The modern DOOM series has had a weird identity crisis. 2016 was a tonal masterpiece, bringing one of hte most iconic first-person-shooters into the modern age, bucking trends for a fast and aggressive shooter in its brutalist sci-fi world. On the other hand you had Eternal, a much more hyper entry that seemed to almost chug too much of its own Kool-Aid, creating a challenging-yet-overly-complicated game.

DOOM The Dark Ages seems to be, in part, a walk back from Eternal’s particular flavor of mania. With a new setting and all the charm of a Metal medieval aesthetic, it feels like exactly the kind of stepping stone you’d need to get to something new instead of just rehashing old tributes. Despite this, the curse over the modern DOOM games just can’t be shaken.

Title: DOOM The Dark Ages

Developer: iD Software

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5

The Second Game To Give Me A Parry High This Year

One of the first things you’d immediately notice with DOOM The Dark Ages is that it is slower. The DOOM Slayer is no longer airdashing like he’s gonna take you for a ride, cycling through a seemingly endless inventory of weapons. In fact, if anything, this game’s combat feels the most like classic DOOM- enemy projectiles are much slower, and you’re encouraged to circle around them mid-travel and punish enemies for even daring to control space in the Slayer’s presence.

But here’s the catch: That doesn’t mean by any stretch that the game is passive. Every modern DOOM game seems to have at least one mechanic that I wish I had in past ones, and in the case of DOOM The Dark Ages it’s the Saw Shield. Letting you lock on and charge at enemies is a thrill that never gets old, even moreso when you’re engaging in the game’s parry system.

When you’re parrying an enemy combo, this game sings in how good it is. Some higher-ranking demons are mandatory parries- if you wanna break their armor you’ll need to bait out their melee attacks and counter them, leaving them open to the exorcising might of the double-barrelled shotgun. The game even lets you know that the D in DOOM doesn’t stand for Daigo by letting you customize the parry timing independent of difficulty settings.

If anything, my big gripe is that you can’t parry enough. Parries are only limited to green-flashing attacks, which I personally feel is a massive undersell. Bigger enemies will obviously have way more parry attacks- but it still feels a little dated having to wait for the attack the game lets me parry instead of just taking a chance on some big enemy swings.

Still, it goes really well with the game’s cast of weapons. Admittedly, at first I was a little sad that the game has moved away from the alt-fire systems that previous games had. Guns feel a lot more one-dimensional, only really doing the thing they do.

Once you get into the upgrade tree though, you see exactly where the devs have decided to take some bigger swings. Instead, all of the Slayer’s weapons synergize with the game’s systems itself. The Piercer, a nailgun-like automatic weapon, gains a ricochet if it shoots enemies with the Saw Shield embedded in them. The Pulverizer, on the other hand, can gain charges for its enhanced state when you parry.

It’s a really cool way to build around your game’s combat system that I feel came from criticism of Eternal, where every weapon just kind of did its own thing and had a designated enemy that it hard countered.

A very minor nitpick I have is with the naming convention, though. In an attempt to make everything seem more in-line with the setting, most guns have names that are just single word: Pulverizer, Cycler, et cetera. In a pinch these names are so similar it’s hard to tell which is which- even something as simple as calling it the Plasma Cycler would go a long way into letting me know this is the anti-energy weapon.

There’s also a bit of Gen 7-isms with the game’s amount of side-gameplay. From Dragon Riding to mech piloting to even turret sections, I’m not the biggest fan of these- they feel like padding to what is already a satisfying gameplay loop. The exploration parts are great too- the bigger maps are evocative of Halo Combat Evolved, something more shooters really should strive for.

Not Rip And Tear Enough

All this to say, that on a gameplay level, Doom The Dark Ages is fantastic. I’m glad that between 2016, Eternal and now the Dark Ages, id Software have done a good job of delivering three unique experiences. Where I tend to find issues though, is more of the setting.

Look, I love the idea of a medieval DOOM. I think everyone collectively had the same Frank Frazetta or Todd Mc Farlane approach to DOOM. I don’t even need a canon reason- the Doom Slayer is like the Predator, stick him in any setting and as long as he gets to rip and tear I’ll be happy.

Yet DOOM The Dark Ages seems to be not as interested in doing anything fun with its own premise. The game is very much rooted in Eternal’s canon- there’s still Night Sentinels, and they’re still as uninteresting as they were the last time you saw them.

Hearing space knights talk like regular space marines is boring, and I think DOOM The Dark Ages would have been the perfect place to shed all of that in favor of the same type of attitude that made DOOM 2016 so endearing.

It’s not just the dialogue, either- the removal of glory kills makes the game lack a certain presence. I’m complaining about the lack of a frill, basically but I think it’s a frill that gave the previous games a lot of personality.

Even the demons themselves feel significantly less important. In previous games it felt like the introduction of a new demon always ensured it got some spotlight. In The Dark Ages the Arachnotron just kind of scoots into the lineup like it was late for Mass, same with the Revenant.

DOOM The Dark Ages Verdict

If you want a frenetic action shooter, you’re going to be extremely happy with DOOM The Dark Ages. It’s vicious, intense and a breath of fresh air.

Admittedly, as a franchise fan it has some pretty bold asks of the player. Some things are different in a way that’s uncomfortable at best and alienating at worst. But it’s this same ability to try something new that lets us get to try some really fun features like shield charging while also having the best Super Shotgun of the modern games.

• Presentation: 7/10
• Gameplay: 9/10
• Content: 8/10

Final Score: 8/10

Game reviewed on PS5. Review code provided by Bethesda