DOOM: The Dark Agesis a culmination of the modern take on the classic FPS franchise, with deceptively deep combat and a commitment to an engrossing single-player experience. Building off the success of 2016’sDOOMand the subsequentDOOM Eternal, the newest title in the series doubles down on the aesthetic to impressive effect. Amidst the classic firefights are new means of taking on the legions of hell, ranging from building-sized Alta mechs to rocket-boosted dragons.
Despite this wealth of new visual elements, the controls feel tighter and more streamlined than ever, and after spending time with the game I can safely saythe result is a highlight of theDOOMfranchise as a whole, and one of the most explosive (and gory) shooters ever made.
During a preview session forDOOM: The Dark Agesattended byScreenRant,Creative Director Hugo Martin and Executive Producer Marty Stratton sat down to discuss the new mechanics baked into the game, the importance of refining the series' action, and why there are no plans for multiplayer.
The Return Of The Doom Slayer For DOOM: The Dark Ages
The Newest Take On DOOM Returns To An Earlier Era Of The DOOM Universe
DOOM: The Dark Agesserves as aprequel to the currentDOOMcontinuity, revealing the life of the Doom Slayer before he was sealed away to be found on Mars. Used as a weapon of mass destruction by a group of vengeful gods, the Doom Slayer was crucial to the peoples of Argent D’Nur, a world that is doomed to fall further into the grasp of hell but is still giving the demons a fight when the action starts.
The Doom Slayer is deployed to different settings across the planet and sent into the thick of battle, quickly turning entire armies into piles of gore. However, none of this is fully under the Slayer’s control. During the demo seen by members of the press,the Doom Slayer finds himself at the command of a cosmic deitywho seeks to use him as a weapon against the forces of hell.
Martin noted that as soon as you see the Doom Slayer in chains, it’s meant to spur the player into action to free him.
“There’s something wrong about the Slayer being in a cage and having a leash, so to speak… it’s like putting a rock in the audience’s shoe at the beginning of the story and having them know that’s not right.The story is all about how we set everything right. That’s very much the story of DOOM: The Dark Ages.”
DOOM: The Dark Ages Pits You Against The World
DOOM: The Dark Ages Throws You Against Literal Armies
DOOM: The Dark Agesmuch feels like a distillation of the modernDOOMgames, which was very much a focus for the developers.DOOM: The Dark Agesis as fast-paced as the others, with a keen sense of natural exploration driving the player to explore the larger labyrinths and sandbox-style maps. The game was designed with both elements in mind, ensuring that players feel familiar with the combat but able to take it to a new open-ended level. The fields are littered with enemies just waiting to rush the Doom Slayer, giving players plenty of opportunities to experiment with firearms.
There’s a natural speed to the action that benefits the enthralling tone, never offering you much rest between sprawling conflicts and unexpected boss battles. You’ll be able to rely on a number of different weapons, with plenty of ranged and close-combat options. The sheer deluge of enemies makes invention a fun experiment rather than a hassle, as it’s easy enough to approach each battle with a slightly different touch. This ability to shift so readily between weapons meant that the potentially repetitious firefights always carried an edge of unique danger.
Description
Gauntlet
The Gauntlet focuses on single-target damage with escalating power of each combo strike.
Flail
The Flail deals significant impact damage and generates a damaging blast on contact. Each hit of a combo will trigger this effect, making t very effective against groups of enemies.
A weapon that deals devastating close-range damage.
The Impaler
A precision weapon that delivers high damage with a slow rate of fire. Headshots will deal significant damage bonus damage.
The Shredder
A fully automatic weapon that deals effective damage at any range.
The Accelerator
A high-rate-of-fire weapon with moderate speed that is most effective at close-to-mid range.
Twin Barrel
A weapon that launches power plasma spikes at a moderate rate of fire.
Pulverizer
Throws shards of bone in a wide spread and most effective at mid-range.
Reaver Chainshot
Fires a dense spherical core that deals damage on contact before being retracted.
The heavy movement focus of the game, carried over from the previous entries in the series, is only amplified by the inclusion of a shield that quickly proves crucial to gameplay. The shield serves as an effective means of defense, giving the Doom Slayer time to adjust to an overwhelming situation. It can also be thrown as a weapon at stronger enemies, briefly stunning them and giving the player time to deliver a finishing move.The shield can rush the Doom Slayer forward against smaller enemies, decimating them and sending the player racing across the map from enemy to enemy.
DOOM: The Dark Ages Could Finally Explore The Series' Most Mysterious Faction
While DOOM Eternal took great lengths to tell an epic sci-fi fantasy story, not every faction was able to achieve the same level of development.
Coupled with a flail that can reduce most foes to giblets after a few hits,Doom: The Dark Agesgives players a kinetic experience that never becomes too unwieldy. The shield having so many possible mechanics was a big part of the appeal to Martin:
“Alright, this guy’s coming flying at me. What do I do? Well, I could move. It’s DOOM, movement is a part of defense. But I could also block. If I can time their attack, I can parry the attack. I can just tank the damage and get a clean shot. It’s all contextual.
“That was the philosophy for the whole game. Take all of that depth [of the previous games] but put it behind as few inputs as possible.”
An important detail for the team was to simplify the control scheme,ensuring players can naturally flow through combat without having to fight the controls on top of the demons.
The shield is the perfect example of how well the team has followed through on the concept, as the simple button prompts for the shield become second nature quickly, to the point where returning to theprevious titles feels like it’s missing something. “It’s taken years to fine-tune it,” Stratton explained. “It’s taken years to get it right, to throw stuff away, bring it back, change the field, get animation, all of that. It’s awesome for us to see players have the reaction [towards the shield] that they’ve been having.”
Why DOOM: The Dark Ages Isn’t Getting Any Multiplayer
DOOM: The Dark Ages Will Get DLC, But No Multiplayer
In an era where even AAA-titles are increasingly looking to live service and multiplayer emphasis,DOOM: The Dark Agessteps away from that aspect of the shooter genre. Instead, it was important to both Stratton and Martin thatthe title remain a single-player experience. As Martin explained:
“The market is full of so many good live-service games.It feels really good to be able to give the fans a single-player, first-person shooter campaign that is worth their time. It’s the very best we could make it, in combat, exploration, and narrative.That’s the kind of game I’d like to play, as a fan.”
A big appeal of the game to them is focusing entirely on that single-player experience, which quietly factors into the tone of the narrative. As Stratton explained, “when you look at these things fit together to make the game feel cohesive, we’re telling a story of this medieval war between the demons and the Sentinels…”
DOOM: The Dark Ages Might Be The Perfect Solution To The Franchise’s Greatest Weakness
While the DOOM franchise has expanded on its its arsenal of weapons over the years, there’s one combat area that’s always been surprisingly lacking.
“You get a sense of the kind of overwhelming nature they’re facing in that moment. So [that single-player focus] helps support, narratively and from a world-building perspective, what the game is trying to do. You are the sole warrior on the battlefield, taking on this massive invading force. It makes you the hero.” According to the pair,multiplayer is not planned to ever be brought toDOOM: The Dark Ages— Stratton did confirm that DLC is in the works.
“We have a DLC planned.We’re not really going down that path quite yet, but there’s no intention for multiplayer. Part of the decision is about resources. Multiplayer is so different. To compete in multiplayer, you’ve got to put your team on a pretty long tail of seasons… for us, it’s been all about the campaign.We’ll be on the DLC eventually, and that’ll be campaign DLC. No deviating from that, just staying true to what the game was designed for.”
The Final Word On DOOM: The Dark Ages
The Best DOOM Game Ever, Full Stop
After playing a few hours ofDOOM: The Dark Ages, it’s safe to say that the experience stands out even from otherDOOMtitles.It feels like stepping into the world imagined by the painters behind metal album cover art, a wild approach to action and fantasy that fuses shotguns and chainsaws with dragons and magic. It’s a game that knows exactly what it’s doing and just how fun it can be when it all comes together.There’s a certain speed toDOOM: The Dark Agesthat makes it engrossing in every battle.
The game is an absolute blast, a must-get for fans of the series and a delightfully over-the-top thrill ride for new players as well.The Dark Agesnever feels overly complicated, quickly proving to be easy to learn but hard to master.DOOM: The Dark Agesis shaping up to be a brutal accomplishment that any player who enjoys a good FPS experience needs to dive into.
