Overall I liked Ancient Gods 2, but I can see where it could have had some improvement. I would say some of it felt rushed. There wasn't as much exploration and secrets as I would have liked. I didn't have trouble finding anything. The music was definitely inferior from Ancient Gods 1 and certainly from the main game. Mick Gordon's departure definitely had an impact there. I did like the meathook grapple mechanic as it reminded me of Opposing Force and it felt more natural than the monkey bar plus dash canisters that were overused in the main game. One inconsistency that I think will never be properly explained is why Doom Slayer needed a dive suit and O2 cylinders in Ancient Gods 1 but not the main game and Ancient Gods 2. Only thing I can think of would be his suit can't handle salt water very well? Didn't need O2 in space, hell, Mars, or under fresh water so other than contrived game mechanics, who knows.
I will admit that I underused the hammer. I like that it can be recharged with glory kills and weak point shots, but I tended to treat it more like the Crucible and just not using it except on big demons. I did like the addition of the Chaingunners as it gave me a reason to actually use the remote detonate mod for the rocket launcher. I would have to say my favorite part was the escalation encounters. Basically a Slayer Gate without the key. That and the Barbarian cosmetic. The first time I saw Doom Slayer without a helmet I thought he looked like Conan as drawn in comics and art, but with short hair. I was glad to see I wasn't alone in this.
I managed to play all the way through on Ultra-Violence. The end boss fight took some learning. Behind spoiler text is how I handled him. I think the biggest problem was it's very hard to get him to flash green. I figured out the best pattern is hit the zombies with 2 heavy cannon shots, glory kill, and get a hammer charge. Then when he spawns the two dogs and hell knight just hammer them as you get your hammer charges right back again. When he does a big demon summon, hammer them and use lock-on burst for anyone it misses, then recharge the hammer with the zombies. Inbetween I would just meathook and SSG the zombies to keep stacking armor, and occasionally meathook and chainsaw to stack armor and replenish shells. Otherwise, if I had a hammer charge and enough ammo I'd try to keep him in sword range and just strafe-dash to avoid his charging attack and grenades. I also saved both BFG shots for the very last round to deal with the big demon summons. To actually damage him I'd SSG, hit the hammer key and immediately switch to the chaingun with turret mod while the hammer animation was still running, start blasting him and lob two explosive grenades while shredding him. Once he got out of stagger I'd glory kill two zombies and repeat the process.
