Good game, Not as good as Eternal.
By Ameer Ammar
I've been a fan of DOOM ever since DOOM 2016 which was one of my favorite shooters at the time, a reboot that really came out of nowhere and inspired so many games after it, Doom Eternal is one of the best FPS games I've ever played so The Dark Ages to follow up on that was a pretty tough task, and overall it does succeed at being another great Doom title but it doesn't reach that all-timer status of Eternal.
Story
Nobody plays DOOM for the story so I found the decision to actually make this the most story heavy game of the trilogy a bit of a strange one, there aren't any memorable or likeable characters here, the cutscenes have a tendency to weirdly feel disjointed and around the half-way point you play through a few chapters without a single cut scene happening which I found super odd, it does pick up towards the end and succeeds at giving the Doom slayer some aura moments which is all you really want from DOOM cutscenes.
I did find it super strange that they marketed this game as leading directly into DOOM 2016 by the end but it simply didn't, at all. assuming that'll be kept for DLC then
Gameplay
Doom The Dark Ages' gameplay is fun, the main tool this time is the shield, everything in the gameplay is tied to your shield, you will be constantly parrying, blocking, throwing the shield or launching yourself at enemies with this shield, I think these mechanics are all great fun and you do eventually get into a rhythm of block/attack/melee/shoot that feels satisfying but when compared to the sheer insane amount of depth that Doom Eternal FORCED you to engage with, The Dark Ages gameplay feels like a step back and a gross over correction from people complaining that Eternal was too complicated and that's where my criticism mostly lies.
As great as The Dark Ages is on its own, when put next to Eternal, it feels like so much of the experience was degraded for no real reason, weapon swapping was made insanely slow which discourages swapping weapons in general, you can absolutely go most of the game using only a quarter of your arsenal which I did with no issues unlike how Eternal forced you to learn every single tool you have. the general tactic of stun enemy with shield then spam them with super shotgun will literally get you through 90% of the game meanwhile in Eternal if you didn't switch your gameplay up for each encounter then you'd not make it past it. I overall am not a fan at all of what felt to me like a step back of just simplifying the gameplay loop, the shield and the general tank feeling is awesome but it feels like everything around that took a step back.
The removal of 95% of glory kills is one of the worst decisions I've seen this franchise make mainly because its replaced by a generic melee animation that you'll see a billion times accompanied by a slow-mo effect that frankly results in the time between having it or a glory kill really being almost nothing so I don't get why glory kills just aren't there. and when you can "glory kill" a mini-boss or specific enemies, you'll see the same animation countless times. and this is in such stark contrast to Eternal having what felt like HUNDREDS of unique animations for glory kills, the removal of that part of the gameplay loop results in a less satisfying loop and one that gets more repetitive by the midpoint than it ever did with glory kills.
The Dark Ages introduces the Altan mech and the Dragon in certain chapters and I actually really enjoyed both, the mech sections are pretty short and never overstay their welcome but they would've been way cooler with mech glory kills, the dragon flight missions are also generally pretty fun, I do imagine both of these getting repetitive on replays but on a first playthrough they were pretty enjoyable!
Soundtrack
Mick Gordon is gone and that results in automatically a worse soundtrack than its predecessors but I actualyl like the OST here still, "From the Ashes" has been stuck in my head since release and there are various other tracks that stand out during gameplay, it's nothing groundbreaking but it's far from bad, I do wish the music didn't blend into the background so often however.
Graphics
Doom The Dark Ages has fantastic graphics, it runs great, looks great, the vistas of the different worlds that you get to see are often pretty insane, they really cooked here with the new version of ID tech, no notes except great job getting it to run well on PC, so tired of bad ports.
Doom The Dark Ages is another solid entry into the DOOM franchise even if I feel extremely critical about it when put next to Eternal, Overall on it's own The Dark Ages is a fun experience that carves its own identity and I'd recommend it on sale or off Game Pass as the $70 price tag to me just isn't worth it for this ~15 hour experience that doesn't come with a multiplayer or snap map this time and is the same length as the last DOOM game generally.
Doom The Dark Ages - 7/10 - Wait for Sale
