Oh hey, it's been almost exactly two years since the last post about this... my own.
Scored a first victory on JH (Easy), a far cry from my Major Baron of Hell days in DoomRL...
Went with Marine, since the class is a simple one to manage. At a minimum, the class special can be used as an emergency heal.
Shotguns are way powerful and easy to play with, so I went Reloader>Tough as Nails>Hellrunner>Skilled, grabbing Army of Darkness whenever possible.
As it turned out, I forgot that Reloader 3 is kind of useless, since you can just mod on the reload-on-move perk thus giving you the ability to dance out of harm's way while prepping your next shot. (Which is a big deal-- you can get out of the targeted launches and lunges you get in Dante.) Oh well.
I was also lucky and got an Elephant Gun on Callisto (Mimir Habitat... good odds of it, but not guaranteed) which served me well through the end of the game-- able to one-shot stuff even in Dante. Pulled an Avalanche on Europa which was cool (even unspecialized in automatic weapons, it packs a punch and is good for saving ammo), and a CRI Biolauncher on Io to round out the last slot and give some AoE coverage... and LoS cover.
Did Asterius because... no special reason. There was a strongroom on the branch, so I Figured why not. Probably should've done the Biolabs (if they show up) for the better odds of Avalanche, which I got anyways.
Keep forgetting that the Io Black Site requires three red cards on hand to fully explore... not the 2+1 you can get on the map. Which led to the only loot and kills I missed in the entire run. Bah. Wavedancer (and by extension, CRI Labs) I'd skip because the mechs can pack a punch, and with Army of Darkness, a traditional shotgun that you've been stocking up on ammo for is probably a better pick than setting up a new one.
Dante's Inferno got dicey; I forgot about using the Biolauncher for cover, so I took a pile of shots on the 4th 'arena' and had to teleport out... mopped up after though. No useful goodies, unfortunately. Stage should probably be skipped, unless you're aiming for 100% floors.
Final boss was stupidly easy; took maybe 20 points of damage, mostly from the adds. Used Avalanche to clear far trash, Elephant Gun if they got close, and shot the boss with the Biolauncher for cover/damage. Retreat out of AoE whenever necessary, away from the boss. Not sure if I even took any damage from him.
What's the game like in comparison to DoomRL now? It always felt like "Doom: The Roguelike but suckier" to me, which turned me off of buying it.
So I'm still kicking around on Easy/Medium, but it's a bit of both.
Map layouts are more diverse. The 'extra' floors are a bit better done-- less RNG about what you'll encounter (each section, you get to pick one of four of the six possible options) and they don't have guaranteed drops like DoomRL, but guaranteed classes of items and floor layouts. For example, one of the first set is packed with droids... if you're running a hacker build, you can waltz right through that place without a scratch. (Edit: On top of that, if you read the messages on the computers, they tell you what rooms have extra storerooms, item vaults, modkits, etc. so you have an idea of where to go for certain items too.)
Getting good weapons is less important-- basic weapons appropriate to the region you're in drop all the time and mods are flexible enough to get you what you want, more or less. Good exotics or uniques can carry you through to the end, if you can use them properly.
The lack of diagonals is hit or miss... but since I'm mostly playing on a small laptop, it's actually easier for me.
The classes feel distinct enough, though I sort of wish you could sever their actives from their trait options.
Dancing to avoid hits is as important as ever.
Oh, and freakin' Angel of Carnage... there's not enough missiles in any armory for that.