There I was, riding a cyber dragon that I just put into assault mode when suddenly an enormous demon blocked my path. I considered my options and felt that obliterating him by having my dragon breathe laser fire directly into its gullet would make the most sense. As I did this, a filthy guitar riff began to strum, and double kickdrums started to blast my ears.
Oh yeah, it’s DOOMing time.
On a gorgeous day in Sydney, I stepped out of the glorious sunshine and into a darkened room to experience DOOM: The Dark Ages. Under the baleful glow of a printed Doomslayer, my job was to strap into his digital boots and put the hurt on some poor demonic losers by way of a curated selection of ‘Press Levels’ that would get me up to speed on what The Dark Ages had to offer compared to past modern Doom experiences.
‘Stand and Fight’ was the advice given to me – easy words to live by when the first tool handed to you is a massive shield – so I tried to lean into that. Raising this enormous serving platter will reduce the incoming damage heading your way, with projectiles moving at a leisurely pace to encourage visibility and nurture atrophied reaction times. I was then taught that if an attack or projectile is coloured green, I can instead bat it away with a quick shield block – countering a meaty hit or sending a missile back at whatever slavering doofus had dared send it my way. I immediately (and even vocally) scoffed that “lol, Doom has a parry system” before completing the tutorial and sending an immense magical arrow back into a beast rider. The counterattack then offered me a button prompt to lunge into the rider and drop kick him clean out of the saddle, leaving his Pinky-mount to become a separate enemy. The visceral reaction to my quick-block was so clean, so impactful, that I immediately disregarded my flippant response to the new system. This actually kicks arse, hard.
The shield had other uses too, with the ability to raise it up and then rapidly charge into an enemy. I initially found myself instinctively fumbling around for the dash ability from Doom Eternal, but quickly realised that turning yourself into a Slayer-missile with the shield slam was the intended playstyle this time around, because ‘Stand and Fight’ is a lot easier to do when you can fling yourself into an enemies personal space in a fraction of a second. Baddies aren’t the only target of such a thing either, with destructible barriers and walls even feeling the wrath of the living bullet. Oh, and if you aren’t in the mood to carry the shield to an enemy yourself, why not hurl its serrated edge, Captain America style, into their abdomen. Meaty.
Many legs, much ugly
With how brutally brilliant the shield play was, it took me a hot minute to remember that this was the grandfather of FPS games that I was playing, and so I begrudgingly became acquainted with the left click button once more. The initial bog-standard machine gun was serviceable enough before I got to the real meat and potatoes of the meal, tickling the trigger of familiar favourites – be they hot plasma-throwing space shooters, savage spike-chuckers or even new toys like a skull-chewing flechette blaster.
So far, it felt like Doom. Maybe not the high-flying trapeze-like swap-fest that was Doom Eternal, but a more grounded, savage Doom. Besides ‘Stand and Fight’, the other heads-up offered to me was that narrative would be more of a focus in the game – and considering the game immediately launched into a cinematic, painting a picture of just how dark the Dark Ages are, it was obvious.
Across the press levels available to me, I had managed to grasp that the ever-arrogant angelic types of the Doom-iverse had some kind of demonic dam in place, a heavenly barrier that kept the devilish dicks at bay – but somehow some humans had taken to opening smaller portals to let them leak out. I’m still not sure how they were manipulated, but the testosterone-filled defenders of Argent D’Nur made it clear that they would need help sorting it out. That’s where you come in.
A chaingun – as in, a gun that fires a ball on a chain
Above the battlefield in some orbital space station, a swollen Makyr bloke waves his pudgy little fingers in the air at the thought of sharing his favourite toy, petulantly protesting the inconvenience. As a wannabe-angelic being in this universe, he looked more like that corpulent bloke, Pearl, from the movie Blade, making me wonder if there was some symbolism regarding the sin of gluttony going on. Either way, he is convinced all the same – and so you, the one they fear most, are deployed via orbital cannon into the midst of the demonic melee.
I then traipsed through a medieval town and castle, dispensing my own unique brand of justice – noting that my actions were being observed by King Novik himself, albeit looking younger than he had in Doom Eternal. His fledgling Night Sentinels had tried defending this place, but had failed due to the internal nature of the heretical human cultists – it’s hard to counterattack an assault that has come from within. This was a big introduction to how the story weaves into the game, with cutscenes and audio chatter clueing you into other things happening besides the wet splorch of demon bodies being rent asunder.
Story has never been a big part of Doom games. Sure, it existed – but it was more of a side note, almost an Easter egg for diehards to scratch up and analyse. Eternal shifted the needle on this, sure, but The Dark Ages is really settling it in. I admit, I was drawn in by how the humans of Argent D’Nur seemed wary of me – almost frightened. Amongst the din of battle, I swear I heard some chatter among the bystanders that mentioned “The Slayer is dangerous, stand back!” and had me wondering how they viewed this vessel of demonic slaughter. But I only got a small taste of this narrative before pushing into my next experience – the enormous bipedal Atlan.
The thrill of BONK-ing losers never gets old
Serving as perhaps the most egregious cock tease of the new Doom era, Atlans are immensely huge mech suits – easily measuring as tall as a skyscraper. They, alongside suitably scaled demons, have appeared in prior games – but only ever serving as set dressing. Doom: The Dark Ages sets this right by including sections where you actually get to manoeuvre a colossal titan, biffing gigantic demons with your rocket punch.
Striding through the landscape, you feel a little like a bull in a china shop – ploughing through bridges and aqueduct-like things on the way to show some meaty weirdo the what-for. You walk past battles happening at ground level, with humans and lesser demons looking like ants firing lasers at each other. When battle is joined, however, you can’t help but imagine the Pacific Rim theme blasting as your bus-sized fist slowly rockets into the fleshy jaw of a similarly huge monstrosity.
While neat, the section played out quite quickly, and though I did enjoy the bombastic nature of it all, I question the longevity. Are these recurring sections? Are they interstitial parts of larger levels? How do the mechanics evolve beyond slowly punching a massive dork to death? Unsure at this time.
Imagine getting punched in the face with a fist the size of a bus
Besides the enormous mech suits, there are also dragons in the universe of Doom.
If you have seen any of the marketing materials, you know that these absurd looking creatures likely call a Heavy Metal album cover their natural habitat. In a funny twist, the cutscene introducing these beasts actually showed off some more traditional looking drake creatures – as the Slayer strode out on a giant landing platform, like a bloke scanning the carpark for his banged up Ford Focus. These regular (almost mundane) dragons are then scattered by the arrival of Doomslayer’s mount of choice: a cybernetically enhanced beast that easily dwarfs the previous poor excuses for winged lizards. VTOL wings. A massive horned helmet. The Slayer has a style, and he sticks to it.
A rapid tutorial gets you up to speed, and immediately you think – they’ve done their homework. Tons of games have done a shoehorned flying section before, but Doom’s is tight as a double kick drum and feels awesome. This is helped to a massive extent thanks to the hover-mode that is engaged when firing, meaning you aren’t wrestling with high speeds while trying to hit a target – finally a solution to endless strafing and meagre damage.
The other big thing that stands out to make this gameplay experience feel more in-fitting with the world of Dark-age Doom is that there are sections where you leap off your jet fighter lizard and get back to more traditional methods of bulk bad guy bashery. After engaging my first demonic space whip and whittling down its defense, I then crashed down into it to dismount and run amok on its inner floors. Delving deep into the guts of the ship I eventually discovered something that looked critically important and proceeded to shield bash it. Without hesitation, the ship exploded, and I found myself plummeting out of the wreckage …and onto the back of my winged friend. Yup, tick of approval, this is awesome.
Better than Listerine
My time riding dragons and piloting mechs came to an end, and I stepped out into the final adventure of the Doom press build. The next section was called Siege, and it was described as a unique ‘Battlefield’ experience within the game. Instead of a linear level, Siege was instead a much larger, open environment – packed with enemies to slay and objectives to tackle in whatever order I chose. It was at this point that the game started to altogether feel more like a Serious Sam title than a modern Doom game, and I say that with teeming excitement – seeing a horde of idiots strewn across a vast space just tickled violent parts of my brain that started concocting creative ways to maim them.
It helped that this section was also introduced with the addition of the flail weapon, a great spiked ball on the end of a long chain that served as a far more brutal method for braining baddies than your mere fists. I immediately waded into the most plentiful party of demons and set about whomping them with reckless abandon, the soundscape of clanging metal sounding a little like a shipyard falling down a mountain. It was a playground, a canvas to flex your Doom’ish creativity – it was brilliant.
The larger space also meant that there was room for more impressive threats to make themselves known – like gargantuan fleshy tentacles that erupt from the ground and demand a rapid shield parry, or fleshy demon-tanks that fire shells of balefire at your person. But it was not all violence, because in this space I also discovered a quiet nook that instead asked me to put my mace away for a moment and solve a platforming puzzle. I scratched my chin and observed suspended weights and pulleys and formulated a plan. Much like the recent God of War series, the ability to throw a returning part of your armory serves well for simple problem solving – and this tiny smidge of an example has me hopeful that more appear in the full game.
A whole wide world of demons to slay
I left feeling pretty electrified by what I had experienced. I was not entirely soured by Doom Eternal, but I definitely felt like the core experience of the 2016 game was being pushed in a direction that didn’t fully appeal to me – so seeing The Dark Ages pivot again is a welcome sight. It feels surprisingly risky that the team would be so open to treading this path, but it’s a brave move that I can’t help but admire. Sure, people might bemoan the defocus on glory-kills, but I do have to point out that during my killing spree I did see more than a few dedicated animations for finishing off a goober. It may not be as gratuitous as past entries, but you’ll still see the Slayer’s meaty hand vanishing into the odd throat to pull out something important.
While some might find it controversial that the modern Doom franchise is taking a step ‘backwards’ by gearing down its gunplay, I think it’s a step in the right direction – towards an identity that is far more at-home for the legacy of Doom.
When so many shooters are pushing movement to its limit, why be an imitator? You are DOOM!
Plant your feet firmly in the bloodsoaked earth, grit your teeth and deftly knock away whatever horror is screaming towards you.
Stand. And fight.
Previewed on PC at a preview event hosted by ZeniMax Media
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