Monday, May 18th 2020
Doom Eternal Review-Bombed on Steam After Denuvo Anti-Cheat Inclusion in Update 1
Doom Eternal has been review-bombed over the weekend, as disgruntled players took to Steam to show their thoughts on the the game's Update 1. The issue isn't in the update itself or it changing core gameplay functions; rather, it's based on the inclusion of Denuvo's Anti-cheat mechanism for the multiplayer component of the game, which is also running in the single-player campaign - considered to be the core of any Doom game.
Players are against the inclusion of Denuvo and its monitoring subroutines due to it having a a kernel-level service that monitors gameplay. Gamers are noting performance decreases, framerate drops, crashes, and deleted Saves after the game's latest update. Others are voicing their discontent at the fact that Denuvo has been added post-purchase of the game; players that might not choose to buy the game over that detail have already bought it, and refunds are apparently not being entertained. Doom Eternal's previous 90% user review score on Steam now stand at a measly 50%, which is absolutely undeserving of the game itself. Doom may be Eternal, but its community feedback sure isn't.
Sources:
Tom's Hardware, Doom Eternal @ Steam
Players are against the inclusion of Denuvo and its monitoring subroutines due to it having a a kernel-level service that monitors gameplay. Gamers are noting performance decreases, framerate drops, crashes, and deleted Saves after the game's latest update. Others are voicing their discontent at the fact that Denuvo has been added post-purchase of the game; players that might not choose to buy the game over that detail have already bought it, and refunds are apparently not being entertained. Doom Eternal's previous 90% user review score on Steam now stand at a measly 50%, which is absolutely undeserving of the game itself. Doom may be Eternal, but its community feedback sure isn't.
44 Comments on Doom Eternal Review-Bombed on Steam After Denuvo Anti-Cheat Inclusion in Update 1
In Doom 2016 you would kind of navigate through a level at leisure, explore a little bit (though limited), and then every once in a while you would come across a demon nest and the tension grew as the hoards came to attack you. For what it was I think it was well paced.
DE just feels 100% ALL THE TIME. No time or space to breath.
Ah, I'll just ride off in my horse and buggy and go back to playing Quake 1 maps... :laugh:
But then again, most people (including me) play these games for the single player.
Im no expert on anti cheat stuff but what is the difference between say the anti cheats for any other online game, like Halo for example? I notice that has an option to disable the anti cheat when I start it up. Im guessing it is just around the kernel level access with Denuvo, but why would any company opt for the controversial kernel level approach if there are other options available? Are they not as effective at catching cheaters or what? Genuinely curious about this.
By using Denuvo, we are putting faith in the company not to do anything wrong because they have kernel level control.
In my opinion, Doom deserve the rating, should be 1 star because of this.
If you exceed either of those, they'll generally outright deny your request for a refund. You'll need to reach out through customer service (which can be a bitch at times) and see if they'll make an exception. I think they'll generally allow 1 odd exception per account, if you can make a good plea and you're not too far out of the refund policy.
Doom 2016 was great, this iteration not much.