Doom: The Dark Ages
MSRP $70.00
“Doom: The Dark Ages has plenty of thrills, but it could stand to take its foot off the gas.”
Pros
Doom Slayer will get his due
Excellent fight
Intricate stage design
Looks implausible
Cons
Convoluted lore story
Underwhelming mech and dragon missions
Dynamically flat motion all through
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Year One
Primal violence
Bigger doesn’t imply higher
Just a number of missions into Doom: The Dark Ages, I felt like I’d reached the apex of motion video games. There I used to be behind the controls of an unlimited Atlan mech, eclipsing the form of battleground that felt monumental to me moments earlier than. The sky above me was scorched. Buildings turned to ruins below my ft. One by one, a military of demonic kaiju ate my metallic fists. How can it get any greater and badder than this?
It doesn’t — and that’s each the present and curse of the Doom Slayer’s newest saga.
In an try to 1 up the already hellacious shooter sequence, one which reached new adrenaline highs in 2020’s Doom: Eternal, developer Id Software turns each dial as much as 11 from proper Chapter 1. The battles are quicker and extra ferocious. Hidden lore turns into glitzy cutscenes. Our hero rides a mechadragon, for God’s sake. Every single piece of it’s an train in maximalist escalation, looking for a ceiling to a timeless shooter hyper violent glory. It reaches that top, however comes up in opposition to a tough fact: There’s nothing left to climb when you’ve reached the highest.
Doom: The Dark Ages delivers one other dose of dependable thrills by constructing on the inspiration established by its wonderful predecessors. The energy fantasy of all of it is stronger than ever, however Id Software’s experiment in extra proves that there’s such a factor as “too much” in terms of online game spectacle.
Year One
Rather than selecting up the place Eternal left off, The Dark Ages is a prequel to Id Software’s rebooted Doom sequence. It acts as a Doom Slayer origin story that attracts inspiration from Batman: Year One, Frank Miller’s gritty story about The Dark Knight’s first yr on the job. That strategy lays the groundwork for essentially the most narrative-focused Doom recreation up to now, full with huge cutscenes. It’s analogous to the leap from Metroid Prime to Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The latter constructed on Retro Studio’s famously atmospheric journey by ratcheting up the lore and introducing a big solid of characters to ship all of it in dialogue. The Dark Ages does the identical for Doom with combined outcomes.
ID Software
The concept is that all of it takes place in Doom’s personal medieval period, the place people combat a conflict in opposition to demons with crossbows, flails, and — you guessed it — shotguns. It’s a enjoyable sufficient gimmick that permits Id Software to think about extra primitive variations of traditional weapons, however the story below that schtick is Doom’s most incomprehensible chapter up to now. New characters who’re by no means correctly launched spend cinematics rattling off correct nouns that by no means actually imply something to me. Some huge cash went into making a story that roughly simply boils right down to “There’s a war happening between humans and demons.”
More profitable is its characterization of the Doom Slayer. While earlier installments paint him as an omnipotent killer who’s at all times in management, he’s initially a device right here. The origin story entails him being decreased to a residing weapon whose character is galvanized out of his physique as a way to give him a one-track thoughts that’s hyper centered on demon killing. It’s a intelligent meta twist that turns the character’s normally skinny persona and turns it right into a supply of ache that drives him down a extra layered path of revenge and destruction. A couple of key sequences that present his humanity minimize via an in any other case convoluted phrase soup.
The Dark Ages goes full Hollywood …
I can perceive the intuition right here. Doom has at all times been a type of deceptively deep sequence. To the common participant, it would seem to be there’s not far more to it than weapons and guts. Deep followers will let you know that there’s far more beneath the floor, and The Dark Ages feels prefer it’s constructed to lastly reward that viewers. In delivering that, Id loses one thing particular concerning the sequence. There’s a sure mystique to previous video games that have been gentle on in-game story. They have been typically sparse and atmospheric, leaving gamers’ imaginations to fill the unfavourable house. Only essentially the most devoted followers would crawl down the rabbit gap, discovering secret lore hidden away in books or cassette tapes. Those scattered tidbits gave video games like Doom a way of hidden historical past, turning followers into archivists who might commerce their findings with each other.
The greater Doom will get, the smaller its world truly feels. Wet concrete seeps into each hole, making a solidified report of historical past that’s the identical for each participant. Even the little particulars are enshrined in in-game Codex entries. 2016’s Doom reboot discovered a cheerful medium, retaining a sparse and smooth story whereas nonetheless increasing the lore. The Dark Ages goes full Hollywood and feels rather less particular for it.
Primal violence
The expanded scope is detrimental to areas of The Dark Ages, but it surely does wonders for its core motion. If Eternal was all about showcasing the Doom Slayer’s agility, this installment is all about energy. The fundamentals of taking pictures stay the identical from the 2016 reboot. I rip and tear via enemies with an arsenal of outsized weapons, no reloading required. Battles are fast-paced and heavy, requiring me to continually keep on the transfer whereas additionally remaining within the warmth of battle as a way to refill my well being via gory finishers. Anytime my finger isn’t urgent down the set off, I’m losing my time.
The Dark Ages nonetheless does all that whereas layering in a wealth of latest methods that make for the sequence’ most concerned fight system but. First, there’s my trusty Shield Saw. I can toss it like Captain America’s defend to chop via weak enemies or maintain it regular to parry incoming assaults. The latter is very impactful because it provides me much more confidence to face tall within the heart of the motion as an alternative of operating for canopy. Performing an ideal parry may even set off my chosen Shield Rune, which punishes any enemy who dares to lash out at me. My rune of alternative was a shoulder turret that may activate on every block, letting me spray extra lead out as an act of vengeance.
It’s a primal form of violence.
Similarly, there’s a higher emphasis on melee assaults this time too. By the tip of the marketing campaign, I’m capable of equip certainly one of three melee weapons: gauntlets, a flail, or a spiked mace. Each one has its personal pace and energy, however every simply permits me to chip armor off of enemies and get a few of my very own for the difficulty. It’s one other incentive to rise up shut and private, doling out three-hit combos to buff up defenses whereas leaving my enemies defenseless. Systems like that efficiently construct on Eternal’s puzzle-like fight, which was constructed round utilizing the best transfer to high off the best useful resource. The solely distinction is that I’m much more of a menace.
Those new concepts pair properly with The Dark Ages new weapons, which ratchet the chaos up much more. Some of them are your common Doom weapons, from Super Shotguns to plasma rifles. Each weapon has two modes that may be swapped between on the fly and every has its personal small improve tree. The finest weapons within the batch are the Slayer’s new medieval-flavored instruments, which actually repay the absurdity of the setting. One primitive device throws a cranium right into a grinder and shoots the shards out in a large unfold. My private favourite is a ball and chain that may be charged up, fired, and retracted. It feels extremely {powerful} and just a bit slapstick because it bonks demons. That’s precisely the form of power I search for in fashionable Doom video games.
ID Software
What’s spectacular is simply how pure the juggling act of all these methods involves me, one other certainly one of Eternal’s strengths that’s retained right here. Every button has a transparent use on the management scheme and I’m by no means left confused about what to press and when — the one exception to that’s the radial weapon wheel, which stays a slipshod method to swap between weapons on the fly. When I’m locked into an enviornment battle, fight turns into balletic. I toss my defend to 1 aspect to chop down some dregs and switch to fireplace a rocket. My defend returns to me simply in time to parry an incoming assault, telegraphed with a inexperienced cue. I comply with it up with a number of flail hits after which a bloody finisher. All of this occurs in a single clean movement, like I’m executing actions in a dance (a set of nice accessibility options helps be certain that extra gamers can discover that very same stream for themselves, too).
I don’t actually recognize how second nature all of it is to me till I discover myself dropped right into a entice. After getting a collectible, I fall right into a darkish, slender hallway that’s filled with melee recharge gadgets. Soon, a wave of enemies comes flooding in the direction of me and I’ve to assume quick to dam their assaults and counter with fast photographs. The motion on display screen virtually turns into abstracted, filled with flashing colours like a Norman McLaren animation. I don’t miss a beat, hitting all of my strikes working off inexperienced and purple streaks alone. Moments like which can be the place The Dark Ages clicks most, placing the Doom Slayer’s instincts in my very own head. You actually begin to perceive why this man likes killing demons a lot. It’s a primal form of violence.
Bigger doesn’t imply higher
With motion that sturdy, The Dark Ages needs to be the very best entry within the trilogy. After all, it checks all the proper packing containers. It’s a technical powerhouse, crammed with spectacular visuals that create an unlimited sense of scale, all whereas sustaining a clean 60 frames per second. Id’s stage design is at its finest right here, too. Chapters take me from hellish corridors to an open battlefield the place I perform a siege in opposition to waves of demons. Each house is meticulously detailed and crammed with well-hidden secrets and techniques that discover methods to make use of my defend as an environmental puzzle device. The audio design is as loud and proud as ever, with gunshots and steel music combining into one ruthless symphony of destruction. The story is longer, has a bit of additional selection, and threads in loads of epic set items.
So why wasn’t I practically as thrilled with it as I used to be by 2016’s Doom?
Id Software has described The Dark Ages as a return to the sequence roots, but it surely couldn’t really feel farther from them.
The Dark Ages is emblematic of a recurring situation in big-budget franchise online game design. The intuition is to at all times go greater every time. How do you high Monster Hunter World? More weapons, creepier monsters, bigger environments. It’s all about escalation, whether or not via gameplay iteration or technical prowess. That’s the highest precedence right here, but it surely’s a self-defeating strategy that turns The Dark Ages into essentially the most inelegant and meandering recreation of the trilogy.
The scope enhance isn’t with out some creativity, thoughts you. In addition to plain first-person taking pictures ranges, The Dark Ages additionally options chapters which have the Doom Slayer piloting mechs and dragons. Both are enjoyable concepts that really feel like a teenage boy’s coolest desires come to life, however neither are precisely as thrilling as they sound. The first mech chapter is awe-inspiring, however the precise fight methods aren’t terribly deep. I’m largely simply hitting my proper set off to slowly punch out kaiju sufficient to fill a particular meter. It will get previous quick. The thrill of dragon flying is equally short-lived, as I’m largely taking down ship after ship by finishing a dodging minigame. Both gimmicks look very totally different and make for welcome method diversions, however they boil right down to the identical one-note duck and counter gameplay hook.
What’s particularly unusual is the place these chapters match into the story. The Dark Ages doesn’t save both of them for some huge, climactic second. Both first happen again to again early within the run of 22 missions. That choice signifies that the size climbs to unimaginable heights by Chapter 6 after which has nowhere else to go. With no sense of mounting development, The Dark Ages is dynamically flat for many of its run time. An epic siege in a essential early chapters feels no totally different than a random enviornment battle in a lower-stakes transitional stage later. The pleasure turns to monotony as soon as the identical explore-and-shoot method is repeated time and again throughout 45-minute chapters that shuffle the identical enemies into totally different arenas. It’s no coincidence that 2016’s Doom is each the very best and shortest of the trilogy. The Dark Ages is twice its size with out truly including a lot.
Bethesda
But hey, that’s simply Doom, proper? Of course each dial goes to be cranked up so far as it might go. The aim is to create a continuous adrenaline experience that doesn’t take its foot off the gasoline, isn’t it? Excess is the enchantment.
Is that truly true although? My intuition is to say that The Dark Ages is the logical development for the sequence, absolutely realizing its maximalist potential. It sounds proper in my head, however I don’t assume that it truly is. I wouldn’t describe 1993’s Doom as extreme. Perhaps it was for the time, however its timeless enchantment comes from its elegant minimalism. Walk via hallways, discover coloured keycards, shoot demons. It’s the shooter’s model of Pong, boiling the complexity of the style right down to its essence. 2016’s reboot labored as a result of it carried the identical power, rejecting open-world developments of the time to create a centered, linear journey fueled by atmospheric storytelling and heavy steel. Id Software has described The Dark Ages as a return to the sequence roots, but it surely couldn’t really feel farther from them. If something, it appears like extra of a cousin to the bloated God of War Ragnarok.
I don’t assume any of this may cease gamers from having the time of their life blasting via demons. As essential as I’m of The Dark Ages’ design philosophy, I nonetheless spent hour after hour poking round its intricate ranges and mastering its stellar fight. I could have tuned out the story greater than I anticipated, however my jaw wasn’t proof against dropping after I needed to blast an approaching large with an explosive turret. Even with its faults, that is nonetheless a bonafide blockbuster by a studio that is aware of dish them out higher than anybody. It simply feels just like the pedal is as far in opposition to the steel as it might go. Doom: The Dark Ages begins cruising at 100 miles per hour and by no means pumps the brakes. That’s completely fantastic for a joyride, however you want acceleration to actually recognize pace.
Doom: The Dark Ages was examined on PlayStation 5 Pro.