'Doom: The Dark Ages' review: Goodbye parkour, hello Shield Saw

Doom: The Dark Ages is simply a precise antithetic crippled than Doom Eternal, the astir caller mainline introduction successful id Software’s demon-splattering series. While the Slayer successful Eternal was a high-jumping, rail-swinging parkour machine, the Slayer successful Doom: The Dark Ages moves similar a bull connected crystal skates, dense and meaty but incredibly agile. It feels good, and possibly much importantly, it feels right.

The developers have made it clear that their extremity with The Dark Ages is to emulate the archetypal Doom much than its caller iterations, with the absorption connected gathering a concise combat loop and making the Slayer consciousness similar a surviving monster truck, alternatively than a Ferrari. After 12 hours with the game, I tin accidental they’ve done precisely that, positive they’ve made everything astir the Slayer astir 666 percent much metallic than ever before. Doom: The Dark Ages is an breathtaking instrumentality to signifier and a phenomenal improvement of a genre-defining series.

Doom: The Dark Ages feels similar an old-school Doom crippled successful presumption of combat, soundtrack and the Slayer’s wide vibe, but it introduces caller elements, including a razor-lined Shield Saw, a playable mech and dragon, elaborate trouble sliders, and expansive sandbox maps. I’m presently connected section 12 of 22 and I’ve wholly filled up my limb wheel, maxed retired aggregate stats, solved a fistful of puzzles, unlocked shield runes, played arsenic a titan doubly and ridden a dragon once. At this constituent I tin consciousness the game’s bushed successful my bones and, adjacent with the modern touches, it’s a familiar, catchy beat.

The shield is the astir evident summation to the combat loop and it’s a halfway constituent of each encounter, allowing the Slayer to block, parry, unreserved guardant and propulsion it retired arsenic a elephantine spinning sawblade. There are dozens of demon types, each with its ain moveset and vulnerabilities, and the Shield Saw reacts to them successful unsocial ways. Some enemies sprout retired glowing reddish oregon greenish projectiles, and parrying a greenish 1 with the shield sends it backmost astatine the attacker, dealing heaps of damage. Throwing the Shield Saw similar a boomerang sends it slicing done hordes of basal ghouls, catching them connected the mode determination and back. Or, it conscionable embeds and spins successful the soma of mid-size monsters, interrupting their attacks until you callback it. It tin besides shatter bullet-heated armor and vaporize full groups of infantry imps hiding down their ain red-hot shields. You tin fastener connected to astir enemies with the shield and past property the onslaught fastener to unreserved forward, stunning oregon exploding the targeted demon and its adjacent buddies. On apical of functioning arsenic a cross-map dash move, the Shield Slam is captious successful taking down midbosses that favour ranged weapons, forcing them to enactment distant their guns and marque parryable melee attacks.

The Shield Saw, dense and dangerous, rapidly becomes the Slayer’s earthy companion, and successful operation with the gauntlet oregon flail, your melee weapons, it’s a twitchy, deadly force. There are 10 main guns to unlock, each much hellish than the last, and they enactment a scope of playstyles, from spray-and-pray to precision headshots and elemental damage. Based connected aboriginal footage of The Dark Ages, I thought the Pulverizer was going to beryllium my favourite weapon due to the fact that it looked similar a almighty crowd-control instrumentality and it had an existent quality skull successful the mediate of it — but arsenic it turns out, the Chainshot is my limb of choice. It shoots retired a dense metallic shot connected a concatenation and deals important harm with each hit, and I emotion that it tin besides termination demons arsenic it’s retracting. There are upgrade trees for each weapon, positive a scope of Shield Runes to unlock. Let maine enactment it this way: None of the guns successful The Dark Ages are underpowered. Feel escaped to prime your favourite and spell each in.

The Slayer’s weapons and attacks enactment symbiotically, gathering a analyzable bushed of parrying, repositioning, shield throws and gunfire. The battlefields are littered with glowing piles of ammo, wellness and overshields, and the sounds that travel their pick-up are charmingly familiar. These items popular retired of demons arsenic they instrumentality damage, keeping you alive, conscionable barely, adjacent erstwhile surrounded by enemies. There are full levels built retired of relentless combat, with large-scale fights astir each country and the dependable of guttural, demonic groans perpetually echoing crossed the wastelands. The Slayer feels similar a vessel made retired of axenic muscle, but helium runs, dodges and attacks similar an jock a 4th of his size, and the operation of heft and responsiveness is conscionable right. The Slayer is simply a bleeding, breathing limb and successful The Dark Ages, helium truly feels similar it.

But, if helium ever feels little than godlike, you tin hole that. The Dark Ages introduces a elaborate trouble slider that allows you to fine-tune the enactment consecutive from the intermission menu. There are 4 trouble settings — Aspiring Slayer, Hurt Me Plenty, Ultra-Violence and Nightmare — and from there, 10 elements to adjust, similar force aggression, parry model size, force projectile velocity and daze duration.

I started connected the Hurt Me Plenty mounting and rapidly recovered it to beryllium excessively easy, truthful I bumped my acquisition up to Ultra-Violence. I yet deed a partition with 1 conflict that I couldn’t look to beat, and I was deflated, connected the verge of acute frustration. I didn’t privation to suffer the hostility that I was enjoying truthful overmuch until that moment, truthful I near the main trouble mounting alone, and somewhat accrued my harm and the effectiveness of resources. This was conscionable capable to propulsion maine implicit the edge, and I slid close backmost into a demon-slaughtering flow, feeling similar a badass again. With The Dark Ages, id Software has built a thoughtful and affluent customization system, and it’s a quality-of-life diagnostic that I tin spot being replicated successful different akin games. And, remember, it works some ways — connected apical of making fights easier, it tin besides crook immoderate conflict into an overwhelming hellscape. You know, for fun.

The Dark Ages is the largest Doom crippled id has ever made, and it’s besides the astir gorgeous. In the archetypal 12 hours alone, I’ve encountered battle-worn medieval castles overlooking ravaged kingdoms, mazelike underwater regions, floating ships made retired of elephantine bones, and, of course, the wastelands of Hell, covered successful juicy, intestinal growths, gothic fortresses and rivers of fire. There are a fistful of secrets hidden successful each level, and exploring the terrain is conscionable arsenic overmuch a portion of the gameplay arsenic demon-slaying, a diagnostic that I bask immensely. The quality designs are besides luscious: There’s a marshmallow-like corpo alien and its floating, tentacled workforce; King Novik wearing dense armor everyplace but implicit his rippling pecs and abs; and Prince Ahzrak, an ambitious demon with a airy face, slender horns and high-collared blood-red robes (a look that I would emotion to spot replicated connected Dragula, successful fact). The classical enemies, updated but grotesque arsenic ever, are a delight to some spot and kill.

As acold arsenic I’ve seen it, the communicative is appropriately epic and amazingly coherent, with plentifulness of high-stakes missions and a wide Ultimate Villain. I’m already anxious for our last encounter, which I’ll instrumentality arsenic a bully sign.

There are 2 caller elements successful The Dark Ages that I haven’t discussed yet, adjacent though they’re some virtually huge: the titan and the dragon. In definite levels only, you’re capable to power a mech-sized Slayer to combat elephantine demons, and you’re separately capable to hop connected apical of a vicious, armor-plated dragon and alert it done the sky. These moments are amusive and they connection a little interruption from the modular horde-hunting action, but largely, I don’t deliberation they’re necessary. When I deliberation astir my clip with The Dark Ages truthful far, I thin to hide astir the titan and the dragon. They’re simply overshadowed by the restitution and strategy built into the moment-to-moment gameplay, positive the layers of customization and each of the Satanic quality connected display. I’m not huffy that I tin aviator a mech and thrust a dragon successful the newest Doom game, but I americium benignant of meh astir it.

The Dark Ages is blood-soaked and beautiful. Even though immoderate of its largest caller elements are really its slightest relevant, the game’s absorption connected crisp combat, customization and twitchy shield play makes it a well-rounded romp done the bowels hell. The Dark Ages is simply a agleam spot successful Doom history.

Doom: The Dark Ages volition deed PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S connected May 15.