DOOM is a franchise I’m very passionate about, just like many others. From the moment I played the first game on a barely functional PC in my Mom’s office at work to the modern reboot series, with its over the top violence, varied roster of demonic enemies and excellent gunplay DOOM (and boomer shooters) quickly became part of my personality and everyone who spends enough time around me knows it.
However, there is one part of DOOM that I’m passionate (maybe to a fault) about that not everyone is:
The Lore
I honestly love DOOM Lore, it’s corny, over the top, it has excessive amounts of aura and hype moments at the cost of being consistent or easy to follow at times, but there is something about it that just drew me in, maybe it's my spectacle-driven brain that just falls easily for the Rule of Cool, or that I just see vision through the wonderful art direction and aesthetics the franchise has, but I like it enough to say that I would be the type of guy that would explain the entirety of the Night Sentinels subplot to a first date.
However, it wasn't until Eternal that I really got into it, I read its codex from head to toe, piecing the timeline of events together as I went, and asking questions that might or might not be answered. In my experience, there were two key events of the timeline that got me scratching my head at the lack of information, the first being the elephant on the room, we don’t know what happened between the events of DOOM’s (2016) ending and DOOM Eternal, and how we got to that point, rumors said that we were meant to have a comic series that served as a bridge between games, but that probably got cancelled internally as we never saw them being released. Bummer.
The second one is an odd lack of details about Doom Slayer’s time with the Night Sentinels, a warring tribe of enhanced humans locked into an ongoing conflict against the Hordes of Hell. Sure, there are some scattered bits here and there about how he was brought to them by the Maykrs, and how he wasn't trusted at first, but then eventually earned their respect, and rose to be one of their most praised warriors even if he wasn't from their home world. But as for their falling out, and those first years he spent with them? An odd lack of details indeed. I always said that if we had another DOOM game after Eternal, then it had to be one that went over Doomguy’s time with them, since making a direct sequel to The Ancient Gods Part 2 without some bullshit justification (which DOOM is very used to by now so I wouldn't stress about it) happening.
So picture my face of surprise when I first saw the game’s reveal, and it’s exactly that! It's weird, it's the second time a game studio has given me exactly what I wanted with those specific details since I got Sephiroth on Smash Bros.
However, when you make a game as good as DOOM Eternal, whatever was going to follow it through was always meant to be met with some skepticism. Specially when the devs were very open on their intentions of changing a lot of the gameplay's moving parts, and I’m not just talking about the first gameplay trailer that was shown at some point during January, this had been a long time coming ever since Hugo Martin did his dev streams and commentary back in the Eternal days (specially around TAG2’s final update). Back then he would state stuff like not making the same game twice, or how he was never intending to make a faster game than Eternal, but my favorite one was about how he wanted the final boss of TAG2 to transform into a Dragon that you had to fight in a mech, but had to be scrapped because of the COVID pandemic + Time Restraints. There's a lot of stuff that he said that ended up happening and a lot that didn't, that is very interesting to read about. Unfortunately, since the Eternal Dev streams are hours long, I can't pinpoint the exact moment where he said these things, but I found this Reddit thread that summarizes them in case any of you want to check it out.
But what I’m trying to say is that if you get into this game expecting DOOM Eternal 2, you might be let down very quickly, but if you approach it with an open mind you might be pleasantly surprised as I was.
The motto of this game is to “Stand and Fight”, in terms of DOOM, what does that mean? It means that there is a stronger focus on brawling enemies in close quarter combat and that just doesn't involve grabbing your trusty Super Shotgun and blasting demons in the face, rather than just jumping around and flying all over the place. Long are the days of having multiple jumps, dashes or propelling yourself like a rocket with the Ballista boost. This time around you have a different set of tools to Rip and Tear, starting with your brand new Shield Saw, with this bad boy you can block projectiles, bash enemies, parry special attacks and melee strikes, and throw it around to get rid of the excessive and pesky fodder that keeps shooting at you from afar or to lodge it in larger demons to stunlock them so you can gun them down.
Next are your Melee Weapons which not only deal huge amounts of damage and feel very satisfying to pull off specially with how much weight their animations seem to have, but also serve as Ammo dispensers, everytime you hit a successful parry their cooldown gets reduced, allowing you to weave more and more melee strikes in between blocking to maximize damage and ammo replenishment, really, it’s very difficult to run out of it in this game. Along these, you now have mechanic called Executions which serve as the replacement of the Glory Kill system that once defined the identity of the reboot-era DOOM Games, after dealing enough damage to an enemy you get the chance to execute it with a swift melee strike independent of your stored charges dropping health in the process.
I’m not gonna lie, the absence of dashes and specially Glory Kills hurt a lot, for a moment, the latter felt like they had become a defining aspect of the franchise, specially since the justification for their removal was that they broke the pace of the gameplay too often. Which not only I call bullshit because I could see the animation of killing an Archvile after blocking its punch, or stabbing a Tyra— erm, sorry, Cyberdemon, on the head multiple times, or bashing the skull of a mere zombie in a million times and never get tired of them, but also because everytime you hit a melee attack, the game has like this cinematic slowdown effect for extra oomph which is nice the first couple of times, but with how often you have melee attacks at the ready from the midgame to the lategame, it can become pretty annoying very quickly, my cope was that it would allow me to plan my next move but when some enemies start winding up their next attack while you are hitting or parrying them, there isn't really much you can do but wish the slowdown wasn't there so you could keep playing at your own pace.
Fortunately, Hugo Martin’s dev streams came back recently to celebrate the release of the game and one of the issues he addressed was this, and now ID is considering adding a Slowdown slider to make this effect less intrusive, though I’ve beaten the game already, I think I’m gonna wait until this eventual patch drops to hop back in and try it out once again, and I hope it enhances the experience of new players in the future.
Before wrapping up the experience of playing as the Slayer himself, I want to briefly talk about the new guns, if you are interested in playing the game yourself, these might be considered spoilers, so take that as you will. Starting with the Combat Shotgun, a good old reliable that starts off very simple but quickly rose to become one of my favorite ones thanks to its own upgrade tree that sets enemies on fire and fires multiple rounds per shot.
I liked it even more than its Super Shotgun counterpart, which, once again, it’s as broken as it was in Doom 2 and 2016. Then you got the Shredder which acts as a typical assault rifle, with its precision focused counterpart in the form of the Impaler, that rewards you for hitting enemies in their weak spots to disarm them or quickly kill them.
For the Energy-based weapons, we have the Accelerator and the Cycler………… I’m going to be honest I don’t know what the real difference between them are besides fire rate, and for that reason, I only used the Accelerator which felt like an improved version of the Heat Blast Plasma Rifle of the previous game, specially with how much damage it could deal after a couple of upgrades.
Then we have the Skull crushers, probably the weapon that looked the most exciting to me in the reveal trailer, the most DOOM gun they’ve ever made, the way the Pulverizer works is that they shoot projectiles in a specific pattern that helps you thin down the number of enemies that are spread out, after a couple of upgrades this one unlocks a special perk that powers up your damage and movement speed if you keep a chain of executions going, whereas the Ravager has a smaller spread pattern but its damage amps up very quickly and eventual upgrades make enemies drop health upon taking damage allowing you keep up with incoming projectiles without having to stop to shield.
Then you have the rocket and grenade launchers, these two kinda suck. They don't deal enough damage and their area of effect for hitting you is big enough to have you take significant self-damage every time you use them, but if there's any Launcher enjoyers that can prove me wrong, I’d love to hear you out because I’d really like to share your vision on these.
And last but not least, the Chainshot, a charge weapon that shoots a metal ball at the enemies that deals more damage the more you hold it. At first, I wasn't really impressed with this weapon, but when you unlock the upgrade that allows you to charge it instantly after parrying an attack made it my all-time favorite, it got me out of so many encounters I shouldn’t have lived through. Use this one in my name, you won't regret it.
Up next, I’m going to mention the other two big additions for The Dark Ages, the Atlan Mech and the Dragon segments, these remind me of when older games would try anything to spice up the usual moment-to-moment gameplay with something that is completely separated from the main loop. Hugo Martin worked in the art team of Pacific Rim, so this should tell you that the guy really likes GIANT ROBOTS duking it out against GIANT MONSTERS, the fact that these were eventually going to make their way into a DOOM game under his lead shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.
However, I have to say that these segments are all spectacle, at the risk of sounding a bit reductionist, they are fun, the first time, and specially before the final boss, but they don't change much throughout the game, however they are short enough to not be really inconvenient and they are still a fun time. On the other hand, the Dragon segments are mostly shoot 'em ups that result in you unlocking some optional areas to explore on foot, they aren't bad at all, but nothing to write home about either. These two types of missions feel like experimental ideas that sounded very good on paper, but their execution in gameplay might not be completely perfect.
As for the music… Look man, I miss Mick Gordon, and anyone is in their right to do so, specially since I’ll never forget the treatment that Bethesda gave him, specially everytime Marty Stratton’s fuckass face shows up where he’s not wanted. But giving credit where its due, Finishing Move did a phenomenal work with the soundtrack, of course, it never hits the highs of Mick’s music, specially since in the game itself the audio is mixed very weirdly which results in the sound effects and voice lines being way louder than the music itself.
That said, consider giving the soundtrack a proper listen in your platform of choice because I found myself liking more songs from the game than I expected, such as From the Ashes, Unchained Predator (the song from the announcement trailer!), Unholy Siege and Atlan Battleground, if they are going to stay around for the franchise in the foreseeable future, this is a very good starting album, and given time I’m confident that they will do even better in the DLCs and subsequent games.
Now, the last points I wanted to talk about in this review are both the art style and the Story. I really enjoy how the game and the enemies look, since the medieval setting is the main focus of this game, a huge part of the aesthetic is darker and grittier, while a lot of the earlier areas might feel a bit samey, the later ones start to show off a lot more color and variety in landscapes while still keeping the Dark Fantasy undertone going on.
As for the story itself, this is one of the points I was expecting the most, first things first, this time the Codex isn't the main source of lore, instead the direct narrative itself takes charge, while the codex still has some interesting information drops, what happens between every mission is what is worth talking about, expect spoilers ahead so beware.
As mentioned, Doom The Dark Ages begins sometime after the Slayer arrived at Argent D’Nur, home world of the Night Sentinels and was blessed with unmatched might by the Maykrs to help them fight the hordes of Demons that are sieging the planet, said horde is led by Prince Ahzrak who is trying to find the McGuffin known as the Heart of Argent, he is also being aided by a Mysterious Witch that doesn't seem to be neither a Demon nor a Mortal, this witch has provided Ahzrak with mysterious sorcery that has helped him mutate and empower some of the most cruel demons of hell to assist him in his invasion.
Meanwhile, by order of the Khan Maykr, The Slayer is being kept as their Pitbull named “Princess” as he is Soul bound to them by a device in his suit called the Tether, however due to his overwhelming rage, power and will to protect the innocent, this mind control is weakening every more and more as time passes, until it eventually breaks free and decides to help the Sentinels in his own terms. The sentinels, as expected, are very weary of him, not only because of him being an outsider, but because of how terrifying and ruthless he is during fights, however they know one thing for sure, he is their ally, and this war will not be won without his help.
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Through a constant back and forth with Prince Ahzrak, we eventually come to learn that the Heart of Argent is actually the power source of a Wraith living in the body of Thira, the daughter of King Novik, Wraiths were what granted the Sentinels the access to Argent energy and the source of their power and technology. And they all come from a Cosmic realm beyond both Hell and Argent D’Nur, that is plagued with gruesome, eldritch monsters all over the place, the goal of the witch is to have the Prince resurrect their Ancient Cthulhu looking god so they can trample anyone who opposes them. That was the plan, of course, if it wasn't for Doom Slayer’s intervention, who eventually defeats both and puts an end to the invasion.
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While these lore revelations about the origins of the Wraiths are interesting, there are some topics that are still unaddressed that makes me look forward to the DLC: Which is the eventual fall of Argent D’Nur, given what we’ve seen in DOOM 2016 and Eternal, there was an invasion to hell that went terribly wrong that resulted in the Slayer’s imprisonment, the Death of Commander Valen’s son that lead to the eventual creation of the Icon of Sin, and the fall of the whole planet that resulted in whatever sentinels were left to either surrender to Hell, the Maykrs, or desert to other worlds to never be found again.
So where does that leave us? DOOM The Dark Ages was a game that I’ve been looking forward to since even before I knew it was going to exist, it was a wish I had that I’m elated to see that ID Software brought to life. I really, really like this game a lot, from the guns, to the story filled to the brim with aura and hype moments, to the moment-to-moment close quarter combat. I think I even feel comfortable saying that it's my second favorite entry in the franchise, though I usually don't like comparing games in the same one, I just have to be honest, it’s nowhere near the highest points of Eternal (or even its lows), but that’s fine because DOOM Eternal is a very tough act to follow. And I know there are plenty of people saying “I don't understand the hate for this game, it’s awesome!” That’s right, it is, it is an awesome game, but I also understand completely why won't everyone fuck with it, maybe it's because of the melee-focused approach, or the Atlan/Dragon sections, or simply, because it doesn't play like Eternal. Whether like it or not, this is the DOOM 3 of our era
, where it will have some people defending it, and some people that despite trying their utmost, just didn’t click with this dance.
The main difference is that, unlike DOOM 3, I actually enjoyed playing through The Dark Ages.
