DOOM: The Dark Ages is the next game to feature the Slayer cutting down the armies of Hell. It's a prequel to DOOM (2016), which had its own sequel in the form of DOOM: Eternal (2020).
The new game comes with massive changes and a unique story that gives into the Slayer's past. The medieval theme is on full display in the new trailer with science fiction castles, cybernetic dragons, and weapons galore. Check it out below.
Movement in DOOM: The Dark Ages is much more in line with the classic DOOM games. In the 2016 reboot, it was all about speed and never taking your finger off the trigger. In DOOM: Eternal flying around the map was the key to survival. In DOOM: The Dark Ages, the combat is on the ground and linear. You'll be dodging projectiles, some slow, some fast, while taking on enemies of various shapes and sizes.
In a huge developer direct showcase for the game, the playstyle was described as the following:
“In DOOM: Eternal, you felt like a fighter jet. In DOOM: The Dark Ages, you'll be an iron tank. Heavy, strong but still fast. A grounded combat system with an emphasis on power over the acrobatics of DOOM: Eternal. And a balance between enemy projectiles and player movement speed that makes strafing to aim viable again.”
Weapons that return to the next entry in the DOOM franchise seem to be the Combat Shotgun, the Plasma Gun, the Rocket Launcher, and the Super Shotgun. The rest are all specific to DOOM: The Dark Ages. The Skullcrusher does exactly what you think it does; it crushes skulls and shoots the pieces at enemies. The Railspike is a marksman style weapon that can impale enemies into surfaces. Finally, there's the Accelerator.
The new game also comes with a new melee combat system. Three melee weapons will be available to players: an iron flail, an electrified gauntlet, and a spiked mace. The melee system is new to DOOM. It seems to almost be replacing the Glory Kill system in which players could quite literally rip enemies apart in very cinematic kills. The melee system doesn't seem to be quite as cinematic, but that is replaced by the speed of it.
The combat in DOOM: The Dark Ages is fully customizable. Projectile Speed and damage can be turned up or down, player speed and damage can be turned up or down, game speed as a whole can be customized, as can enemy aggression. The customizable experience is basically just a more specific way of choosing your difficulty, something every DOOM game allows you to do, but there's a small subset of players who are upset about this for some reason and have started referring to the game as DOOM: The Woke Ages. The developers addressed this and brushed it off.
Are you excited for DOOM: The Dark Ages on May 15th? Let us know in the comments!