Going into this game, I knew first-hand the pitch was to make the Doom Slayer feel like a tank, with the shield being the premiere new tool in your arsenal that would also serve to be what the game revolves around almost entirely. Fast gameplay, parrying, tons of great looking weapons, and a beautiful presentation enticed me to get this game on launch, which is something I pretty much never do nowadays because I’d rather play older games, or pay less for it down the road. So it’s disappointing I ended up not enjoying this game as much as I thought I was going to.
Chapter 1: The Shield
Let’s rip the band-aid off right away, I don’t like the shield. Coming off of Doom Eternal one thing I will never stop praising about this game is how it managed to make everything in your kit feel useful. From your shotguns for close encounters and having a Caco Demon choke down a grenade, to the sniping capabilities of your Heavy Cannon to take down those pesky Arachnotron turrets and Revenant rocket launchers. Doom The Dark Ages’s approach is to fully encompass utility within just the shield itself. From shield bashes, to parries, flinging it around to traverse the level design and remove a potentially dangerous demon from the combat equation are all great ideas on paper. My issue is the shield is a net-all solution to pretty much everything. This comes down to two major problems, the emphasis of parrying in this game, and dumping too many attributes into one aspect of the gameplay loop.
Due to most demons having an exploitable attack with a green flourish that can be parried, many combat encounters boil down to just that, parrying. The reward for doing so is so high, there is no reason to never exploit it in any given situation. Runes procking alone is enough of a merit to never fully interact with the demons because it’s likely going to wipe them all out, or put you in such an advantageous situation, the dangers of crowded fights are diluted. Successful timing of parries also stun the demon and those nearby, providing a huge opening for you to lay into them as you see fit. Add on some tacked damage for each parry as well, on top of also recharging your melee attacks faster. Parrying is paramount in this game, but is artificially more crucial than it needs to be because so many mechanics tie into it. Parrying reduces interactivity with the demons, because it all boils down to the same methods. Even with compromises like armored demons, the poor weapon balancing calls even this into question, which I’ll get to. I started this section discussing how Eternal made each demon interesting with how you needed to interact with each of them in a given fight. That’s really my biggest issue with this whole concept. None of the demons here feel unique, they’re all a waiting game for that one color-coded tell.
I think the shield blocking itself is more interesting and provides a layer of complexity in the gameplay loop that is taken advantage of by demons having legitimately difficult projectiles to avoid, and this is due to the lack of quick movement. While it’s arguable the lack of movement in this game feels like a step back, I think it has a lot more merit to it overall since Eternal was already teetering the edge on how much it could push the formula without it being too difficult or too alienating. I also really enjoyed the introduction to blocking by having you walk through a turret that fires down a narrow hallway you need to proceed through. While it’s certainly not shying away from being very blatant with the idea, the promise is there, unfortunately blocking is on the lower spectrum of priority you’re looking for in a real fight. Hell, even relegating this feature to puzzles is at least some implementation, which I would’ve taken over barely any at all. It’s not the most useless mechanic in the game, but why block when you can parry? Some demons do throw out projectiles that can’t be returned, or do throw hands that also cannot be bounced back, but they’re usually avoidable and don’t have the same vitriol the exploitable attacks do, which makes this mechanic terribly underexplored. It should also be considered that blocking too much puts your shield on cooldown for a few seconds, which is a huge penalty. The risk does not outweigh the reward half the time, and so it might just be better to tank the projectile than waste your shield blocking it when you can shield bash, saw, or parry.
One aspect of the shield I do really enjoy is how it’s incorporated into traversal. Throwing your shield across a gap to jump over probably doesn’t make any sense thematically, but as a mechanic, it’s a joy. Dark Ages takes many opportunities to mess around with this idea by creating scenarios where you really need to wrack your brain around the mechanic to figure it out, specifically with secrets, as I think that’s where this idea shines the most. It’s never too complicated due to the restraints of the mechanic, but I can appreciate tying in other puzzle aspects alongside it, like the shield throw. Speaking of, I also love the shield throw! The idea you can throw your shield to saw into a dangerous demon is fantastic, and adds a strategic element to target priority that didn’t really exist before. It’s not a definitive answer to a scenario, but can certainly add a lot more room for success in a pinch.
Chapter 2: The Guns
A core problem I had with Doom 2016 was the poor weapon balancing. The Super Shotgun once obtained overshadowed most of your weapons with the exception of the BFG for bosses specifically. Doom Eternal had an amazing collection of weapons, each one having a justifiable reason to be used in any given fight, especially in regards to the Demons currently in play. I touched on it lightly in the shield section, but Eternal’s weapons all had utility. The Plasma Rifle could destroy energy shields, and the microwave beam gained further implementation in the DLC. Similar case with the Shotgun, which gained a niche to deal with stone imps with its revolving cylinder attachment. Rocket Launcher was good for bosses, the Ballista was great against shields and larger demons, and the Super Shotgun was balanced to be a barrel-stuffer with a hook to close the gap reliably. You couldn’t just hook any demon you wanted however, as some were potent enough close-up to rearrange your face if you weren’t careful.
Doom The Dark Ages has the Doom 2016 problem. The Super Shotgun is over-tuned in this game, and the demons only exacerbate the problem. Because every demon should be parried in this game, you’re likely going to be somewhat close to them. While it’s true some demons are hard to reach like the Caco Demons, the game does provide a solution to this problem with the shield bash. Not only do you get the Super Shotgun relatively early, but it also starts to highlight a lot more problems this game has. Dark Ages does not favor ranged encounters, rather it heavily rewards up-close fighting. In association with this concept, this makes shotguns infinitely more valuable. Shield bashing up to a Mancubus, parrying their tremor attack, and blasting them full of holes is a safe endeavor. In Eternal, if you hook a Mancubus, you’re probably eating a lot of damage, they were never a prime target for hooking. Instead it was more valuable to snipe their arm cannons from range and take them out that way. This is just one example, but it highlights my issue. There is no risk of sticking with the Super Shotgun, and the game’s kit folds into it.
There are attempts at compromises to this idea I have already mentioned with armored enemies. The idea of an armored enemy is to, essentially, heat up their armor and then smash it with your shield once it’s good and orange. This would, in theory, invalidate shotguns because it couldn’t go through the armor layering, and allow the demons to one up on you in this experiment. What actually ends up happening is you shield bash or parry an armored enemy, their armor goes slightly orange, you shove your super shotty into their gut, and their armor blasts off like fireworks. It’s important to note that weapons can be upgraded in this game with currencies you find throughout the levels. There is an upgrade for the Super Shotgun to do more damage to armor, which makes this problem infinitely worse. I can concede however, that perhaps without this upgrade, this issue isn’t as prevalent, which is fair. The issue is just how early and powerful the Super Shotty already starts out as. It just fits the playstyle too well to neglect, Eternal had boundaries to balance this weapon out far better. Sure, it was still strong, but it wasn’t a universal answer. Super shotty has no drawbacks, except the ammo, which is another issue solved purely from the way this game handles ammo economy. The chainsaw wasn’t invented back in the ol’ days, we just punched the ammo out of our victims. Because you can reload your super shotgun with a good punch, this further rewards the close combat structure this game rewards the most. Doesn’t matter if it’s your fist, the flail, or the mace. I’d actually argue the flail is the best with the upgrades because it will also drop armor for you, which lets you play so much more brazenly with less risk, especially with the Super Shotgun.
Even with demons you can’t “reach” like the Caco Demons or Revenants, there are ways to get around this. Shield bashing, or throwing your shield into them so they can sit still for you to close the gap makes this aspect null. I will say, for as much as I’m harping on this problem, it’s just immensely disappointing what the repercussions of this are, the other weapons simply aren’t as useful. Each weapon you obtain is exciting, or should be, but since they all do the same thing with very little to fulfill on their own, it makes them all feel hollow. One weapon I was looking forward to was the Pulverizer. A gun that shreds up skulls and expels their pieces out as bullets in a huge spread? Sounds amazing! Conceptually every weapon in this game is awesome, mechanically, they all fall short. The Pulverizers whole idea is to be a crowd control weapon, which it does indeed serve this purpose. You know what else crowd controls really well? Literally just throwing my shield, with no ammo economy to worry about, or much downtime at all compared to swapping weapons. Of course, ammo is a non-issue, but the Pulverizer doesn’t really want to be close up, it needs space to divvy out its damage. Every weapon boils down to this argument of “Why not just use the shield/super shotgun?”. At the bare minimum, from my own playing experience, the only weapon I found myself actually using for its utility was the Cycler. The Cycler is an energy-based weapon, the brother of the Plasma Rifle to put it one way. Much like it, disrupting energy shields and creating a chain lightning debuff to deal more damage to demons is actually pretty valuable. For as all-encompassing as the Super Shotgun is, it cannot deal with energy shields or barriers. The Cycler carves out a niche use only because the Super Shotgun can’t, and that’s very sad to say. So we’ve got two usable weapons, and then we have nine weapons you’re probably never using.
Even though the other weapons don’t carve out great niches for themselves, they’re still a ton of fun to use. I still enjoyed the Pulverizer, I loved the Impaler, the Rocket Launcher is always fun, and of course the BFC is amazing to just wipe out an encounter real nice and quick. The MVP goes to the Chainshot though for its awesome concept and satisfying impact against the demons. Conceptually, these weapons are great, even in utility, I can see what they were attempting to do. But when you have a weapon like the Super Shotgun sitting there alongside the rest, it becomes nothing short of illogical to just not plow through the game with it. A self-imposed limitation is always really valuable in situations like these, but as someone who was already not loving the game, the Super Shotty quickly became the answer I needed to get through this game faster. For others, I do hope this isn’t the case, but the problems I’ve laid out here are also not simply going to disappear. It would be great to see the game patched to perhaps tone down the Super Shotgun and perhaps carve out a bit more practicality for the other weapons. As it stands for now, the weapons feel reductive when compared to Eternal.
Chapter 3 - The Experience
Mick Gordon will sorely be missed for Doom’s soundtrack, but I do not blame him at all for not working with Bethesda further. I urge you all to look into that yourselves if you’re curious, but Mick Gordon was not on the team for Dark Ages’s soundtrack, and you can tell. Generic guitar riffs and average metal music permeate the game that has no real substance or lasting power whatsoever. I couldn’t even tell you one song from this game, it’s that forgettable.
Level design has taken a large hit in quality in exchange for overly expansive levels that are a chore to comb through, even more so if you’re attempting to get 100% in every level, which I attempted to do, but quickly realized how boring it was, then stopped. There is so much underutilized space here, I think the scale should’ve been reduced, and nothing of value would have been lost. To the game’s credit, secrets do dot the levels well enough to falsify an impression of space fulfillment, but ultimately there’s a lot of fat that can be trimmed for a more ideal experience. Arenas have also ultimately been simplified to align more with the game’s movement options, or lack thereof. The best you’re getting is a few staircases and outposts with the occasional Mancubus hanging out on. Usually accompanied by an explosive barrel to make the demon placement inconsequential. Due to the large space, fights drag on longer merely because there’s more of it to do instead of trying to add meaningful level design, platforming, or any other compelling philosophy other than “more space is good”. To the game’s credit, the back half of the game does have some interesting concepts and actually a bit of intricate level design with puzzles and observational brain teasers that I enjoyed. If this was consistent throughout the entire run, I’d be less critical. I just don’t see why the game needed more scale when it’s not suited for it.
I will give the game credit for its secrets however. Previous titles had very obtuse secrets that weren’t very easy to find or figure out, especially without a guide. Dark Ages makes strides to make secrets far more recognizable in the World, even having them marked for you from the very start to make things easier. A lot of these puzzles were genuinely great, maybe even the highlight of the game for me. A lot of them flexed the mechanics and potential this game had in a way that made me desire the whole game be this way. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case, but I need to do my due diligence. If there’s one thing Dark Ages did right, it’s puzzles, and validating their completion with in-game currencies. These currencies can be used to upgrade your shield, melee, and weapons, and are a fantastic incentive to get players to even look out for secrets instead of some toys or weapon skins. While I’m not overly opposed to them as a completionist, it’s good to have something more tangible within the progression of the game so I can feel good going out of my way to do this stuff.
Two of the key selling points during the marketing of Dark Ages was that of the Atlan Mech, and the Dragon you get to ride on. The Mech in a word is: underwhelming. Its gameplay is so simple, and yet it falls into the same traps as the normal levels do. Emphasizing dodging and counter-attacking rather than anything else. It’s really only there for the sense of scale and to break up level themes, which it does an adequate enough job at both. I can at least say the gameplay here is different enough to not be a chore or redundant, but I do wish it had a bit more to it than what it actually was.
The Dragon (Serrate) is surprisingly great. I was very hesitant on the idea of a flying level in a Doom game, but no it does actually work alright. I enjoy controlling Serrat, it’s a smooth experience overall with a good amount of polish. Rising and descending feels natural, and the large levels you get to fly around in are very detailed and have plenty of secrets to find which was generally pretty exciting to find. Gameplay here isn’t amazing, but I do prefer it to the Mech. Because the projectiles you need to dodge here do require a bit more thought than “dodge left or right.” It’s not much of an improvement, but it’s enough of a jump for me to praise it a bit more. I also just love Dragons, and Serrat has an amazing design, so that helps. The conclusion to both the mech and the dragon are: they’re fine, but not great. I appreciate mixing up the gameplay every few levels, but they’re very formulaic and don’t try to push out of their established concepts much at all, with the exception of the endgame which is like one step forward in a sea of what I would have wanted it to do.
Demon variety in this game is solid! I really miss the interactivity they had though from Eternal. Prowlers are very common, but they do provide for some easy targets for melee refills or an easy parry. Revenants have an amazing design in this game, and I like the more magical/ethereal concept they have with their attacks and movement, it really plays into this pseudo-medieval tone the game is going for. My favorite new demon is easily the Komodo, very satisfying parry timings with a variety of ranged and close options. One of the most dynamic demons really since the answer isn’t always to gun it straight for them. I also love the Agaddon Hunters for their emphasis of a close-up combat style. All the other demons can’t go toe-to-toe with your shield and super shotgun, but the Agaddon Hunters can. It feels like a true duel between two gladiators, very reminiscent of the Marauders from Eternal, though far less difficult to deal with. Bosses were mostly fine, not much to say on them. I do like how insane they get by the end with the amount of parries you need to do in succession. With that said, I don’t enjoy just parrying, I think it’s priority should be forgone in favor of more interesting gimmicks, which one boss does provide.
I have nothing to comment on about the story. It’s fine, it serves to give reasonings why things happen and to get from point A to B. I do not play Doom for the story, and the story isn’t trying to be compelling or deep, it’s merely there in service of the different settings, boss fights, and overall level progression.
Doom The Dark Ages just put too much emphasis on certain concepts and lost sight of what made Eternal so great. I do enjoy the shield, but it’s too much of a net-solution to everything. I love the weapons, but their balancing is atrocious, leaving me to question why I would use them over the better options. The music is not nearly as energetic or ear-catching, the mech and dragon are simple and formulaic. Doom The Dark Ages is reductive, because everything that made the previous game so good… was lost.
