Doom Eternal was a blisteringly fast video game. As game director Hugo Martin stated in the recent Xbox Developer Direct, it turned the iconic marine into an unstoppable fighter jet. You had an arsenal of weapons, each with its own unique upgrades and abilities, alongside your flamethrower, grenade launcher, and chainsaw, all designed to feed into each other to provide you with health, ammo, and shields. Without every member of the orchestra ready and willing to perform, the entire symphony could fall apart.

Once you master this delicate rhythm, the entire game turns into an irresistible dance. But you can’t deny the skill ceiling was much higher than its predecessor, and over time, the sheer joy of ripping and tearing demons to shreds lost its luster in favour of strategy. It was ideal for hardcore Doom elitists, but others who fell in love with the brutal brilliance of the 2016 reboot found themselves struggling to fall for its sequel in the same way. In The Dark Ages, Doom is learning from those mistakes and then some.

Be sure to check out our hands-off preview for some extra details and insight from the development team.

Stand And Fight

id Software’s motto for Doom: The Dark Ages does a lot of heavy lifting. For Doom (2016) we had Run and Gun, while Eternal gave us Jump and Shoot, and now The Dark Ages wants us to Stand and Fight. While the titular marine is still capable of leaping and strafing around the battlefield to dispatch his enemies, he is now better off standing firm against demons with a relentless arsenal of equipment designed to face them head-on.

This is a being feared by the deepest and darkest denizens of Hell itself, so of course, he isn’t afraid to stare them directly in the face with Shield Saw in hand. This motto alone changes everything about the game.

I’ve been excited about the Shield Saw ever since it was revealed because, from a second of gameplay footage alone, you can imagine its raw potential. It can be thrown at enemies, lodging into flesh and keeping them in place, or you can parry their attacks with perfect timing and leave them vulnerable for a visceral takedown.

I adore how this can be combined in encounters and used alongside everything else in your arsenal to once again act as a violent rhythm game, but it’s now moving at the beat of your drum instead of trying to outpace you at every turn. I’m eager to see how the Shield Saw will be used as a foundation for epic one-on-one battles as much as how it will be applicable across sprawling battlefields filled with baddies. Not to mention, it can also be combined with flails, gauntlets, and maces that make up the new melee system.

I also noticed the head in the bottom middle of the screen where health and shields are represented makes expressions of excitement, pain, and frustration just like the 1993 original.

Rip And Take Your Time

It sounds silly to complain about being overwhelmed in Doom Eternal, but at times it was too fast for its own good, unless you were playing on either a souped-up PC or could handle its higher difficulty settings that expected you to meld seamlessly into its rhythm. I want to bask in the gloriously gory fantasy that Doom provides so beautifully without feeling like I’m not good enough, and The Dark Ages appears to meet players in the middle without skimping on challenge if Hell is truly what you want to go through. This was a big focus during the presentation, with several minutes taken to show how the new difficulty system allows you to slow down or speed up its action to whatever level you like. It’s a doom for all slayers.

The Dark Ages let you pilot mechs and fly dragons, expressing excessive spectacle where difficulty isn’t and shouldn’t be the focus, so id Software has seemingly overhauled this. Not to mention its not-quite open world structure where, set pieces aside, you’ll be free to explore dungeons and take on combat encounters however you see fit. This power fantasy shouldn’t be confined to a specific playstyle or limit itself through hardship, and I’m thrilled id Software has taken a step back to try and understand that. I’m ready to Stand and Fight.

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DOOM: The Dark Ages

FPS 3.5/5 5.5/10 Released May 15, 2025 ESRB m Developer(s) id Software Publisher(s) Bethesda Softworks Engine id Tech Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Franchise DOOM
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