i have many many many many things to say about this game, mainly i want to discuss how its definitely the weakest in the trilogy of games since 2016, and how its the only game where its cons can outweigh its pros. i REALLY dislike the direction the game is heading but i REALLY like some of the combat direction. unfortunately, everything else falls short.
doom the dark ages gameplay is definitely its strongest point, it manages to mesh a slower pace with the same amount of technicality and impact as eternals pace, you're still pressing buttons fast, but not so much its gonna snap your fingers on higher difficulties. i've (so far) only played the game on ultra violence and there are definitely times where rushing in without thinking and processing what to do with every enemy, it will result in a fast and quick death. it definitely makes your brain work, and it's fun! but it has two main issues that make it fall shorter then eternals or even 2016s.
the "linearity". "but guesty its fucking doom how do you make doom non-line-" did we play the same games?? yes, at its core doom is just run shoot kill win but eternal really showed how you can turn that formula into a sandbox with the enemy weakspots. combat in eternal utilizes the aspects of adding the various ways to attack a demons weakspots to make you effective at it, turning the simple, run shoot win mentality into "okay how do i kill the mancubus, archvile, multiple hellknights and cacodemons and stay alive", you can shoot off the mancubus's guns, making him ineffective while you gun down and blast the hellknights running after you, then shoot grenades into the cacodemons mouth, OR, you disable the mancubus, pop the cacodemons eyes, group up the hell knights, blood punch them and handle the mancubus last, OR ... etc etc etc, the formula for each encounter changes bit by bit, making no encounter entirely the same even though you receive all the same enemies. each slayer can figure out their own way to play, and that's what makes eternal great. where dark ages falls short in this aspect, is that the encounters feel in fact, "samey". the main problem with this aspect is that it makes core combat incredibly fun and engaging but only for so long, when you encounter a difficult encounter, it becomes more a frustrated "i didnt do this specific thing the game told me to do" problem, and not a skill or creativity problem.