After Doom Eternal, a new part of the series titled The Dark Ages is set to be released, aiming to break away somewhat from the fast-paced gameplay style. Bethesda invited MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus to take a look at Doom: The Dark Ages and play select missions. The shooter is solid and incredibly difficult, but its unique selling point doesn’t quite hit the mark.
Doom is pretty much the game that completely falls outside of my usual preferences. I actually prefer story games, survival games with crafting and exploration, roguelites, and adventure. Shoot ’em ups that only offer action and nothing else I find boring, especially the fast-paced old-school shooters like Quake or Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun.
Nevertheless, Doom manages time and again to excite me. Perhaps it’s because here you can’t just keep hitting your way through, but you also have to think, and mistakes are quickly punished. In Doom Eternal, I ended up dying constantly in the first level.
The series manages to spice up what is essentially monotonous gameplay to such an extent that it is really fun. Now the next part is on the way. Doom: The Dark Ages will be released on May 15 for PC, Xbox, and PS5.
Bethesda invited MeinMMO to check it out at Jagdschloss Platte in Wiesbaden. Overall, I had two hours in a play session to test out how tough I am.
The Dark Ages is incredibly difficult, but the suffering is enjoyable
As a veteran of the series, I’m used to jumping straight into somewhat higher difficulty levels. What has been Ultra-Violence since Doom 2016 is typically where I start. In The Dark Ages, for the first time, I considered whether that’s really the best choice.
From Eternal, I know to devise a “cookie cutter” method: I see which weapons and combinations work best and race through the levels with them. However, that doesn’t work anymore in the new Doom.
Most enemies, even the fodder demons, now require their own tactics, and that sometimes needs to be adjusted mid-fight. This is especially evident when facing elite enemies:
- Arachnotrons must be fought as quickly as possible up close, as they will shoot you down from a distance.
- With Mancubi or Carcasses – what exactly that was, I couldn’t identify in the heat of battle – you want to stay at a distance and deal damage from afar.
- Cyberdemons definitely need to be stunned first; otherwise, they will tear you apart.
There are weapons for the various maneuvers that bring their corresponding styles, along with new tools. And this is exactly where The Dark Ages shows what makes it a new and truly good Doom.
Doom Slayer with a Shield: Best with the Chainsaw!
In The Dark Ages, the Doom Slayer becomes a tank. Instead of dodging quickly and simply overwhelming enemies, you run into the hordes with a shield and power fist or flail and butcher through them.
The shield is exactly the new and crucial element. You now have the option to perform a “perfect block” to deflect projectiles, overwhelm enemies, or amplify your attacks. This is often necessary against certain enemies and mini-bosses to succeed.
When fighting enemies that you can’t block, a shield throw is mostly appropriate. You slam the built-in chainsaw into the demon’s chest, stunning it for a short time to finish it off or at least weaken it. But caution is advised, as long as the shield is gone, you obviously cannot parry…
Alternatively, the shield throw can be used to take down fodder demons or destroy their shields. Superheated metal even explodes from this, creating a large area of destruction.
If you think an enemy needs to see the barrel of the super shotgun from the inside, you can rush in for close combat. All of this combined creates various combat variations that you have to combine from a certain difficulty level onwards.
Typical for the Middle Ages: Dragons and Power Ranger Mechs
The Dark Ages takes place in a world roughly inspired by the European Middle Ages, complete with castles, heavy armor, dragons, and mechs. You know, like in the sieges of old.
Joking aside, dragons and mechs are new features. For the first time, Doom has vehicles. In the playtest, we had one level with the dragon and one with the mech. Both are just cool gadgets for their respective missions.
The dragon flies around and shoots at enemies. You’ll need it mainly to take down ships from the sky. The mech, on the other hand, resembles the robot from the Power Rangers and is used to tear apart demonic titans.
From the brief scenes I could see, I couldn’t tell how important the vehicles would become for the game. However, they are a nice change of pace and slow down the fast-paced shooter gameplay a bit. Yet they also clearly show what I dislike about The Dark Ages…
A lot of Doom, little Dark Ages
For a game called Doom: The Dark Ages that plays around with having a medieval flair, it doesn’t really come through that much. While playing, I found myself in sci-fi spaceships at least as often as in medieval castles.
The dragon is stuffed with futuristic metal and has laser wings. The weapons are all some kind of cyberpunk guns, as you would expect from Doom, with a few exceptions, like a flail, the shield, and a projectile launcher. We don’t even need to discuss the mech here.
Actually, I was looking forward to a Doom that would become a bit more personal, with more melee combat, medieval weapons, and generally a martial flair with knights, armor, and bloodshed.
Not helpful is that the musical accompaniment is just as metal-heavy as always. Although Mick Gordon is no longer involved, shredding electric guitars, basses, and dissonant chords accompany the slaughter. Cool for Doom, but less suitable for a medieval setting. As a metal fan, I would have liked something more along the lines of Viking war songs or something like that. There are enough good examples out there.
When I mentioned this at Bethesda’s event, it was somewhat evasively noted that the finished game would have more to offer. Whether my wishes will be fulfilled, I’ll leave open, but I’m not counting on it.
The new Doom tells a story instead of writing one
What The Dark Ages does much better than all its predecessors is the story. Instead of having to painstakingly read everything in the codex, the story and all important details are now presented in cutscenes.
The developers even emphasized that exactly that should be better in The Dark Ages. Similar to the Soulsborne games, Doom actually has a strong story, but no one really picks up on it – simply because it isn’t prominently featured in the games.
In the latest installment, you no longer have to click through menus and read dry texts with background information, but instead receive tailored scenes that tell the story of the game. This not only provides a welcome pause while slaughtering demons but also draws you more into the world than before. And if you don’t like it, you can skip everything.
If you don’t care much about the overall context, you will definitely get a solid solo shooter with plenty of action, lots of gunfire, and a tough challenge with Doom: The Dark Ages. I will gladly play at least the campaign. For those looking for more, you can find 10 new shooters that are particularly interesting in 2025
