Doom: The Dark Ages

DOOM: The Dark Ages does the impossible and raises the bar of an already outstanding franchise. It brings top-notch gunplay, stunning visuals, and excellent exploration mechanics, all in a gorgeous, hellish package.

It has been four years since we last took control of the Doom Slayer, but the time is finally nearly here. We spent the past week or so playing through id Software’s latest entry in this long-running, iconic first-person shooter franchise, and we have our DOOM: The Dark Ages review ready right now.

As a pioneer of the first-person shooter genre, Doom laid the foundation for its contemporaries but has also never rested on its laurels. Doom 3 steered the franchise toward survival horror. The 2016 reboot dared to revisit and refine the old-school formula in an era of Call of Duty-likes. Doom Eternal, for better or worse, implemented parkour-esque platforming. Doom: The Dark Ages offers perhaps ...

Doom: The Dark Ages has wholly succeeded in reminding me just how fun it is to run around, blast enemies, and try out weapons you’d never see in other games. It puts the hell in bullet hell, except you’re the one spewing bullets, and the demons are the ones who’re struggling to survive as you continue your onslaught. Being the most powerful Slayer on the planet has never felt so good.

In all the ways that matter, Doom: The Dark Ages is a pure power fantasy, loading you up with outlandish weaponry and lethal powers and unleashing you on the horde.

Doom: The Dark Ages is action-packed and has really high highs, though the last quarter of the game doesn't quite maintain its momentum. Still, Dark Ages is a no-brainer for fans of the 2016 Doom game and Doom Eternal, as well as anyone who is in the mood for a high-quality and exciting first-person shooter experience.

Doom: The Dark Ages reinvents and reins in with equal measure, taking the series in a bold new direction without straying from its captivating roots.

Doom: The Dark Age improves on the more polarizing elements of its predecessor, with its defensive gear offering an exciting twist on the familiar Doom formula. The level designs are overly drab, and the vehicle sections wear out their welcome, but the actual battles against hordes of demons are as fun as ever, and you’re given tons of awesome tools and toys to unleash on them.

Doom games, throughout the ages, have one simple premise: Kill demons with big guns. The formula has been modified slightly over time – our new era of Doom is now "kill demons, big guns, HEAVY METAL," which is an improvement – but as long as the basics are there, the game will likely be a ton of fun. Doom: The Dark Ages understands this, and it throws all manner of demons at you, with the express ...

The Slayer is ready to get all medieval on their demonic asses.

One last area that had me excited was the talk of streamlining the game’s upgrade currencies, where Hugo shared a little more on a ‘streamlined economy’ – “We’ve streamlined the economy and the currencies in the game. I think that’s another thing we learned from DOOM Eternal is if you have too many currencies and too many skill trees, you can confuse the player.”

The one thought that kept occurring to me during my first playthrough was this: I can't wait to collect everything and get all the upgrades so I can stop worrying about sniffing out air vents and puzzles, switch my brain off, and just play some goshdarn Doom. It took me about halfway through my next run before I realised something: all this exploration, all this bloody gold collecting, it's not so...