DOOM: The Dark Ages - Review

Videogames have been going strong for almost 50 years now and in that time, there are maybe a few dozen titles that exist outside of the gaming space and DOOM is one such game. It has been a little over 5 years since DOOM Eternal released and now the team are back with a brand-new game, so does The Dark Ages keep things moving forward, or have we taken a turn into a darker time?

While DOOM: The Dark Ages is a prequel to the two recent games, you won’t need to have played them, as this is a self-contained story. When the game starts, the demons have already been invading for a while and the Slayer has been, slaying at the same time. The catch is that the power that the Slayer wields is so strong, those in power were afraid that he would be uncontrollable, so a leash was attached. Leading the forces of Hell is Prince Ahzrak, he does so in a quest for the Heart of Argent, a relic of untold power that will give him a chance to become the new ruler of Hell. Fighting agist Ahzrak is King Novik, a character that is returning from DOOM Eternal, but his role here is more leader than voice telling you off. Novik is the king of Argent D’Nur and with his leadership, they are fighting as best they can and while Novik understands the support that the Slayer can offer, he is also very hesitant to accept it.

There is a much richer story on offer here than we have ever had in a DOOM game before, thanks in part to the cutscenes, but also the variety of characters. In the two previous entries, most characters were voices on a radio and while effective, it meant you could ignore them where possible, cutscenes are harder to do avoid. I would love to say more on the story, but there are a few twists that I don’t want to spoil, I will however say this, it feels like it is missing parts. Not like a character just vanishes and is never spoken of, but there are times when a level might end with a cutscene and the next one begins without seemingly any connection to past events. If it was one time, then I could overlook it, but it happened a few times and while it is easy enough to guess what happened, it feels weird to have proper story cutscenes for the first time and not connect them properly.

Something that is done quite properly is the gameplay, I said in my preview earlier in the year that the gameplay feels the same, but also not and I stand by that. What I mean is that the gunplay is still as fast and chaotic as ever, and when fights kick into gear, you will feel like you are on the edge of your seat. What is new is the shield, which could have been just a way to stave off taking some hits, but its worked into the game in far more important ways. You can of course use it to take hits, which when the action kicks in you will, but when the more powerful enemies shoot their larger attacks called Hell Charge, that are green, you can deflect them back. This deflection does a little damage to them and later on in the game when your shield has rune potential, you can add modifiers like lighting or earthquakes, in order to catch more foes in it. There are a number of foes that are too large for a single shield reflection to hurt, but when those appear standing your ground is key.

It feels weird to say in a DOOM game, that you have to stand and fight, but those times bring the action back to just you and the enemy in front of you. There are some foes that will leap at you if you try to keep your distance, but most will erect a shield to keep your ranged weapons from making a dent. I honestly found these fights to be great, because it requires you to parry the hell charge attacks, but also keep pressing your attack. But these fights are not just one on one, you still have to take the other enemies into consideration, because they won’t stop while you focus. When you consider that you have to focus on one massive enemy, but also everyone else around you, it feels like has unleashed pure chaos, but also amazing at the same time.

The other new additions are vehicles, well not in the four-wheel sense, but you get a dragon and a mech suit. The dragon is the one addition I wanted to see more of, because in my preview it was just one section and after spending more time on it, I am happy with out it plays. While I assumed that the stages with the dragon would few and far between, I was surprised when one stage, which played like normal transitioned into a flying stage. Being able to chase down enemy ships, while dodging fire and hazards in the world, its quite a fun and while I wouldn’t want DOOM Kart with it, a standalone flying based game would be fun. The mech suit is probably the weakest of the gameplay types, if only because all you do is punch, dodge and then repeat until the game provides you with a gun. Those guns are used for a single reason and once that moment has passed, the gun is gone and you are back to punching and dodging. They are much slower in terms of pacing, so they do work as a palette cleanser, but that is about it.

Now, the other major addition is the levels themselves, which have dropped the linear nature and expanded into play spaces, at least sometimes. You will still get levels that tend to drive you towards your objective and those are fine and still full of secrets, but the play spaces are just a treat. These spaces will have you cris-crossing them like you are trying to weaving a blanket or something. There were times when I would find a locked door, to which the key or lever was elsewhere and getting to that required bashing a wall, kicking a crate and just parkouring like Michael Scott. What really sold me on these locations is just the sheer number of hidden alcoves, paths and pockets there were to discover. Some of them would contain a few bits of gold, others might be a ruby, both of which are used for upgrades, more on those in a bit. My only complain to these levels is that sometimes the amount of open space and the samey-ness to the look can make it hard to keep track of where you are, or where things are you are looking for. The map does track things you have found, but not collected, but there is no way to place down your own markers.

The final aspect of the gameplay is the upgrades, now this is nothing new as both prior games had something similar, but the manner in how they are done is different. The first few upgrades for your guns, shield and melee options are done with gold, but then you need a ruby or two for some higher tiers. The highest upgrades require wraithstones, which are the most challenging to locate, but offer the biggest impact. Those are gear upgrades, character upgrades are done by taking down selected enemies in the game. Some of them are on the main path, but there are a decent number of them that require you to find them and take them down. It isn’t just finding them and killing them, you might have to break their morale first or survive an onslaught until they appear. If the enemy has a blue or green icon above their head, then you get an armour or health upgrade. Yellow is the tricky one as it seems to be random ammo carry capacity, you could be rewarded with more shell space, or something else.

Something else is a term that can be applied to the games presentation, because is truly something else. I knew that the game would look nice, the studio has some very talented artists and technicians after all, but everything is polished to such a degree, that it was hard to spot problems. The other recent games were very much focused on the world and the enemies within them, characters when present were quite a bit rough and that is ok. The characters here are detailed in fun ways, one character has some wicked scars and it isn’t just the humans, Ahzrak and his minions, along with the Maykr all look wonderful. There is even a fun little moment where the Slayer has their helmet taken off and it’s a fun moment, not only because seeing the face is rare, but because they look good.

It isn’t just the characters, each location is a treat and yes, those open spaces are fun to discover, because of the amount of detail hidden within them. There are ruined forest to run through, ancient fortresses to fly over and hell to redecorate. Each location looks good, but as I said earlier, there are some open spaces that do look a little to samey at times, but as there are a lot of levels, you get a good amount of variety. One pretty amazing location is that of the Chaos Realm, which as the name implies does things a little differently.  I won’t spoil why I like it, but you can find details online about it. In all honestly, apart from some minor clipping of armour when a character moves, the only visual issue I encountered was the light flickering when I moved along a wall. I went to go record it, to show folks what was going on and I am not kidding, it stopped and I could not get it to trigger again.

Of course, while DOOM is known for blasting demons, the more recent games were all about the music by Mick Gordon. Now we know that both sides had a falling out, which meant that someone else had to take on the challenge of creating new music for the game. Composer group Finishing Move Inc. were tapped this time and they did a really, really nice job with it. Now I will freely admit that the music in the games is not the kind of thing I would normally listen to, but in context of the game it works. The music works best when it works in tandem with the action on screen and while I opted to lower the default volume there was no single piece that I hated hearing. The voice work, because yes there is voice work, is quite good, there are some voices that felt matched with their characters and a few that didn’t. The audial side of things was perhaps the most important for the studio to get right, the first two games got a massive boost, thanks to that soundtrack and while it doesn’t quite reach the same heights, it is still damn good.

It is three for three with DOOM: The Dark Ages, as id Software have delivered yet again. Delivered may not be the right term, exceeded all expectations is perhaps a better choice, because just when you think it can’t go bigger, it does. The gunplay is just as satisfying here as it was in the past games, but the fun of more melee options and more antique weapons keeps things fresh. The shield is an incredible addition because it honestly adds so much to the game and with the accessibility options, it can tuned to suit your preference. DOOM: The Dark Ages is just damn good, from the opening moments until the credits roll and you should play it as soon as you can.

The Score

9.5

Review code provided by Bethesda

The Pros

The gameplay is the star, with fantastic guns, great melee options and a shield that changes the game in big ways

The story is enriched thanks to some wonderful cutscenes…

The Cons

…but you will get the feeling that some scenes are missing and it feels odd

The open play spaces are great, but there are a few where getting turned around is very likely