Recent reviews by Bodaff

Games like this make me miss the design of old FPS games. Don't get me wrong, this is a good game. It's my first foray into the extraction shooter genre, and, while it's not something I think I could play every day, I see the appeal. But what I mean is, old FPS games used to be designed around two experiences: singleplayer and multiplayer. The campaign and the pvp. The Yin and the Yang.

This game, with a true singeplayer PVE experience attached (that contributes absolutely zero progress or loot to the pvp mode for obvious balance reasons), would have gone thermonuclear. The type of thing people would talk about for years. And, I get it, the contracts and the pre-mission cutscenes and the lore dumps, that's all "the campaign" of this game. But that still misses the point. The division between campaign and multiplayer back in the day was what gave players the space to learn and appreciate the story, the world, and the lore.

Imagine if instead of campaign missions, you had to learn all of Halo's lore in cutscenes between rounds of team deathmatch. That's basically where Marathon is sitting. Between every match, I'm unlocking new factions and getting new cutscenes, but I'm not watching them. I'm skipping everything because the most important thing in that moment is readying up for the next match. I should not be playing a game thinking, "I'll just wait for someone to make a youtube lore video," but multiplayer gaming simply does not lend itself to storytelling. My squad is waiting for me.

My boomer-gripes aside, if you have a couple FPS gamer friends and are looking for a good time, Marathon is a good game. It is intense, almost to a fault. There is no mercy here. There is no honor. You will be a loot goblin. You will be a rat. You will be an ambush predator. You will use every underhanded method you know to survive because the only thing that matters is extraction. And Bingus.

This is a chill casual game you play while listening to videos or podcasts. I think as long as you go into it with those expectations, you're going to have a good time.

Charming art style. Simple, intuitive gameplay loop. Massive variety of things to catch. Lot of Lovecraftian fanservice. My only real gripe is the narrative kind of fell flat, particularly at the end. Like you can tell it really wants to go somewhere, but maybe they ran out of time to write it? Still a good time. Probably a fantastic game on Deck.

As a shooter I think it's solidly ok, but as a world I adore it. That's what I really want more of. I kept wishing the hub world was bigger, that there were more quests to do, and more NPCs to talk to. The little bits of lore you get here and there are great. I even bought the artbook to learn more about these strange people and creatures. I hope the creators do more with this game and its world, because it absolutely deserves it.

Really good fundamentals. There's a good game in the works here, but I do have comments:
- This game will likely be very difficult for anyone not very experienced with the FPS genre. You need to think on your feet and the game is fast. Honestly plays a lot like Doom Eternal. Combat is arena-based and highly vertical. Even the idea of health/ammo dropping from finishing enemies in certain ways feels very much a callback to Doom.
- Early game is pretty miserable. The pistol is not great, and the first zone is a slog until you can get the auto rifle and a few hacks unlocked. Even then, every run becomes make-or-break in the first zone, as you pray for decent mod synergies to beat...
- The bosses. The boss of the first zone is genuinely the hardest content in the entire game at this point, and feels like he should be the final. By comparison, the second and third bosses are Weenie Hut Jr material. So your runs will constantly flounder in zone 1, slowing your progression to a crawl, or you will cruise to late game. Not a lot of in-between.

Also big shoutout to That One dice room. You know the one. You got my heart pumping with that one.

This is not my usual genre, but the hype around this game was so strong I had to try it. I expected to not like it. I figured this was just another case of internet hysteria. In a weird way, I was *trying* to not like it. Seventy hours later I genuinely think this may be one of the best stories ever written in gaming. It's something special.

28.5 hours for me to a 100% completion, at least as far as achievements are concerned. I played on unmodified Ultra-Violence difficulty (aka Hard but not Nightmare).

It is another successful entry in the franchise, and what is now the modern trilogy. Each game brought its own spin on the arena shooter genre. Doom 2016 brought resource management. Doom Eternal brought movement. And now TDA brings the shield. You're either going to love or hate the shield. I personally vibe well with the shield and welcome it as the unique flavor of this game, but I don't want or expect it to make a return in any future games. While it was a fun twist for this game, I do think it pulled a lot of spotlight away from the gunplay which Doom is otherwise known for.

The other new mechanics in the game are the mech fights and dragon riding. Both are fairly bare bones and exist mostly as a breather between normal gameplay, and I think that's an important mindset to take with them. They are short and revolve highly around big bombastic spectacle, not complex mechanics. Do I wish they did more with it? A little bit. Dragon-riding especially feels like there was a lot of unexplored potential. Maybe cut short in development? Unsure.

For the story, the writing is pretty on-par. Much like how Doom Eternal doesn't start exactly where Doom 2016 ends, Doom TDA doesn't perfectly lead into Doom 2016, nor does it pick up exactly where the retro games left off. It just kind of writes its own story in its own little segment of time, giving us the opportunity to see the Sentinels, the Atlan mechs, and demonic Titans we only got to see as dead/destroyed previous games.

Rapid firing some minor points:
Difficulty - good, we now have full custom sliders to modify game mechanics, very cool
Game performance - I'm on an overbuilt rig so this is kind of N/A but it ran fine
Game stability - poor, I crashed maybe 8-10 times during the story
Visuals - beautiful, probably why the stability is so bad
Music - ok, definitely a step down from 2016 and Eternal but solid nonetheless
Sound - excellent, really great stuff

Overall it's a great game. It has faults but it is undeniably Doom. Many of the critiques this game gets are fair but I think it's unfortunately turned into a trap for many people to engage with media as a critic first, and not as someone just wanting to enjoy it. It is cathartic. It is spectacle. It is power fantasy. These are not bad things. It's a Doom game. Let yourself have fun.

Bethesda has been on a losing streak for years, and they have finally clawed a W from the jaws of Oblivion, literally.

A fun adventure with a well written story. It tries to emulate The Old Way of classic games, with things like very limited fast travel, no quest markers, no save scumming, and even making you chart your own world map. It's a little bit undercut by the fact the game is just very easy. I don't think it hurts the game though because it's not really about the combat; it's about exploring and trying to understand this incredibly alien world, which I think was really well done.

Good game, I do feel like it needs more time to bake and develop to become really great. Balance is kind of all over the place and runs are very much feast or famine on RNG. But there's fun to be had in that. Every run does not feel like an auto-win, and winning is very satisfying.

Also the art and characters are great.

Great game. Would like to see it get content updates some day.

Edit: Two years later, coming back to update this one. It has since been updated several times, including a phenomenal DLC that essentially doubles the content of the base game and expands on it with entirely new mechanics. It took the game from "good" to near perfect. This is, without a doubt, one of my favorite pick-up-and-play games of all time.