DOOM is not a franchise I have ever been particularly attatched to. Sinfully, I have not played any of them prior to the 2016 reboot and my only previous experience with the franchise has been that one and DOOM: Eternal. DOOM 2016 is a pretty perfect game, one that I will always go back to. It has an excellent vibe and tone, does not overcomplicate itself with its systems and it is just a joy to play.With Eternal however, I was in the minority in thinking it was a major step down. Tonally it was all over the place and the game just felt goofy and arcadey rather than building on the immersive chaos of its predecessor. I also believed the combat to have a distinct lack of flow compared to 2016, particularly due to its lacking of ammo and things lacking the punch they should have had. Frankly, 2016 and Eternal are very different games in many ways. Still this made me apprehensive about the brand new DOOM: The Dark Ages because with this franchise’s nature of changing its approach constantly, I believed any deviation from what made 2016 great would not work for me. Though very different as expected, DOOM: The Dark Ages is a blast to play and was a pleasant suprise for someone who has had a back and forth relationship with the franchise.

DOOM: The Dark Ages is a prequel to the 2016 game and puts players in the role of the Doom Slayer once again. This time though, it is set in a techno-medieval dark age period where humanity is still alive and taking the fight to the demons themselves. The Slayer is on a leash held by the Maykers in their looming ship above with the Kreed Mayker calling the shots and ultimately being the one to let the Slayer loose on the demons. An organisation of humans called the Sentinels are lead by King Novik and although capable, they are always more than happy when the yellow beam thunders down from the Mayker ship and the Slayer’s chaos begins. You control the Slayer and therefore the chaos of battle and using the Slayer’s hatred of demons, you will be smacking, shooting and blowing demons up frequently and in spectacular fashion.

DOOM ‘s approach to story is not what anyone comes to the games for but it is still worth examining. 2016 had a very loose story but every cutscene was done in first-person giving the player a more immersive window into the world and being the Slayer yourself. It feels like in that game that you are the Slayer and that elevates the fantasy because you feel like you are doing it all yourself. Eternal did it very differently and Dark Ages follows suit. Instead we have third-person cutscenes involving the Slayer and actual characters, forming more of a story focus. ‘Focus’ may perhaps be a strong word as it certainly is more of a background aspect for the majority of the game. Although, it still focuses much more on a narrative than 2016 and I personally, I believe that to be to its detriment. The ‘story’ in 2016 more just felt like a sequence of circumstances that you come across because everything focuses around you, the Slayer. Eternal and Dark Ages pull the focus away from you and even shows what is happening, away from the Slayer. Considering the story is made merely as a backdrop, this is a bizarre choice for them to double down on but thankfully, it is easier to follow and better done than in Eternal.

The world and overall vibe of Dark Ages is where it really shines, almost as much as 2016. Everything looks fantastic and that techno-medieval aesthetic works. Traversing across the game’s huge environments is a treat because it all looks great, whether it is through a war-torn battlefield beside a castle or across the fiery plains of Hell itself. All the weapons you pick up look equally as fantastic with the Skullcrusher being a particular standout for how menacing it looks, and therefore feels, to unleash. On top of all this is the centrepiece of the series, the Slayer. As much as the third-person stuff feels like a strange departure from 2016, it helps with how cool the game treats the Slayer. He is treated like a true force of nature in his presentation and it really elevates the experience of playing as him. The intro sequence before the title drop is an adrenaline rush like no other for how pumped it makes you before getting stuck in.

Get stuck in you shall because the gameplay of Dark Ages is also great. I mentioned before about the environments being huge and that impacts the approach to combat. Instead of dashing about in small spaces like in the previous games, you will be sprinting across battlefields, trying to close the distance between you and the demons as quick as possible. Thankfully due to your arsenal, that will not be a problem. The introduction of the shield feels wonderful and dashing about and smacking into enemies with it always feels satisfying. Equally as satisfactory is the ability to toss the shield like Captain America. This is helpful for stunning enemies in place or detonating heated metal in a gleeful explosion. Parrying with a shield is perhaps the best thing you can do with it though and even in the later game, it does not get old. The guns all feel excellent with a lot of variation in the weapons themselves but also in how you can upgrade them individually. These games work best as a power-fantasy and the fact that ammo is not very scarce for these weapons elevates that to a great extent. You go into every fight thinking ‘which weapon should I use this time?’ and although there are of course certain weapons better for certain enemies, it is always a choice. Eternal forced you to use weapons you did not want to half the time and that was where the difficulty of that game mostly came from. The difficulty in Dark Ages comes from the relentlessness of the enemies instead and that is much mroe fun to try and control. Focus on melee weapons makes this loop even more interesting too because even if by some chance you have no ammo, you will almost always have a melee ability and your shield. There are ammo pickups in arenas but they are no really needed because the glory kills give you ammo instead. Glory kills are less flashy than in the other two but they are still very fun to pull off and it does not feel like it ruins the momentum of combat too much. Momentum is the key thing here and if I had to boil Dark Ages‘ combat down to one core strength, that would be it. People saying the game is slower than the other two must be playing it wrong because you can fly about these huge spaces with ease. If you keep that relentless charge up, you feel unstoppable and in a DOOM game that is exactly how it should be.

So while the narrative focus is strange and can break things up perhaps too much, it is not enough to make this experience any less fun. Killing demons in this is as fun as ever and even if its repetitive formula gets more noticeable in the later levels, the core gameplay loop is fun enough that any fatigue will be fleeting with the introduction of the next enemy or massive encounter. The vibe is immaculate and it really echoes what 2016 got just right. I would not say it quite reaches that game’s brilliance but it definitely sits nicely in below 2016 and above Eternal. Since this is again very different to the other games, you may prefer this over both or you might think it is much weaker. It is hard to exactly pinpoint what it is in these games that makes them work or not and that is why it is important to format your own opinion. For me though, I had a great time and would easily recommend this for anyone looking for a badass adrenaline rush.