That's now been confirmed outright by the developers, who removed a few features from Eternal. As highlighted by ResetEra ...

Doom: The Dark Ages feels closer to the sweet spot. It plays less like Eternal’ s offspring and more like its weird younger ...

The next action-packed FPS in the vaunted Doom franchise slows down the pace for a different flavor of gothic carnage.

Doom: The Dark Ages, despite having its share of new gimmicks, keeps the Doom Slayer’s boots firmly on the ground while ...

Doom: The Dark Ages serves as a prequel to 2016's Doom and its sequel Doom Eternal, and tells the "epic cinematic origin story of the Doom Slayer's rage". But, even though it's a prequel ...