DOOM: The Dark Ages was provided by Bethesda for review. Thank you!
When it comes to intense, first-person boomer shooters, it's hard to deny the groundbreaking work of DOOM. The series has come a long way from its 1993 roots, and now, the newest iteration of the shooter is here with DOOM: The Dark Ages. I was curious how id Software would follow up on the fantastic DOOM Eternal, and I found a familiar surprise of mechanics that brought me back to the good ol' days of DOOM, but with a twist.
The intense, gory, boomer shooter DNA is still alive and well here, and it's still just as addicting to blast through as it has been throughout the previous entries. Running around and demolishing demons feels so fulfilling, as it always has. There's something very satisfying about watching blood fly out when using the newly introduced weapons like the Shredder and Accelerator, and also blasting off entire chunks of their bodies with the old reliable Super Shotgun.
Even though I had favorite weapons, like the Ravager, each one had different uses that encouraged me to switch between them. The Super Shotgun for massive damage against bigger enemies, the Accelerator to deal with energy shields, the Shredder to deal with metal shields, the Chainshot for quickly dealing with Armor, and the Rocket Launcher is great for getting rid of bigger groups of grunts and dealing solid damage to the big guys.
We also have different melee weapons, which can give us extra health or armor, deal different amounts of damage, and always give us more ammo for our weapons. Melee weapons have charges and limited uses, but combined with our shield, there's always a way to demolish our foes in front of us, even when we run out of ammo.
Switching between weapons is a bit slow though, so making sure you're moving is essential. It's like that in every DOOM game, but with The Dark Ages, it's all about horizontal movement. Unlike DOOM: Eternal, the movement feels like the original games, where you stick mostly to the ground with minimal opportunity to be in the air. There's no air-dashing, no flinging yourself in the air, and no double jumping, just quick movements back and forth. You can sprint to move faster, but you'll primarily stick to the ground with some jumping over projectiles. I much preferred this style of movement over dashing through the air.
If you've played DOOM 2016 or DOOM: Eternal, you should have a general idea of what to expect gameplay-wise, and you will not be disappointed in the slightest. The chaos and gore you know and love have returned, and it still feels as bloody good as ever. I wish we had some more brutal finishers, but it doesn't take away from the ones there, and it is enjoyable to see demons be ripped apart either by our guns or the numerous melee weapons we can use. However, there are some changes to keep things fresh.
The biggest modification to this formula comes in the form of your shield, which has a multitude of uses. You can block projectiles this way, but you can also parry attacks and some projectiles, throw your shield to slice through foes or stun them, and bash into enemies from further away. It adds a new method of taking down enemies, and it's so much fun. It leads to a bunch of new ways to demolish tons of enemies in front of you, like throwing your shield to explode demons with heated up metal shields or bashing into grunts to explode all of them around you, and it leads to some pretty intense, wonderfully chaotic moments of shooting, switching guns, and taking out the shield to parry and bash.
However, there's one part of the shield mechanics I do not like. There are some enemies and bosses that can completely get rid of the need for movement. I stopped in my tracks, deflecting projectiles or parrying, focusing more on that over moving around. It led me to a couple of deaths, but I felt like some boss battles took movement out of the equation entirely in favor of utilizing the shield's parrying. It didn't happen often, but I found myself focusing less on it during certain fights.
Luckily, the upgrades and progression systems make using the guns you pick up even more worthwhile. Each of the 22 chapters has specific items and secrets you can get. These include Gold, Rubies, and Wraithstones, which are used to upgrade your gear at shrines. Each weapon has 3-4 upgrades, along with the Shield and Melee weapons having individual upgrades. The upgrades can range from dealing more damage or increasing fire rate to giving special abilities like overcharging your Accelerator to let out a burst of energy and deal massive damage. One of my favorites is with the Shredder, where if you throw your shield at a big enemy and stun them, you can shoot with the Shredder, and bullets will reflect and hurt others around you.
I had a ton of fun running through the chapters and completing challenges and puzzles to find all the secrets. They all appear on your map, so you can find where they are, but there's still some challenge in figuring out how to get them. It felt satisfying to run through the levels and find everything, and even though I was curious to see what would happen next in the story, I still found myself running around to find a new weapon skin, a random toy, or codex pages.
Some parts of certain chapters also have different gameplay mechanics, like flying around on a dragon or controlling a giant mech. They are much simpler to control, with mechs only having dodging and punching/shooting, while dragons can fly and dodge, but they are nice ways to break up the usual running and gunning. I never felt tired of regular gameplay and needed a break, but it's still a nice option, even if they are a bit on the simple side.
I was also a bit surprised by how open some of these chapters are. While some are more on the linear side, the bulk of them are more open, where you will run around in a larger area to kill everyone or find secrets. It made the game feel longer in general, which I appreciated, and there was still a good amount of enemies to kill to keep me satisfied.
While DOOM: The Dark Ages has a story, and it's interesting, it's also not something to write home about. It's a prequel to the previous two games, depicting our protagonist bound into slavery by the Maykrs to repel the demons from Hell. It does enough to tell an intriguing story, and it's nice seeing some characters like King Novik make a return, but I wasn't blown away. The story isn't deep or has meaningful motives behind it, nor are there any surprising twists, but it does the job to justify why we are slaying all the demons we can find.
I also love the darker, gothic theme for The Dark Ages. It feels like a mix between futuristic and medieval styles, with a sprinkle of magic here and there. The world looks hauntingly beautiful, and even in lower graphical settings, I was amazed by some of the details. The demons look gruesome, the weapons are gorgeously designed, and combined with the fantastic heavy-metal soundtrack, I had a grand time and felt more pumped up the longer I played.
I enjoyed the game so much that it made me wish there was more to do. You can go back to each chapter at will and find missing secrets and Gold, but there isn't much else to do outside of that. I liked reading the Codex pages and finding weapon skins, but I would have loved to have more reason to go back and play more, going through on a higher difficulty, or finding all the secrets. The gameplay loop is addicting, and I would take any chance to dive back in and play more, but outside of the campaign, there wasn't much.
Unfortunately, I was not able to test DOOM: The Dark Ages on the Steam Deck. I ran into a bug when I did that, which would crash the game. I believe this is possibly a pre-release issue, so I will make sure to test it again once it has been fully released to everyone.
Luckily, there are a ton of different settings in DOOM: The Dark Ages to toggle. There's an accessibility tab with options for environmental screen shake, whether the shield throw seeks enemies, weapon bobbing, aim assist, HUD and font scale, high contrast mode for the UI, and subtitles. We can also customize the colors of everything on screen, quick switch style, different visual effects, auto sprinting, volume control, camera controls, and rebind inputs.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is a fantastic next step for the franchise and a nice return to its roots. The horizontal-movement focus is easier to wrap my head around, and with a great assortment of weapons and the new shield, there were so many chaotic and destructive moments that I always found myself having a great time in the beautiful world. There were some moments when the shield would disrupt the flow of my movement, and there wasn't much to do outside of completing the campaign and collecting the secrets, but it's hard not to recommend the game just based on its addictive and refined gunplay.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is a wonderful entry in the franchise that takes some steps backwards that I very much appreciated.
