Like the reassuring comfort of a favourite pair of socks, DOOM is back. And like those fluffy worn-out ankle warmers, it’s positively putrid this time round, as we go full-on medieval in DOOM: The Dark Ages.
Unlike DOOM: Eternal, which could be so frenetic in its three dimensional gameplay as to be headache inducing, The Dark Ages – a prequel to the last two games – is throughly grounded, bringing the fight firmly back down to earth. Medieval Slayer is less gravity-defying acrobat, more roided-up battletank. For better or worse? I’m honestly not sure. It’s different, very different, and takes a while to adjust to.
Enemy count is off the charts
One thing that has definitely changed for the better is the sheer number of enemies that the team at iD have managed to shove on screen. Eternal (and the less evolved DOOM 2016) were hardly quiet on the hordes of demons front, but DOOM: The Dark Ages at times hits a truly insane enemy count. It’s an exhilarating improvement, testing your strategic skills to new heights, especially as you can no longer literally scale said heights to avoid conflict. But best of all is just how buttery smooth everything runs graphics-wise. Yet again, the team has done an incredible job on the technical side.
To survive these insane enemy numbers, the Slayer has acquired a shield that functions both offensively and defensively. It blocks projectiles and can reflect back certain attacks, but more fun is its serrated edge, allowing it to be thrown clean through weaker enemies while embedding in larger demons. The fan-favourite chainsaw is not in the game, sadly, but the shield makes up for it by being a more versatile tool in the Slayer’s armoury.
To acquire armour, health and ammo in the way the chainsaw provided is now the job of your other hand, your melee attack. Sporting a medieval gauntlet, flail, or the last to be unlocked ‘Dreadmace’, you can bash the shit out of your foes in a wider variety of ways than ever for those all important pick-ups.
Epic level size isn’t always a good thing
Another innovation is the sheer scale of the level design. DOOM games have always featured complex and overlapping maps full of secrets to discover. In the latest game however, stages are expanded to enormous and sprawling scales that take considerably longer to fully explore. Albeit in a way that is less densely packed and at times feel a bit of a chore to fully uncover.
This is where game pacing suffers a bit. One moment you’re facing an enormous army of pissed-off demons hailing hell upon you, the next you’re walking for long periods around big and somewhat empty open spaces – checking for secrets, gold pickups and sanctuary shrines to upgrade your gear. It releases the tension, becoming all too predictable as to when and where you’ll encounter the next horde of bad guys – over that hill in the distance, standing around, gormlessly staring in your direction, waiting for you to gormlessly wander too close to trigger them.Â
Every DOOM game has had this to a greater or lesser extent, but The Dark Ages amplifies the disconnect between fighting and exploring and not in a good way, due to the sheer size and openness of the level design. You just don’t feel that same tension that can only come from a more confined space, wondering what enemies are lurking around the corner.
Speaking of enemies, the usual suspects are here, with some of the key differences being the variety of projectiles that can or cannot be reflected back at the enemy with your shield, and hordes of lesser demons sporting their own shields that need to be dealt with using certain shield or weapon attacks.
Weapon selection is simplified, with each primary gun having a secondary that can be switched to seamlessly, with its own characteristics and status effects that affect different baddies in different ways. The Pulveriser, a gun that literally crushes skulls and spits fragments out in a wide spread, is a particular favourite and feels so DOOM. After you’ve unlocked all the primaries, battle management becomes easier due to the number of attack options you have, although I did find myself reaching for that Super Shotgun time and time again.
Gimmicky stages are a boring distraction
If plodding about as an uber-henched demon slayer feels tiresome don’t worry, the game goes uber-scaled with a smattering of stages in either a giant mech or on your very own fire-breathing Dragon mount. These areas look impressive, but are far too on rails to feel particularly meaningful. A bit of visual fluff with some great destructible effects and not much else.
One other change of note to the DOOM formula is the greater emphasis on story, which never feels like a natural fit for these games. Each mission chapter is topped and tailed by cutscenes that do a fairly loose job of creating a narrative, with minimal and mostly uninteresting dialogue. I would have been perfectly happy without this part of the game, but it didn’t particularly bother me either.
Conclusion
DOOM: The Dark Ages is a modern marvel. It runs about as well as you ever could ever ask an FPS to on console and PC. Ultra smooth frame times, along with gorgeous graphics (all underpinned by an excellent RTGI implementation no less) make it one of the best releases of modern years from a technical perspective.
The plaudits are not so obvious when it comes to gameplay though. iD Software deserve praise for embracing a different style. Once I got used to the battle-tank version of the Slayer and his impressive armaments, I was very happy slicing my way through the demon hordes across the game’s epically scaled levels. But the disconnect from the intense heat of battle to empty exploration does throw the pacing off somewhat, and takes away one of DOOMs biggest selling points – the sheer tension and fear that comes from wondering what is lying in wait beyond what you can see.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is a technically accomplished game. On the one-hand, it has cutting-edge and brilliantly optimised graphics that will run smoothly on any compatible hardware. Sound-wise it’s a more mixed bag. The metal soundtrack is punchy and solid, though not in any way memorable. And the sound effects, although crisp and detailed, are too buried in the mix to be impactful, lacking the distinctive qualities of the fx from the original DOOM games in the 90s – sadly, this is the modern trend across all media. Overall though, it’s a very polished and solid experience.
The gameplay is equally solid, once you get used to the slower and more grounded style. What it doesn’t do unfortunately, is keep you on the edge of your seat for long periods of your playtime. It’s a less stressful experience than DOOM: Eternal, but not in a good way. Slowly carving your way through record hordes of enemies is an enthralling experience. Meandering around the vast open maps once you’ve dispatched that pocket of demons though? Not so much.
The Slayer has gone back to medieval times and has never looked better. Unfortunately, some of the gameplay and level design has gone backwards too.
