Oof. Doom Eternal. It's such an annoying game to play at times. To be clear, I enjoyed my time with it, but I loved it in spite of its best efforts to make me hate it. At it's core, you shoot demons and that's cool. But the meta game underneath the demon shooting is just awful.
Having to attack monsters in a specific order and in specific ways with specific weapons is fine and pretty standard fare for most action games, but having to take weapon strategy into account while ALSO having to consider finishing moves to manage your resources adds a bit too much to the game loop. Having to think about whether to go for ammo (chainsaw), health (glory kill), or armor (lamest ever flame thrower) each time I see a flashing enemy is bloody annoying. Once you understand how it all works, it becomes almost comical how much the game has to constantly spawn fodder into the playfield. It looks so silly that it honestly takes me out of the experience.
And I haven't even mentioned the addition of moves like the blood punch (terrible nonsense that always goes off when I don't want it to), the stronger chainsaw attacks (managing the gas can charges is stupid), and the BFG.
Like, I get it. Once you get in the zone, the combat sings, but it's still really stupid and annoying. Somebody mentioned battle chess and that's kind of accurate, but I liken it more to battle long-division. It's the most cumbersome thing to enjoy. The most engaging and violent long division ever.
I hope Dark Ages ditches everything that Doom Eternal brought to the table.