You know why historians often refer to medieval days as the dark ages? It’s because id Software had yet to invent Doom, and society lived in absolute disarray until then. Lore-wise, Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel to the last two instalments in the franchise, but don’t be fooled.
It is a transformative new mainline installment in this legendary first person shooter franchise, and we managed to play it for about three hours in a special Doom-themed event, organized by Bethesda in Germany. There’s so much to talk about, so let’s just do it: here’s our hands-on experience with Doom: The Dark Ages.
Hot Sauce!
In the busy town of Wiesbaden, just half an hour West of Frankfurt, Germany, Bethesda gave us a couple hours to Doom our hearts out. After eating hamburgers with hot sauces that mimic the difficulty names of Doom games, from I’m Too Young To Die all the way to Ultra-Nightmare, we were underground to what felt like a dungeon, to get some details on what we were about to experience first-hand. Then, after choosing an Xbox controller over keyboard and mouse, to better grasp how the Xbox version may end up feeling, it was time to shoot. And boy, was it a ride!
Needless to say, the game looks absolutely incredible. Sure, we were on high-end PCs, managing to brute force this id Tech 9 gorgeousness, maxed out at 4K and 60fps, but it’s such a step up from the already incredible-looking Doom: Eternal. Ray tracing makes every weapon and puddle shine, extreme weather conditions are just stunning, all the models, animations and vistas look as sharp as any game has ever done. Even the physics engine gets quite a showcase, with a lot of items to destroy, hung bodies and more to “play” with. Given the previous games, we can surely expect this new iteration of the engine being very scalable and performant, giving us high hope for the console versions as well.
Our demo was divided into four segments, which were effectively slightly altered versions of what we will find in the full game. Some cutscenes, collectibles and even entire areas of levels were removed and reorganized a bit, just to allow us to experience a larger chunk of actual gameplay. We were only allowed to capture footage on the final of the 4 segments, a majestic siege level that we’ll dive into in a bit, but I do get to explain what I played until then. And as mentioned earlier: there’s a lot to talk about here.
One aspect is that the game will feature a far larger presence of cinematic cutscenes and story, with the lore moving all the way into the action, as opposed to staying hidden in the codex. We only saw bits and pieces of it, but there’s going to be plenty of named characters, dialogues and more this time – too early to judge, however, on their delivery yet, only having seen a couple minutes of that thus far. The plot is set way before the events of the previous Doom games, so it’s a valid entry point into the franchise. I know your trigger finger is itching however, so let’s get to the gameplay, shall we?
Stand and Fight.
“Stand and fight”, that’s the marketing motto for this game, but it’s more than just a catchphrase – it’s an entire design philosophy in Doom: The Dark Ages. In Doom: Eternal, players became masterfully adept at high speed movement, non-stop dashes to avoid enemy attacks, fast-rotating all the available weapons and tools to maximize damage, never ever stopping for a split second to avoid taking damage. For how ridiculously powerful the Doomguy/Doomslayer was, he still could only eat a handful of enemy attacks before dying, so speeding around on the ground and air alike was key to survival.
In this preview, I immediately had to force myself to get rid of the Doom: Eternal muscle memory. The walking speed feels a tad slower, the airtime reduced with the removal of dashes, and while there’s some platforming and climbing to do, it all feels more grounded by design. Doom: Eternal was, and still is, a marvellous brutal tango, played at ludicrous speeds and with a level of technicality not normally seen in modern AAA shooters. Doom: The Dark Ages takes a step back, and while it’s still intense, it asks players to reconsider their playstyle, adopting a brand new philosophy: the aforementioned stand and fight.
Enter what may be the most versatile tool in the history of Doom: the medieval-themed Shield Saw. This is a combination of a seemingly quite standard circular metal shield, equipped however with rotating chainsaw blades around its edges. It will be your best friend in this bloody journey, as it can be used in many ways. It can be thrown at enemies to create a devastating homing attack that can smash away multiple bad guys at once. It can be used for traversal, as its “recall” feature allows the protagonist to leap over gaps that seem otherwise insurmountable. But most importantly, it allows players to parry.
The “stand and fight” motto starts to make sense now, does it? You no longer have to dodge every attack, with the game in fact encouraging you to parry. By holding out the shield in front of them, the player can still move around, but also protect themselves from a handful of shots, before eventually needing to recharge the shield. Key element are the perfect parries – ideally timed moves that can even stun enemies. Often, the very act of committing to a perfect parry means that our damage will be amplified for a couple seconds, so as a strategy it is infinitely more effective than just dodging every hit.
This shield truly is what the entirety of Doom: The Dark Ages revolves around. It does have a handful of limitations, but it’s a tool with clear offensive, defensive and traversal use alike. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Doom game without a large selection of weapons either. You’ll find old friends like the shotgun and its double shotgun variant, the plasma rifle and more, with a handful of brand new inclusions as well. What is already the most iconic of the bunch is the aptly named Skull Crusher, a large weapon somewhat reminiscent of Unreal Tournament’s flak cannon, except for the fact that it crushes “dry” demon skulls in its barrel, only to shoot its shrapnel all over the place. It’s gloriously metal.
Want more Gameplay? We got you.
Each weapon has two different modes, each with its own skill tree of upgrade paths. These can range from mere stat boosts, such as increased attack rate, all the way down to elemental effects and other perks that drastically alter the core mechanic of the very weapon. The “spammy” plasma rifle can be turned into a precise bolt shooter of sorts, or of course the standard and versatile shotgun can morph into the legendary double shotgun – all this with the simple press of a button, even during combat. During my tests, I even made sure to retry a couple combat scenarios with completely different weapon build branches, to grasp how different things can feel.
In the opening segment, comprised mainly of chunks of the game’s opening level and a piece of level 2, I managed to get the hang of this revamped gameplay. The shield immediately took front and center, the weapon usage is key to inflict consistent damage, with even the glory kills making a predictable comeback – though they are brand new organic ones, based on the player’s direction and angle, rather than the scripted ones from previous games. We can even use a flail for them, which is amazing.
Since we didn’t get to capture footage of these upcoming segments, I’ll keep my description for them relatively brief, but we tried two of the most awaited moments of Doom: The Dark Ages – flying on the dragon and controlling the giant mech. The former is smooth, fast, precise, with combat relying on fast-paced dodges and relentless attacks. What we tried is a segment of a massive level with enormous airspaces, as the Doomslayer/Doomguy is tasked with taking down several airships, which have us alternate on foot combat segments with high-speed dragon chases and combat alike. It’s quite wild.
Then of course there’s the mech parts, which rely on a frankly quite simplicistic, yet satisfying combat model. With a handful of melee attacks to boot, and once again a focus on dodging attacks for maximum efficiency on the follow-up attack, we can wreak havoc over battlefields. These are littered with a lot of small creatures that get squished under our giant metallic feet, all while we get to punch enormous demons, of the likes we’ve seen at the end of Doom: Eternal. Both the dragon-flying and mecha parts are interesting diversions, though we’ll see if they manage not to overstay their welcome in the full campaign – the biggest in the franchise to date, apparently.
The footage we have is from is the fourth segment of our test, a massive siege map as it was being referred to by Bethesda during the event. These are, by far, the largest fully explorable maps the series have ever seen, and are basically open-ended hubs of non-stop action. Featuring main objectives, bosses, optional events, collectibles, secrets, dungeons, extra lives and more, these levels can be approached in just about any way or order the player decides to. There are parts I actually went back to a couple different times, just to see how different builds and weapon usage can alter my experience. And, if you watch our video, you can see there’s a lot of ways to deal with encounters in these open-ended areas – though you can’t just cheese by shooting from too far away, as your shots only travel a limited distance.
At this point it may feel redundant to point this out, considering id Software’s pedigree. Yet, the absolute core mechanics of Doom: The Dark Ages feel so damn good to play. The movement is still fast, precise, snappy. Players get countless options to customize their visuals, controls and accessibility options alike – from HUD colours, to custom FOVs, all the way down to individual sliders to manually alter enemies’ health, the parry window, or even the game speed itself. Doom: Eternal was already one of the most satisfying and customizable shooters on the market, and I’m happy to report that Doom: The Dark Ages somehow pushes the envelope even further. It’s incredibly fast, precise and satisfying, but players can finetune it to match their own pace or playstyle to the finest details.
Trust me, we’re dying to show you more of Doom: The Dark Ages, but this is far as we could go this time. Fortunately, release is a lot closer than you may realize, with Doom: The Dark Ages hitting Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC on May 15th 2025.
It’s also a day one release on Game Pass on Xbox and PC alike! On top of looking and feeling absolutely slick, which is hardly a surprise from id Software, The Dark Ages iterates on what makes Doom so great, but also reinvents its combat philosophy in smart ways, while also throwing all sorts of new bold gameplay ideas into the mix. After all, Doom has always been about redefining the shooter genre, and this game seems to promise no less either. We can’t wait to dive back into it, and be sure to keep following us for more Doom: The Dark Ages coverage in the coming months!
