id Software presents DOOM: The Dark Ages, a prequel to the critically acclaimed DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal that tells an epic cinematic story worthy of the DOOM Slayer’s legend. Available May 15th on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Pre-order HERE.
If there’s one thing DOOM has always been known for, it’s guns.
More often than not, they’re big fucking guns. DOOM: The Dark Ages, the boomer shooter prequel to id Software’s DOOM, has its fair share of bullet hoses to lay the hordes of the damned down to their eternal rest. It’s got one that acts like a mortar and pestle for skulls before shooting bone fragments everywhere, it’s got another that shoots a cannonball attached to a chain, and, of course, there’s the obligatory shotgun that can, at an arm’s length, reduce most targets to a meaty mess.
After DOOM Eternal took movement to frantic extremes, DOOM: The Dark Ages is designed around having the Slayer stand and fight. It’s very much boots on the ground, and it’s often up close and personal. One way id Software ensures you’re taking frequent blood baths is through Dark Ages’ renewed focus on crushing melee combat.
When I got to go hands-on with the new DOOM, I was taken aback by just how powerful I felt. Clad with fur drapings and harbouring a powerful thirst for dishing out a shellacking, I felt like a one-man army as I marched through horde after horde of Hell’s best, brandishing any one of the game’s enormously satisfying, barbarous implements.
There’s something inherently rageful about DOOM: The Dark Ages and its emphasis on medieval savagery. The Gauntlet, which feels like an ancient predecessor to Doomguy’s barbed knuckles, is forged for the sole purpose of delivering visceral blows that rend flesh from bone. It isn’t simply a glove to wield; it’s a death sentence that offers finality. All at the hands of a one-man army.
A common idiom suggests that those who “fail to prepare, prepare to fail.” Fortunately, the Slayer comes armed with chain-linked carnage, so prepare to Flail. This spiked mace is primarily for peeling armour off to expose the soft demon bellies beneath. The Flail is also perfect for crowd control and buying yourself a sliver of breathing room as you defend the hallowed grounds of Argent D’Nur. It’s even more fun than punching demons to shreds, each swing hits like a wrecking ball with The DOOM Slayer’s godly strength behind it.
Lastly, we’ve got the Slayer’s shield, which he carries on his left forearm from our very first deployment to the frontlines of Khalim. Traditionally used as a means of safeguarding its wearer, it wouldn’t be DOOM if id hadn’t flipped the game’s idea of defense on its ear and turned it into offense, and that’s exactly what they’ve done by bolting to its rounded edge the meanest, hungriest set of saw teeth.
What was meant to protect becomes perhaps the toughest thing in this game. You can charge and disperse mobs, leaving behind little more than a red mist, you can ping it around like Captain America, and you can lodge it within demon sternums, stun-locking them into a state of “easy pickings”. God himself knows that if you see a man throwing his primary means of protection at you, it’s high time you run.
To further emphasise its diversity in The Dark Ages, the shield is also at the heart of the game’s rhythmic parrying system, mastery of which is paramount to survival on DOOM many battlefields. And it’s through returning projectiles back to sender that you, quite literally, turn defense into offense.
New tools aside, DOOM is, as it always has been, made with itchy trigger fingers in mind. There’s still nothing like strafing through waves of enemies, spending round after round until the barrel glows red hot, though with even more reasons to thrust yourself into the thick of it, DOOM: The Dark Ages is all gas, no brakes.
It’s definitively brutal. It’s a first-person, up-close and personal act of war. Even as a Sherman tank on legs, and with everything at his disposal, the DOOM Slayer leaves nothing to chance, taking no half measures in putting a swift end to Hell’s insurgency. The result is the most crushing, fun DOOM we’ve had.
id Software presents DOOM: The Dark Ages, a prequel to the critically acclaimed DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal that tells an epic cinematic story worthy of the DOOM Slayer’s legend. Available May 15th on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Pre-order HERE.
