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I throw my shield into a Mancubus. I dodge, then parry a Pinky Rider’s attack before smashing the armor of a Dread Knight with my flail. A weakened Komodo falls after two more blasts from the Super Shotgun.
So goes another round against the forces of Hell in DOOM: The Dark Ages, the latest first-person shooter in the long-running DOOM series.
While every DOOM game tries new things, DOOM: The Dark Ages is a radical departure from what came before, re-envisioning the Slayer as a bulky, implacable tank instead of a barrel-rolling fighter jet. You’re still fast, but there’s a new weight to everything. Every movement counts more than ever, and every attack must be more brutal than ever before.
It’s a significant change, but it’s one that works wildly, resulting in a campaign that’s super fun to play, providing more weapons and tools to play around with as you smash through thousands of demons.
I’ve loved my time with DOOM: The Dark Ages, and it’s a highlight for me in a year that’s already stacked with fantastic games so far.
I love first-person shooters and I lament that we don’t get more high-budget single-player titles in the genre. I’ve enjoyed every DOOM game, but I have a particular fondness for the recent titles, even if Ancient Gods Part 1 tested my sanity.
This review was made possible thanks to a review code provided by Bethesda Softworks. The company did not see the contents of this review before publishing.
What is DOOM: The Dark Ages?
- DOOM: The Dark Ages is a single-player first-person shooter.
- The game is developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks.
- It is a prequel to the company’s prior titles DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is a first-person shooter developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks.
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Category |
DOOM: The Dark Ages |
|---|---|
|
Release date |
May 15, 2025 (Early access on May 13) |
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Developer |
id Software |
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Publisher |
Bethesda Softworks |
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Genre |
First-person shooter |
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Players |
Single-player |
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Install size |
77.3GB |
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Playtime |
14-16 hours |
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Platforms |
Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, PlayStation |
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Xbox Game Pass |
Yes |
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Reviewed on |
Xbox Series X |
Much like in DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal, players take control of the iconic Slayer, whose hatred for demons keeps him going again and again.
While you’ll start off a bit limited, you gain more weapons and tools as you go, increasing your overall firepower and giving you options for how you want to tackle your foes.
Killing specific “Leader” demons will provide rewards, increasing the Slayer’s health, armor, and maximum ammo.
DOOM: The Dark Ages will take around 14 or so hours for the average player, with more or less time depending on the difficulty settings chosen, as well as how much you want to explore in search of the game’s myriad secrets.
DOOM: The Dark Ages review — Story and characters
- DOOM: The Dark Ages takes place before the events of DOOM (2016).
- The story revolves around the threat of Prince Ahzrak, who leads the demons against the Night Sentinels.
- The Slayer is under the control of the Makyrs and used to aid the Night Sentinels.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is a prequel, telling the story of the long war between the Slayer and the Night Sentinels against the forces of Hell, the latter of which are being led by Prince Ahzrak.
The Slayer starts out under the control of the powerful Makyrs, deployed as a weapon where needed. He’s a one-man army, but there may be more going on than is first apparent. If you’ve played the other games, you’ll have a very rough idea of where things could be headed, but if not, this is the perfect point to jump in and come along for the ride.
The story is all carried with the tone of an M-rated Saturday morning cartoon. That’s not a bad thing at all, as it perfectly suits the nature of DOOM, but it is a bit simple in nature, even though the lavish cutscenes look fantastic.
DOOM: The Dark Ages review — Gameplay and features
- DOOM: The Dark Ages slows down the overall game speed compared to Eternal.
- There’s a huge focus on blocking and parrying, with mostly new weapons.
- Atlan Mech and Dragonback gameplay help break up the pacing.
DOOM: The Dark Ages makes some radical changes to the flow of gameplay. It’s still “rip and tear,” but with a much greater emphasis on trading heavy blows and standing fast on the battlefield.
The Slayer has been slowed down, with the double-jump removed. In its place is the Shield Saw, a multipurpose weapon that can be used to throw through lower-ranked demons, weaken larger foes, and block enemy attacks, with the option to parry certain key attacks. Attacks that can be parried glow green by default, though you can change the color if you’d prefer.
It’s a deep-seated change to the overall game design, but it’s one that works. Heavyset weapons complement that change, with an arsenal that includes plasma rifles, heavy spike throwers, and my personal favorite, Skullcrushers that chew up runed skulls and spew the sharp fragments into the forces of Hell.
While The Dark Ages is slower-paced than Eternal, you can ramp up the action if you find it a bit too slow. Personally, I opted to set the game speed to 120%, making it faster without losing the heavyset pace.
Battlefields are designed similarly to DOOM (2016), though with some larger maps that have more to explore. There are secrets everywhere, with collectible toys, pages of lore, and more to find, if you’re so inclined.
Carefully exploring the map, solving puzzles, and completing mission-specific challenges will also reward you with Gold, Rubies, and Wraithstones, which are used to upgrade the Slayer’s arsenal. The standard shotgun is already nice, but with a boost, it sets enemies on fire, making them drop armor fragments.
There are a lot of options here, making The Dark Ages feel far more flexible than the unyielding (if hyper-polished) combat loop present in Eternal. You may want to lean one way or another, but there’s usually no one tool you must use, outside of the aforementioned blocking and parrying.
While these “standard” levels make up the majority of the 22-mission campaign, The Dark Ages further breaks up the pacing by letting you soar on the back of your dragon, Serrat, as well as climbing into a Pacific Rim-style combat mech called an Atlan.
These sections are fun, if a bit simple, with the dragon focused on racing across the skies, dodging enemy attacks to empower its chaingun before blasting demonic fighters to bits, or pouncing on a Titan and ripping its head off.
The Atlan is similarly simple, with a gameplay loop focused on punching and dodging enemy Titans before blasting them to bits with various oversized weapons. Both sections do a fantastic job of selling the Kaiju-like scale at hand, as looking carefully reveals tiny versions of the demons you’re normally fighting on foot.
DOOM: The Dark Ages review — Visuals and audio
- DOOM: The Dark Ages looks fantastic, with great graphical detail.
- It runs at a steady 60 FPS without any issues and loads near-instantly on Xbox Series X.
- The soundtrack is solid with some great metal, though a hair below prior DOOM soundtracks.
Running on id Software’s in-house idTech 8 engine, DOOM: The Dark Ages looks fantastic. Demons and environments alike are rendered in gorgeous detail, with ruins and gore given equal attention, while ray tracing is used to enhance overall image quality.
The game also has extensive HDR support, with tons of settings to tweak and higher potential brightness (depending on your screen) than I’ve seen in most other games, going all the way up to 10,000 nits.
While playing on Xbox Series X, the game always looked great, with beautiful skyboxes across medieval fortresses, lava flows in Hell, and even tentacled cosmic horrors. I also never noticed any framerate drops, even when destroying dozens of demons at a time.
I also noticed there are a ton of physical items to destroy or interact with, such as chairs, huge artillery shells, wood pallets, and other objects are knocked around whenever you sprint into them or shoot them.
DOOM games don’t just have to look good; they have to sound good as well, and DOOM: The Dark Ages sounds excellent.
Playing with headphones, the thud of the Slayer landing three stories down after a jump was always wonderful, as are the various weapons, with crisp sound design making it clear when you’ve landed a parry or smashed a demon’s armor into pieces.
Plasma weapons crackle with energy, grenades thump as they bounce, and other sweet sounds contribute to the overall feedback loop of an encounter.
The recent DOOM games also have a history of excellent soundtracks, with the tracks for The Dark Ages composed by Finishing Move, filled with heavy metal that suits the brutal tone, but it does feel like the one area where the game has stepped down.
I want to be very clear, I think it’s a good soundtrack, with a couple of particularly stand-out pieces, but it comes on the back of the excellent, genre-defining work done by Mick Gordon for DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal, as well as Andrew Hulshult’s contributions with The Ancient Gods Part 1 and Part 2.
DOOM: The Dark Ages review — Accessibility and approachability
- DOOM: The Dark Ages features numerous accessibility options.
- Of particular note is the “Magnify” option, which enlarges selected text.
- Players can also adjust several other aspects, including overall game speed.
There are a large number of accessibility options present in DOOM: The Dark Ages, easily eclipsing what was available in the prior games. In addition to many of the standard options seen in other games, such as adjustable font sizes, I really want to draw attention to the “Magnify” option this game uses.
With Magnify enabled, players can drastically blow up any message in the menus so that it nearly fills the screen, making it extremely easy to read any in-game text. This is an excellent option that really helps anyone who has trouble reading text, even with larger fonts, and I hope we’ll see other games copy this feature.
As previously touched on, it’s also extremely noteworthy that you can adjust the game speed and parry windows independently of the actual difficulty. This is a great way to tweak the experience to your liking, and I highly encourage anyone playing to spend a minute or two fiddling with these options in order to dial it in just right.
All of these features mean I can easily recommend DOOM: The Dark Ages to newcomers. The nature of the game as a prequel means you don’t need extensive knowledge to hop in, and it’s easily the most accessible game id Software has ever developed.
DOOM: The Dark Ages review — My final thoughts
✅You should buy this if …
- You enjoy single-player first-person shooters.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is a fully single-player game, with a campaign that takes a bit to finish and is packed with secrets to unlock on replays. If you enjoy single-player first-person shooters that have a huge focus on great-looking visuals as well as great gameplay, then you’re going to have a lot of fun.
- You’ve liked the prior DOOM games
While DOOM: The Dark Ages takes some big swings by changing up parts of how the formula works, it’s still the same “rip-and-tear” core that’s been in action since DOOM (2016). If you enjoyed those games, there’s no reason to expect you won’t have fun here as well.
❌You should not buy this if …
- You prefer multiplayer games over single-player campaigns.
While DOOM (2016) had more traditional multiplayer and DOOM Eternal had a Battlemode pitting one Slayer against two Demons, DOOM: The Dark Ages is completely devoid of any multiplayer elements, with the team instead focusing on a single-player campaign. If you only play games with multiplayer, then you’ll likely find that focus to be off-putting.
Every DOOM game has evolved, offering something different. It’s a refreshing take for a series, as there’s a familiar backdrop behind it all, but each entry is allowed to stand on its own and figure out what it is.
To that end, DOOM: The Dark Ages understands exactly what it is. It’s an action-packed romp in the vein of prior games, but with an infusion of dark fantasy and cosmic horror. The pace has been slowed down, and many of the tools have changed, providing a fresh take on the experience, but it’s still DOOM.
As it turns out, that’s more than enough. DOOM: The Dark Ages is pure fun, even if it’s a bit silly at times, and I’m seriously looking forward to what the team at id Software cooks up for the promised campaign DLC. Hitting a demon with a flail or watching as a dragon rips apart a Titan doesn’t get old.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is slated to launch on May 15, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (via Battle.net, Steam, and the Xbox App), and PlayStation 5. Premium Edition buyers get two-day early access. The standard edition of the game is included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
Rip and tear across DOOM: The Dark Ages’ campaign. The Slayer is just as fun as ever to play, with new weapons and gameplay mechanics that shake up the world that id Software revisited in fury starting back in 2016. It’s an excellent game that proves there’s still a place for single-player-only first-person shooter campaigns with high-end graphics and polish.
