It was *gasp* nine years ago that id Software reclaimed its throne as the king of first-person shooters by offering Doom to the world. Essentially a reboot, this blend of the old with the new managed to rekindle the industry’s love for the FPS genre, which by 2016 had become a boring, featureless landscape of mediocre military shooters of the likes of Call of Duty. Sticking to its tendency to rediscover itself with every new instalment, the developer created Doom Eternal, a title that felt completely different and at the same time similar to what came before, and was a product much more than a simple sequel – it was an (r)evolution that almost rendered the rest of the competition obsolete. Still walking on that tricky path of constant change, the brave boys and girls down at Texas released what might very well be the most unique and divisive entry in the series.
Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel whose events supposedly lead to the the modern arc. It follows Doomfella’s adventures with the techno-fantasy knights known as the Sentinels during the time of a great invasion from the forces of Hell. Soldiers are being massacred in the streets by the dozen in a cut-scene that shows characters and factions that won’t make much sense to newcomers. Most importantly, the hero hasn’t been shown yet. A desperate army official, and quite honestly the most beautiful woman that has ever graced an id Software product, decides to make the call, urging someone to release…‘Him.’ Once more the intro embeds inside the subconscious of whomever is in front of the screen that the one they will soon be in control of is a force to be reckoned with. The protagonist is presented as a last resort; a dangerous weapon that needs to be constantly tethered by an energy leash. He isn’t a soldier that is simply sent to the battlefield. He is a nuclear warhead that is launched.
A beam of golden light falls on the ground like a divine spear and the demons turn their heads towards the impact zone, where an imposing warrior slowly raises his gaze. The Slayer is here, and this time he’ll go medieval on the behinds of his enemies. A slightly altered helmet, spiked shoulder pads, a badass fur cape, shotgun on his right and shield on his left. Just when you think he couldn’t get any cooler… But wait, wait, wait! A shield? In Doom?! Antithetical to most shooters, there’s a bigger emphasis on getting closer and standing your ground. Forget all about double-jumping and dashing away from harm, and prepare to block nail, tooth, steel and hellfire, and retaliate with a point black blast from a shotgun or a blow by a flail.
The change will alienate many, yet while radically different, The Dark Ages retains the core aspect of Doom and Eternal, with resource management once again tied to constantly being on the offensive. The new combat loop revolves around parrying with the aptly named Shield Saw. Every monster has at least one green flashing ‘Hell Surge’ attack. Parried at the correct time sends projectiles back, or leaves the attacker in a dazed state, creating an opening to unleash a counterstrike. Was it mentioned that the shield can be thrown and return to the Slayer? Yup, it can be thrown and return to the Slayer. Using this oh-so-awesome tool is…well, awesome. It’s also non-optional. This is the one thing that will make or break the experience for many, as almost everything is built around it. Thankfully, battles are exhilarating.
The Slayer jumps from up above and his weight creates an earthquake. He nails an Imp to the wall with the Impaler (pun not intended) and opens a big hole on a mechanical spider nightmare with the Super Shotgun. A shield toss wipes out a group that is caught in the shockwave, and it returns in time to parry a blow from a leaping Hell Knight. Vengeance comes upon the beast in the form of a three-hit combo punch courtesy of an iron gauntlet, spilling its guts as well as resources. It’s a smooth, gory, ferocious dance. If you ever wanted to feel like Leonidas from 300 with high-tech power armour, this is as close as it gets. Additionally, everything from the weapons to your very steps, has an almost tangible weight, and while Doom: The Dark Ages has been described as a much slower affair, that couldn’t be further from the truth, as slower than Eternal doesn’t translate to slow. Instead of a super-swift angel of death, you are a heavy wrecking ball – less agile, but steel fast.
id Software has taken many risks by trying to innovate. A lot of them don’t really pay off; the omission of weak points and the semi-disappearance of the Glory Kills being notable examples. Other ideas are welcome. Similar to how Eternal finally made the pistol disappear, this kills an even more sacred cow by removing the chainsaw, with health, armour and ammo drops now being the direct result of all the killing – and that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, what is the longest campaign in the series is also one filled with large, semi-open maps that are mostly barren plains – epic in scale and stunningly beautiful at times, but they don’t really stand out from each other due to their similar structure. All this severely mars the pacing of an otherwise stellar, immersive adventure.
Doom: The Dark Ages is one more smooth-running beauty with some fantastic sound and music, but like everything else about it, it’s the least impressive of the trilogy. Take the art design. While splendid, it often forgets to take advantage of the medieval fantasy setting, and although the look of the enemy roster can be excellent (like the return of the classic imp), it’s often just…there. An integral part of the experience, the soundtrack is terrific and at the same time a major letdown. While there are many adrenaline-pumping bangers full of heavy drums and chunky guitar riffs, as well some less bombastic, deeply atmospheric tunes, most of Finishing Move’s creations are a few steps behind greatness, with many amongst them kind of sounding the same. Their implementation is also a bit of a mixed bag, as many of the more subdued melodies frequently get drowned by the much stronger sound effects. Even worse, you’ll often find yourself in levels where music kind of disappears or is basically replaced with generic, droning ambience.
Combat still remains the saving grace of Doom: The Dark Ages. It has some issues of its own, though, mostly because it leans too much into the block-parry-counterattack formula, something that in turn removes the need to think of each enemy as a different kind of problem that requires alternative tactics. Thankfully, special encounters frequently make an appearance. They don’t completely fix things, but they manage to spice things up, and reward the Slayer with some nice upgrades – of which there are many, by the way. These provide the incentive to explore for the necessary “ingredients,” which then let you customise your own personal hellspawn-killing machine. An area that could be completely absent? The terrible on-rails sections where the Slayer gets to pilot a giant mech or ride a cyber-dragon. Punching the goofy-looking hell titans and chasing down enemies with a flying fire-breathing beast is cool for about a minute or so, but these parts are like the obligatory vehicle sections of older shooters. Thankfully, they are rare intermissions, rather than big parts of the campaign.
Story and presentation seem to be extremely important aspects this time, with the number of cut-scenes surpassing the entirety of the franchise combined. This is also the most inconsistent part. At its worse, the narrative is needlessly bloated, and expects caring for events and characters that are introduced, but not really given much time to develop. It goes full Hollywood, with some of the things that happen making Eternal look subtle. After the elegant minimalism of Doom 2016, the central philosophy now seems to be to always go bigger. The rule of cool eclipses almost everything else, and while that offers some truly marvellous scenes, spectacle is generally valued more than good storytelling. At its best, The Dark Ages focuses on the main star of the show, and it is a joy seeing him interact with the cast. Everyone from his allies to his more-than-decent villain treat him like a mythical figure, with the aura immediately changing whenever he makes an entrance. These can’t hold a candle to a handful of very intense, emotive moments where players are finally shown the Slayer’s humanity, making the one controlling the action empathise and connect with him. More of this, please!
This piece of software is the result of id Software experimenting rather than resting and simply giving a medieval reskin to Doom. Sure, it may very well be even more divisive than Doom Eternal due to its focus on defence and a story that tries to get a bit closer to the spotlight than it needs to (and not that gracefully), but at the same time The Dark Ages retains its deep combat mechanics and high skill ceiling, while also offering a variety of accessibility options and difficulty sliders for pretty much all aspects of the gameplay. It deviates a lot from the standard recipe, but it is also the one entry that is supposed to. At the end of the day, this is an extremely entertaining ride with most of its flaws not being flaws per se – it is simply in the awkward position of being the follow-up to some of the best titles in the world of first-person shooters. Its biggest enemy is its own self.
