Was dlc 2 for Doom eternal really that bad?

It's been almost 3 years and I wonder how reception for doom eternals second dlc, named "The Ancient Gods: Part 2" which is a follow up to Doom Eternals previous dlc named "The Ancient Gods: Part 1". 

From what I remember the dlc wasn't received too well on release. It was criticized for being "too easy" and it's final boss was a HUGE disappointment for many. Also the dlc itself was criticized for lacking any identity. As it seemed there wasn't anything memorable about the dlc itself.

The arena fights were criticized for being too easy (as was the rest of the game itself). And so were the levels themselves. AS they were often criticized by lacking strong characteristics that made them fun to replay. 

But now it's 2023. And times have changed. Did tag 2 ruin doom?

DLC 2 still has mixed reviews on Steam: 62% overall and 63% recently - so basically reception to it has remained the same since it came out. I wouldn't say it "ruined Doom" though, it was just a weak pay-off to Eternal due to a variety of gameplay and story reasons. I'm willing to move past criticisms on its (lack of) ambition since the covid excuse is reasonable for its development cycle. Although the gameplay philosophies and story directions of DLC 2 were eyebrow-raising, so I hope they take lessons to heart and course-correct on their next entry.

I think I was too harsh initially towards Hulshult/Levy's tracks - they're actually great. I still prefer Mick's interpretation of Doom - but the new composers did a great enough job. Blood Swamps, World Spear, and DLC 2 Credits music live rent-free in my head.

Not at all. I like it nearly as much as the first one in fact. The new levels have some of the most interesting encounters in the game IMO, especially the last one. Sure it's clearly rushed in a lot of ways - the story is all over the place, the red soldiers are pointless, and the final boss is just a harder version of a regular enemy - but as a whole it's completely fine

I loved and enjoyed TAG 2 greatly and many people I have talked to about it has as well. I don't see any major hate for it. 

Ruined doom is a bit far. I know people found TAG 1 and 2 a bit harder then baseline eternal but meh. 

[Copied and pasted from a similar thread]

I feel as though the pacing and difficulty got mixed up in TAG2. Whilst I at least understand the decision to tone down the difficulty from TAG1, the way I would have hoped they'd have pursued this would have been to maintain a higher level of engagement through persistent but relatively low challenge. Both the ARC Complex and Cultist Base ML's spring to mind - neither are soul crushingly difficult but both require a higher level of player engagement than a typical base campaign mission. A more frequent but less gruelling challenge may have made it far less controversial of a DLC.

I mean, it sounds (going from the pre-release conversations in the Bethesda streams with Hugo and Josh) and even looks like the maps were originally designed with high capacity demon encounters. It seems as though it was decided that this approach was too exhausting for the general audience, which is fine, but that's where the lower intensity approach would come in. There doesn't need to be incidental double Armored Barons and Tyrants everywhere, but at least some more mid tier heavies to keep us more occupied, more often? What we got was so much open spaces with minimal demons, very frequently. A fully upgraded Slayer can easily manage more standard heavy demons with enough familiarity of gameplay mechanics, you know what I mean? Equipment cycling in DLC2 should probably be an expectation by this stage of a playthrough.

I guess this is a long winded way of saying that a few more heavy demons outside of the main arenas, with perhaps a couple of extra compensatory BFG Cells and other pickups would have gone a long way. To have more demons to cycle the sentinel hammer with would have been a net positive IMO. Great to encourage (or even mandate) it's use, whilst adding more meat to those who don't need it, regardless of difficulty. Of course, all of this got addressed in subtle ways in update 6.66, I just wish there was a fair bit more, especially in Immora.

Speaking of which, in Immora, there's a double Pain Elemental fight with many shotgun shells and Stone Imps? As well as the Mancubus and Hell Knights in the area before? I think we needed much more moments like this sprinkled throughout almost every area of each level. As it stands, the pace breakers feel unwarranted because the general engagement is already low outside of the main arena fights.

For context, I am a base campaign UN player but not exceptionally skilled, I'm also a console scrub.