DOOM: The Dark Ages - Review (PC)

Blast with your gun and slash with your shield, get ready demons, the Slayer is coming.

I’m going to write this review with the assumption that you, the reader, have played or are at least familiar with DOOM (2016) or DOOM Eternal (2020). If you’re not - then you may still get an understanding of what this game is all about, but this game is really building upon the gameplay that those two entries in the series have set up. I would suggest engaging with those first before moving on to this entry.

Now we have the formalities out of the way, let’s get going. DOOM: The Dark Ages is technically a prequel to those previous two entries - but let’s be honest, nobody really plays these games for the story. In fact, they often make an effort to have the Slayer ignore the story as much as possible, and just blast his way through it. There is a bit more attention paid to the narrative this time around though. The game is an origin story, telling of how the Slayer is borne from the machinations of gods and kings, and how his rage is used to their ends. It’s nothing ground-breaking, but it’s a good backdrop for all the carnage.

As it’s an origin story, this game takes place in the past - and that past is something of a medieval gothic fusion with guns and spaceships, demons and gods. If you want a visual cue, surprisingly the best example I can give is the original Unreal. You’ll be exploring castles, war-torn planets, battlefields and all sorts of scarred landscapes in your quest to destroy whatever stands in front of you.

It’s a cool looking game, but let’s talk about the mechanics. The previous two games set up some quite specific ways of playing. By the end of DOOM Eternal, the gameplay loop revolved around wearing enemies down with gunfire, chopping up smaller enemies to gain ammo, utilising your flamethrower to get some shields, and generally moving around quickly to avoid getting hit too much. It worked really well, and essentially forced you to be on the offensive to prevent getting overwhelmed.

The Dark Ages mixes it up a little by giving you a shield. Your shield can block enemy attacks, parry them, be used as a rush attack, be thrown to impale enemies, and more as the game goes on. This forces you to play a little more defensively - and I stress the ‘little’ here. Whilst it does change the tempo of the combat slightly, the game balances this by changing how the enemies work.

In previous games, you’d often reach a small area where there would be a fair amount of enemies pouring in, often bigger ones that require a bit of strategy to survive and take a lot of damage to kill. In this one, the areas are much larger, and so too are the enemy counts. This means that there are lots of enemies that can be killed very quickly - as you mow down whole hordes of demons rather than pick them off one at a time.

This new dynamic really makes you feel like you are battling through a demonic army, and it fits the medieval war setting well. I won’t spoil the game, but safe to say that along the way there are lots of new weapons, power ups, and mechanics which can change how you play and deal damage. They’ve done a great job changing the gameplay enough to make it fresh, but retaining that modern DOOM feeling which works so well.

In addition to the gameplay and the setting, there are various other new additions worth mentioning. For one, the physics system has had a bit of a boost. In lots of areas there are objects which can be blown apart piece by piece, from smaller objects like crates and barrels to whole wooden houses. This really gives those battles a sense of presence. In addition, enemies take a lot more dynamic damage - pieces of them blowing away as you take them down. It all adds up to create quite the intense sessions.

In terms of the overall presentation, the graphics are great - but it can be quite a demanding game. It’s a little harder to run than previous entries, so I’d look up some benchmarks if you aren’t sure your system could handle it. It scales well though, but you might have to temper your expectations to run this one at 4K 144fps like you may have been able too with the previous entries, as that isn’t happening.

Through the game, it offers various set-pieces and little mechanics which keep things fresh. Riding a dragon, piloting a big mech, manning a turret - just some of the examples that you discover throughout. I’m always happy when games do this, as fun as the standard gameplay loop is, breaking it up now and again does keep the game moving along much better.

I could go on and on about DOOM, but the truth is, this entry is another win. They’ve focused on what makes these modern DOOM games so great - the core gameplay. It’s fun, frantic, explosive and intense - and that’s all you really want from a DOOM game.

Rating - 4.5/5

Game key was provided by Bethesda