Doom: The Dark Ages

It's hard to find any real complaints about DOOM: The Dark Ages. I'm eagerly awaiting the planned Campaign DLC, and in the meantime, will likely continue to search each level for secrets and try out each difficulty. The highest difficulty is a lot of fun for more experienced players, though you may want to get the hang of DOOM: The Dark Ages' new mechanics first. If I were forced to be nitpicky, I...

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 may be set in the past, but it's a huge leap forward for the franchise.

A hefty slab of pure FPS gameplay, DOOM: The Dark Ages nails just about everything, balancing brutal combat and a spot of open exploration beautifully. Crucially, playing as the Slayer makes you feel like an unstoppable beast - it’s fantastic.

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 Ages is a solid prequel with expanded lore, inventive gameplay additions such as using mechs and dragons. It features great level design & good soundtrack, though it lacks Eternal's intensity and polish.

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...