Doom: The Dark Ages isn’t a continuation of the blood ritual carnage of Doom Eternal, it’s a return to the past – literally and spiritually. Developer id Software releases a prequel to its modern series of Doom games, taking us back to a time when the Slayer was wielded as the ultimate superweapon of gods and kings. It sounds metal as fuck, and the perfect setting for a series that almost spiraled out of control.
The point is that id Software got into this medieval war against hell not out of convenience, but out of a need to change the basics of the game. To return to where Doom became a legend twenty years ago. “At the beginning of every development cycle, I replay the original Doom, and let the team play it too. I realized we were still off the bull’s eye,” says creative director Hugo Martin. And That is where Doom: The Dark Ages was born.
Back to basic
The cause of this revelation? The projectiles. The nightmarish gauntlet of floating, goal-seeking dangers. “I immediately noticed how slowly those projectiles move, it just dawned on me That is the maze. The movement is more horizontal as you make your way between the projectiles each projectile mattered in the original Doom.”
Doom Eternal invested heavily in verticality, making constant movement across multiple planes of wider combat arenas a central part of the core rhythm of encounters. Martin says that returning to the ethos that initially underpinned the series became a “core pillar” of what the team wanted to achieve with Doom: The Dark Ages. “We couldn’t go higher in the sky than Doom Eternal. That was a great experience, but we want each game to stand alone,” says Martin.
“If you were an F22 fighter jet in Doom Eternal, this time we wanted to make you feel like you were an Abrams tank,” he adds, and it’s an analogy indicative of where id Doom: The Dark Ages sends to. “It means you are more powerful and grounded. The combat system for new players – those who only got into Doom with the reboot – I think with The Dark Ages they will feel like this is a redesigned combat system. But for long-time fans of the series, people who played the original Doom, you’ll find it really is a return to form.
What does that mean in real terms? Martin says the spirit of the original game comes to life in a number of ways, but perhaps most noticeably is the way you move. “You are heavier, more powerful and grounded,” he says. “We’re making a thing of shooting to aim again. You’ll weave between projectiles, just like you did in the original Doom, to deliver that Super Shotgun blast to the chest… It almost creates this three-dimensional ‘shootout’. ’em up’ puzzle that you work your way through.”
Power journey
Doom: The Dark Ages presents flatter, denser battle arenas – spread across more ecologically diverse environments than anything we’ve seen in the series to date. Powered by the latest idTech engine, id Software is achieving phenomenal results from its first Xbox Series X release. But amid all the destruction and extermination, you may not have noticed how many demons are flooding into your field of vision.
“We have more demons than ever before. There’s a shot where the Slayer turns a corner and he kills so many. With that spread shotgun and doing all that damage, releasing all the gory bits, and the feedback that what we can achieve in games now is just incredible. It’s so exciting to be able to offer that to players,” Martin continues. “The technology really allows us to use some of the largest spaces and the largest AI, and the weapons feel like the most powerful you’ll ever hold in a Doom game.”
That’s a bold proclamation. But Martin is confident that id Software can make things right, and that’s directly reflected in an outrageous narrative framework. “You are a weapon of mass destruction in this game. We like to say it’s this medieval war against the forces of hell and everything goes off and goes wrong. The good guys are losing, and you are the nuclear option – and we are putting you in the driver’s seat.”
That means, says Martin, that you’re “killing more demons than ever before.” He continues: “I think the amount of AI on the screen… I don’t even think there’s a limit at this point, it’s insane. I keep waiting to hear ‘no’ from the programmers, and they have it not yet said. It feels like, technically across the board, we’ve been given the power to make our best game. The last two Doom reboots have built on this – we certainly had limitations in the past, and that’s. just not the case it feels like they are there now. But with each game we try to build on the success of the last and learn the right lessons.”
“You exploit weaknesses with the shield in your left hand, and then you hurt things with the weapons in your right:
Hugo Martin
Martin is convinced that the weapons in The Dark Ages are “the most powerful you’ll ever hold in a Doom game”, but it’s worth delving into this a little deeper, as id Software introduces a surprising amount of nuance into the core combat rhythm of the rebooted series this time. The biggest change is the introduction of the Shield Saw – which gets its name because, as Martin puts it, “it’s a chainsaw and a shield.” It looks great in our first look at Doom: The Dark Ages, but it’s impossible to overestimate how important this tool will be all around.
“You always have that shield in your hand – you’re essentially double-wielding. I want players to feel like Aragorn, or Leonidas at the hot gates of 300. You are the hero of a huge battle in an FPS, in a Doom game no less. It just felt like it would be a really fun challenge for the team to take on, and I think we accomplished it.” I definitely want to see more, especially as Martin teases some of the ways the Saw Shield factors come into play . “You can do a lot with the shield. You can block attacks, deflect projectiles, there are melee weapons that you can combine attacks with – you use it to Resolving problems. You basically exploit weaknesses with the shield in your left hand, and then you hurt things with the weapons in your right hand. It’s quite simple.”
This all sounds excellent, and a huge change from what we’ve come to expect from modern Doom games – which have been brutal displays of violence. But I’m definitely ready to send the Slayer to hell and back in 2025, at which point the FPS is expected to land on PC, PS5, Game Pass, and Xbox Series X. Oh, and we’re not even there discussed the Mecha Dragon and the Atlan Mech with which we can grind gigantic demons to a pulp… that’s a story for next time, for all ages.
Here is all announced during the Xbox Games Showcaseincluding Doom: The Dark Ages of course.