Doom: The Dark Ages Looks Like a Journey to Hell

The slogan “Stand and Fight” is Plastered in Doom: Marketing in the Dark Ages: A slogan that contradicts the modern Apocalypse series. Doom 2016 is praised for its quick gameplay and doom: Eternal takes it a step further with a meat hook to get you whipped on the battlefield at amazing speeds. Actions – many – are the causes of doom, the cause of doom. So, seeing Doom: The Dark Ages encourages players to take their positions, and the battle seems to be the opposite of a carefully adjusted formula. At least, that's what I think. After three hours of hands-on practice with the next shooter of the ID software, it seems like Doom: The Dark Age has discovered a hypnotic balance between its iconic fast-paced gameplay and the bragging battle that the Dark Age is joining.

Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel to Doom in 2016. The power of hell is invading a realm inspired by the medieval era, and Doom Killer is called to summon him to do what he does best: through the rips and rips of demons. Although this sounds like the standard fare for Doom Games, Dark Ages seems to place more emphasis on its story. It's still a camping, somewhat self-aware, bleeding orgy, but the team hopes to bring the fantasy environment to its fullest. According to game director Hugo Martin, “When you think of fantasy and Lord of the Rings, you feel huge…it’s the grandeur of fantasy that people expect, epic of fantasy.” Despite turning to fantasy, the biggest narrative inspiration for Doom: Dark Ages story is action movies like Roadhouse, Die Hard and Hard and First Blood, which keep the story appealing throughout its run.

Although I like Doom 2016’s minimal approach to storytelling, I’d love to know the role of ID software in Dark Age’s environment. The arena, enemies, characters and weapons have all been made in the medieval makeover, perfect for the environment and series. Gothic castles loom on the battlefield, enemies use medieval weapons and sci-fi guns, wear plated armor, and terrible weapons like Pulverizer grind the skull and fire deadly bone fragments. This is a game in heaven, or hell. That is, “Doom: Eternal” feels redundant to the story. There are some clever callbacks for previous games and fun moments, but when it comes to doom, all I have to do is shoot, chop and sneak the demons. Thankfully, there are many in the Dark Ages.

Like the previous Doom Game, Weapons are the stars of the show. There are some return guns, such as the iconic Supershot shotgun, but Dark Ages brings a series of new guns that are neatly integrated into the Gothic environment. The aforementioned crusher fires the horizontal propagation of skull fragments, which can chop multiple demons at close range, Immigaler fires rune-decorated rail spikes, causing high damage in high ranges at long distances, and – my personal favorite – the chain skeleton fires a retracted cannonball that can be used at close range Demons pulver dulver. Of course, each weapon has some upgrades and modifications that can change its characteristics. The weapons of doom have always been bigger than life, but the dark age setting allows ID software to truly break through the boundaries of weapons in doom. “(They) cruel. (…) railroad spikes, skull crushers. They should all be like the little torture device you're holding,” Martin told me.

The biggest shot of the Dark Ages is the Shield Saw. In battle, you can use it to stop and parry attack, defeat the enemy, and then throw it on the battlefield. This is the most useful purpose – at least for my play style – is a dash. By holding the shield, you can lock the enemy onto the enemy and drive it down with quick movements. Although it doesn't have the same perpendicularity as the meat hook, it's much more controllable. Your inertia and motivation are not against you when you rush to the enemy. Instead, you can speed up the battlefield on the battlefield and send a satisfying shield revelry for any poor demons brought by the Doomsday Killer.

While I didn't use the shield saw blocks that much, Parry was the most important. When an enemy or projectile glows green, a good-time block will hit the demon or bounce directly backwards. This is a fairly simple mechanic, perfect for Doom's game loop. You can't plunder every step, so you still spend most of your time running and shooting, but when I do see the green light, I find myself subconsciously repositioning in hopes of taking advantage of it. This seems like a simple addition, but Parry can do anything good Parry system does: It adds more reward risk. When they start glowing green, I will regularly place myself in enemies and projectiles just to beat parry.

The shield saw feels like a natural extension of the Doomsday Killer Kit, but it's not just an unfortunate devil. Many Dooms: Dark Age puzzles and platform segments are built around the shield saw. Like Kratos' Axe (2018) in God of War of War, the shield can be used to activate the switch, knock down weak walls, and fire the Doomsday Killer into hard-to-reach areas. While the puzzles in Doomsday not only provide a brief speed change, the shield saw is brought to the table enough to make the moment fun.

Shield Saw coexists with Doom: New Melee Weapons of the Dark Ages. The chainsaws of Doom 2016 and Eternal have been replaced by a handful of blunt weapons and new mechanisms. These weapons require “accusations” to use them, and at least at the beginning – up to three charges are paid. You can find pickups on the battlefield or parry attacks to charge weapons. Unlike chainsaws, the further the preview I get, the more rare these pickups are. As a result, I rely mainly on Parries to supplement my melee expenses. This loop is seamlessly suited to the spell of “Stand and Fight” because when you face a tyrant, the most effective way to kill it is to grab its face, extinguish its attacks and follow up with powerful melee attacks. Of course, you can still fight enemies with irrelevant qualities, but anything but the Imp and the Feed Devil is fairly ineffective.

Doom: Dark Ages brings many new ideas to the battle cycle, and to let players try out all these new weapons, mechanics and strategies, the ID software creates the largest arena to date. The last level I played in the preview, called Siege, takes place on a vast battlefield consisting of multiple targets that can be completed in any order. This level of design approach is not unique, but it is the first game of modern doom. While I still think I prefer the more linear level design in Doom, the speed of this section is a good change and gives me enough chance to test some new mechanics and have some unique encounters. One of these options allowed me to eliminate the VIP demon. But to damage the special demons, I need to lower my morale by killing dozens of demons. I passed away a few times, but with each new attempt, I can try different approaches in a more freeform and open way than we see in Doom 2016 or Eternity.

These large open battlefields complement what Martin calls “epic”, but another component of the Dark Ages are the Dragon and Atlan Mecha missions. While none of the clips I've played have the mechanical depth of doom rooted in the battle, they do offer different views on the world of the Dark Ages. When an air attack occurred, I soared over a huge city, occasionally unloading my dragon from the inside of the investment ship on the hell ship. In Atlan Mech, I will be fighting some of the most powerful demonic opponents of Doom, which are usually saved for boss battles.

Air combat and mechanical warfare are built around dodging with good timing. Just like walking, the enemy's attack is green. Dodging green attacks slows down time and allows you to fight back with your own deadly attack. Atlan felt great about the pilot. Each step satisfactorily crushes the feed demons and horizontal buildings. Meanwhile, its heavy fists and hooks will break the demon's bones and then bounce the skull into a mess of blood and blood. Unfortunately, air combat seems to be the weakest link so far. The speeds across the tunnels and cities feel great, but the second second you lock the enemy on the enemy, all of which suddenly stops when you awkwardly manipulate the hit button around the space in front of the locked enemy. Martin made it clear that the convoy was still fine-tuning the air combat and would continue to rise to launch. Hopefully all dragon battles require additional polish.

“Every game we do more. We get better at what we do. The story we tell us gets bigger, and (Doom: The Dark Ages) feels like achieving the last 10 years and the last two games.” After finishing my presentation, it feels like the Dark Ages is probably the most comprehensive doom game to date. ID software brings many new mechanisms and ideas into the series while maintaining its hypnosis. It’s hard to say whether they can maintain this momentum when introducing new ideas and mechanisms, but it makes a great first impression. Doom: On May 13, 2025, the Dark Ages enter PlayStation 5, Xbox and PC.