Doom the dark ages...

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.

It's a great game but it runs like ass and uses Denuvo so I can't recommend it.
- Same reason I still haven’t played Black Myth Wukong

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.
- Fwiw it shows the charge % to the next pip down next to the ammo counter
- Nit about the icons
  You see your current melee charge in the bottom right, next to ammo counts

I can’t support the studio after what they did to Mick Gordon. Fucking criminal if you ask me. His soundtrack was a pillar of Doom’s success in 2016 and with Eternal. So if you’re not sold on it here’s a moral angle to add to it lol
- It's so sad to see. I've spent way more time listening to the soundtrack than playing, I've listened to it working out, I've listened to it at work, I listen to it when commuting - his work is just amazing. All that lost because a higher-up fucked up and didn't care enough to mend the relationship. Whilst straight up lying about the events of what really happened on reddit, of all places.
  
  It was so unbelievably fucked up. They basically tried to ruin his life After putting him through an insane grind making that music
- Can you elaborate? I wasn't aware of this.
  
  it’s bad

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 remember physically pumping my fist in the air when the first exposition dump happens in doom 2016 and he just punches the screen seconds in then moves on. That’s all the narrative/storytelling I need or want out of doom. My buddy and I were thrilled when that happened lol
  
  This is exactly how I view Doom as well.
  If you want lore, put it in the environment. Let people hunt and find it (makes it more rewarding for those people too). But the core gameplay loop of doom needs to not have hours of exposition dump. The whole point of Doom guy is literally rip and tear. Not to give a shit about why he's ripping and tearing. He's a Marine. Simple motivations.
  Source:https://doom.fandom.com/wiki/Doom_Slayer
  The Doom Marine was originally a human from Earth who served in the Marines and was dishonorably discharged due to assaulting his commanding officer after refusing to fire upon a crowd of unarmed civilians and was later transferred to the UAC Phobos base as security. The Marine soon found himself trying to prevent the demons of Hell from invading Earth. After having fought demonic hordes through Phobos, Deimos and Hell, he returned home to find Earth now overrun by demons. Among the billions of people killed were his family, including his pet rabbit Daisy, giving him further reason to pursue hunting the demons. He continued fighting the horde on Earth, before taking the fight to Hell once more.
  There isn't a "reason" outside of pure rage that makes Doom guy. Doom guy would not give 2 fucking shits about "why", just murder and rage.
  To tie this back to another topic, Mick Gordon fucking captured it perfectly in the music. No sense for the "norms" of music. Just pure rage in music form. It's cathartic. It was a perfect fit. And they fucked it up.
- the player character expressed flagrant disregard for any narrative elements
  They don't. Doomguy does like two things in the very beginning, but it's not like they don't care, but rather about what Hayden has to say and his justifications for everything that has happened, that's the part which he doesn't want.
  You meet Hayden later in his office, with a few minutes unskippable "cutscene," but it's not like Doomguy ignores him or jumps out of a window in the middle of it.

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).
- Yeah I would have bought it at launch if it weren't bundled with denuovo, which is now locking out users on linux

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

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.

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.
- Not talking about any reviewer in particular, but in general, even if they don't get payed, they get the game for free and usually have affiliate links to buy the game, so there's at least a couple of incentives to do a better review.
  Again, not accusing anyone, but the potential for bias/conflict of interest is something to keep in mind when watching those types of reviews.
- Thanks. Glad to hear this. I'll definitely be buying it, just depends how long I can wait.
  not sold on is the story
  This was how I felt about eternal. The lore was overdone, didn't have the doom "feel". 2016 had simpler lore, very well done, that kept with what I felt the doom theme feels like.
  That being said if the gameplay is fun, that's what's important.

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
- Idk about that, I heard a fair number of folks who were less enthused with Eternal vs 2016. The general sentiment among those folks was that Eternal skewed too far into "combat puzzle" territory, where encounters felt like they had prescribed "solutions" that you needed to perform to succeed reliably. This iteration being less about resource management and high speed encounter flow seems to be a reaction to those critiques.
  
  2016 >>>> Eternal for me
  
  The general sentiment among those folks was that Eternal skewed too far into "combat puzzle" territory, where encounters felt like they had prescribed "solutions" that you needed to perform to succeed reliably.
  Nailed it, that was exactly my problem with Eternal.

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.

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.

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.
- It feels like a DOOM movie. I was genuinely excited for the cutscenes because I thought something actually cool would happen, only to get sucked into to yet another railroad dragon section, even worse railroad mech section, or mission filled with 'kill enemies to break shields'.
  Idk, the 'stand and fight' gameplay stopped being fun when I realized that 80% of the guns were just functionally worthless and parry spam + impaler would solve all, not some, all of my problems. For 20 hours. Of basically the same mission objectives over and over and over.
  I'm just gonna go back to playing Eternal if I want DOOM. ID fucked up DOOM 3, again (IMO).
  Edit: I've beaten every DOOM on nightmare. If Eternal had ammo economy issues (which is a hill I will die on, even the newbies I got into Eternal didn't struggle with ammo) then Dark Ages has an overabundance problem. Why would I ever switch weapons when I have the ammo economy of Eternal on crack and switching weapons puts my shield down? Why play a DOOM game if not for all the different weapons to kill demons with?
  
  80% of the guns were just functionally worthless and parry spam + impaler would solve all, not some, all of my problems
  That's kinda all guns. Seems like ID wanted to please all those people who said they hate the "forced" weapon switching in Eternal and just made everything strong against anything.

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