When comparing The Banner Saga 2 vs DOOM, the Slant community recommends DOOM for most people. In the question“What are the best singleplayer games on Steam?” DOOM is ranked 18th while The Banner Saga 2 is ranked 120th. The most important reason people chose DOOM is:
DOOM differs from most modern shooters because it abandons cover-based gunplay and instead encourages you to never stop advancing. This is achieved by not only making your character very nimble, allowing you to run at high speeds and jump great distances, but also by removing weapon reloading entirely. There is also the glory kill system, which restores your health whenever you melee kill an enemy, so no waiting for your health to restore by itself either. All of this creates exhilarating gunplay where you never have to pause for anything.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Helps you to learn the gameplay thoroughly
Tactical RPGs can be really intimidating, especially if you're just starting out. The tutorials often blaze forward, causing you to miss important mechanics. Luckily, Banner Saga 2 tries to alleviate this by adding a trainer NPC who will give you challenges. These involve performing various combat exercises, helping you to solidify your understanding of the game and even learn something new.
Pro Solid tactical combat
Even though Banner Saga 2’s turn-based combat system is fairly straightforward. You and your opponent take turns in moving and attacking with units on a tactical grid. Each unit has its strengths, weaknesses, and set of unique abilities that you need to consider.
For example, archers can attack from far away but they have low armor, so you can’t leave them out in the open. Another example are the Varl, very durable and strong melee units that occupy 4 tiles as opposed to 1. This makes it trickier to position them since more enemies can stand next to them and attack them.
This creates combat that is not too simple but still has enough variety and strategy involved to feel rewarding.
Pro Great hand drawn graphics
Banner Saga 2 environments, characters, and animations are all hand-drawn. This includes your caravan as it marches over a snowy hill, passing trees and houses in the distance. The various viking-esque soldiers, centaurs and other mythological creatures, swinging axes and thrusting spears on a worn out bridge. Even the very detailed character sprites as they discuss matters with extremely serious expressions. Everything just feels like you’re watching an animated movie, which is something almost never encountered in a game.
Pro Fast-paced, exhilarating combat
DOOM differs from most modern shooters because it abandons cover-based gunplay and instead encourages you to never stop advancing. This is achieved by not only making your character very nimble, allowing you to run at high speeds and jump great distances, but also by removing weapon reloading entirely.
There is also the glory kill system, which restores your health whenever you melee kill an enemy, so no waiting for your health to restore by itself either.
All of this creates exhilarating gunplay where you never have to pause for anything.
Pro Refreshing single purpose gameplay
There is no character development, this is a single purpose game that makes itself very clear from the outset. You are in this game to do one thing, kill demons, sometimes in the most gruesome ways possible. The game is very unapologetic about this, which is refreshing in a time when many games focus on story and play out like an interactive movie. This is much more a throwback to simpler times, run and gun, and it can be quite fun.
Pro Level editor for endless content
The game comes with a level editor, which allows you to create new maps and game types. These can be maps that play similarly to the campaign or even unique puzzle maps. You can share your creation online and also download other players' creations. This provides an almost endless stream of content, adding considerable longevity to the game.
Pro Fun hidden secrets
There are quite a few easter eggs and hidden secrets in the game, such as old school Doom 95 levels, a Commander Keen skull, a Terminator 2 animation, and even hidden Doomguy toys that your character will fist bump. There's a lot of these to find, creating a very entertaining side activity.
Pro Superb graphics that run quite well
Highly detailed environments, fearsome enemies, colorful particle effects, beautiful lighting, and a lot more. Whatever you're looking at in DOOM, it's a treat for the eyes, all without ever dropping below 60 frames per second.
Pro Great customizable weapon selection
There are more than 20 weapons in DOOM, including the super shotgun, the rocket launcher, and even the BFG9000. Each weapon has two modes that can be improved with one of three upgrades, totaling to over 100 possible combinations. Most of the combinations are really fun to use, which creates enough variation to keep you entertained for multiple playthroughs.
Pro Fantastic level design
The levels in DOOM are quite large, with multiple floors/levels, and many secrets. Some areas are very spacious, making large-scale battles possible, and some are labyrinth-like, hiding enemies behind every corner. You'd think it would be a very linear and guided experience, but most of the time it's up to you where to go and how to get there. Each one of these aspects make it a blast to fully explore the levels.
Cons
Con HP damage based attacks cause one-dimensional tactics
A unit's current number of hit points equals the damage it will deal to an enemy. Because of this, the best strategy is always to hit all enemy units in a sequence, so they inflict as little damage as possible. Any other strategy is too risky and can backfire way too easily, limiting your creativity.
Con Incomplete story
To get a full and satisfying story, you’ll have to play the entire Banner Saga trilogy. Banner Saga 2 on its own feels like you’ve suddenly started reading a book from the middle. There are a lot of characters you know very little about, making it hard to understand their motivations. The on-going events are not explained fully. Even the ending is not a satisfying conclusion but just a setup for the next arc.
Con The gore might not be for everyone
DOOM has a fair amount of gore. Whenever you kill an enemy there's blood, guts, and limbs flying everywhere. Melee kill are particularly brutal with your character twisting enemy necks and breaking their bones. Some may find that level of graphic violence off-putting.