DOOM: Dark Ages is scheduled to come out for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/s on May 15th. It’s a single-player sandbox experience with an emphasis on exploration, gore, and upgrade skill trees, introducing large-scale mech battles and rideable cyber dragons that spit command.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is the biggest DOOM game ID software ever made, but to be perfectly clear, and perhaps to allay some fears, it’s not open world. In fact, the developer’s directive was to edit everything: controls, levels, menus, upgrade paths, etc. to emulate the reactive rush that made the original Doom games addictive. From executive producer Marty Stratton and game director Hugo Martin, Doom: Dark Ages is a sleek and thoughtful return to the series’ classic loop, set in a hellish medieval wasteland and starring a super tanky Doom Slayer. I’m doing it.
In Dark Ages, the Slayer has three basic inputs: Shield saws, brawls, guns. The Shield Saw is an important tool, allowing players to accept and block incoming attacks, and also acts as a boomerang-style projectile that can embed itself into enemies and tear through demonic flesh. Parrying is a big factor in the new game, and it’s also one of the many aspects players can customize with difficulty settings. You can resize the Parry window, adjust the actual game speed, and tweak a dozen other factors to make each run feel just right.
The Slayer has a selection of three melee weapons, and he only carries one at a time. There are iron flames, electrified gauntlets, and spiked maces, each of which can be upgraded as you make your way through hell. The last main input is the trigger that controls all the scary guns. Weapons-based atrocities are on display in the Dark Ages, such as the Skullcrusher. This includes guns that eat the bones of killed enemies and use the shrapnel as ammunition.
Certain levels support battles in skyscraper-sized Atlan, allowing the Slayer to ride on the back of a cybernetic dragon and spray flames on gathered demons. These abilities are not freely available, but are instead contained in specific areas of the map. There are also swimming levels. Speaking as someone with deep-sea phobia, this is the scariest thing about the new game.
ID software
Slayer of Doom: The Dark Ages is intense. He wears thick, heavy armor, and as he hunts demons through the medieval wastelands of Hell, he feels different than the Slayer from 2016’s Doom and its 2020 follow-up, Doom: Eternal. In terms of the development motto, fate is “run and gun”, eternity is “jump and shoot”, and dark age is “stand and fight”. Abilities like strafeing and twitchy teleportation are still on the menu, but this time the emphasis is on holding your ground and strategizing while shooting.
“What people didn’t like about 2016 was that it was so repetitive,” Martin said during a media Q&A before Thursday’s Xbox Developer Direct, where ID showed off new bits of the game. I did. “And forever, some people said it was too difficult. I actually think it’s too complicated. I think the complexity of the control scheme led to unnecessary difficulty. You really I want to fight demons and bad guys, not control them.”
Martin and Stratton emphasized the importance of streamlining Dark Age’s core loop, while at the same time building the biggest, most adventurously moving Fate game ID has ever made. There are skill trees, currency, and more secrets to find than ever before, but there’s not a lot of filler. Everything has a purpose, and there are no unnecessary frills in the mechanics of actual combat, resource gathering, or upgrade paths.
ID software
“There’s a lot of exploration in this game, and it’s for power,” Stratton said. “That’s one of the things that’s really important. You’re finding resources and other things that allow you to improve yourself, upgrade your guns, upgrade your shields, melee, etc. So it’s a secret It’s not just a toy, it’s something like that. It’s really a quest for power.”
Martin added: “I want to feel strong. It needs to be a fair amount of speed and exploration and power, but I want you to know what that power fantasy is, especially if the changes you make bring it closer to classic Doom.” It’s okay to change what’s there. I’m super down for that.”
Points of inspiration for Doom: The Dark Ages include Batman: Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight, the movie 300, and especially the iconic chase shot of Leonidas slamming and stabbing a horde of Persian warriors at a hot gate. Includes shots. Miller’s The Dark Knight was a particularly moving source for Martin.
“He portrayed an older, stronger, thicker Batman,” he said. “And I love that comic. And I always thought it would be so funny if instead of a Ferrari, you just became more of a monster truck. That’s what we’re working on. We’ve been talking about it for years.”
DOOM: Dark Ages is scheduled to launch on May 15th for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, including Game Pass.
