Doom Eternal

I've almost half way through a second nightmare play through of this and man I'm enjoying it alot more than my first run through.

Firstly I know where all the secrets are so the pacing of the game is improved as I'm not having to spend much time searching for them.

But the combat is really clicking this time. I was watching youtuber Under the Mayo videos on Doom Eternal and how he approach combat and seen the considerably depth there is to this game.

Firstly I did something I almost never do and changed the button layout. I struggled with it a bit on my first play through, fumbling over the default keys and not really using the grenades much.
So I binded the flame blech and grenade throw to side mouse buttons and switched the Super Shotgun (max close range damage) and Balista (max long range damage) to mouse wheel up and down and suddenly weapon switching and grenade use is much easier and less daunting and allows me to handle the enemy encounters much better.

In my first run through, I had to use the Sentinel Armour to beat the bosses (and I'm loath to use any assist), this time around I beat the Doom Hunter in 4 attempts and the Marauder on my first go. I also only beat the first two Slayer gates before I had to fully level up all my weapons, health and armour before going back to the last 4, but not this time round already cleared the first 4 gates with the stats I had earned up to the point of encountering the gates.

Tactics wise, you have to keep moving, you stop moving you die and you need to be keeping an eye on health, armour and ammo at all times. The fodder demons are there to resupply you when you run low on any resource, and you can use the invincibility frames of glory and chainsaw kills tactically to get you out of trouble when needed and also keep Blood Punch as an emergency get out of jail card when surrounded by fodder demons.

Moving keeps you from getting hit by most enemies, but enemies like the Arachnotron, Revenant and Mancubus can hit you while moving so you need to prioritize taking out there weak points, which can be done in a number of ways, like sticky grenade, precision shot, standard balista shot, blood punch or exploding barrel. The grenades are excellent in this game, tougher enemies can be faltered with the standard grenades or frozen in place with the freeze grenade which allows you to get free shots, manage crowds and again get out of sticky situations. They allow you to get up close safely with your big damage weapons. The Super Shotgun is excellent, the hook again can be used to evade enemies or get up close fast to do big damage. It can been even used to skip certain sections of the levels via hook jumping to reach heights and gaps you normally wouldn't be able to.

Basically I know how to deal with specific enemy types better, I'm selecting the right weapons for the job at hand (range and enemy type) and remembering to use grenades and the flame blech and I'm finding the combat loop so much better. Everything just clicked into place. The low ammo count isn't an issue for me and I don't feel aggrieved in any way that I can't just stick to one or two weapons, I'm liking having to use everything in my arsenal. I don't mind having to hunt down fodder enemies to restock up either, it gives you a chance to take a breather when fighting groups of tougher enemies. I'd imagine going back to Doom 2016 will be hard now, the movement options would be lacking, enemy encounters have less variety in how to deal with them tactically, grenades are pretty meh and there is no falter system.

After I complete my second play though I fancy my chances at the master levels now. Looking forward to the expansion as well.