Unite the armies of the Guardians and lead the war into the stronghold of the Dark Lord himself in a final attempt to seal evil once and for all.
With the all-new Sentinel Hammer in hand, the Slayer will rip, rip, and now crush every demon on its way through the ancient settlements of the Sentinel, the devastated cities of Earth and beyond, battling new and more powerful enemy options as he approaches his final battle.
- Developer: id Software
- Genres: action, shooter, first person, arcade
- Number of players: until 3
- Codes: on the game
- Available on: Stadia
- Rating: M
- User rating: 5.6
Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part 2 is a workout for your hands. This is not the result of unavailable controls; In this DLC, id Software added the ability to completely reassign console controls. Even with that kind of flexibility, after a few hours with the new 2020 shooter DLC expansion, my palms and joints start to ache. I play on PS5 and DualSense is a powerful controller. Part 2 "Old Gods" forces you to use every square inch of this material. There are many demons to kill here, and in the second installment of The Old Gods, id Software provided us with the most extensive Doom Slayer arsenal of weapons to do so. Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part 2 is not just a set of three new levels, which features several new enemies, new traversal mechanics and new weapons that change the course of battle for the better.
I had frustration with The Ancient Gods Part 1, mainly due to the introduction of new enemies (such as Blood Maykr and Turret) that required high accuracy to root out, which tended to slow fights to crawl. Fortunately, The Ancient Gods Part 2 veers in a different direction. One new bestiary addition, Cursed Prowler, can (as the name suggests) curse you if he manages to land a hit with his projectile attack. To remove the curse, you need to kill the Cursed Predator. Simple enough. But this sturdy creature can only be killed with Blood Strike. And, if you don't have Blood Punch ready, you need to Glory Kill other monsters to increase your counter. So, instead of keeping you in one place while looking at the crosshair, Cursed Prowler encourages you to plunge headlong into battle. It can be frustrating to get cursed and start losing health in the middle of a tough battle, but this is a change for the better: one towards the frantic movement and the random momentum of aiming down the first DLC.
Other new enemies keep things going as well. Stone Imp is a type of Imp that enhances the defense of the primary enemy with a stony layer of skin. To destroy it, you need to disable the automatic firing of the combat shotgun and load the fiery shell of the imp with shells. Then there is the Armored Baron, who can be quickly killed with a well-timed and aimed shot, or slowly worn out with a plasma rifle. There is a Soldier Fighter whose huge shield means you have to attack from behind. And then there is the Screecher Zombie, which you need to completely avoid; kill him and he will temporarily increase the speed and defense of any other enemy in the area. Part 2 "Old Gods" makes you dance, climb behind the enemy's back, fire at him or lead other enemies away from him. Where The Ancient Gods Part 1 stopped dancing a lot, Ancient Gods Part 2 adds new steps.
With all these moving parts, fights often get hectic. But The Ancient Gods Part 2 gives you new weapons to fight back and help set the pace. The Sentinel Hammer is an incredibly useful crowd control tool, especially when used in conjunction with ice grenades. The new weapon lifts you into the air and brings you down with overwhelming force, killing all small enemies and stunning all heavy enemies in a fairly large radius. Great. This allows you to temporarily avoid conflict, reconfigure, heal, and return to combat. It's so useful that I would love to find a way to bring it back to the original Doom Eternal campaign or the first DLC.
As with the main game and the first part before it, the story of the Old Gods, part 2 is in the spotlight. The very number of proper names has not changed. But The Ancient Gods Part 2 does have some awesome landmarks that make the story a little more enjoyable. You are flying a dragon. You are joining an all-out war for control of hell. You defeat an archdemon who looks exactly like Destiny Slayer. Are there any reasons for all this? I'm sure. But I completely ignored it and enjoyed the images as if you were enjoying the clothes on the set while driving past on a roller coaster.
My biggest problem with The Old Gods. Part 2 "is the last thing you do before you get a loan. The final boss fight looks like a very deliberate troll targeting the critics of the Marauder, a multifaceted warrior enemy that can damage Doom Slayer from any distance. It will certainly make the Marauder haters who return for this DLC feel justified in that opinion. The final boss is essentially a bulky version of the base enemy with the same basic set of moves and the ability to summon ghost versions of the list of heavy enemies in the game at will. If this boss lands a successful melee attack, Doom Slayer throws healing balls that the boss will use to replenish his health. This way, you can reduce the boss's health to almost zero, but if he deals two melee attacks to you, his health will be increased again. Oh, and did I mention that there are five phases? It's a grueling, deeply frustrating fight, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth as I finished my otherwise great expansion.
Final comments:
However, id Software has pretty much mitigated the most annoying excesses of The Ancient Gods Part 1 with Part 2 and added new crowd control weapons that you'll miss every time you return to previous installments. In short, this is the most complete version of Doom Eternal and, aside from the horribly frustrating late game boss fight, is always great news for Eternal.
