Doom: The Dark Ages is scheduled for release on May 15 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. This single-player sandbox game focuses on exploration, combat, and skill tree upgrades, featuring large mech battles and a rideable cyber dragon that can breathe fire on command.
This installment is the most expansive Doom game ever developed by id Software, but to clarify and alleviate any concerns, it is not an open-world game.
In fact, the developers were instructed to streamline all aspects — including controls, levels, menus, and upgrade paths — to capture the exhilarating pace that made the original Doom games so engaging. According to executive producer Marty Stratton and game director Hugo Martin,
Doom: The Dark Ages represents a polished and thoughtful return to the series’ classic gameplay, set in the medieval wastelands of Hell and featuring a formidable Doom Slayer.
In The Dark Ages, the Slayer has three primary inputs: the shield saw, melee attacks, and firearms. The shield saw is an essential tool that enables players to parry and block incoming strikes, while also serving as a boomerang-style projectile capable of embedding itself in foes to tear through their demonic flesh.
Parrying plays a significant role in the new game and is one of many elements players can customize in the difficulty settings.
You will have the option to modify the size of the parry window, adjust the game speed, and fine-tune numerous other factors to ensure each run feels just right.
The Slayer can choose from three melee weapons, but he can only carry one at a time.
These weapons include an iron flame, an electrified gauntlet, and a spiked mace, each of which can be upgraded as you progress through Hell.
The final main input is the trigger, which controls the various gruesome firearms.
The Dark Ages showcases an impressive range of weapon-based brutality, including the Skullcrusher, a gun that consumes the bones of slain enemies and uses the fragments as ammunition.
Certain levels feature massive Atlan battles and allow the Slayer to ride on the back of a cybernetic dragon, unleashing flames upon the gathered demons.
These abilities are not always available and are limited to specific areas of the map. Additionally, there are swimming levels, which, as someone who has a fear of deep water, I find to be one of the most terrifying aspects of the new game.
The Slayer in Doom: The Dark Ages is a formidable character—thick, heavy, and clad in armor. As he battles demons across the medieval wastelands of Hell, he will feel distinct from the Slayers of 2016’s Doom and its 2020 sequel, Doom: Eternal.
Each game has had its own development motto: Doom focused on “run and gun,” Eternal emphasized “jump and shoot,” while The Dark Ages adopts “stand and fight.”
Although strafing and quick teleportation-like abilities remain, this installment prioritizes maintaining your position and strategizing during combat.
“What people didn’t like about the 2016 game was its repetitiveness,” Martin mentioned during a media Q&A prior to Thursday’s Xbox Developer Direct, where id unveiled new aspects of the game. “In Eternal, some players found it overly challenging.
I believe it was overly complex. The intricate control scheme caused unnecessary difficulties. The focus should be on battling the demons, not struggling with your controls.
” Martin and Stratton stressed the need to simplify the core gameplay loop in The Dark Ages, while also creating the largest and most adventure-driven Doom experience that id has ever produced.
The game features skill trees, currency, and an abundance of secrets to discover, but there is minimal filler—everything serves a purpose, and combat mechanics, resource collection, and upgrade paths are straightforward without unnecessary embellishments.
“There’s a lot of exploration in this game, and it’s about power,” Stratton said. “That’s one of the things that’s really important.
You find resources and things that allow you to upgrade yourself, upgrade your weapon, upgrade your shield, upgrade your melee. So it’s not just secrets and just toys and stuff like that. It’s really about exploration for power.
” Martin added, “ I want to feel powerful. It has to be a good amount of speed and exploration and power, but I don’t mind if you change what that power fantasy is, especially if the changes you make bring it closer to classic Doom.
I’m very much for that.” Doom: The Dark Ages draws inspiration from Batman: Year One, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight, and the film 300, particularly that iconic shot of Leonidas punching and stabbing his way through hordes of Persian warriors at the Hot Gate.
Miller’s The Dark Knight was a particularly moving source for Martin. “He drew an older, stronger, fatter Batman,” he said. “And I just love that comic book so much.
And I always thought it would be so interesting to just do more of a monster truck instead of a Ferrari. And that’s something we’ve been working on, we’ve been talking about for years.” Doom: The Dark Ages is out May 15 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, including Game Pass.
