When I went into my hands-on with Doom: The Dark Ages I used to be ready for intense violence and excessive quantity heavy metallic, however what I didn’t depend on was such an exhilarating quantity of demon-killing selection. By the tip of my two-hour demo I’d used a saw-toothed defend to slice by means of demons prefer it was Beelzebub’s Beyblade, stomped round a war-ravaged metropolis as a colossal Mecha-Slayer, and even introduced a snarling Cyberdemon to an explosive finish by respiratory fireplace straight down its throat with my trustworthy dragon steed – which appeared as if it had come to life from one of many sketches I used to attract within the margins of my highschool maths books. In truth, each facet of it seemed and felt unimaginable. It might happen at the hours of darkness ages of the Doom timeline, however the Slayer’s newest slaughterfest would possibly effectively signify the height of the collection’s fashionable period.
Let’s begin with probably the most essential new change: the defend. While 2016’s Doom was focussed on run and gun, and 2020’s Doom Eternal developed into bounce and shoot, the core fight precept of Doom: The Dark Ages is to face and struggle. That’s to not say I wasn’t instantly strafing by means of the strife as I met every new wave of Satan’s troopers, however the Doom Slayer’s new defend allowed me to carry my floor and block or parry enemy assaults, and even deflect projectiles again at them at any time when I managed to nail the timing.
When it involves which enemy assaults will be deflected and which might’t, it’s principally visitors mild guidelines – pink means cease and inexperienced means go. Or for Star Wars followers, pink is dangerous and inexperienced is sweet. The level is, you will need to continuously keep on the transfer to weave your approach by means of the pink waves of enemy fireplace, however the second you see a inexperienced burst you have to sprint in direction of the hazard as a way to completely bat again every part from searing bolts of power fired by enemy archers to the lethal volleys launched by the hulking Hell Tanks.
It introduces a welcome new take a look at of your timing and positioning on high of the already excessive depth gunplay – which has additionally been revitalised by an awe-inspiring arsenal that features a machine gun that crushes skulls and spits out shards of bone and simply is perhaps probably the most heavy metallic weapon ever conceived – however the defend isn’t there merely to dam and deflect. It can even naked the brunt of a strong lunging bash that immediately closes the gap between you and your goal, and you’ll even rev up its spinning saw-toothed edge like a chainsaw and hurl it. The defend will pinball by means of crowds of weaker enemies just like the Imps, or it may be lodged straight into the sternums of the beefier Imp Walkers to stun-lock them in place whilst you mop up the lesser minions round them.
The Slayer’s defend can even work in tandem together with your bulging bag of boomsticks in some extremely satisfying methods. Come up in opposition to a platoon of troopers marching behind seemingly impenetrable metal shields of their very own? Just pump just a few tremendous shotgun rounds into their metallic cellular cowl to warmth it till it’s visibly molten, earlier than frisbeeing your defend straight at them to ignite the complete group and bathe your self in precious armour pickups from the ensuing explosion.
The Dark Ages’ defend is maybe probably the most devastating interpretation of the phrase ‘the very best offense is an effective protection’, and it makes the brand new Doom really feel like the best unofficial Captain America sport ever made. Only, as a substitute of combating a military of Nazis you’re battling probably the most evil villains that Hell has to supply. Which, I suppose, are each one and the identical.
At any charge, no sooner had I settled into The Dark Ages’ sensational new shield-wielding fight system, than I used to be out of the blue whisked into the cockpit of an enormous Mecha-Slayer to tackle the tallest terrors to ever emerge from a Hell portal. The Atlan assault mechs have solely been teased prior to now couple of Doom video games, however in The Dark Ages they’re lastly pilotable, and I used to be completely thrilled to get behind the controls of certainly one of these green-helmed goliaths as a way to elevate some hell. Or ought to I say, raze some hell, as I stomped out tiny tanks and crashed by means of bridges lined with troops on my option to going toe to towering toe with every Titan demon attempting to take me down.
Yes, Doom: The Dark Ages takes the collection’ signature extremely violence and actually elevates it into Kaiju-sized carnage. Its Atlan fight is straightforward in setup however severely satisfying in execution, as you repeatedly pump the suitable set off to unleash combos with a pair of faculty bus-sized fists, with every profitable blow you land filling up a particular meter consisting of two halves. Fill it midway and you’ll ship a strong stomp that sends a shockwave by means of the earth beneath and opens up cracks of damaging lava that stagger your opponent. Fill it utterly and you’ll deal a devastating ending transfer to drive Lucifer’s leviathans to go in peace. Or extra particularly, in freshly shredded items.
If you want your 50-storey-tall fisticuffs with a facet order of gargantuan weapons then concern not, as a result of halfway by means of the extent a whopper of a weapon drop gave my mech entry to a machine gun so giant it may use an aeroplane hanger for a holster. Performing excellent dodges on incoming enemy assaults powers up each barrels of this not-so-mini-gun, and I used to be quickly blasting gloriously gory chunks of flesh off every Titan’s torso that showered on the troopers beneath. You don’t usually see this a lot raining blood with out shopping for a ticket to a Slayer live performance and sticking round for the encore.
Unfortunately I used to be solely given the smallest style of those supersized shootouts, since my hands-on rapidly switched tracks from Godzilla to Game of Thrones as I slipped out of the Atlan’s cockpit and into the saddle of a cybernetic dragon, full with twin cannons and a pair of dazzling laser wings. Soaring by means of the skies above a humungous holy metropolis, I took the struggle to a collection of Hell Carrier airships, once more performing excellent dodges to energy up my assaults to demolish the artillery alongside their sides and the lethal assault cannons atop their hulls. With every airship’s defenses down, I used to be then capable of swoop right down to its uncovered touchdown zone, leap off my dragon to briefly blast by means of Hades’ hordes on the flight deck, earlier than shield-bashing into its central energy core and forcing the entire thing to erupt like a Hellspawned Hindenburg, as I flew to security aboard my scaly skybound steed.
Both the Atlan and cyberdragon sections proved to be propulsive palette cleansers wealthy with spectacle, however I used to be itchin’ for extra of that bitchin’ defend and shoot ’em up motion. Thankfully the Slayer was quickly introduced again right down to earth to unleash additional terror on terra firma as my hands-on completed with a style of certainly one of Doom: The Dark Ages’ sprawling sandbox ranges. While the earlier gameplay stretches have been dynamic however considerably directed motion set items, this bumper battlefield stage dubbed The Siege gave me the liberty to sort out its targets in any order and progress by means of it solely at my very own tempo.
Thus, in between exhilarating encounters with waves of closely armoured Mancubuses and shield-based slugfests with tremendous heavy Cyberdemons, I used to be additionally capable of scour the panorama in all instructions for gold to spend on weapon upgrades, collectible toys, and even model new weapons so as to add to my rising arsenal of demon-destroyers. This included the Reaver Chainshot, which delivered highly effective charged up assaults that principally allowed me to fireplace a cannon ball to immediately mulch a monster, earlier than retracting it on a series and firing it once more to crush their minion mate beside them. Kind of like a Chain Chomp however not almost as cute.
The expanded map additionally supplied loads of nooks and crannies to hunt by means of for well being and armour pickups, together with melee ammo for the Slayer’s new flail and electrified gauntlet assaults. That’s proper, as if the Slayer wasn’t already badarse sufficient, he now manually reloads his punches like he’s Henry Cavill within the toilet brawl scene from Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
The general impression I acquired from The Dark Ages’ Siege map is that, though it’s giant in dimension, it’s nonetheless dense with breathtaking discoveries and various encounters. Some open-field fights locked mini-bosses behind a morale meter, conserving them proof against my assaults till I’d hustled to take out just a few dozen of their underlings. Other caves I explored featured nearly no fight in any respect, as a substitute difficult me to make use of my defend for environmental puzzle-solving, both as a grappling hook to launch me to in any other case unreachable areas or a device to control the controls of a wide range of arcane machines. There have been fantastic surprises nearly in all places I seemed, but in addition some not so fantastic ones… like the enormous tentacle that out of the blue emerged from the bottom beneath my ft in a swamp space and turned me from unstoppable beast to just lately deceased straight away.
With that, my time within the Slayer’s fight boots was up, and what a short however completely good journey it had been. If this small style is something to go by, then I’m fairly certain that the one cause id Software is looking this one Doom: The Dark Ages is as a result of the title of The Ultimate Doom was already taken three a long time in the past. From its satisfying shield-based fight shake-up and engaging sandbox stage buildings, to its Pacific Rim-rocking skyscraper-sized beatdowns and its dazzling dragon-riding dogfights, the crew behind Doom: The Dark Ages is seemingly throwing every part however Hell’s kitchen sink into making this the largest and finest marketing campaign seen to this point within the seminal shooter collection.
It’s additionally set to be probably the most accessible. If you’ve ever needed in on the wanton demon destruction however have beforehand been too intimidated to attempt, Doom: The Dark Ages appears to be like to have you ever coated. Not solely is there an expanded variety of issue settings to select from this time, with six completely different ranges of problem from the exceedingly light Aspiring Slayer to the completely psychological Ultra Nightmare, however there are additionally instruments to tweak nearly each facet of the expertise. That consists of sliders to regulate every part from parry timing home windows to the injury dealt from every assault, and the general velocity of the motion. Whether you need it to be a friction-free energy journey or a synapse-straining punishment, Doom: The Dark Ages appears to have the flexibleness to permit any stage of participant to change into a god tier Slayer. What’s extra, because it’s a prequel to the 2016 reboot, you’ll be able to go in utterly contemporary even you probably have NFI what a BFG is.
Doom: The Dark Ages is ready to reach on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on May fifteenth. Until then, if you need a every day dose of doom, you might simply spend a couple of minutes scrolling by means of social media. But if you need extra Doom: The Dark Ages, be sure you take a look at our interview with the crew at id Software and the gameplay overview trailer.
Tristan Ogilvie is a Senior Video Producer at IGN’s Sydney workplace. He just lately switched from Twitter to Bluesky, however in both case he is about as talkative because the Doom Slayer.
