When Doom: The Dark Ages was revealed earlier this month, I was struck by how different it looks from Doom Eternal. This might seem an odd thing to say, given both games are hyper-slick, hyper-violent shooters about a very angry man killing demons inside living metal album covers. But the differences become much clearer when you compare The Dark Ages' reveal to Doom Eternal's various trailers.
In Eternal's videos, the Doom Slayer is constantly getting airborne, bouncing on jump-pads, swinging between monkey bars, grappling onto enemies with the shotgun's alt-fire. It's like a Mario game directed by David Cronenberg. By comparison, in the Dark Ages reveal trailer, the Slayer's movement is almost purely horizontal. He strides inexorably forward, taking out whole clusters of enemies with weapons like that awesome skull-shrapnel flak cannon. When attacked he stands his ground, countering enemy strikes, and turtling up behind a massive shield. Aside from one short drop off a ledge, his feet never leave the ground.
