TLDR: Not the sequel to Doom 2016 I was hoping for.

Not a bad game, just a disappointing one. I played the OG Doom back in 1994 when I was 6yo and I fell in love with the series back then. I've played every single Doom game since, and I had high hopes for this one, especially after the masterpiece that was the previous game. Sadly, it didn't live up to them. I'll start with the bad.

Less is more.
This was a key reason Doom 2016 was loved by a lot of people. Games today have been a barrage of story, in-game cutscenes, quick-time events, superfluous gameplay mechanics, set pieces, inane features, and repetition. Doom 2016 had a simple premise. Move and shoot. No cover. You move and you shoot, and then you move and you shoot in the next location until everything is dead. It was refreshing to have such an old-school mentality. Eternal does away with this simple premise in favor of an oversaturated game design, in pretty much every aspect. I'll list a few.

Platforming.
it's simply not fun. I like to play Doom to kill things. I do not play Doom to jump from platform to platform or to climb from wall to wall. Instead of focusing on cohesion with level design, it seems the developers were more interested in getting you to use their new and shiny features and thus built levels around these features. If these features were fun, great. But they're mostly not. Climbable walls, monkey bars, falling platforms, dash refills. Honorable mention to the cheesy spinning fire wheels ripped straight from Super Mario Bros. I know Doom isn't a realistic game, but there's nothing more videogamey than jumping through spinning fire wheels. What do these things do to enhance gameplay? Would you rather spend a few seconds climbing boxes, going up stairs, or using an elevator to get to the next fight? Or do you prefer spending 3-5 minutes jumping and climbing around a poorly designed platforming level?

Combat/Weapons.
The Doom 2016 campaign was refreshing in its focus: fun combat and good level design. The arenas in Doom 2016 are simple but effective. You can tell a lot of care went into enemy abilities, interactions, and spawn placements. A commonly discussed negative point for Doom 2016 was that certain weapons went unused while weapons like the Super Shotgun, Chaingun, and Gauss Cannon dominated the late game. I disagree with the premise that all weapons should be on an even playing field or that all weapons need to be powerful. There's nothing wrong with having a tiered weapons system (like the original game) as the enemy difficulty increases through each level.
One of the new gameplay elements for combat is weakpoints for enemies. I like that it adds depth to enemy interactions, but at the same time, it severely limits gameplay variety and reduces powerful enemies to fodder. For example, the cacodemon was a strong opponent in Doom 2016. In Eternal, an explosive in its general direction causes the cacodemon to go into a comedic gulping animation and puts it in glory kill state. Introducing weaknesses to certain enemies is almost boring in a way because you're doing the same set of actions based on which enemies you're fighting. If I see a cacodemon, I switch to my combat shotgun, throw a grenade in its mouth from a long distance, dash and glory kill it, then cycle to the next weapon that most effectively kills the next thing I see. This effectively makes the game less fun.
Side note, the flame belch. This seems a major combat mechanic. Low-level zombie fodder is strategically placed. You light them on fire and recover armor. So how is this exactly improving on the way 2016 handled armor drops? This is just an extra button to press, looks cheesy, and has negligible impact on gameplay.

Game design.
Doom 2016 looked great. The levels all blended seamlessly and had a consistent art style. In order to look more like the old games, that art style was changed for Eternal. This style strips the game of the tone the first game established. Eternal feels like an entirely different universe. More a soft reboot than a proper sequel. The demons look comedic. A lot of goofy icons exist to denote hidden areas, power-ups, and platforming areas. Here's this same pole that somehow exists in 14 different worlds, including hell. The new alien characters look like something ripped straight from Mass Effect or Halo. Everything is bubbly and arcadey. The "humor" feels straight from a marvel movie. The fact 1-Ups are in this game is stupid. Too much time was spent on the game being a collect-a-thon. Doom 2016 didn't overdo it on collectibles, and finding the switches that opened up secret areas was often a neat little exercise. The secret encounters in Eternal are effectively rune challenges from 2016, but rune challenges served a purpose (awarding runes) while these ones are effectively useless. The Fortress of Doom hub is weird. The sentinel batteries mechanics are lame. The slayer's room is pretty lame as well. Everything's oh so edgy.

Story.
In 2016, the scope of the game is small. There's justified reasons for going to places. Combat is simple but tight. It doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. The story is a bit bare bones, but it's well structured and doesn't leave you with a million questions. You get a general idea of whats happening without 12-minute cinematics or reading through data logs and books and watching Youtube videos. Eternal has a crapton of Cinematics. Constant, annoying dialogue. The game gets so wrapped up in its story, and you're bouncing from one place to another so often, that in the end, I ended up not caring much about it. A couple of levels are more flashbacks and cutscenes than actual gameplay.

All this is not to say Eternal is a bad game. It has fun combat moments, it has some good level design here and there. Some weapons and weapon mods do feel better than in 2016. Some new demons are actually fun to fight. The extra mobility options can be fun as well. It's just not a worthy sequel to 2016.

It has one big saving grace, tho. The Meathook.

REPLY TO DEV RESPONSE:
Since I can't add a reply I'll just put it here. I understand why you made these changes to the game, I just don't think they're good changes. I've completed the game many times already, I have given it multiple chances and I'll keep replaying it using mods that enhance the gameplay in ways I think make the game more enjoyable. Again, it's not a bad game, just a disappointing sequel to an outstanding game.

[b]TLDR: Not the sequel to Doom 2016 I was hoping for.[/b] Not a bad game, just a disappointing one. I played the OG Doom back in 1994 when I was 6yo and I fell in love with the series back then. I've played every single Doom game since, and I had high hopes for this one, especially after the masterpiece that was the previous game. Sadly, it didn't live up to them. I'll start with the bad. [b]Less is more.[/b] This was a key reason Doom 2016 was loved by a lot of people. Games today have been a barrage of story, in-game cutscenes, quick-time events, superfluous gameplay mechanics, set pieces, inane features, and repetition. Doom 2016 had a simple premise. Move and shoot. No cover. You move and you shoot, and then you move and you shoot in the next location until everything is dead. It was refreshing to have such an old-school mentality. Eternal does away with this simple premise in favor of an oversaturated game design, in pretty much every aspect. I'll list a few. [b]Platforming.[/b] it's simply not fun. I like to play Doom to kill things. I do not play Doom to jump from platform to platform or to climb from wall to wall. Instead of focusing on cohesion with level design, it seems the developers were more interested in getting you to use their new and shiny features and thus built levels around these features. If these features were fun, great. But they're mostly not. Climbable walls, monkey bars, falling platforms, dash refills. Honorable mention to the cheesy spinning fire wheels ripped straight from Super Mario Bros. I know Doom isn't a realistic game, but there's nothing more videogamey than jumping through spinning fire wheels. What do these things do to enhance gameplay? Would you rather spend a few seconds climbing boxes, going up stairs, or using an elevator to get to the next fight? Or do you prefer spending 3-5 minutes jumping and climbing around a poorly designed platforming level? [b]Combat/Weapons.[/b] The Doom 2016 campaign was refreshing in its focus: fun combat and good level design. The arenas in Doom 2016 are simple but effective. You can tell a lot of care went into enemy abilities, interactions, and spawn placements. A commonly discussed negative point for Doom 2016 was that certain weapons went unused while weapons like the Super Shotgun, Chaingun, and Gauss Cannon dominated the late game. I disagree with the premise that all weapons should be on an even playing field or that all weapons need to be powerful. There's nothing wrong with having a tiered weapons system (like the original game) as the enemy difficulty increases through each level. One of the new gameplay elements for combat is weakpoints for enemies. I like that it adds depth to enemy interactions, but at the same time, it severely limits gameplay variety and reduces powerful enemies to fodder. For example, the cacodemon was a strong opponent in Doom 2016. In Eternal, an explosive in its general direction causes the cacodemon to go into a comedic gulping animation and puts it in glory kill state. Introducing weaknesses to certain enemies is almost boring in a way because you're doing the same set of actions based on which enemies you're fighting. If I see a cacodemon, I switch to my combat shotgun, throw a grenade in its mouth from a long distance, dash and glory kill it, then cycle to the next weapon that most effectively kills the next thing I see. This effectively makes the game less fun. Side note, the flame belch. This seems a major combat mechanic. Low-level zombie fodder is strategically placed. You light them on fire and recover armor. So how is this exactly improving on the way 2016 handled armor drops? This is just an extra button to press, looks cheesy, and has negligible impact on gameplay. [b]Game design.[/b] Doom 2016 looked great. The levels all blended seamlessly and had a consistent art style. In order to look more like the old games, that art style was changed for Eternal. This style strips the game of the tone the first game established. Eternal feels like an entirely different universe. More a soft reboot than a proper sequel. The demons look comedic. A lot of goofy icons exist to denote hidden areas, power-ups, and platforming areas. Here's this same pole that somehow exists in 14 different worlds, including hell. The new alien characters look like something ripped straight from Mass Effect or Halo. Everything is bubbly and arcadey. The "humor" feels straight from a marvel movie. The fact 1-Ups are in this game is stupid. Too much time was spent on the game being a collect-a-thon. Doom 2016 didn't overdo it on collectibles, and finding the switches that opened up secret areas was often a neat little exercise. The secret encounters in Eternal are effectively rune challenges from 2016, but rune challenges served a purpose (awarding runes) while these ones are effectively useless. The Fortress of Doom hub is weird. The sentinel batteries mechanics are lame. The slayer's room is pretty lame as well. Everything's oh so edgy. [b]Story.[/b] In 2016, the scope of the game is small. There's justified reasons for going to places. Combat is simple but tight. It doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. The story is a bit bare bones, but it's well structured and doesn't leave you with a million questions. You get a general idea of whats happening without 12-minute cinematics or reading through data logs and books and watching Youtube videos. Eternal has a crapton of Cinematics. Constant, annoying dialogue. The game gets so wrapped up in its story, and you're bouncing from one place to another so often, that in the end, I ended up not caring much about it. A couple of levels are more flashbacks and cutscenes than actual gameplay. [b]All this is not to say Eternal is a bad game. [/b]It has fun combat moments, it has some good level design here and there. Some weapons and weapon mods do feel better than in 2016. Some new demons are actually fun to fight. The extra mobility options can be fun as well. It's just not a worthy sequel to 2016. It has one big saving grace, tho. [b]The Meathook.[/b] REPLY TO DEV RESPONSE: Since I can't add a reply I'll just put it here. I understand why you made these changes to the game, I just don't think they're good changes. I've completed the game many times already, I have given it multiple chances and I'll keep replaying it [b]using mods[/b] that enhance the gameplay in ways I think make the game more enjoyable. Again, it's not a bad game, just a disappointing sequel to an outstanding game.