Just a few missions intoDoom : The Dark Ages , I felt like I ’d reached the apex of action at law games . There I was behind the control of an tremendous Atlan mech , eclipse the kind of battleground that felt enormous to me moments before . The sky above me was sear . Buildings turn to laying waste under my feet . One by one , an army of infernal kaiju ate my metallic fists . How can it get any bigger and badder than this ?
It does n’t — and that ’s both the gift and torment of the Doom Slayer ’s tardy saga .
In an effort to one up the already hellacious shooter serial , one that reached unexampled adrenaline highs in 2020’sDoom : Eternal , developer I d Software turns every dial up to 11 from right Chapter 1 . The battle are fast and more savage . Hidden lore becomes glitzy cutscenes . Our fighter rides a mechadragon , for God ’s sake . Every single piece of it is an physical exercise in maximalist escalation , trying to obtain a ceiling to a timeless shooter hyper violent glory . It reach that height , but comes up against a grueling truth : There ’s nothing left to rise once you ’ve reached the top .
Doom : The Dark Agesdelivers another Zen of reliable tingle by work up on the understructure establish by its splendid predecessor . The mightiness fantasy of it all is more potent than ever , but I d Software ’s experiment in excess proves that there is such a matter as “ too much ” when it comes to video plot spectacle .
Year One
Rather than picking up whereEternalleft off , The Dark Agesis a prequel to I d Software ’s reboot Doom series . It acts as a Doom Slayer origination story thatdraws inspiration fromBatman : Year One , Frank Miller ’s gritty tarradiddle about The Dark Knight ’s first yr on the business . That approach shot lays the understructure for the most narrative - rivet Doom game to day of the month , complete with big cutscenes . It ’s correspondent to the jump fromMetroid PrimetoMetroid Prime 3 : Corruption . The latter build on Retro Studio ’s excellently atmospheric adventure by ratcheting up the lore and bring in a big stamp of characters to deliver it all in dialog . The Dark Agesdoes the same for Doom with interracial result .
The mind is that it all takes position in Doom ’s own medieval era , where man crusade a war against demons with crossbow , flail , and — you pretend it — shotgun . It ’s a fun enough gizmo that allows I d Software to guess more archaic versions of authoritative weapons , but the tale under that shtik is Doom ’s most incomprehensible chapter to escort . New graphic symbol who are never properly premise spend cinematics rattling off proper noun that never really signify anything to me . A raft of money go into creating a story that more or less just boils down to “ There ’s a war happening between humankind and devil . ”
More successful is its picture of the Doom Slayer . While previous instalment paint him as an all - muscular killer who ’s always in control , he ’s initially a tool here . The beginning story involves him being decoct to a subsist weapon whose personality is electrify out of his dead body in rules of order to give him a one - caterpillar track mind that ’s hyper focus on ogre cleanup . It ’s a clever meta twist that turn the theatrical role ’s unremarkably lean image and turn it into a source of pain that force him down a more superimposed path of retaliation and death . A few key sequences that show his humanity rationalize through an otherwise tortuous password soup .
The Dark Agesgoes full Hollywood …
I can understand the inherent aptitude here . Doom has always been one of those deceptively deep series . To the mean player , it might seem like there ’s not much more to it than gunman and guts . Deep fans will tell you that there ’s much more beneath the Earth’s surface , andThe Dark Agesfeels like it ’s built to in conclusion honor that audience . In delivering that , I d loses something extra about the series . There ’s a sure mystique to one-time games that were light on in - plot tarradiddle . They were often sparse and atmospherical , leaving player ’ imaginations to fulfil the negatively charged distance . Only the most consecrated buff would crawl down the rabbit gob , finding secret lore hide away in book or cassette tapes . Those scatter tidbits give games like Doom a horse sense of hidden history , turning fans into archivists who could trade their findings with one another .
The large Doom get , the smaller its human beings actually feels . Wet concrete seeps into every interruption , creating a solidified platter of chronicle that ’s the same for every player . Even the piffling detail are enshrined in in - plot Codex entries . 2016’sDoomreboot found a well-chosen medium , retaining a sparse and sleek story while still dilate the lore . The Dark Agesgoes full Hollywood and feel a little less especial for it .
Primal violence
The amplify setting is detrimental to areas ofThe Dark Ages , but it does admiration for its core action . IfEternalwas all about showcasing the Doom Slayer ’s agility , this episode is all about power . The basics of shoot stay on the same from the 2016 reboot . I rive and tear through enemies with an arsenal of oversized weapons , no reloading required . struggle are tight - pace and with child , requiring me to constantly stay on the move while also remain in the heating system of battle in rules of order to refill my health through gory finishers . Anytime my finger is n’t weight-lift down the trigger , I ’m lay waste to my fourth dimension .
The Dark Agesstill does all that while layer in a wealth of new system of rules that make for the serial ’ most involve fighting system yet . First , there ’s my trustworthy Shield Saw . I can toss it like Captain America ’s carapace to geld through fallible enemies or hold it steady to put off incoming attack . The latter is especially impactful as it gives me even more confidence to stand tall in the center of the action or else of escape for cover . do a complete counter will also touch off my selected Shield Rune , which punish any foe who dare to lash out at me . My runic letter of choice was a articulatio humeri gun enclosure that would activate on each block , let me spray more lead out as an act of vengeance .
It ’s a primal form of violence .
Similarly , there ’s a great emphasis on melee attack this prison term too . By the end of the cause , I ’m capable to equip one of three melee arm : gauntlets , a flail , or a spiked Chemical Mace . Each one has its own speed and business leader , but each easily allows me to chip armor off of enemies and get some of my own for the bother . It ’s another incentive to get up close and personal , doling out three - make combos to buff up defence while leaving my enemies defenseless . Systems like that successfully build onEternal ’s puzzle - corresponding combat , which was built around using the correct move to top off the right resource . The only divergence is that I ’m even more of a menace .
Those new ideas couple nicely withThe Dark Agesnew guns , which rachet the pandemonium up even more . Some of them are your intermediate Doom weapons , from Super Shotguns to plasm rifle . Each weapon has two modes that can be swapped between on the fly and each has its own diminished upgrade tree diagram . The best guns in the clutch are the Slayer ’s new medieval - flavored tools , which really pay off the absurdity of the scene . One primitive tool contrive a skull into a mill and shoots the shards out in a wide bed covering . My personal favorite is a ball and concatenation that can be level up , fired , and retract . It feels fantastically powerful and just a little slapstick as it bonk ogre . That ’s exactly the form of energy I look for in modernDoom game .
What ’s impressive is just how raw the juggling act of all these systems comes to me , another one ofEternal ’s military strength that ’s continue here . Every button has a clean usage on the ascendency scheme and I ’m never left confused about what to press and when — the only exclusion to that is the radial weapon wheel , which continue a inapt way of life to swap between gunman on the fly . When I ’m interlace into an arena battle , combat becomes balletic . I chuck my shield to one side to thin out down some dregs and plough to fire a garden rocket . My shield tax return to me just in prison term to parry an incoming attack , telegraphed with a green cue . I follow it up with a few flail hits and then a bloody closer . All of this bump in one bland movement , like I ’m executing movement in a dance ( a suite of bully availableness features helps ensure more players can discover that same flow for themselves , too ) .
I do n’t really appreciate how second nature it all is to me until I find myself dropped into a gob . After get a collectible , I precipitate into a dark , narrow-minded hallway that ’s full of scrimmage recharge items . Soon , a wafture of enemies comes flood towards me and I have to recollect tight to obstruct their attacks and counter with quick shot . The action at law on screen almost becomes abstracted , full of shoot colors like aNorman McLaren animation . I do n’t lose a measure , hitting all of my motility working off green and purple streaks alone . Moments like that are whereThe Dark Agesclicks most , putting the Doom Slayer ’s instincts in my own head word . You really originate to understand why this guy like killing demons so much . It ’s a primal kind of violence .
Bigger doesn’t mean better
With action that inviolable , The Dark Agesshould be the best entry in the trilogy . After all , it checks all of the correct boxes . It ’s a proficient power plant , fulfill with striking visuals that make an enormous sense of scale , all while maintaining a liquid 60 frames per secondly . I d ’s level innovation is at its best here , too . Chapters take me from unholy corridor to an unresolved battlefield where I carry out a military blockade against waves of demons . Each outer space is meticulously detailed and fill up with well - obliterate secrets that get hold way of life to practice my shell as an environmental puzzle tool . The audio blueprint is as tacky and proud as ever , with gunshots and alloy music combining into one remorseless symphony of destruction . The story is longer , has a bit of excess form , and threads in mess of heroic set pieces .
So why was n’t I nearly as thrilled with it as I was by2016’sDoom ?
I d Software has describedThe Dark Agesas a return to the serial roots , but it could n’t sense further from them .
The Dark Agesis emblematic of a recurring issuing in big - budget franchise video game design . The instinct is to always go big each meter . How do you topMonster Hunter human race ? More weapons , creepier monsters , larger environments . It ’s all about escalation , whether through gameplay looping or proficient art . That ’s the top priority here , but it ’s a ego - shoot down approach that turnsThe Dark Agesinto the most inelegant and weave game of the trilogy .
The telescope increment is n’t without some creativity , bear in mind you . In plus to received first - someone shooting levels , The Dark Ages also features chapter that have the Doom Slayer piloting mechs and dragons . Both are fun ideas that feel like a teenaged boy ’s coolest dreams come to life , but neither are exactly as exciting as they fathom . The first mech chapter is awe - inspiring , but the factual combat system are n’t terribly deep . I ’m mostly just hitting my veracious trigger to slowly punch out kaiju enough to fill a peculiar meter . It gets old fast . The thrill of dragon fly is similarly short - lived , as I ’m largely taking down ship after ship by completing a dodging minigame . Both gimmicks count very different and make for welcome rule diversions , but they churn down to the same one - note duck’s egg and counter gameplay hook .
What ’s specially strange is where those chapters meet into the story . The Dark Agesdoesn’t lay aside either of them for some fully grown , climactic second . Both first fall out back to back early in the outpouring of 22 missionary work . That determination means that the scale climbs to unimaginable heights by Chapter 6 and then has nowhere else to go . With no sense of mount progression , The Dark Agesis dynamically flat for most of its run time . An epic siege in a critical early chapter feels no dissimilar than a random scene of action conflict in a low-down - stakes transitional level later . The fervour grow to humdrum once the same explore - and - shoot formula is repeated over and over across 45 - min chapters that scuffle the same enemy into different stadium . It ’s no coincidence that 2016 ’s Doom is both the best and shortest of the trilogy . The Dark Agesis twice its distance without actually adding much .
But hey , that ’s just Doom , correct ? Of course every telephone dial is going to be crank up up as far as it can go . The goal is to create a non - stop epinephrine drive that does n’t take its foot off the gas , is n’t it ? Excess is the appealingness .
Is that actually unfeigned though ? My instinct is to say thatThe Dark Agesis the logical progression for the series , fully earn its maximalist potential . It sounds right in my head , but I do n’t recollect that it actually is . I would n’t describe1993’sDoomas exuberant . Perhaps it was for the time , but its timeless entreaty occur from its refined minimalism . Walk through hallways , find colored keycards , photograph demon . It ’s the shooter ’s version ofPong , boil the complexness of the musical genre down to its essence . 2016 ’s reboot knead because it carried the same muscularity , rejecting open - world vogue of the time to make a focussed , linear adventure fuel by atmospheric storytelling and heavy alloy . I d Software has describedThe Dark Agesas a return to the serial roots , but it could n’t experience further from them . If anything , it feels like more of a cousin to the bloatedGod of War Ragnarok .
I do n’t believe any of this will stop players from having the time of their liveliness blasting through demons . As vital as I am ofThe Dark Ages ’ design philosophy , I still spent hr after hour poke around its intricate levels and master its stellar scrap . I may have tuned out the account more than I expected , but my jaw was n’t immune to dropping when I had to smash an approaching colossus with an explosive gun turret . Even with its break , this is still a bonafide blockbuster by a studio that knows how to dish them out considerably than anyone . It just feels like the pedal is as far against the metallic element as it can go . end of the world : The Dark Agesstarts cruising at 100 miles per hour and never pumps the brake . That ’s perfectly fine for a joyride , but you need acceleration to really appreciate speed .
Doom : The Dark Ageswas test onPlayStation 5 Pro .
