Doom: The Dark Ages Review: Brutal, challenging, and laugh-out-loud funny

Doom: The Dark Ages is a video game as described by a 15-year-old goth. There are dragons, beheadings, medieval castles made of skulls,  pounding heavy metal, and constant challenge. At times, the game is like the doodles at the back pages of a heavy metal fan’s school jotter.

It’s bombastic and silly, and it’s also extremely fun to play and constantly rewarding. Where Doom: Eternal felt like a bold, if in my opinion flawed, side step into a quicker, more movement-based shooter, Doom: The Dark Ages is a relic. It is gnarly, bloody, and tough as old boots.

New, wider levels make for a significant change of pace, and the new arsenal of melee weapons and abilities work harmoniously. The new mech and dragon levels finish just short of outstaying their welcome, but at the very least, they’re visual treats.

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Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel. The game opens with an inter-dimensional war between the forces of hell and Argent D’Nur, a land that’s both technologically advanced in some way, but lives in towering medieval castles. The Doomslayer is essentially a mercenary for hire, being held captive by an alien force. He’s brought into battle as the world’s most violent super-sub, and the story kicks off from there, TLDR: rip and tear.

Story is a much bigger focus in Doom: The Dark Ages than in previous titles. While the overall story is pretty thin, the main villain is utterly pantomime, which matches the Doomslayer’s energy well.

The game introduces and disposes of characters at such a rate that it’s tough to get invested. It becomes almost a metatextual comment on the Doomslayer’s own interests. There’s no way on earth Doomslayer cares about any of this stuff, so why would the player?

But like the Doomslayer, you’re paying for action, not cutscenes, and thankfully, Doom: The Dark Ages delivers it in absolute spades. The game feels utterly brilliant to play. Shooting is tight, melee is satisfying, and the Doomslayer’s shield is the most satisfying accessory to murder since Kratos’ axe in the God of War reboot series.

Since you can’t quite move like a jet fighter anymore, Doom: The Dark Ages uses enemies as your main form of movement. Players quickly acquire a shield bash, which launches them across the map towards a weak enemy, giving them both health and a way out of danger.

Glory kills have changed, too. No longer are they canned animations that take you out of the action, they’re now lightning quick, save for larger, tougher enemies which tend to get their own bespoke animations. The new suite of weapons, which calls upon classic weapons and freshens things up with some new ones, is so well balanced that there was only really one weapon in the whole wheel that I didn’t ever enjoy using.

“Players quickly acquire a shield bash, which launches them across the map towards a weak enemy, giving them both health and a way out of danger.”

Each weapon also gets a variation as you progress through the game. The game gives you these weapons in advance of a combat encounter designed for them, which is a great and effective way of encouraging player experimentation.

The game’s soundtrack is good, if not memorable. Doom soundtracks unfortunately have to sit , perhaps unfairly, in the shadow of Mick Gordon. However, Doom: The Dark Ages’ score sets the tone well, and is a fitting backdrop to the pints of blood being spilled every nanosecond.

The Dark Ages is a visual treat and performed well during my review, save for one or two hitches when larger enemies would make their debut. Crucially, the game always felt responsive, which is essential on harder difficulties, when every split second that’s wasted on slow inputs is an invitation for an enemy to blow your head off.

Where the game experiments itself is in the level design, which receives a massive upgrade with new, open levels that appear regularly throughout the 16-hour campaign. These open areas typically involve a non-linear objective, such as shutting down portals in order to stop an attack, or taking out groups of enemies across a larger area to activate something.

This is an interesting change from the corridor shooting or small arenas of the previous two games, and offers Id a chance to lay out new combat puzzles for you to battle through. I quickly found myself constantly surrounded, finally feeling like the all-conquering Doomslayer atop mountains of bodies from the classic game covers.

These are so enjoyable that a Halo Infinite-style switch to a much larger open world with segmented levels dotted around would not only be welcome in my opinion, but a logical next step. While there’s still life in corridor shooting, the open zones clearly show where the future of the series should head and where the most potential is.

“While there’s still life in corridor shooting, the open zones clearly show where the future of the series should head and where the most potential is.”

However, the other significant changes, namely the Atlan mech and the dragon sequences, will hopefully remain as one-offs. I’m conflicted by these sequences, because while they are fun, they happen exactly enough times in the game that I felt like if another were to happen, it would be too much.

The dragon flight is extremely basic dodge, dodge, shoot combat, on the back of a dragon. When your dragon successfully destroys the enemy shields, which repeat throughout the dragon sequences, you can then land, and it’s back to normal Doom. The dragon is also sequestered in specific missions and no other area of the game, which makes the whole thing feel like half-time cool down before you get back to the action.

I’m more sympathetic to the mech sections, which are shorter and sweeter. Being the huge emo Power Ranger Doomslayer is, he needs his own Megazord, and that’s essentially what the Atlan mech is. These sequences are fun, if a bit shallow, and serve as a less tedious way to break up the pace than the dragon missions.

Doom: The Dark Ages sets the series back on the right track in a typically aggressive fashion. It’s an improvement on Eternal, which swaps overbearing platforming for a much-improved melee system, and enjoyable combat puzzles.