I haven’t really played any Doom games. I tried the 2016 remake and couldn’t get into it. This entry inspired me to try again when I heard there was more story than ever before and when I saw the aesthetics, I knew I had to give it a shot. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get out of this experience, but I gave it a shot anyway and I was pleasantly surprised.

This entry in the series still follows the Doom guy, but this time the usual demon killing takes place in a medieval themed era. There are still futuristic vehicles, armor and weaponry, but most environments will be old castles and keeps. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of ideas that I hadn’t seen before and it really added to the experience for me. Still, you’ll be mowing through demons to clear each level, just like previous entries, but now there’s a story that’s trying to be told. There are some cutscenes that try to add some weight to it, but the story still takes a backseat. Basically, the demons are invading and the Maykrs have a leash on Doom guy so the humans have to negotiate with them to let him out to help. The prince of Hell, Ahzrak, is trying to take over the world with his army of demons, as expected, and it’s up to you to drive the forces back. There’s some exposition about the human army general as she has a mysterious power that seems almost on par with Doom guy’s, but her story isn’t explored enough to be impactful. Really though, what do you come to these games for? Not for the story, but for the gameplay.

To add more variety, this game includes mech and dragon-centered levels. These break up the on-foot levels a couple of times throughout the game. I was initially unimpressed with the mech levels as the combat is very dumbed down in these sections and the dragon levels weren’t much better but their speed was much higher. The brevity of these sections kept them from bogging down the entire experience but each time these came up I was not excited at all. The mech sections really have nothing going for them, save for the spectacle, and the dragon ones were too copy+paste for me. It became a flow for each of these that was uninteresting and felt simultaneously uninspired. The on-foot levels are much better in the engrossment department.

Not having a lot of experience with this series, I expected the game to be a frantic flow-state shooter, but this game is more methodical than I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, you’re still flying around a battlefield, blasting demons, but it’s slower than I felt like it should’ve been. There are a lot of difficulty and tuning options to help with this, but as a new player, I didn’t want to mess with them much. Given the supposed focus on parrying/reflecting attacks, I figured a slower pace was needed or you’d have a hard time. This wasn’t much of a concern though, because I didn’t feel the need to parry much. Doom guy is basically a god in this game, and dispatching enemies is ridiculously easy. Because of this, I never felt like I got into the gameplay as much as I should have. Zipping around and destroying demons was cool, but I felt like combat scenarios were over sooner than I wanted. This was a setting I wished they had in the options, enemy density. I didn’t want to feel powerless, however just as I felt like I was getting into a fight, it ended. Simply adding more enemies to encounters would have helped engross me in the experience. Having to swap weapons to defeat certain enemies helped with this, but most of the time whatever you have equipped is more than enough to brute force your way through it.

The arsenal here is what kept the gameplay fresh throughout the experience (except maybe towards the end). You have your standard shotgun, but more inventive weapons like a ball and chain gun and skull shredder were inventive ways to incorporate the setting into the weaponry. Later on you get a mace and a crossbow, but these are weapons that one-shot enemies so they’re kind of in their own class. These are some of the weapons and you get upgraded versions of them as the story progresses. You can also upgrade them yourself using gold, rubies and other currency you can find via secrets in each level. This lets you customize how these weapons work further and allows for some experimentation that further keeps gameplay from becoming too stale. The default weapon swap settings sees you having to hold a button to open a wheel to change weapons or pressing the button to swap between your two most recent. I would recommend changing this to the cycle option as bringing up the wheel was obtrusive and I tended to only use two weapons because of it. Once I changed this setting, I was able to utilize each weapon more and it greatly helped spice up the gameplay. The “upgraded” versions of the standard weapons you get near the end don’t really add much for me though. It would’ve been more interesting to see some additional medieval themed weaponry rather than these slight variations, but the toolkit was robust enough that it doesn’t really feel like anything else was really necessary.

Discovering the secrets of each level didn’t really require much seeking. Similar to the combat, I found myself going through the motions when locating them. Checking off the ledges of the map, looking in the tops of indoor buildings and jumping in every puddle I saw, became second nature. There are some environmental “puzzles” that attempt to hide these away and some of these rooms have mini boss battles which were a welcome challenge, but because of their ease of locating, I never felt like I found anything worthwhile. This diminishes the replay value of the game as I sometimes 100% a level without even trying to. There was a certain charm to how they were presented though as the entire game had a very “videogamey” feel. The health, armor and ammo pickups scattered throughout the levels and the highlighted intractable objects coupled with the parryable attacks being neon green, gave the impression that it was all in good fun. This game isn’t meant to make you scratch your head and really think about a level or combat scenario; it’s made for you to go wild and have fun.

Doom: The Dark Ages is a power fantasy. It makes you feel like a demon-killing machine with its arsenal of weaponry and the faith of humanity in you. It really feels like the entire human race’s fate is dependent on you and through that depiction, the game finds its strength. Though I had some qualms with it, I still think it’s a great game. I respect that the developer has constantly innovated on the formula of the series with each iteration; trying something new to keep it fresh. It allows for different types of people to experience their universe and for veterans to never know what’s coming next. This philosophy keeps the people on their toes, which makes returning to the series exciting and accessible for any that are interested.