DOOM: The Dark Ages Review

DOOM has well and truly been back since 2016 with id Software’s brutally violent and brilliant reboot of the classic franchise. Any reservations about whether DOOM could survive in the modern day, considering how crowded and saturated the first-person shooter market was, were quickly dissolved when DOOM (2016) arrived, and did not pull its punches. Its gratuitous violence, perfectly suited soundtrack, and incredibly strong attitude combined to create a thrilling shooter experience that was far better than it had any right to be. DOOM Eternal followed, proving that id was neither done with its attitude nor its ideas. With that, we find ourselves at DOOM: The Dark Ages, a very different DOOM experience that lends itself more to old school DOOM games than modern ones. This allows it to become a stellar and unique, albeit flawed experience, earning its place among giants.

Set before the events of DOOM (2016), DOOM: The Dark Ages acts as a prequel to the reboot series that id has established since the previous console generation. The Night Sentinels are under attack from the forces of Hell and are relying on help provided by the Maykr. More specifically, Kreed Maykr, a large Maykr who holds the Doom Slayer prisoner and treats him as his own personal hitman of sorts. Regardless of the captive state of the Doom Slayer, he is still an unstoppable force of demon destruction, and it is abundantly clear that, despite being on a leash, the Maykr still immensely fear him.

Much like in DOOM Eternal, there is a larger focus on story than the franchise is accustomed to. I won’t pretend that the story is a compelling, moving tale that everyone needs to experience, but it does a good enough job of entertaining the player while also providing context for the player’s actions in the game. Where the writing does excel, however, is with the Doom Slayer himself. He’s not verbose by any stretch of the imagination, but the actions that he takes during cutscenes are, as usual, the definition of “I really don’t care.” He completely understands his purpose is to rip and tear through various demons or anyone who stands in his way. His language is destruction, and if you don’t understand that, then that’s a you problem.

Moving onto the gameplay, it comes as no surprise that this is by far the strongest point of DOOM: The Dark Ages. However, despite being narratively connected to the newer DOOM games, its gameplay is remarkably distinct from its two predecessors. Id Software realised that modern DOOM was evolving to become something quite different to the original instalments of the franchise. Looking to slow things down, id wanted to return to the bobbing and weaving between enemy projectiles that the original DOOM games were known for, akin to that of a bullet hell. The biggest change towards this gameplay style, however, is the addition of the shield. In case you were disappointed by the mediocre Captain America: Brave New World, DOOM: The Dark Ages has you covered. The Doom Slayer has a shield that he can throw around, and it will return to his hand, Captain America style, on top of using it to pummel and crush enemies. Some upgrades allow you to slice through waves of smaller enemies, too. The way the Doom Slayer effortlessly uses the shield adds to the experience so well, and it is the main vessel in which id has innovated with the gameplay in DOOM: The Dark Ages.

Simply put, the game now has a parry system and mastering it is integral to the experience. Enemies have certain attacks that will glow green instead of the standard red, denoting the ability to parry these attacks. Relying on your block too much will result in your stance being broken and being unable to use your shield in any capacity for some time. In a way, the change in combat design feels like going from Bloodborne’s hyper aggressive gameplay to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice’s deflection/parry-focused gameplay (yes I know Bloodborne had parries too but, for the sake of the argument, let us pretend it does not). It took some time for it to gel with me, because I was used to the previous games’ play style rather than waiting for specific moves to parry and counter for me to punish the demons’ move sets, which is what the game asks of you. However, once it did click with me, it became incredibly satisfying, and I would personally argue that it’s some of the best combat in the DOOM franchise. Honestly, as I write this, I find myself itching to dive back into the game and wreak havoc on some demons. The choice to diversify the gameplay of DOOM to help distinguish this title from the others was the right one. While it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, that distinction is necessary to help prevent the game from devolving into formulaic slop.

While the slight shift in gameplay is great, I can’t say that it always lands as well as it intends to, especially in its early stages. I won’t mince words, this game makes a pretty average first impression. It’s one of those cases where the gameplay only begins to shine once you have a few unlocks that allow the nuances of the combat design to show off its strengths while minimising its weaknesses. This also does not prevent its weaknesses from ever coming to  light, but rather only allows them to emerge in incredibly small sections. Largely, the game asks you to focus more on what enemies are doing and less on the environment, so field hazards can often be out of your field of view, making it easy to walk into them. These downsides, however, are the outlier rather than a regularity, but they can feel rather frustrating when presented to the player.

In order to prevent the heightened level of weapon bloat that was seen in DOOM Eternal, weapons have been consolidated into six classes which have two forms, and then a separate BFG-like weapon (I won’t say much more about this specifically for spoiler’s sake). This effectively halves the amount of individual weapons you need to select and reduces the need to use the weapon wheel that was used so much in Eternal. While I can understand being a little bummed about this because it can make the weapons feel derivative of one another when acquiring their alternate forms, ultimately, I think it was a move for the better.

By far the most disappointing part of DOOM: The Dark Ages is its soundtrack. Before I go on, let me state this: the music present in DOOM: The Dark Ages is technically fine. It’s not egregiously bad by any means, but the problem is that it rarely manages to achieve anything beyond generic metal music. Lots of very basic chord phrasings, triplet chugs, and even some blast beats that all come together to create an underwhelming and stale musical experience. Considering that Mick Gordon’s soundtracks in DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal were the perfect accompaniment to the chaotically violent and frenetic gameplay, this is a huge step-down in comparison. There are moments where it did feel like the composers [Finishing Move Inc] for this game understood the assignment and made some great tracks, but they’re few and far between. The blood-pumping soundtrack that did away with musical complexities and simply channelled your raw desire to rip and tear through hordes of demons is no longer present. What has replaced it feels like indistinct metal rather than a tailor made soundtrack. It might be worth not treating your composer like garbage and actually pay them what they are owed. Crazy notion, I know, but Mick Gordon’s iconic soundtracks were synonymous with modern DOOM and removing that cuts out the game’s heart and ultimately makes it feel less impactful in its moment-to-moment gameplay (plus Mick Gordon is a human and never deserved to be tossed around like he was). To Finishing Move’s credit, they have done a fine job at creating a soundtrack, it’s just that trying to replace a sound and style that was synonymous with the game was an impossible ask.

The music might be mostly generic and underwhelming, but the sound design is not. Id Software has always been able to create a soundscape that compliments the hellscape the Doom Slayer finds himself tearing through, and this game is no different. The sloshes that play as you step through the pools of demon blood, the thunderous tremors that play and the satisfying crunch of demon skulls – DOOM sounds as good as it always has.

Surprising absolutely no one, though, is how good this game looks. These games are known for balancing their visuals and performance excellently, and DOOM: The Dark Ages does not disappoint. The environments are dark yet rich with detail, the enemies look fantastic, and disgusting when you start ripping parts off of their bodies (in a good way). There is forced ray tracing enabled on PC, so if you don’t have a ray tracing capable graphics card you’re out of luck, unfortunately. Whether now is the right time for the industry to start requiring ray tracing is a discussion for another day. However, it is hard to argue against its use here and how it allows for the darker, more subtle lighting to really sets the tone and atmosphere.

What did surprise me is the game’s optimisation. The previous DOOM games ran incredibly well and while DOOM: The Dark Ages continues this trend, this is the largest number of bugs I have ever encountered in a DOOM game. The remarkable polish of the previous two games has not disillusioned me to the fact that bugs slip through the cracks. However, there were numerous times in this game where I had to restart from the latest checkpoint because of some kind of softlock. There were a couple of cases where I could no longer interact with anything after an encounter, and one where I went through what seemed like an endless hallway and then fell through the map into an endless void. To make matters worse for the latter issue, it also tried to teleport me back into the map constantly and assaulted my ears with overlapping sound effects. These issues I encountered were in the incredibly small minority, but I would be remiss to not mention them.

*Pre-release drivers were provided and used to review the game.