Recently, Bethesda invited some press and creators to try out a demo build of DOOM: The Dark Ages, set for launch on May 15, 2025, across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC (as well as Xbox Game Pass).
I was among the lucky few to go hands-on with the latest incarnation of the legendary franchise, widely regarded as taking first-person shooters mainstream.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is a prequel of sorts, taking place in the Argent D’nur dimension detailed in the modern reboot. This medieval sci-fi setting combines dark age castles and gothic monasteries with absurd dark age weaponry, which combines industrial engineering with inquisition torture devices.
Indeed, the signature hook of this shiny new DOOM is historical brutality. I was eager to find out if the new Saw Shield was just a gimmick, if the mech riding gameplay was just trailer fodder, and ultimately, if there was still plenty of fire in the belly of this aging behemoth.
The answer to that last one is definitively yes, only now it’s nuclear fire, ready to rip and tear through a new audience.
Let’s get into the meat here, figuratively and literally: The Dark Ages is very firmly and unashamedly DOOM, and the team at id Software has risen to the challenge of upping the ante in a big way.
DOOM’s iconic brutality returns with blood-spattered bells on in The Dark Ages, with the tried and tested strafe-kill-shoot-murder-execute gameplay loop preserved. id Software wasn’t content to keep things safe, refining the murder-thon in intriguing ways that feel as familiar as they do fresh, somehow.
Since DOOM 2016, the game has evolved beyond simply aiming a shooting. Managing a variety of tools that replenish armor, health, and ammo forms part of the gameplay flow. It’s herein that DOOM: The Dark Ages tweaks expectations a bit, turning the Doom Slayer from Eternal’s whirling tornado of death into Dark Age’s metal-clad, shotgun-wielding gorilla.
Every step the Doom Slayer takes is intentionally loud and weighty, but make no mistake — monkey bars aside, The Dark Ages remains incredibly agile. And the Saw Shield is a big part of that toolkit.
On a relatively generous cooldown, the Saw Shield lets players dash from enemy to enemy, wiping out large crowds of fodder demons in a hail of giblets and blood mist. Later, it can be upgraded in a variety of ways, turning into a Thor-like bladed boomerang, with increased range and utilities. Where it gets really interesting, though, is when you actually use it for its intended purpose, like a shield.
It’s hard to put into words just how satisfying the Saw Shield’s parry mechanic is when it lands, all the more satisfying when you’ve weaved it in naturally as part of zipping around the murderscape, double-barrelled shotgun in hand. It makes a satisfying “bong” when you’ve successfully perfect-parried, in a “for whom the bell tolls” type of spectacularly gory melee combo sequence.
Larger enemies like Cyberdemons actually demand that you stand and fight in melee range, deflecting gun attacks in a similar fashion to the controversial “Marauder” enemies from Doom Eternal. Only here do you have much better tools for dealing with their sequences. However, I do have some reservations about the parry mechanic, as awesome as it generally is, which we’ll get to in a bit.
DOOM: The Dark Ages’ press demo felt eager to show off the variety id Software wanted to put on offer. The first mission felt more traditional, in enclosed spaces with secrets dotted around the map, rewarding exploration.
The second mission offered mech gameplay, which we’ll discuss soon, and the final mission was a lot more open, taking place in a large castle siege.
During the final mission, I couldn’t help but make a mental connection to Halo, which I’ve seen other previews reference too. The open nature, coupled with sci-fi dogfights raging overhead, and strange fleshy tanks dotting the landscape, called back to the level “Halo” from Halo: CE, tasking players to move to different objectives on the map before converging on the exit.
Doom Guy doesn’t plant grenades on tanks to destroy them, though. He punches them.
Even these wider level designs were still unmistakably DOOM, with a high density of enemies, complete with enclaves and waves upon waves of fodder demons there simply to serve as walking med packs. The carnage you can paint is restlessly satisfying, with new weapons like the Rail Spike pinning enemies onto walls, and the Skull Crusher auto-shotgun firing literal skull fragments into enemies in a wide spray.
Thankfully, all of this carnage was as performant as it was gore-geous.
+ Absolutely stunning visuals and performance
DOOM: The Dark Ages impressed me immensely with its performance and visuals, although it’s always hard to gauge performance without the necessary tools at times. Plus, the demo kits were high-end PCs, which you would hope could handle even the most demanding games at all times.
id Tech is always a showstopper (and I’m not sure why we don’t see more games using it, frankly), but it’s to be expected that id Software is the master of the craft with it. I feel like “scale” was clearly a design pillar for The Dark Ages, with vast backdrops filled with combatants baying for blood.
Iconic DOOM demons return with a new coat of paint, some armed with new (or, well, old) implements of pain. The forces of Hell remain technologically advanced, but their weapons are notably more analogue in some regards this time around, with an emphasis on bone-crushing rather than vaporising, at least in some regards.
DOOM: The Dark Ages wastes no time offering huge vistas to gawk at, eager to impress the fact that this isn’t simply Doom Slayer’s war this time. Argent D’nur and Hell itself rage across the entire planet in a brutal stalemate, and you are there to tip the scales.
+ An intriguing emphasis on story
DOOM: The Dark Ages’ preview event was preceded by a video presentation from the game directors, explaining how the team wanted to put a bigger emphasis on story and lore with this iteration of the game.
Indeed, even in the relatively brief slice I was given access to, I was intrigued by the amount of cutscenes and characters on offer. Although, sure, the execution of said story remains to be seen.
The Doom Slayer seems to have been technologically indentured by the Maykr race, a dimension-jumping civilization of hyper-advanced aliens that seems to have some kind of tentative alliance with the ancient human Sentinels of Argent D’nur.
Hell is intent on dividing them by any means necessary, which typically involves hordes of horrific creatures spewing through hell portals. A mysterious Hell Priest, Witch, and Prince of Hell oversee the demonic festivities, sewing cults into the human populace, while figuring out how exactly what they can possibly do to stop the rampaging Doom Slayer.
The character work builds on lore set up in DOOM Eternal and its DLC packs, giving DOOM: The Dark Ages a new dimension, although it remains to be seen whether some just feel like the cutscenes are simply a roadbump towards the slaughterhouse main events.
Speaking of which … let’s talk about some of the game’s iffy points.
– The “Mechadragon” gameplay needs some work
To be fair to the developers here, they were keen to stress that improvements to The Dark Ages’ dragon gameplay are ongoing, and it was apparent that there was a general lack of polish here. But, some of my concerns go a bit further than simple polish.
Some levels in DOOM: The Dark Ages are broken up with mounted combat. Some levels take place inside an Atlas mech, teased in previous games. Those sequences were incredibly badass, battling titanic monsters in hand-to-hand combat. It made me wonder what a Titanfall-like multiplayer game set in the DOOM universe might be like.
But, I would be lying if I didn’t feel myself thinking “when can I play Doom Guy again?” That feeling was exaggerated tenfold with the game’s mechadragon sequences. The rule of cool might’ve ruled a little too hard with this one.
The mechadragon areas I experienced equated to linear shooting galleries that reminded me of Star Fox-type games. They zoomed you far away from the meticulous gore of the glorious ground war gameplay, and had you firing what felt a bit like a pea shooter into Lego turrets. It was made worse by the fact that it felt like I could only deal damage after performing a “perfect dodge.”
I’ll explain a bit more why this was problematic in the next section.
– The parry mechanic strays dangerously close to schmup bullet hell arcadery
The reason this “perfect dodge” mechanic is a bit counter-intuitive is not because it’s hard to pull off, not by any means. I was playing on Ultra Violence, and missing a perfect block could be the difference between life and death.
The issue, for me, was that you can only parry certain color-coded abilities, which just felt strange to me. Enemies will blast you with a variety of projectiles, but only certain projectiles will be colored green. Only the green ones can be parried or perfectly dodged, which is required for certain attacks to trigger.
On certain enemies, and in certain situations, I found myself purposefully leaning into attacks to be in range to land the perfect dodge. Why would I want to put myself in harm’s way? The “gamey” feel of these bright, flat, neon-green 2D textures felt utterly at odds with the photorealistic, gothic art direction the rest of the game is soaked in.
The green parry balls come a bit too close to being a metaphor for a traffic light in some situations.
Why can I only parry the “green” projectiles? What’s special about them that makes them parryable? Why can’t I just express a skilful parry at will on any projectile that’s about to hit me? Why do some enemies make me wait several seconds to perform this parry? Which is, in some cases, required to power up certain weapons, forcing me to wait it out for a green projectile?
Diegetically speaking, at times, it felt like DOOM: The Dark Ages was straying a bit too far into silliness with the variety of bright color prompts screaming in odds at the overall color pallet of the game.
It wasn’t just the color, though; they also just looked poor art-wise, particularly so in the dragon segments, almost with a placeholder-style skull clipart 2D texture. Maybe they were placeholders (I hope they were.)
I found myself waiting for a tank to hit me with a green projectile at one point just so I could reflect it back for ammo efficiency. The green parry balls come a bit too close to being a metaphor for a traffic light in some situations. Not a fan.
A clear game of the year contender
I think you can tell from the trailers alone that DOOM: The Dark Ages is going to be a game of the year contender. And sure, this is the year of Grand Theft Auto 6, which will make it tough for any game to escape its shadow — but as far as shooters go, as DOOM’s legacy goes, The Dark Ages seems set upon being another impressive entry in the modern pantheon.
There are still a few weeks of polish left to go, and the developers mentioned as such in their presentation before the event. The vast array of difficulty options will let you tailor gameplay to your will, complete with an “Ultra Nightmare” perma-death mode that will undoubtedly be a true test of pain for anyone brave enough to put themselves through it.
Either way, DOOM: The Dark Ages should be at the top of your upcoming Xbox games and upcoming PC games list, if it’s not already.
