Doom: The Dark Ages

Doom: The Dark Ages landed May 15, 2025, a prequel to the 2016 reboot. You fight through an ancient war between the Sentinels and Hell on Argent D’Nur, trying to stop Demon Prince Azhrak’s conquest. With the Doom: Revelations DLC on the way, this is a look back at the base game.

Long before the Slayer’s runs in Doom (2016) and Eternal, Hell and Argent D’Nur are already at war. As the Slayer, you repel demon armies while partly under Maykr control. Azhrak knows you will wreck any straight fight, so he hunts a new power: the Heart of Argent, an ancient artifact. You tear through Argent D’Nur, Hell, and the Cosmic Realm to stop him.

Gameplay is a real shift. Hugo Martin’s marketing line stuck: 2016 was run and gun, Eternal was jump and shoot, Dark Ages is stand and fight. Movement takes a back seat to a shield and parry that reflects projectiles, stuns demons, and opens melee with fists, flail, or mace. Demons run bulkier: bigger bodies, armor you break off first. Leader demons stay shielded until you clear the cronies, so you juggle a boss monster while mopping the floor. Kill them for health, armor, or ammo upgrades. Weapon, shield, and melee upgrades sit behind gold, rubies, and wraithstones in secrets, plus lives, codex entries, skins, and figurines. No Eternal-style overworld to show off the full collection.

Most levels are arena fights broken by platforming or puzzles, with a few big battlefields you can approach however you want. Secrets are approachable; the map flags nearby icons. On the larger maps, backtracking for one gold piece on the far side gets annoying. You also pilot giant mechs against titans and fly a mechanized dragon against Hell airships. Only a handful of each. Cool. I could take or leave them. I love the dragon; the flying segments feel unnecessary. Titan bits get more slack, especially once you get a titan shotgun. That ruled.

The medieval aesthetic runs through levels, characters, and guns. Futuristic toys from 2016 and Eternal get period twists: nailgun, a grinder that spits skull shards, a ball and chain.

Marketing failed this game a few ways. First, it looked slow. It is not. Gunplay and encounters are extremely satisfying. Mowing and brutalizing demon hordes is awesome. The shield parries and blocks, bashes you into range, and throws for damage and stun. Pretty quick you are chaining parry into melee into bash, or swapping to Chainshot after a parry once the charge upgrade lands. Fun. Satisfying. These games live for that flow state of absolute carnage, and this one delivers. While hunting collectibles, three or four stretches just keep throwing Hell Knights at you. Simple. Clearing them with the Super Shotgun is just fun. I wanted more of that.

I really like this game. Issues do not ruin it; they pull it down. The gold system: I did not care about hunting every piece. Prior games handed you clear upgrade pickups; rubies and wraithstones still do that work. Gold could have been one solid pickup, a gold skull or whatever, not crumbs. Shield bash is basically a dash that needs a lock-on. You use it to break walls and find secrets, but you sit in a little wait-and-reposition window that nicks the flow. I wanted a free dash. Third failure is story and marketing around the Cosmic Realm: Azhrak needs energy from Commander Thira, and you rip through eldritch nightmares in cosmic horror spaces. I loved those zones. Aesthetic and design are awesome. I wish they leaned harder into the Lovecraftian stuff. It feels like two games smashed together: medieval Doom and cosmic-horror Doom, neither getting its own full swing. The cosmic horror is more interesting stuck as subplot. Azhrak is a boring evil demon bad guy. Final fight against an awakened elder god would have been cooler.

Soundtrack next. Mick Gordon is gone after disputes with the id team. The issue is not “no Mick, therefore bad.” His 2016 and Eternal tracks had personality that fed the play. Dark Ages music is fine and thin on character: generic metal under the carnage, not adding to the fight the way those scores did. Shame.

One observation more than a complaint: the Slayer does not feel as much like the Slayer. 2016 and Eternal give tiny wordless rage beats. Elevator with Hayden: knuckle crack, look at the body, punch the screen. You get it. Generators get stomped out of spite. In Eternal he is ready to break rules on site, yeets Hayden into the portal in the hardest cutscene. Dark Ages mostly mutes that, outside Maykr friction and the final boss. Overuse of third person is part of it. Prior games kept pivotal Slayer moments in first person so you were him; here you watch him. Glory kills are still there but subdued: punch, kick, melee, with some shield saws and heart-rips on leaders. Viciousness is technical, quieter. Not a dealbreaker. Like ordering the house burger and they skimped the special sauce. Same meal. Not enough sauce.

Where Eternal zigged off 2016, Dark Ages zagged, and I appreciate the difference. Parry, levels, and guns are a lot of fun. Eternal is still the superior game. That combat puzzle of resources, movement, weaknesses, and weapon swaps is peak FPS design; it is why Eternal is my favorite shooter. Choosing different was smarter than trying to beat that design. Not competing leaves Eternal on top.

I bought 2016 when it hit twenty bucks and felt great about it. Same energy here: pick Dark Ages up on sale.