Doom: The Dark Ages Reviews
Check out Doom: The Dark Ages Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 49 reviews on CriticDB, Doom: The Dark Ages has a score of:
I will be honest with you: the moment I saw the first pre-launch trailer for Doom: The Dark Ages, after being incredibly hyped for yet another Doom (I’m only human, I can’t help it), I was also a tiny little bit worried. Due to some admittedly poor marketing by Bethesda, the game was being touted as a radical departure from 2016’s Doom and Doom Eternal (also known as WayTooManyGames’ 2020 Game of the Year), with some moments of the trailer even labeling it as “open world”. Open wo...
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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 the biggest and most impressive shake-up of the series’ tried and true formula. Incorporating v...
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Though DOOM: The Dark Ages skirts around the tried and tested formula of the DOOM we know and love, which may not please everyone, its core DNA still shines through with beautiful, brutal strength.
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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.
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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 something you're supposed to do once as a fun extra before the real game starts. It's an integral p...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 knowledge that you're going to kick the ever-living hell out of them. Man, it is a devilishly...
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id Software once again found a way to reinvent the DOOM formula, adding new gameplay elements such as the thoroughly enjoyable shield saw. DOOM: The Dark Ages is nonstop, adrenaline-fuelled thrill ride from start to finish. This blockbuster demands your full attention as the best FPS this year so far.
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Doom: The Dark Ages is indulgent and deliciously violent, but surprisingly safe.
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Stressful, but in a good way, Doom The Dark Ages thunders along a well-trodden path but fails to break any new ground.
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DOOM The Dark Ages is an unrelenting parade of visceral hyperviolence that comes at your thick and fast, leaving you overstimulated and exhausted but thrilled and gratified.
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All the new additions id Software introduced in Doom: The Dark Ages are welcome changes to keep a franchise that's been around for more than three decades feeling fresh. I still can't shake the feeling that something's missing, though. It just doesn't have the same pull as the last two Doom games.
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DOOM: The Dark Ages is different, and whether that’s a good thing or not is dictated almost entirely by how you feel about id Software’s last game. After the breakneck DOOM Eternal, the developer has dialled its action back for a medieval prequel that feels reserved in comparison.
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With stellar combat, incredible weapons, hellish monsters to fight, and excellently implemented gameplay and design changes, DOOM: The Dark Ages delivers an excellent new style of DOOM, while still retaining the series' core strengths.
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Doom: The Dark Ages is definitely a game that you play for the shooting mechanics and not the story, but the newly implemented Shield Saw brings a breath of fresh, aggressive air to the demon-slaying fun.
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DOOM The Dark Ages is aggressive as hell, loud, fast, and all the fun you want. Sometimes you just need to pick up a shotgun, a flail, and a saw-bladed shield and rip through baddies. To put it simply, DOOM The Dark Ages is rewarding. The gameplay matters and ultimately makes up for any weaknesses in the story.
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DOOM Eternal is one of my favourite games of all time, and easily my favourite entry in the long-running id Software franchise. It’s the only shooter I’ve played where the end of every encounter makes me feel like I just finished jogging up the stairs for an hour. It’s a game that tests all your senses and fires all your synapses and locks you into a gameplay loop where you never. stop. moving. In DOOM: The Dark Ages, you need to stop moving. The game has swapped the jump and dodge action of the last entry with a new combat...
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DOOM: The Dark Ages is another absolutely stellar offering from id Software. It may bring far more narrative aspects to the table, whilst also slowing the flow down with larger levels, but in action it's the same old pulse-pounding core combat; highly strategic, hugely challenging (at higher difficulties) and as clever, colourful and cool a shooter as you'll likely play this year. DOOM asked you sweat your bullet count. Eternal made movement more meaningful. For this latest lesson, the Slayer brings defensive options, more space and time, and the perspective of a god-killer as he drops into battle. A slightly...
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The latest entry in the DOOM series effectively turns the Doom Slayer into a tank, mowing down literal hordes of enemies with a varied range of chunky weapons. There's more of an emphasis on melee, too, and combined with a new focus on parrying enemy attacks with a nifty Shield Saw to get the upper hand, it feels entirely unique. Put simply, there's nothing else quite like DOOM: The Dark Ages out there. It's both epic and essential.
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Doom Slayer has a new toy - a shield combined with a saw - and he returns in a completely new scenery, mixing dark fantasy with science-fiction, with completely new gameplay mechanics. But is it a victorious return or a defeat...?
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Doom: The Dark Ages is another stellar entry in the classic franchise, thanks to its engaging, grounded combat, expansive and varied locales, phenomenal graphics and hours of gameplay. Though it’s not revolutionary, it delivers a fast-paced and visceral experience few games can match.
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Here's a more grounded Doom, but one that's as brisk and playful as ever.
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DOOM: The Dark Ages, the newest installment in gaming's quintessential FPS franchise, is the biggest change of pace in the history of the series. The main factor in this dramatic shift isn't the new medieval setting, or even the addition of flight and mech gameplay. The most extreme difference between The Dark Ages and other Doom titles is that the focus has shifted away from shooting, with timing-based melee combat taking center stage (and absolutely crushing it).
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While Doom: The Dark Ages is a solid game, the ways it differs from previous titles are largely to its detriment. Most of what's praiseworthy about the Slayer's 2025 adventures are what's translated from older entries, while new features like the melee focus and mech sequences feel like fumbled missteps the series would be well-advised to forget going forward. Still, the joy of blasting cacodemons with a shotgun is never truly lost, and the over-the-top aesthetic will always elevate the experience.
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Doom: The Dark Ages is much more focused than its predecessors and more fun because id Software's ability to refine the Doom formula continually. It's fast, frantic, and so much fun
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DOOM: The Dark Ages is the most badass DOOM has ever been, featuring a killer soundtrack, first-person melee combat better than it has any right to be, and the most intriguing version of The Doom Slayer we've ever seen.
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Doom: The Dark Ages is a heavyweight shooter that, at its core, is lighter on its feet than its predecessor. However, id has at times gone too wide with its half-baked new features and open level design. Rip and tear, until it is done. But please, Slayer, get out of the damn robot.
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Doom is back with its first game in five years, complete with a change of scenery and aesthetics. Purists may be shaken, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
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Doom: The Dark Ages is a good shooter at its core, but as a follow-up to two of the best FPS games ever made, it falls a little flat. The new defensive combat feels like a step back, with movement getting a significant nerf, and, while Doom Slayer is still an exciting character, the story focus feels out of place.
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Doom: The Dark Ages has an exceptional combat loop that is among the best in series history. However, in a desire to expand on a winning formula, id Software has fallen short of the high bar it set with Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal.
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Doom: The Dark Ages may strip away the mobility focus of Doom Eternal, but replaces it with a very weighty and powerful style of play that is different from anything the series has done before, and still immensely satisfying in its own way.
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From the original games that propelled id Software along on its path to glory, to more recent installments that brought the franchise to a new generation of slayers, Doom has always held a special place in my heart. The satisfying violence, the lightning fast pace, and those oh so heavy metal soundtracks always worked for me.
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Doom: The Dark Ages is a notable new entry in the long-running FPS series with a flavor and gameplay ideas of its own, but it can feel oddly unfocused at times, plus not every change is for the better.
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DOOM: The Dark Ages is an excellent addition to the series, expanding on the lore of DOOM while introducing some new and engaging combat. While it struggles at times with pacing, DOOM: The Dark Ages nonetheless offers an exciting new experience for players to rip and tear through.
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In lesser hands, The Dark Ages would be fun but forgettable. In Id’s hands, this is a deep action experience solely focused on a relentless, but brilliantly controlled flow state. It’s a game that takes the simplest, yet coolest ideas and commits completely to them with peerless execution, making sure above else, it’s sick as hell.
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Just a few missions into Doom: The Dark Ages, I felt like I’d reached the apex of action games. There I was behind the controls of an enormous Atlan mech, eclipsing the kind of battleground that felt enormous to me moments before. The sky above me was scorched. Buildings turned to ruins under my feet. One by one, an army of demonic kaiju ate my metallic fists. How can it get any bigger and badder than this?
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DOOM, a series likely thought dead during its twelve-year hiatus (not including re-releases) between DOOM 3 and 2016's DOOM reboot, is on a high. The success of DOOM, followed by the release of DOOM Eternal, means it was inevitable that a new release would come. What I didn't expect was the direction of that, which is where DOOM: The Dark Ages comes in.
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I’ve mentioned some minor problems and disappointments, but I mean what I said at the top. This is the most impressive Doom game iD has developed. The ingenuity and evolution of its gameplay, while remaining true to itself, is outstanding, along with an epic campaign to complement it. The Doom Dance in The Dark Ages is addictive, and I’m stoked to continue playing.
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The Dark Ages is the best post-reboot game in the series. It may not distance itself from the predecessors (both are great), but none of them pulled me in so hard and for so long. What’s more, I just sat through the end credits and I immediately want to begin the slaughter again.
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DOOM: The Dark Ages throws everything and the kitchen sink at the wall, and a lot of it sticks. However, just enough of it doesn’t stick to drag things as a whole down a few pegs. Gunplay and parrying feels great, as does weaving through the bullet hell-esque attacks, but suddenly dying for no perceivable reason does not. Still, it’s a game worth your time for those highs, even if you have to get through the lows to reach them.
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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.
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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.
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The Slayer is ready to get all medieval on their demonic asses.
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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.
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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.”
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The Doom Slayer is back and he’s heavier and angrier. DOOM: The Dark Ages reimagines the franchise’s blistering pace with a medieval twist and a new “stand your ground” mentality. It trades double-jumping and grappling hooks for a powerful shield, an upgradable flail, and dragon rides through the skies. The result is a variation of DOOM that mostly refreshes the formula without losing its soul.
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