Having already watched the final boss/ending of the game plus the first hour or so of the game from the beginning I'm at least intrigued about the plot though I can probably assume how the dots connect as its fairly standard looking.
One pro is that you can faff about outside on the Martian surface with no need for O2. Judging from the sound design there must be an atmosphere or they stopped giving a damn about realism in a vacuum.
The music only plays during combat heavy "kill all the mobs in this area to unlock the doors" arenas (yes that tired trope in in this game in spades) and it really sucks, to me at least. Its like they added generic heavy metal guitar riffs to a dubstep remix of the Metroid Prime OST. Other than that it seems to have no music at all.
Enemies are, at least in the early sections of the game total pussies that you shoot once or twice with your unlimited ammo blaster pistol then run up and instagib as they turn various glowstick colors to indicate you can stop paying attention to them.
Considering how effective the starting pistol is, having unlimited ammo, accuracy, and you can charge it up like a megabuster I'd almost prefer using it to the other weapons.
You can pretend its a gritty Mega Man crossover.
To be fair the other weapons are pretty awesome too, and you can mod them. For example you can add a lil box of tiny rockets to the heavy assault rifle or give the shotgun explosive rounds.
The chainsaw seems to be a one shot weapon on anything, but requires fuel to use. Tougher mobs require more fuel so maybe you can upgrade the tank to hold more and one shot Mancubi or whatever.
Health/Armor is pick up based and not auto refill. You can find dinguses that let you upgrade your "Praetor" suit which seems to be made by the damn Chozo this time around. Its pretty cool actually.
Graphically I'm kind of torn. I appreciate that it is not ALL dark corridors and rooms, and that it has actual colors beyond grey, green, and brown. It looks really good actually, but it looks TOO good. I will definitely look at later areas of the game, presumably in hell, to see if it carries through but the UAC compound is definitely shiny and pretty pristine looking all things considered.
The enemies are all..clean. Everything is too clean. Its like someone took prerendered background from PS1 games and realized them fully in 3D. Its hard to explain. Its like they made really really good models and then forgot to add the details and textures to make them look real.
You know how monsters in Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3 look like they are covered in slime, or fur, or blood, or all of the above as well as various other kinds of effluence?
Well everything in Doom 4 looks like it could have been in Rage or a random tech demo for a lighting engine. It creates great shadows, and it moves around convincingly, but it might as well be made of plastic because it looks fake.
Not terrible, but then again how detailed to you need to make something that will exist for a few seconds and then get turned into bloody chunks?
The map is a definite improvement to the original. It has everything you'd expect these days, the doors of the tri-colored varieties clearly labelled for one. You can upgrade your suit to improve how the map is filled out/make it easier to detect items and secrets etc. as well.
Alternatively you can upgrade your dex to make your various actions quicker. No seriously. You can also upgrade your resistance to environmental hazards (including barrels) and so on. A separate system lets you choose to upgrade your hp, armor, or ammo. I believe you can also find artifacts like in Turok 2 to grant bonuses as well.
