Doom: The Dark Ages hands-off preview — “The best game ID has ever made.”

Doom is one of gaming’s most important franchises. Back in 1993, it essentially defined the first person shooter. Heck, before the genre actually had that name, people called them “Doom Clones”. Fast forward to 2016, and Doom would once again redefine the genre, bringing back that fast-paced approach where other games became more about cover and sightlines. Doom Eternal iterated on this in 2020, adding more complexity with a focus on acrobatics. Now, iD Software is trying to flip the game on its head with Doom: The Dark Ages, what Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin are calling “the best game iD has ever made.” That’s a tall order, even for them, but from what I saw and heard in an early preview ahead of the Xbox Developer Showcase, I think they can pull it off.

Doom: The Dark Ages follows in the footsteps of 2016 and Eternal, with a focus on hyperviolence, inventive weapons like the Skull Crusher which grinds up skulls and shoots them in a spread like a machine gun, and, of course, Glory Kills. The Glory Kills are a bit different this time around, however. There are no bespoke animations that lock you and the enemy in place anymore, with the Slayer instead performing a quick, devastating melee attack, allowing you to move from one Glory Kill to the next. The synched animations will be missed, but this is part of The Dark Ages’ new focus: fluidity.

iD felt like Eternal was making things a bit too complicated, with multiple currencies and skill trees for players to keep track of. The developers wanted to simplify things for their next title, while also retaining the depth of combat and unhinged joy that Doom provides. Everything, from the controls to the gameplay loop, has been streamlined so you can focus more on the action.

Instead of feeling like a death-dealing acrobat, you’re more of an incredibly fast moving tank this time around. Doom Guy’s new Shield Saw is the core of this idea. You can throw it at enemies, or use it to block, parry, and reflect attacks – all with one button. I love a good parry, so this has me very excited, as does the platforming capabilities of this new implement. The Slayer can throw the shield across a gap, then instantly move towards it; so fast that I’m not sure if this is like a grappling hook or more of a teleport. I also don’t know if this move can be used anywhere or only in specific points, but I hope it’s the former, because reflecting a giant demon’s projectiles back at them then quickly moving in for the Glory Kill sounds incredibly fun.

Speaking of incredibly fun, The Dark Ages forgoes multiplayer to focus on the single player campaign, which allows Doom Guy to pilot A GIANT MECH AND A CYBER DRAGON. If those words in that order don’t hype you up, I’m sorry but we can’t be friends. These aren’t just one-off gimmicks either, entire missions will have you punching out giant demons with mechanized fists in the Atlan or flying through ancient, ruined cities atop a dragon equipped with a gatling gun. You won’t be able to use these whenever you want, as they’ll be restricted to certain missions, but they seem incredibly cool and shake up the gameplay a bit.

Missions in The Dark Ages will be closer to 2016’s structure, while attempting to strike a balance between straightforward, constant action and letting players explore to find upgrades. You’ll still be able to find collectibles (and hopefully more Daisy the rabbit cameos), but what you find in these missions are closer to upgrades than trinkets. Taking time to explore a level will reward you with more “god-like powers” to make use of. Exactly what this means, we’ll have to wait and see, but it’s certainly promising. What we saw was more focused on the action, but I do hope finding these new powers involves some platforming challenges using the Shield Saw or some brain teasing puzzles.

Let’s step back a bit and talk about some less in your face aspects of the game. The Dark Ages is gorgeous visually, but I noticed the environments looked a bit washed out. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, I think it’s a very intentional design decision that allows projectiles, enemies, and incoming attacks to stand out a lot more. I had a lot of trouble parsing Doom Eternal’s chaos (though I played on Switch, which is kinda my bad I guess), so this should make things a lot clearer in the midst of combat.

It’s a nice way to make the game more accessible without compromising on difficulty, which is exactly what the new difficulty sliders are for. You can customize just about any part of the game to make it easier or harder if you want. If the game moves just a bit too fast, you can turn down the gamespeed a bit. If it’s too slow and you have superhuman reaction time, you can crank it up to be even faster. iD wants everyone to be able to play the new Doom, and it shows.

There’s a lot more to talk about, like swimming, DLC, strafe to aim returning, and the little head at the bottom of the HUD that looks around just like the classic games, but I think you get the picture. iD Software could have made a safer sequel and pleased a lot of people, but they’ve chosen instead to innovate, surprise, and delight in brand new ways. Luckily, you won’t have to wait long to don the Slayer’s fancy new fur cape, as Doom: The Dark Ages launches May 15th for PC, PS5, and Xbox.

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