of work that knackered me out and took up most of my days. I've done two levels today so I just finished level 4! Missed a collectible in that level actually so I had to go back into mission select to get it. Luckily you can just "Return to Campaign" once you've collected what you need and you'll retain it without having to finish the level again.

The mission challenges haven't been too hard so far since they've been introduced compared to Doom '16. I didn't bother with the ones in '16 but I think I'm going to try and go for all of them in Eternal if I can.

I like that these games are kind of following the settings of Doom 1+2 and this is kind of the Hell on Earth iteration so far. I know we go to some crazier locations later in the game but I am liking the snippets of Earth that we are seeing.

I am about confused about all these different races though. I seem to only remember there being humanity and demons in '16 but now you have like the Argenta, some bloke called the Betrayer, the Sentinels and every demon seems to be classed as a different race. I've got no idea what's going on really!! I know there was Argent energy in '16 but I thought it was just Hell energy so that's why this new race is confusing me a bit.

I love the look of the Maykrs though, I guess they are kind of meant to be the heavenly opposite to the hellspawn even if they are quite hellish themselves.

Also I don't really get where all these behemoths have come from too! They look bloody cool but I just don't understand what their story is or how they link to Doom '16

Anyway, I thought I'd take some screenshots from the Fortress of Doom. Skip over these pics if you want to see them for yourself but I thought they were interesting...

Some satirical magazines:

Some Big Box PC games!

And some book parodies:

@ralphdibny Haha! Those are great!
Some of them are really humorous.
“Why I’m So Great” by Dork Norkum. Certainly a jab at Duke Nukem. 😂

@Th3solution oh yeah for sure! I think the other books on that shelf are mainly games by Bethesda/Zenimax like Prey, Rage, Wolfenstein, Fallout etc. I think there's a few non Bethesda games represented up there too. The other shelf is parodies of real books but Doom-ified. I spot Salinger, a couple of Orwell's, Wilde, Ayn Rand, Philip K Dick and a few other classic classics and modern classics!

My slow progress continues, mostly owing to not wanting my PS5 to contribute to the hell heat currently consuming my top-floor south-facing flat. I finished chapter 2 though, yay!

Things I've learned so far:
Precision platforming on small sinking platforms suspended over lava is not fun.
The UI looks is a bit crowded, but I discovered I could customise it.
And
My tenuous grip on the shards of my sanity weakened further still after entering a Slayer Gate and promptly getting my arse handed to me on a platter with a parsley garnish.

However, I do really like the frenetic, pulse-racing action (Slayer Gate experience aside), and how smoothly it handles. The gameplay loop is very satisfying indeed. And as @Ralizah will surely agree, Doom's over-the-top gore is very juicy.

Looking forward to getting further into the campaign!

@ralphdibny I was questioning why I suggested it was a randy cyberdemon, but after not being able to comprehend anything happening story-wise, do almost wish that the plot revolved around robot lady and her posse of teenaged cyberdemons! The book titles in those screenshots are hilarious. 😂

@mookysam 😂

The story was massively overwhelming in the first few missions. I was totally lost and had no idea what was going on and thought I was forgetting stuff from '16.

I've just finished mission 10 and I'm before a Point of No Return and the story has been massively explained in that time. Stuff like who that Betrayer is, what all the different races are. How that links to Humanity and the Doom Guy as he is in the first 4 games as well as '16. Well maybe not Doom 3 actually, but yeah.

I have been reading the lore collectibles though, the bits of floating paper you pick up throughout the levels. It's hard to get a grip but I think it makes a lot more sense. You get a lore overload in levels 9 and 10 that basically explains everything that's confusing about the first 8 levels

@mookysam

Modern DOOM in a nutshell.

Another one here with praise for those screenshots regarding those book titles @ralphdibny!

Teaching primary school kids for a living the one that jumped out at me was "The Very Hungry Cacodemon" and I'd absolutely love to see a proper version of it

Eternal seemed a bit divisive for some people compared to the 2016 version so it's good to hear everyone's enjoying it so far!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy heya and welcome back! I hope the school term didn't treat you too rough!

You've actually inspired me to make it on Photoshop now 😅. It's a bit rough around the edges but here is my attempt:

I'm loving Eternal at the moment. I'm planning to write up some more detailed thoughts shortly!

So I've finished level 10 of Doom Eternal and am in the Fortress of Doom about to pass a Point of No Return. I think there is 3 levels left of the main campaign.

I'd like to compare this game to Doom '16 but I played that last year so I feel like my memory may be incorrect. I also wouldn't say I played Doom '16 in as much depth as I've played Eternal so there is stuff I may have missed when I played it. So please bear those points in mind when I refer anecdotally back to '16!

After a number of months away from playing games in this series, Doom Eternal took some getting used to. The gameplay feels a bit stiffer than '16, there are more invisible walls and perhaps most obvious is the addition of a huge series spanning lore! Having to relearn this kind of kill-loot mechanic was a bit strange too.

However, a few levels in and it all came back to me. I was whipping around levels, dashing, jumping, double jumping, grenading, chainsawing, and generally blowing demons to hell (they should thank me for the free ride home!). It's awesome. Brilliant game, on the gameplay side of things at least!

On the lore side of things... Well I'm an absolute sucker for lore when it's a series I like. I feel like the game introduced it a bit cack-handedly at first. It throws a bunch of stuff at you like The Betrayer character, the argent race, the Sentinels etc. and I struggle to remember if any of this was in Doom '16. This all gets explained (and well, I might add) later in the game.

What an awesome story it is! It ties up the Doom Guy's appearances in Doom 1, 2 and 64 nicely with our current gen Doom Slayer. I'm still not sure how Doom 3 fits into all this still though, if it does at all. I love it.

I love how it kind of starts off as the Doom II to 2016's Doom with its Hell on Earth setting but quickly travels all around increasingly wackier environments. Including one that I am very much looking forward to in the final few levels. I am really looking forward to ripping and tearing through some sanctimonious, holier-than-thou people later in the game 😅.

I think the biggest difference in this game compared to the rest of the series, is just that it's funny. Like really funny. I'm not sure if it's because there are a lot more characters in it, more foils for the Doom Slayer's man-with-no-name wanderer style archetypal personality. It turns out he had a personality all along but this game really drills home that his silence, his actions and his relentlessness is just who he is. I think one of the funniest moments in this game comes around level 7/8 (might be 6/7) which has been recorded in this video I found on YouTube. (Don't watch if you are not that far in the game!) Skip to 26 seconds for the funny moment.

I know I posted pictures from the Doom Slayer's man cave before which also adds to the humour in this game but generally, I think the man cave is brilliant. There's even a touching picture of our main guy with his deceased pet (from Doom 2 I think?) on the wall. An event that despite being played for a quick laugh in its original game, appears to actually be referred to quite solemnly (and obtusely, so obtusely that I'm not even sure if this is what it definitely refers to!) by a main villain late in Eternal's campaign.

I also like that a certain gun from Doom 64 makes a special appearance in this game if you complete all the Slayer Gates, albeit slightly revised from its original form!

I've completed what's available to me so far 100%. I've got all the collectibles and done all the level challenges and all the weapon challenges that I've unlocked. I think fast travel is a god send (or should that be Khan Maykr-send?) for those few items that you just miss on your first go around. I don't think '16 had fast travel but I may have been more inclined to 100% the collectibles at least if it did (or if I knew about it!). A weird glitch has come up where I started a level from the mission select to grab some collectible and it reset my challenge progress for that level too. I still have the 3 sentinel batteries you get from them but it is a slight blemish in my otherwise spotless demon slaying record. The challenges can't be done twice (can't collect a record that I've already collected!)

So yeah, this game takes a while to get in to, but it's amazing when you do! My Rating = TB! for Totally Bonkers!

Some pics that I've taken in my time with the game (I've omitted anything spoilerific and may add those toward the end of the month!):

A bad day at the office:

This number is upside down!

This familiar texture has returned but yields no results if you do as it instructs:

Hell on Earth:

The Fortress of Doom!:

I'm not sure if that white light in the sky is supposed to be Earth from a distance? Could be a moon

Experimenting with removing my HUD (should have done this for all my photos but couldn't be bothered as I wanted to get on with playing! I did increase my Field of View at least for all my photos. I wanted to get a lot into frame!):

@Thrillho tagging you because last year you asked me to tag you when I played Doom Eternal. I think you wanted to see what it was like playing them closer together but unfortunately I didn't end up playing them that close together! My thoughts so far are above anyway in case you are still interested.

Please ignore if you have no recollection of this though 😅. I think it was you who asked for a tag!

I beat Super Gore Nest there, a pretty good level but not quite as interesting a setting as previous ones. I better get a move on though, apparently that’s only like mission 5.

Good to see people enjoying themselves. I shoulda joined in, since I have Eternal on PC, but... honestly, after my DOOM marathon last year, I'm pretty burnt out on these games!

@ralphdibny lmao that works almost too well. Good work on the shop job.

@Ralizah haha cheers 😅

@Ralizah I wish I could have joined in as well since I still have yet to play this after playing the 2016 one sometime last year, but there's other games I wanted to play too. Just didn't work out, but maybe one of these months (like most of the time with the Xbox club as well).

@ralphdibny I might have done! I gave up trying to follow the story closely as so much is hidden in the text files that I lost interest in reading (there seemed no point in reading each one as you got it and I couldn’t be bothered to read several in one go at the end of a level).

I’m surprised that no-one has mentioned the platforming though as that was a common criticism of the game. I thought it was unnecessary, especially when you’d get to points where you had to run around hunting for the right coloured bit of wall to jump onto. Luckily it wasn’t particularly widespread in the game though.

@Thrillho I think that's one thing I forgot to mention actually. Reading the text is better in this game, maybe the writing is bigger or something? The after image I got from '16 would last a good 5 minutes or so making the game unplayable as I was more or less blind in the important part of my vision. The afterimage I get from reading text in this game only lasts a few seconds at most. Still though, I've only limited my reading to the collected pieces of paper.

I haven't noticed any issues with the platforming really. I think it was more intrinsic to progression in '16 but seems to be more for getting the collectibles in Eternal. There's a couple spotty bits for the latter but nothing mega hard, some things were a bit obtuse but maybe that's more the "puzzley" bits where you have to find a statues leg to smash or something

@ralphdibny Nice write-up of your impressions thus far, and nice screens. I'll see how I get on with the story further in, but luckily it's besides the point when it comes to DOOM's over-the-top, hysterical action. I've been reading the bits of lore as I collect them, and appreciate the work put in to fleshing out the world, but reckon it's a bit overwhelming at this point. It sounds like it really clicked for you later on though. Your Hungry Cacodemon photoshop is brilliant!

@Ralizah You have no idea how tantalising that gif was given how hot it was indoors yesterday.

@mookysam lol, I wouldn't go anywhere near orange juice when it's hot. Too sticky.

It's actually been quite hot outside where I live. Extremely warm and humid. I feel like I'm living in a swamp.