Few people predicted the triumphant return of DOOM in 2016. Bethesda was unwilling to have games reviewed before launch. The overwhelming feeling was that the game wouldn't be as good as they had hoped from DOOM, with the prior multiplayer beta underwhelming players. Needless to say, DOOM was great, DOOM Eternal, which I reviewed, was also great, and now we have DOOM: The Dark Ages.
Or, at least, we will have DOOM: The Dark Ages. I recently got hands-on experience with the first level of the game and the first portion of the second. Then, parts of two later levels, before an even later - open - level, for a chunk of time. Essentially, ID Software and Bethesda wanted me and others at the event in Frankfurt to have a feel for what the game will offer and its variety.
Now, I'm working on memory here, but something that I wasn't a massive fan of in DOOM Eternal, in retrospect, was that it had gone quite platform-heavy in some areas. Not enough that I expected an Italian plumber to show up, but maybe a Gecko dressed like a spy. Somebody at ID Software must have agreed because this has been toned back significantly, though the verticality isn't lost from what I have seen here.
No, the first level I could play feels like DOOM as we know it. The maps are large; you have several secrets to find if you choose to, and little bits of exploration may also net you extra health and armour. This is in between moving from one arena, where you kill hordes of enemies, to the corridors in between until you reach the next arena. So far, so DOOM. It's what you would expect, too, and my initial impression is that it brings the tight combat from DOOM Eternal to the tighter design of DOOM 2016.
That will be until you explore some of the newer things in DOOM: The Dark Ages. So, to put it quite simply, I could play parts of, not all, two different levels. You are essentially riding a DOOM Guy Gundam in the first of these two. The second, you get to fly a dragon with mecha wings and guns. Now, DOOMdam, as I will now call it, feels similar enough to other levels. It's just that you're now a big machine. You get to punch the hell out of Titans, sometimes shoot them, and there is a sense of scale due to the surrounding combat. I don't know how impactful it will feel over time, but it offered something different while still feeling like the DOOM we know.
The dragon, however, I'm not entirely as sold on. Now, when I get more time with it, I could be blown out of the water - it needs to be remembered that I played part of a level. The initial rush of zooming out of a cave system on the back of a dragon is pretty impressive. Particularly so, when you see the level of devastation happening, you will be there, fighting off giant hell-ships, and the sense of scale is awe-inspiring, even at first glance.
This isn't a case of more artificial corridors moving from ship to ship. You will fly around, and there are extra things to defeat and paths to find before you weaken a ship's defences enough to land on it and deal the finishing blow. Of course, the last part is done on foot, and you go around areas bigger than just the ship as it has crashed into the city below. All of that was good. I wasn't enthralled by the combat on the dragon itself, if only because, once locked on, the controls felt a little too rigid. It's an area I am looking forward to exploring more.
Understandably, ID Software knew DOOM: The Dark Ages would shine in a later area they had us play, giving us an hour to do what we wanted. This massive battlefield was far more open than what you generally get in a DOOM title. Some trappings remained, in that you have arenas to encounter and loads of secrets to find via some exploration, but it never felt constrained by the usual corridors you come to expect. While still somewhat driven, it offered a bit of an open feel, where you could maybe find yourself at odds in one area, decide to tackle somewhere else and rearm before coming back.
Combine this more open approach with the excellent fast-paced combat from DOOM Eternal, where you will be finishing off enemies to have extra life and ammo fall out of their bodies, combos and well-timed attacks being rewarded with more to keep you going, and you have a recipe for greatness. It's even better to use new weapons, like the shield saw, in an enjoyable combination of attacks that makes you feel like the DOOM Slayer in overdrive.
I am also intrigued by the narrative of DOOM: The Dark Ages. This is an entirely single-player-focused title, and I am all on board with that. I have zero interest in multiplayer; anybody who knows me knows that my time on this planet has been one of ensuring humans keep as far away from my fun as possible. This focus on single-player also means that resources haven't been diverted, and there's no need to start balancing guns, melee weapons, or any other nonsense about how they work around other people. No, this is about the DOOM Slayer, his time before DOOM, and the medieval-ish world he came from.
DOOM: The Dark Ages will be released on May 13th, 2025, if you buy the premium edition, or on May 15th if you don't. Needless to say, after the resounding success of both DOOM 2016 and DOOM Eternal, and what was a very fun time I had with the game in Frankfurt, I'm looking forward to DOOM: The Dark Ages.
