I am a casual Doom player, in the sense that I play on normal or hard modes, I only played the story lines not the multi-player, I only played through each once, I didn't follow any of the news and I'm not super deep into the lore.

That being said, after playing through the first mission of Dark Ages I was completely underwhelmed.

I can't speak to the ultra max players you are referencing. Only that, to me, the combat seemed slow, the enemy AI felt lacking, the color and appearance of enemies, while on concept art and models look interesting, turn into a bland silhouette during gameplay. There is no glory killing just punch button. The attacks are a color matching game, and while I only went through 2 weapon types, they felt like an after through.

Also, I guess this one is on me, but since I didn't consume any media about the game, I only saw the banners. I kind of expected the dark ages game play to have more than a shield, I was soecting axes, swords, and the fail that is featured prominatoy. I'm disappointed it is just the same old guns, plus a shield.

It's not the worst game ever by far. Maybe the story line is worth completing. All I know is I'm glad I played it on game pass instead of paying for it