If the Doomslayer is a race car, as id Software has described it, then "The Ancient Gods - Part One" is a series of victories around three new courses. Starting at the finish line of "Doom Eternal," the experience is akin to steering a Ferrari around a track at 200 miles per hour. It is exactly as startling and exhilarating as it sounds.

In addition to the slayer, you will inherit all the weapon mods and ability rune-powered extras you acquired in the original Eternal campaign. And even though I cleared the game, I was thoroughly embarrassed for the first 20 minutes by slamming a reload key that didn't exist or never existed. In a shooter's terms, it was like putting the car in sport mode and activating the wipers.

Like Slayer, id Software is at its peak: with 2016's Doom, the studio reinvented the wheel and literally built the game around a spinning arena in constant motion. Since then, it has come up with inventive ways to stick sticks in the spokes, breaking conventions and confusing players.

The most infamous example of the Doom Eternal is the Marauder, a relentless runner who chases the Slayer like a shadow. He reappears in The Ancient Gods, exemplifying id's penchant for enemies that can only be defeated in very specific ways. Take the example of the turret, a new fixed placement shooter that looks like a miniature of Sauron's eye. A couple of shots from the scope of an assault rifle will burst the orb, but if you take too long while aiming, the ball will retract into the pillar and survive until you can loop around for another try.

Then there is the spirit, the slayer's ghostbuster. It is almost invisible, but recognizable by the blue aura that surrounds the host and its ultra-fast attacks. Killing the host causes the possessed spirit to lash out and zap it within seconds with the microwave beam of a plasma rifle, an easy task when two people are alone, but in "Doom," you are constantly surrounded. If you are late in firing the beam or distracted, the spirit will jump to another host and you will have to start all over again.

You would think that this step-by-step handling of the enemy would trap you, as if you were shooting according to the instructions. Do you focus your firepower on the host and hope you can follow up with plasma? Or destroy the most powerful daemons in the vicinity first so that there are no large houses left for ghosts to haunt.

Turrets are a sign that the membrane between the combat and exploration phases of doom is weakening. While fighting in the massive arena remains the dividing line between each level, new threats conspire and push through the intervening corridors. In the acid-rain-infested, festering Blood Swamp, pustules rise up from the muddy earth. They swell up as you pass by, and as you wander around, they blister and damage you with a roar. The rolling fog also hurts, and you have to keep pace with "Prince of Persia"-style platform puzzles. Remember, too, the annoying tentacles from "Doom Eternal.

As a result, "The Ancient Gods" is the most oppressive and intimidating of Doom's offerings. If there is little respite outside of combat, the central battle will have you shoving occult candles up your ass until your pants are scorched.

After a few minutes in the mosh pit, I had an emotional moment when a chainsaw-toting Doom Slayer, two towering Tyrants, and three Barons of Hell appeared. In fact, "Ancient Gods" regularly frightened me with its intensity.

Ironically, only the Marauder offers the closest thing to a breather - even though its first appearance triggered an unintentional "Oh no." It now evokes the strongest muscle memory, and its predictable patterns provide little comfort in the midst of a storm.

If both the Imp and the Slayer are shaking, pun intended, the only truly fearless party involved in "The Ancient Gods" is id Software. They have not bowed to the naysayers who object to the jump sequence or the lore, and they have pushed for both. This is not a side story, but a deadly blow to the major characters of "Doom" over the past half-decade, while cleverly integrating and simplifying the new additions. There's even meta-comedy from a UAC intern who can see your HUD firsthand.

It's hard to complain that Doom has a plot when you have an environment like Holt's, where digital plants bloom against the backdrop of a blood-red forest and gold appears beneath the bark when you scrape it off, and Heaven has rightly earned id's art department.

The biggest worry going into The Ancient Gods was that Doom's momentum would stall with the absence of composer Mick Gordon, who since 2016 has become as central to the series as a super shotgun with a choir from hell and industrial crunch It was a question of whether or not the BFG Division's soundtrack for Ancient Gods would be as impressive, but Andrew Hulshult and David Levy do a fine job of matching Gordon's pulsating, down-tuned precedents.

"The Ancient Gods - Part One" is id Software's masterpiece, and it demands the same from you. The only question is, how far does it make sense to raise the temperature? After completing these three campaign missions on the "Ultra Violence" difficulty level, I was exhausted and wasn't even sure if I had enjoyed myself.