Doom: The Dark Ages is Really Weird

When it comes to the first person shooter genre, a lot of entries can be traced back to the original Doom from 1993. It wasn’t the first of its kind. A year before its initial release Id Software made Wolfenstein 3D. Before that there was Space Wars made for computers from the 1970s. It wasn’t until Doom however that first person shooters really started to run. With developers chasing the game’s success and any FPS games that followed being labeled as a Doom clone. until eventually the genre’s name was made. Doom was revolutionary and at the time more people downloaded it than the new versions of Windows. Doom is great. Some bits have shown their age, but that’s the joy of old games. Seeing how games have improved since and expanding upon the groundwork set by the godfathers. That is certainly what happened with Doom over the years. A year after the original we got the sequel, which fans argue whether it was a sequel or an overpriced map pack. The third entry then tried to modernize Doom by trying to be like every other FPS game playable in 2004. Okay so the way Doom evolved wasn’t very good, and there was a large period of time the Doom didn’t see anything. People drifted away from Doom.

Then out of nowhere, more than a decade later,  Doom striked back. Doom 4 or what most fans like to refer to as Doom (2016) is one of the most surprising great shooters of the 2010s. First person shooters started to turn stale after spending almost 15 years chasing design trends set up by Call of Duty and such. Doom 4 changed this by not just showcasing old school design could still be fun, but it could evolve without having to be like other titles. Doom 4 was heavily praised for its combat loop, how effectively it told a simple narrative, having the most metal soundtrack people had heard till that point, and just being a great return to form. Doom 4 remains to be one of my favorite shooters to this day. I remember being young and getting more into games back in 2017. Having finished the Halo anthology and wanting to see more of what FPS games could be. Doom 4 looked cool, I picked it up on a whim, and my little boy brain was blown away the same way the Doom Slayer blows a demon’s head off using a super shotgun. Doom 4 is one of the first games I reviewed on this site, and while there have been more expansive games I reviewed since then I appreciate what it did for me. It still holds up very well to this day. I replayed it during the summer of this year and had as much fun with it as I did back in 2017.

Then came the announcement for Doom Eternal in 2018. My little teenage brain blew up bigger. I couldn’t wait for the day the sequel to one of my favorite shooters released, and neither could the rest of the internet. Doom Eternal didn’t release until 2020 after a few delays, but the wait was well worth it. Eternal was heralded as an amazing sequel to Doom 4 and the greatest shooter to come out this decade. Ask anyone what’s one of the best FPS games in recent memory and they’ll most likely list this game. Doom Eternal is great….. Time to say some stuff people will hang me for. In terms of gameplay I think Doom Eternal is a vast improvement. Combat is much faster, there’s a heavier incentive to vary your weapon usage, the environments are more varied, and the same could be said for traversal and enemy types. It is a better video game and I can see why the majority opinion is that it’s the best Doom game. Storywise I don’t think it was as good. I’m one of those people who prefer Doom 4 because of its narrative. I respect the attempt to add more lore to Doom. Build upon the snippets Doom 4 left and subvert expectations with massive plot twists. I respect them wanting to create something epic, but the more this ‘epic’ story played out the more I began to wonder if the writers were on drugs. To me, there is no way an action sci-fi horror FPS turned into a He-Man fantasy about ancient knights and those of a higher will. On one hand this is a cool way to subvert player expectations. On another hand, is this really a good way to subvert expectations? How's this consistent with Doom 4?

Whereas most people continued to love Doom Eternal since its release I’ve grown to question it more. I wouldn’t say my taste has soured. It’s still a great game and I agree with the review score I gave it back then. It’s more like my tastes have changed a lot since 2020. My personal favorite genres are RPGs, metroidvanias, platformers, roguelikes, and puzzle games. Slower, methodical titles that reward you for taking your time. There are so many innovative and interesting games out there, and I’m not sure if the best representative for what games can be are shooters. Despite how far the genre has gone. Anyways, I kinda hope Id Software would move on from Doom after Doom Eternal. Especially since its DLC ended the storyline. Maybe reboot Quake, because some developers in the studio wanted to do that. Instead they went in a different direction. “What if we further expanded on the lore of the Doom Slayer, and made an entire game centered around the one bloke you had to parry a  ton in the last game?” Well no that’s not the process that led to the new Doom, but it certainly feels like it. Doom: The Dark Ages, announced midway last year and finally released this year with high anticipation of how it would follow up Doom Eternal.

Dozens of Doom fans were excited and some were skeptical. I kept my expectations low because watching that original trailer left me confused. It's a medieval sci-fi fantasy now. There’s dragons and mech combat. The Doom Slayer has a shield and melee weapons. More lore on the sentinels, Maykrs, and the higher orders and stuff. The new Doom looked really weird to me, and I began to wonder what Doom is anymore. Not saying they should’ve just made Doom 4 again. I’d rather see developers grow and experiment than recycle the same game over and over again. My mind was conflicted whether I should play this game. It was on sale recently, I played all the others, and wanted to finish this series. Doom: The Dark Ages is pretty good. I had a fun time playing it and if you like Doom you’ll certainly like this one. Yet, it also proved some of the worries I had leading in. This is the most conflicted I’ve been with a Doom game. It’s definitely not the worst one as I’d choose it over the older entries, but I think it’s my least favorite in the new trilogy. Why is that? How can I think a game is good but say it has problems? Doom: The Dark Ages is a weird game, and today we’ll be delving into why I feel as such for this hardcore FPS. 

Story

Ages before the rise of the UAC and their attempt to harness Argent Energy from literal hell, the forces of that accursed land were at war with the Night Sentinels of Argent D’Nur. The sentinels are a group of humans who live on a planet far away from earth. Doing all they can to protect the sacred relics they hold. Worshipping powerful beings known as Wraiths who maintain balance in the world and prevent hell from conquering and wiping out all human life. That’s at least what I understand, because I didn’t play the DLC to Doom Eternal to further understand these big lore points. The Night Sentinels work with the Maykrs, and together they do everything they can to chase back the demonic forces. The demons are led by Prince Ahzrak, who desires a particular relic the Night Sentinels hold, that being the Heart of Argent. Those who are able to harness the power of the Heart are given godly power. Strength capable of empowering armies, crushing all  those beneath you, and turning you into a figure that will worship and bend a knee too.

The Night Sentinels are struggling to fight off the hellish onslaught, but the Maykrs having a tool capable of turning the tides of battle. A great weapon, but this weapon isn’t exactly a tool. Rather a human being so strong and skilled they can cut down a whole horde of demons within a few measly minutes. That person of course being the Doom Slayer. If you remember what occurred in Doom Eternal you learned he was formerly the Doom Marine. An enraged man who chose to stay back in hell and kill demons. He was found by the Maykrs wandering the vast plains, taken in, and infused with Argent Energy. Transforming the marine into the Doom Slayer, and at some point being sealed away for future finding. The story of The Dark Ages follows a specific point in the Doom Slayer’s life. Before he was sealed away and served alongside the Sentinels. Being sent in to occasionally help if things were going bad. The Maykrs controlled the Slayer using a tether placed on his armor, but one day during a raid the Sentinels are unable to fend against the Slayer and manage to break free. Choosing to protect the weak and slay the forces of hell. The story from here is simple. Do everything you can to stop Prince Azhrak and win the war. There are going to be multiple moments of excitement, but if you’re me you decide if it’s exciting.

Gameplay

One thing I’ve grown to appreciate is how different each of the new Doom games play from each other. Doom 4 felt pretty close to home to playing like an arena shooter. It was a fast pace, but not so fast that things turned chaotic. It was about you navigating tight combat arenas, picking up ammo and health resources to keep the action, and learning to manage oncoming enemies so you don’t become too overwhelmed. Doom Eternal cranked it to eleven by forcing players to make use of enemy weaknesses and mechanics to annihilate demons instantly. Having more arenas with verticality to make use of the different movement options, and giving the player new tools so they can acquire resources they need without having to search for pick ups. If Doom 4 had the player bouncing around like a traditional arena shooter then Doom Eternal had you bouncing around like a pinball. Doom: The Dark Ages goes in the opposite direction of Doom Eternal. It is a much slower game and places the player in a wider spaced arena. More often than not giant fields to run around in. To compensate, The Dark Ages throws larger waves of demons at you. A good chunk of them being beefy demons to blast away at with your big chunky guns.

The Doom Slayer feels more like a tank this time around. Thumping through arenas and carrying these massive weapons. You even have the ability to jump from a high place and annihilate any cannon fodder enemies within the vicinity. There are a total of twelve guns to use, more so than the arsenal in Doom Eternal. A total of six different weapon types. Each contains two guns, share the same ammo type, and can be switched between easily. For example, the regular lever action shotgun can be put aside in favor of whipping out the Super Shotgun and vice versa. The plasma rifle can be swapped for a plasma cannon, or the grenade launcher can be swapped for a rocket launcher. Some guns are better to use for specific scenarios like using a plasma rifle to make an enemy carrying a plasma shield to explode. However, unlike Doom Eternal in this game you’re given a bit of room to experiment. Use what weapons you favor most and learn how to apply the tools on hand towards the enemies you face. It’s what you expect if you’ve played a Doom game before, but where The Dark Ages differs is with the introduction of melee combat. That’s right, The Dark Ages is one of few games out there to contain first person melee combat.

You have a shield and a weapon. The shield can be thrown at enemies to stun them for a brief period of time. It can be used to interact with certain objects, or make heated metal explode. This is done by blasting away enough till the enemy’s metal glows red. The main usage of the shield though is for parrying. When an enemy’s attack glows green you can parry it. Doing so sends the attack flying back. Dealing a fraction of the damage the enemy would deal towards you, but if you keep parrying enough you might get the edge on them. Deal enough blows and you can do a finisher. This kills the enemy instantly, and has them drop health and ammo for you. Replacing the glory kills of the last few games for a fast takedown that puts you back into the action. The way melee weapons work is that they have charges. These charges are refilled when waiting for a small period of time, parrying, or picking up refills. You can swing a melee attack and if done so you get an ammo refill. They essentially replace the chainsaw from prior games. The Dark Ages encourages players to fight in the most varied way possible. Use an even mix of melee, parries, and your arsenal of guns to cut down all who wreak havoc. Different foes have different attack patterns, and you just have to learn to manage. Consider who is more important to kill.

Aside from the combat loop there’s the levels. Each one contains different secrets and items for the Doom Slayer to find. Most important is gold and rubies. Each level has a set amount to find, and they can be spent at Sentinel Shrines to upgrade your weapons and unlock perks. Doing so may make combat easier or add certain advantages for using specific tools. The shotgun can be given the ability to set enemies ablaze, and doing so drops armor shards for pickup. The assault rifle can build up a glow on the enemy, and if you throw your shield at them it creates a heavy damaging burst. The Dark Ages contains some of the deepest progression these games have seen, ever. It feels more in line with modern action games, and while I do have my criticism for how it handles these systems I think it works pretty well. Aside from that there’s not much else for me to say. Let’s just hope you have what it takes to win this war against these hellspawn.

Thoughts

Doom: The Dark Ages is a very weird game. I’m a bit conflicted on how to feel about it, because I don’t think it’s a bad game. Again, it’s a good game and I had a fun time playing it. What it set out to do was achieved, and that’s all that matters at the end of the day. The majority of Triple A FPS games these days aren’t great, and this one stands out as being one of the better ones just like its predecessor. The Dark Ages is a good game, but I wouldn’t say it’s a flawless game. Now I have to choose my words very carefully going forward, because if it’s anything I’ve learned in recent memory is that Doom fans are really defensive. If you don’t have enough backing to your criticism they will attack you. It happened in 2020 with Doom Eternal, because anyone who said something that wasn’t the popular opinion got attacked. I have come to accept whatever I say will spark disagreement with people, and am prepared to stick with my viewpoints no matter what. Okay, so Doom: The Dark Ages has a pretty fun combat loop. Part of which is due to the good enemy variety, mechanics, and feeling of the guns. I think these are some of the best guns I’ve used in a first person shooter. From how they work to how they feel to fire off. You have chunky blasts from the shotgun, the heavy firing of cannons, the shake caused from explosions, etc. Followed with good feedback and enemies that are just satisfying to kill.

I think some people are gonna be mixed on how The Dark Ages handles melee combat. It is not the best melee combat I’ve experienced and it’s far from it. However, in terms of first person it does melee combat pretty well. You can feel the weight of each swing and clash against enemy skin. Parrying feels good, and the charge system for melee attacks is well balanced. Encouraging players to use it when they’re low on ammo, but then utilize the guns and parrying to refill the melee charges. While I wouldn’t say The Dark Ages is an RPG it does feel like it at times. With a fun progression system that has you choosing how to build your Doom Slayer. What tools you would like to utilize more and better your arsenal, because most first time players will not find everything on their first playthrough. Previous Doom games were littered with secrets to find, but this one has more encouragement to find them. With the golden stashes and rubies needed to go upgrade your toolkit. The game even has these big open world-esque maps where you can tackle objectives in any order you want while occasionally taking detours to find more loot. Gameplay is great for the most part, but like I said The Dark Ages has its fair share of problems.

This game is easy, and I can tell I was supposed to play it on one of the harder difficulties. Upon listening to other online opinions though I’ve learned even though The Dark Ages is still easier than the rest of the Doom anthology. Despite throwing larger waves of enemies at you they don’t do all too much to get up in the face of players. Even when they do, they're easy to handle, and the main reason is how big the parrying window is. There are a lot of moments where I thought I mistimed a parry, or was not in range for it. Only to then end up parrying the attack even if I was seconds off. On one hand I like how forgiving they made it. On the other hand I wish there was more punishment for it, because now I don’t have to care whether I was rightly timing it or not. The game is made even easier with how often health is dropped by finished foes, and how you decide to build your Doom Slayer. One of the first upgrades I got was the fire appliance for the combat shotgun. This made it so that every time I shot the enemy they dropped armor fragments. Then another upgrade I got was for the flail, which does the exact same thing. Combine both of these upgrades together and you have a Doom Slayer who’ll never run low on supplies. Which goes against this series focus on resource management and handling of enemy encounters. I also learned it really didn’t matter what guns I used. There’s no enemy weaknesses like in Eternal, or moments where using a long range weapon is better than close range like in Doom 4. Despite saying how guns feel great, some are better. I cannot think of a reason to use the plasma rifle over the plasma cannon seeing how one is the same but stronger.

There’s a lot of parrying in the game. A little too much to be honest with you. There’s so many particle effects going off on screen that it’s hard to tell what’s even happening at times. I should mention that The Dark Ages has accessibility options. Allowing players to weaken the game so that it’s easier to play or harder. If you don’t like the slower pace gameplay you can make it faster, or shorten the window for parrying. Some people will argue I should’ve used these if I felt the game was too hard or forgiving. However, I played the game the way Id Software most likely thought players would play with. The screen is filled with so many flashing light and glowing particles, and you just have to deal with it all. I liked how games like Clair Obscur and Sekiro handled it. Even when enemies are doing a flurry of attacks they’re easily readable, you can react accordingly, and can always see what is happening at all times. This is the downside of making a game like this in first person like Doom. Sensual awareness is hard to handle when your view is narrowed and can only be pointed towards frontal direction. It is a cluster f*ck of colors.

Now I will say most enemies are well designed. There’s only one time that really annoyed me, and that was the bloke with the shield. He’s not as bad as the Marauder, but fighting him is more dragged out than it should be. The Dark Ages also has better boss fights than Doom Eternal. The balance between enemy and player exchange is even, and are more engaging. I forgot to mention the dragon and mech sections during the gameplay explanation of this review, and the reason I chose to do this was because these sections suck. They aren’t hard nor unfun to play, but if you were to compare it to the rest of the game they stick out like a sore thumb. The mech sections have you bash away in clunky yet somehow really easy melee combat, and the dragon sections have you fly around empty space until you find something to lock on and shoot at. There’s not a lot of these sections in the game which is good, but there’s enough of them to make you wonder why. Was there any benefit to having the dragon and mech sections in? Do they add to the game, and if not did the developers just waste time and resources incorporating something they thought was cool on paper? This line specifically is my main issue with The Dark Ages.

There’s a ton of stuff that seemed cool on paper, and I’m glad they experimented with it to see if it would work or not. Some of it did, and some of it needed better execution. For example, level variety or more specifically the two kinds of levels. The regular Doom levels with a beginning & end, and the open world esque levels. I don’t mind the open world levels. They give you a choice on what order you want to approach things, and I like the freedom of them. It’s just compared to the linear levels; these ones aren’t as well paced, and their secrets aren’t that interesting. It’s just you walking across an empty space until you run into more combat or an ambush. There are the turret sections I just remembered now, and there’s even less of them than the dragon and mech sections. Something that is there for the sake of being there. The game took over twelve hours to beat and while I’ve played games longer than this I felt The Dark Ages was a bit bloated by the end. Especially the last two hours of the journey. It’s not doing enough to keep me excited. It runs out of new guns, new enemies, and ideas to throw onto the table. It runs dry.

The last thing to talk about is the story. They delved deeper into who the Slayer is and the origins of the Night Sentinels. I think the story of The Dark Ages is much better than Doom Eternal. It does a better job exploring the lore, the importance of it, and characterizing something that hasn’t been characterized well before. It is better written, there’s intriguing characters now, and all of it makes sense under the context of it being a sci-fi fantasy universe. Pay attention to that last line specifically. I have played a lot of stupid games over the years. One of the more recent titles I covered was Evil West, and that had the stupidest narrative I’ve witnessed in a video game. The difference is that Evil West plays on the idea of how dumb it was, and The Dark Ages is mixed on whether you should be taking it seriously or seeing it as dumb fun. Doom has gotten so absurd with what it wants to be and how many ideas they throw at you that I can’t see this stuff as awesome. I just roll my eyes at all that’s happening. Funny because I didn’t feel that way back then and now with Doom 4. 

Yahtzee Croshaw made a fantastic video awhile back defending the story of Doom 4, and diving into why the plot of the Doom games afterward don’t work. To me Doom 4 worked because the main character, the Doom Slayer, was not just a participant in the story but the vehicle driving it forward. A majority of events in Doom 4 only move forward when the Doom Slayer takes action. Everyone who has played Doom 4 talks about him smashing the monitor in the opening. That he just doesn’t give a sh*t and wants to kill demons. If you pay attention you realize what he was doing before smashing the monitor was accessing the current situation. Figuring out where had awakened, learn of the demon outbreak surrounding him, and that the people in charge of taking care of the facility are all dead. Then he gets a call from the CEO of the company who tries to strike a bargain. This scene is followed by the elevator scene where the CEO, Samuel Haydens, tries to convince Doom Slayer there is something to salvage from this crisis. The camera pans to a corpse next to you to remind you of the damage already done. Doom 4 and its message has already been conveyed in the first fifteen minutes of the game. Humanity is experimenting with a great power beyond their control. Of being punished for their greed and actions. Power people refusing to learn and throw more lives into the fire for personal benefit. That the best course of action is to end it before the problem is allowed to grow into an ugly spiral.

Doom 4 already had a great message. One man’s journey to kill demons not just out of hate, but to save humanity from themselves. It did it without having to get too crazy or pull out ideas that clashed with what it wanted to be. This was then followed by the absolute whiplash I felt when playing Doom Eternal. Nothing in that game made sense. It was awesome, but trying to connect it to Doom 4 was like trying to cook chicken with caramel and chocolate. Then comes Dark Ages that wants to be sci-fi medieval fantasy. Spoilers, but it also wants to be a lovecraftian game. As you journey to a dark alien world with cthulhu looking creatures. This would make sense under the context of it being a fantasy game, lovecraftian game, etc. In the context of Doom it just feels really bizarre. You want to know a game this would’ve made more sense with? Quake, because the original Quake had lovecraftian themes. Of a man hopping between different worlds and the societies within them to stop a great evil. My theory much like many others is that Id Software wanted to make a Quake game. They wanted to make a thrilling lovecraftian shooter, but they did not because Quake isn’t as well known as Doom. The latter is more popular and sells well, so instead of taking a risk they made this bizarre rollercoaster of a game instead.

To reiterate, Doom: The Dark Ages is a really weird game. I enjoyed it, had a fun time, and think it’s worth playing if you’re a Doom fan. It’s a good game, but I wished I loved it in the same way I loved Doom 4 and Doom Eternal. The price I paid for The Dark Ages was forty-five US dollars and even then I felt like it was too much for what I had played. Heavily suggest waiting for a sale on this one, because if not you may run the risk of paying a high price for something that may or may not click with you. This game is weird, and I pray that Id Software will move on from this series and try out something new. In the end I am going to have to give Doom: The Dark Ages an 8/10 for being enjoyable enough.

8/10, Enjoyable