Bethesda's latest update to Doom Eternal made changes to game balance and added a ton of new content. Empowered Demons are the star of the show, priming for DOOM Eternal's story DLC, and the new Invasion Mode allows players to take control of a monster in other people's games.
Invasion Mode and empowered demons will be especially engaging for veteran Doom players who have already completed the campaign, but still want to dive into the raw and gleeful violence that makes Doomslayer the strongest FPS protagonist. Invaders will spawn in as an Empowered Demon, with only one goal in mind: Kill the Doomslayer. They will have access to certain Invader-only features, such as bounce pads, which will allow them to get to other areas of the map, and the ability to use gates the Slayer has closed. Additionally, demons can chase their prey throughout most of the map, with only a few areas off-limits. Players who do not wish to participate in Invasion Mode may opt to disable Empowered Demons in their games.
Balance changes include reduced damage while swimming, removing difficulty damage scaling for water and slime, and moving the Rad Suit in Taras Nabad so that players can see it better when they enter the arena. Battlemode tutorials are now mandatory for new players first entering the mode. Measures are being taken to discipline players who prematurely exit matches or harass others in chat. Battlemode players will be glad to see there is now a latency indicator, showing whether they have high latency or packet loss. They will also get a damage report after they are slain, letting them know what killed them.
Bethesda is trying very hard to unite the Doom experience between PC and Console. Hugo Martin, game director, writes, "We want Controller-Slayers to feel the same refined challenge that PC mouse and keyboard Slayers are experiencing." Taking into account factors such as aiming precision differences between a controller vs. traditional keyboard and mouse make this a challenge, one which Bethesda is taking head-on. Undoubtedly more tweaking will be done in future updates, and it's up to players to report their experiences.
The fly in the Doom Eternal soup may be the new Denuvo anti-cheat software, which uses a ring 0 kernel-mode driver, a program installed in the most protected sections of the computer. Bethesda has been very up-front in saying the anti-cheat will only run while the game itself is active, no screenshots will be taken, and the software can be easily uninstalled through Add/Remove Programs. Anti-cheat software is nothing new in the gaming market. Many well-known titles are locked down by anti-cheat software, particularly those with multiplayer modes such as Battlemode.
Unfortunately, players are already showing concerns about the new Denuvo anti-cheat, and Bethesda's assurance only provides some comfort to those whose software concerns include security. Some players may even run into problems with the update, as other anti-cheat programs have had problems in the past. Additionally, the update makes Doom Eternal unplayable to Linux gamers, cutting out a small yet vocal minority of potential customers. It is difficult to predict whether this push back will have any reasonable effect on Doom Eternal going forward.
DOOM Eternal is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
Source:Â Bethesda
