I feel the same. The atmosphere is decidedly less doom-like in my view and I’m a little skeptical of these new gameplay mechanics. Riding flying dragons? I’m also not a fan of the way Marty Stratton handled the situation with Mick Gordon, which has damped my goodwill for the studio. I bought Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal on launch. I will not buy this game until it is bargain bin prices.

2016 had the perfect balance between story and gameplay to me, in that the player character expressed flagrant disregard for any narrative elements. This was doom 1 af.

Just keep moving and turn the bad guys into chunks. Need nothing more.

I fucking hated the loop in eternal. I get that the developers wanted you to play in a specific way, they partially achieved this through arbitrary mechanics like ammo scarcity. I can appreciate that it's a good game, but I didn't get on with it.

The art style went full Hollywood horror, and the exposition was kinda dialed up to eleven by contrast to its direct predecessor. Very much disliked that you couldn't crouch (definitely more of a me issue, though I think sliding is a missed opportunity in Eternal's movement repertoire).

2016's PvP was imperfect but still fun and much appreciated. Snapmap was super underrated and has many sick community made levels.

The later games are a phenomenal technical showcase; the absolute posterchild for the Vulkan gfx API, but it's not very 'doom' in spirit to me any more

I'm currently playing the game, got like a handful of levels left. It's a good game, but with the way the Doom games have evolved and changed over the time, I don't think you can really say "if you like that Doom, you'll like this Doom."

I definitely enjoy the gameplay of Eternal more, but Dark Ages is really good.

The feel of running around is great. You sound massive, your jumps create shockwaves and kill enemies. If you've played Boltgun, it's like that.

The shield is feels great. The charge is awesome, just like the Meathook was in Eternal to get right next to your enemy, and fodder demons just explode on impact.

Parries feel good, but are extremely easy. The timing is super forgiving and the range is massive.

I think a big thing, that not many people are talking about, are the difficulty sliders. You can change so many things, but ID just ignores 90% of them with their presets. You can change so much stuff, and make it feel like a completely different game. Crank up the game speed and just zoom around. Increase your and the enemies damage, so it's all about dodging, or you get one-shot. Make the projectiles slow, but a lot more deadly.

There's still some ammo management, but it's not like Eternal, not even like 2016. Your melee attack, that you can use for the execute drops ammo, just like the Chainsaw, but you're using it regularly anyway. Some guns also have upgrades that shooting demons with it also drops ammo for the weapon.

The game is a lot more story heavy, but just like in Eternal you can just skip it and not read the Codex entries.

The mech stuff is alright, but pretty basic, but also really short segments. The dragon is cool in theory, but I really hate these parts, and they just drag on for far too long. Flying around just isn't fun.

Weapons are pretty good, and I have some favorites. The normal Combat Shotgun with upgrades is great this time and not just outshined by the Super Shotgun immediately. That Ball-on-a-Chain gun is also really nice, with some cool upgrades. Because you don't really have any ammo issues if you use the melee regularly, I've just used one gun for long stretches of time, because there's just no reason real reason to switch, and you can just use what you want.

The devs always said in Dark Ages you're like a tank, but with default settings on Nightmare difficulty, you're made out of paper. Projectiles are extremely dangerous, and enemies like to spawn behind you and shoot you in the back. The game is actually not great on telling you where you're getting attacked from, and there's just always tons of enemies around and some deaths can be kinda frustrating.

Then there are also some minor UI/UX issues. You get small icons in the middle for your melee charges, but they don't show the progress like in Eternal with the Blood Punch. There's no dedicated Map button, just open your Dossier, which remembers your last screen, which is annoying, because you want that map 99% of the time. Sprinting has this terrible vignette effect around your screen, and you want to sprint all the time, but you can only disable all screen effects, which includes some stuff I'd like to see.

For some dumb reason, the Fast Travel option, at the end of a level has been removed, so if you miss a secret, you'll have to play the level again. There's also tons of points-of-no-return, so you'll have to stare at the map constantly, to make sure you haven't missed anything, which makes the lack of a map button so terrible.

After I'm done with my Nightmare run, I want to do another one, where I play around with the sliders a bit. I want to turn up the game speed, but will probably lower the damage and projectile speed to compensate.

The gameplay looks fine. It looks like a Doom game. But I won't buy a game with DRM, so I won't be buying it until that gets removed (at earliest).

It's a great game but it runs like ass and uses Denuvo so I can't recommend it.

Yes, it's very fun. I'm not sure why you're so pessimistic on it, it's another good DOOM game and vast majority of reviewers never get paid to hype something up. I'm not too far in it yet but first impressions is that it's closer to Doom 2016 than Eternal, there isn't much platforming or acrobatics.

The only thing I'm not sold on is the story. They added a lot of story and cutscenes. I have no idea what's going on honestly. Feels a lot like they added too much Warhammer 40k to the Doom franchise.

If anything has Denuvo, I'll skip it

I'm playing it right now, and ots actually a lot of fun. Exploration feels fun still like doom 2016 and Eternal, and you have different murder mechanics to choose from in the midst of a hundred enemies. I'd say the reviews are right.

Now, that being said, I think i still like 2016 better, but they both have a very different feel from each other.

I'm having a blast with it. It's a break from the design ethos that was Doom Eternal. So if you're looking for more Eternal you'll be disappointed. This one wants you to play significantly more aggressively.

Your opinion is going to depend on what you’re looking for in a doom game. It isn’t quite like DOOM 2016. It’s less like DOOM eternal. No dashes, less aerial combat, and less of the rock paper scissors gameplay.

It’s geared more towards “stand and fight” gameplay. It’s still run and gun, but more about parrying and staying in the enemy’s face. The shield has interesting play associated with that.

If the atmosphere is what you’re looking for, it actually is closer to Eternal. You’re present for the fall of a planet, so the atmosphere is functionally the same.

If you are for the lore, it is lore rich and rather engaging.

All that said, if you can wait for a sale, go for it. It feels like a DOOM game, but it’s not what everybody expects in a DOOM game.

I’m a huge fan of Doom Eternal. It really proved what movement shooters are capable of.

Haven’t played Dark Ages yet, and I’m not super eager to play it.

I expected Dark Ages to be a middle ground of 2016 and Eternal, but it seems like they’re straying away from movement shooters with the ”stand and fight” tagline. That’s disappointing, because I feel like there’s so much more to explore with movement shooters. Just look at Ultrakill for example.

I will wait it out a bit. It still seems like a fun game. Next on my play list is Expedition 33.

I absolutely love Doom Eternal, it's my favorite shooter of all time by a landslide.

Dark Ages still hasn't sold me, parries are the last thing I ever wanted from a Doom game and they seem to be the game's main focus.

I can respect Id Software for trying new things with every game, but taking away movement and focusing on parry mechanics isn't really innovative to me.

The 80 euro price tag doesn't help, there is no way in hell I'm paying that much for a game.

I honestly think its really damn good. I love using the shield. It just feels amazing.

Are people getting paid to hype games

Are you kidding? This has been a growing issue since the 00s. Even back when Total Biscuit was still alive (rip), he was fighting it with tooth and nail. Microsoft and some other companies have AGGRESSIVELY attacked consumers and now, it's entirely broken in almost every industry.

Finding real reviews on things is INSANELY difficult to find, not only because influencers are all heavily biased and censored or even blacklisted when they aren't positive, but most normal people couldn't give a decent review if they tried. Hype is everywhere, and colors everything.

TB called it years ago: the trick is to find a journalist that you know what they like, dislike, and are honest and with integrity, able to be brutal and fair, but have ethics and a strong sense of responsibility to the future of gaming. This requires a uniquely difficult and rare combination of intelligence, novel ideas, and sound judgement, along with consistency. And production, a refreshing articulation, and some brevity doesn't hurt.

Find that source and support them, and help them grow. Get to know their tastes, and they should serve us all well.

But, until that person who can unite gamers appears again, and holds those important and knowledgeable discussions... Influencers will be just that: influencers - not journalists. And be unreliable shills.

Honestly I've thought about doing it more than once, but fear and risk of the wrath of sensitive gamers and corporate hr entities angry for me shitting on their games and decisions and suing me is a real thing. I could be a gaming journalist, one that gives my all and tries to serve the good of gamers and the future of society to the best of my ability. But I also seriously doubt anybody would want to listen to me.

I'm loving Doom Dark ages, I'm on about level 8 out of 22. I like that there's enough room in levels to move around. Movement is awesome, you can just run everywhere. The weapons are extremely effective and your toolkit is reduced so you have shield-block shield-slam shield-throw melee and then guns. It's pretty easy to remember everything you have and then select an appropriate attack for the situation.
I really love it. Hopefully there aren't any more Mech-pilot missions because that one sucked. The dragon wasn't my favorite either but you can make it through without much difficulty and it didn't take forever.

Tbh it's more like quake 1 than Doom

Which isn't a bad thing, but I think everyone would have been perfectly happy with just Doom: Eternal 2

I like both the previous games better. I miss executions, limited melee ammo feels awful, and the guns (at least first 3 i found so far) aren't very satisfying. I won't be continuing to play, game pass has had a killer month and if I want to keep playing doom I'll go back to 2016 or eternal

Edit used disclaimer incorrectly, should have said something like:

Noteworthy point: I've beaten every modern doom on nightmare.

This doom game is such a departure from the doom series that it is just a bad game.

The game can be beaten with a single gun and parry. Every single time I 'struggled' it was because I was playing the game to have fun (silly me) and wasn't spamming shield. Every single encounter ended almost immediately once parry spam was activated.

The final boss literally did not touch me. This game was a really really bad joke.

Edit: I am genuinely convinced there is a fleet of shills portraying this game as good and a lot of old people influencing it. Like, they downgraded the game to a fucking boomer shooter. This game gave me destiny vibes, in that it was a very pretty cake only to find that it was filled with shit.

Edit 2: I forgot the most important part; there isn't a single difficulty related achievement. I know, because I beat the game on nightmare.

Can't wait for that one modder who makes games look like shit to disable the raytracing.

OT: Funny thing, everytime i see the "New" Doomslayer i have the game "Witchhaven" in my mind...