Creating a single player campaign in a first-person shooter used to be an art form. Hell, it used to be almost required. “Half-Life 2,” the “Halo” games, “Titanfall 2,” and “Bioshock” — all excellent in their own rights and all reminiscent of an early age in gaming, one that is now non-existent for as far as I’m concerned.

And, yes, I know “Call of Duty” comes out every year, and those are fine and all, but definitely not the reason you pay for the price of admission.

The third installment in id Software’s modern “Doom” trilogy, “The Dark Ages,” is the best of the bunch. Taking all of the good elements that worked for the 2016 “Doom,” and discarding all of the bad ones from “Eternal.”

It’s the closest to that feeling I had playing “Halo 2” — thinking “now this is an adventure. This is a god damn video game with a well-crafted campaign I can dig my teeth into.” And dig into it I did.

There is a lot of flesh to rip and tear into — fairly hefty for “Doom” game at least. It also helps that the Maykers look a lot like Prophets, clearly there’s a ton of the original “Halo” trilogy DNA fused into this game.

The obvious comparisons come in that there’s a bunch of future sci-fi troops running alongside you while a commanding officer barks exposition over a radio to you. Big fortresses, big monsters, a gun that shoots plasma, it all has that classic “Halo” vibe to it, despite the theme being a mix of medieval fantasy and ninth layer of hell scares.

“Dark Ages” is not afraid at all to just be a video game-ass video game, leaning fully into the UI, markers, objectives, pop-ups, pick-ups fun, lines of armor, and ammo that flow like candy on Halloween. The secret areas are the easiest to find in the series, because the entire map is available at the start and you can always tell where something secret is hiding.

It’s just up to you to find a way into the area, and I’ve been able to complete the entire game at 100% completion, something that was much more difficult and not as rewarding in the previous games (unless you love looking up guides online). There are plenty of “aha!” moments you have looking around the large environments as you collect all of the secrets and gold to upgrade your guns.

It reminded me of the first two games, and being a child again, roaming around a level with my map open looking for a way around a wall to get to a shiny new pick-up I peeked through a small window. The music is going, my Doom Slayer’s head is bobbing up and down, his little face is giving me the side eye — it’s classic “Doom” in the best way imaginable. But now, you get a mace, a crossbow, chain mail, a flail, and a god damn laser dragon with turrets. Haunted pirate ships, ancient castles, lightning summons — it’s a total blast.

You pilot a “Pacific Rim” mech and rip cyber Cthulu’s head off, and the last third of the game is set in these surreal H.R. Giger alien planets where water tunnels connect rooms that defy gravity. It’s so sick, true heavy metal thunder straight from the cover of an Iron Maiden album. This is a twelve-year-old’s wet dream, and it sacrifices nothing while adding a chainsaw shield you bounce around like Captain America on crack.

There was a lot of talk about how weighty this game would feel because it’s designed for you to “stand your ground.” In effect, you’re parrying way more than the platforming you got with “Eternal.” “Dark Ages” is still really fast though, and the combat can easily go at a rapid pace once you get the hang of things. The difficulty is perfectly tuned so that if you screw up, you’re probably gonna eat shit, but plenty of battles end with you escaping by the skin of your teeth.

There’s a satisfying flow to combat, great boss fights, exciting progression for unlockables, but nothing like that annoying Marauder fight that almost ruined “Eternal.” It’s not as repetitive as “Doom” 2016, and that game lost steam in the back half once you had all of the guns. This is level-based in an old school way, but the levels are open enough like “Uncharted: Lost Legacy.”

The only real issue with “The Dark Ages” is that it tries to push an elaborate narrative onto the player. And honestly? I’d rather pay attention to the story in a porno. Not one soul cares about how the Doom Slayer came to be, or why he kills demons on Mars.

Ignore the lore, skip the cut scenes, and save yourself some time. Because the sooner you can get back into ripping and tearing, the better off you’ll be.

Image from the Steam page of “Doom: The Dark Ages”