DOOM: The Dark Ages

One step forward, two steps back.
(Hour= Steam offline mode, did %100 completion in 21 hours.)
Doom Eternal built on the solid foundation laid by the series’ 2016 reboot, evolving the classic, fast-paced first-person action by adding a complex layer of strategy and quick decision-making. While this shift was well-received, it did alienate some players who preferred the more straightforward gameplay of its predecessor—focused on constant movement, juggling resources, and frequently swapping weapons—all of which could sometimes detract from the pure joy of nonstop demon slaying.
Doom: The Dark Ages doesn’t step back, though. Instead, it finds a middle ground by bringing back a thrilling power fantasy with simpler, yet satisfying mechanics that push the combat into fresh, new territory for the series.
The game puts a big focus on standing your ground in combat, rather than constantly moving around. To help with that, you’re permanently equipped with a shield that lets you parry enemy attacks and block incoming damage. It’s a versatile tool—you can soak up hits or redirect damage with well-timed blocks and parries—allowing you to face down more enemies at once than ever before. But true to Doom’s style, the best defense often comes with a heavy dose of offense.
Your shield is more than just protection—it’s a deadly weapon. When you’re not slicing demon heads off with its chainsaw edges, you can bounce it between enemies or use it to shatter armor that’s been superheated by your bullets. It’s also great for closing distance, replacing Eternal’s air dash with a powerful shield bash that can reach far across the sprawling battlefields. The shield locks onto distant enemies, and with a quick button press, the Slayer lunges forward to obliterate them in a devastating attack.
For a series that’s so focused on its arsenal of weapons, it’s interesting that the biggest change comes from adding a defensive tool. But with all the variety and depth the shield brings to the gameplay, it’s an upgrade that’s hard to imagine playing without.
You still need to manage health and ammo by taking down demons, but less so than in Doom Eternal. The focus here is on a rhythm of balancing parries and melee attacks. You have powerful moves on cooldowns that shorten with successful parries. Charging a demon with a shield bash, parrying strikes, then counter-attacking feels satisfying and gives each fight a tactile, impactful rhythm.
The weight behind your hits is amplified by just how physically imposing the Doom Slayer feels this time around. He’s always been an unstoppable force of destruction, but The Dark Ages really drives home his battlefield presence. Every jump down from a ledge ends with an earth-shaking thud, smashing nearby enemies to bits like a classic superhero landing. It’s insanely satisfying to make that entrance before a big fight, with the enemy hordes visibly trembling in fear.
That said, movement feels different too. You no longer have a double jump or air dash, encouraging you to carefully pick your fights and stand your ground until you’re done. But don’t mistake that for slow gameplay—Doom has always been about quick, brutal kills and snapping your aim to the next target, and The Dark Ages keeps that frantic energy alive. It’s just noticeably slower than Eternal, which might take some getting used to, but it fits perfectly with the new combat tools you have at your disposal.
All these changes take a bit of time to click, making the first hour or so feel a bit uneven. The early chapters do a solid job of slowly introducing new mechanics, but the pacing takes a hit when you’re frequently interrupted by tutorial pop-ups. Plus, your new abilities only really start to mesh once you’ve upgraded your weapons and found some devastating synergies. But the payoff is worth it—once everything comes together, Doom: The Dark Ages nails that power fantasy, letting you mow down enemies that gave you trouble just hours before, and revel in how your skills and gear have leveled up with every fight.
Doom: The Dark Ages doesn’t throw away the series’ legacy just because it’s diving deep into melee combat. The weapon lineup brings back classic favorites, while cleverly tweaking some to fit the medieval setting. It’s still a blast to blast demons up close with the Super Shotgun — which feels right at home in a game all about getting up in your enemies’ faces — but it’s the newer weapons that kept me hooked, offering a perfect mix of fun and usefulness. One standout is a railgun-like rifle that fires a cannonball attached to a chain, smashing armored foes with a shockwave. Another weapon literally chomps on skulls and fires the shattered bits like bullets — basically a rapid-fire gatling gun that’s perfect for crowd control. These weapons are clearly inspired by the medieval vibe of the game’s world, changing familiar designs just enough to feel fresh and exciting.
The Dark Ages also pulls you into its setting with much larger, open-ended levels to explore. These hubs are packed with multiple objectives, secrets, and challenges — and you get to decide the order and pace you tackle them. It’s like an expanded version of the secret-filled, linear levels from the 2016 reboot and Eternal, but with way more to discover and more creative hiding spots. The standout is the Cosmic Realm, a completely new area inspired by Lovecraftian horror, offering some memorable side quests. None of these hubs ever feel empty or oversized; they’re filled with demon battalions that keep the fights messy and intense. Plus, the mix of more linear sections balances things out nicely, keeping the 22-chapter campaign feeling fresh and varied.
However, The Dark Ages stumbles a bit when it steps outside these tight core mechanics. Scattered through the campaign are moments where you pilot a giant mech in epic kaiju-style battles or ride a heavily armored dragon with glowing energy wings across huge battlefields. While these sequences are introduced in cool ways, their gameplay feels shallow. Whether you’re in the mech or on the dragon’s back, it basically boils down to finding enemies and wading through slow, drawn-out fights focused on timing dodges and trading hits. These sections feel like they belong in a completely different game compared to the crisp, well-balanced foot combat, and honestly, they just make you eager to get back on solid ground and fight demons the Doom way.
The focus on melee combat fits seamlessly with the classic Doom pace, making every parry and counter-attack just as thrilling as the first. It’s a carefully crafted experience that delivers the raw power fantasy of tearing through hordes of demons, without losing the complexity that keeps every fight exciting. Although it occasionally stumbles when it strays too far from what made the series great, Doom: The Dark Ages proves there’s still plenty of untapped potential here. Sometimes, smart and measured tweaks can push the franchise into new territory and deliver some of its finest moments yet.
+The shield and parry system is well integrated into the game
+Still plenty of great Doomguy moments
+Supports all current technologies and runs very smoothly
-The overall theme and atmosphere can’t even come close to Doom Eternal.
-The exploration aspect kills the action vibe
-Boring cutscenes, tedious dragon and mech sections, and weapon swapping is too slow.
-When Mick Gordon left, the music turned into something that sounds like TV demo tracks.
Review Score: 77/100
DOOM 2016 Review
DOOM Eternal Review

Overall recommendation: Series veterans might want to wait for a sale

Overall I'll call this a tenuous recommendation, with the caveat that I don't think it quite lives up to the previous 2 installments (which are both technically sequels to this), but the combat loop itself is worth playing, even if it means waiting for a sale first.

The core gameplay is good, with the introduction of shield and melee mechanics to replace Doom Eternal's flamethrower and glory kills. Thanks to the sound and physics design, you really feel the weight of the Slayer when you move, and each of the weapons as you fire.

The combat on its own is good, but not Doom Eternal good. It's interesting in that most of the weapons seem pretty viable on their own, but there are a couple standouts (chainshot, and the assault rifle secondary mode) that made using many weapons feel kind of unnecessary if not oftentimes useless. It's a pretty big contrast from Doom Eternal's loop that required using all the tools at your disposal frequently, and I never really felt incentivized to mix up my play in Dark Ages the same way I did with Eternal. Whereas Eternal made swapping weapons second-nature, Dark Ages makes swapping weapons almost feel like a chore--you save heaps of time just hurling your shield instead of swapping to the plasma rifle to take out shieldbearers, for example. It's pretty indicative that the core design of the combat was around the new shield mechanics more than anything else, which isn't bad on its own. Like I mentioned, all the weapons feel pretty viable to use, so if you want to just use one over another you really can without feeling much detriment.

Beyond combat, however, the game nearly broached becoming what I would deem a slog, due mostly to how the secrets and maps are set up. The maps themselves all feel enormous, partially due to the inclusion of mech and dragon set pieces demanding additional scale, and also due to a more open-world approach than previous installments had. This has a large drawback, however, in that many of those maps require copious amounts of backtracking for hunting secrets. The last main level alone has you progress about 70% of the way just to find the secrets key, at which point you go back through the entire previous portion of the map to collect the secrets you had to leave behind until finding said key. This kind of thing occurs often in Dark Ages, and has kept me from immediately jumping back in on Nightmare/Ultra Nightmare after finishing my Ultra Violence campaign on my first go-around.

The mech and dragon portions of the game I could do without entirely--they break the pace pretty hard and the combat with each is pretty lackluster and unexciting. If these portions had been cut or even reduced to cinematics the game would have been improved quite a bit, I think. As the saying goes: "To some, perfection is achieved when there is nothing more to add. To others, perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away". I think in the case of Dark Ages, more could have been taken away to good effect.

On that note, I will say that the soundtrack is sorely missing Mick Gordon. I can remember having those catchy, driving, synth-metal tracks from Eternal stuck in my head for hours after playing, but I couldn't recite a single riff from Dark Ages if I tried, even after my first campaign over 17 hours. It's an unfortunate blemish for Dark Ages that Id and Gordon's relationship faltered the way it did

Doom The Dark Ages was a wild ride during the entire play through and really showcases what ID Software tried to do with the changes made in this iteration. However, Doom The Dark Ages is lacking in some areas while excelling in others. Lets talk pros and cons...
Pros:
Pacing - Doom The Dark Ages features fantastic pacing during and between levels. The game has moments where it lets you breathe to explore the areas around you and try to collect every secret and item you can possibly find. When you are thrust into battle it secures you in the field with red barriers to let you know nothing else matters other than you and the enemy at that moment in time. I really enjoyed the breaks in action (or the difference in delivering said action) with the new Dragon and Mech levels that are in this game. The dragon levels were by far my favorite chapters.
Level Design / Map Design - Doom The Dark Ages has fantastic map design and level design. The map is super useful, highlighting the secrets well and letting you figure out how to find them. Even though you know they are there, its not easy to spot all of them and the feeling of exploration is there. Some maps are super linear as expected, but others are a bit more open ended letting you choose which direction you want to go first to explore / tackle objectives. Its actually a really fun combination and I thought it was done well.
Graphics - The graphics in this game, as expected are pretty good. I wouldn't say they are mind blowing, but I played at maximum settings 4K resolution and there were moments in the game (especially the open maps) where I thought "dam this looks really good". Areas are dark and broody with lots of your typical blood and bodies everywhere. Overall I enjoyed the visuals in this game.
Game play - Here is where i personally enjoyed the game play in this game. I know for some people, the shield will throw them off and they feel it slows down combat and I totally get that. I myself enjoyed the combat in Doom The Dark Ages but there are some cons and I will list that below. Overall the weapon choices in this game are a lot of fun (although can feel a bit repetitive between the different weapons of the same "archtype") and the shield spices things up nicely with the shield charge (which i used constantly to run around the battlefield). Overall it was fast paced, fun, somewhat challenging and rewarding as well with the parry mechanic in this game.
Progression / Unlocks - This game features a great progression system that has a ton of weapon abilities you can unlock with resources gained while exploring. You can also level up your shield...4 different melee weapons and many different shield runes as well to cause effects when you parry. There is so much customization to how you will rip and tear demons its awesome. Definitely a lot to experiment with and unpack here.
Now lets talk cons:
Game play - Yes this is a pro and a con. So the game play for me was fun, rewarding, fast paced and felt good. The problem is sometimes you will feel combat gets slowed down due to the parry mechanic. Animation lock becomes a small problem because after a parry its encouraged that you melee the enemy usually for a combo, but results in sometimes your inability to do so because the enemy goes flying backwards quickly but your animation is slowed due to the parry so you cant get a combo off in time sometimes. It can definitely feel a little glitch at times during combat but overall i didn't experience this TOO much.
Toned Down Compared To Previous Dooms - This game is 100% more toned down than previous dooms in terms of overall bloodyness and violence. The glory kills of previous dooms have been replaced with basically melee executions that dont result in the same level of violence as the previous. Glory kills you were able to rip / tear enemies apart, snap their necks etc. In this game that barely happens. Every once and a while youll get the opportunity to maybe cut a head off with your shield but its usually cinematic / cutscene ending for a mini boss or big boss. Its unfortunate.
Bugs and Glitches - This game has some bugs and glitches as expected. Within my first stream of the game, i experienced a crash immediately upon starting the game and getting to the menu screen (only happened once or twice) On the third level, i experienced a no music bug, where combat had zero music playing and no ambient music was playing during exploration as well. Literally nothing but footsteps. I encountered a shield parry bug where after clicking the shield once, I was unable to click it again until i switched weapons, resulting in me being unable to shield or parry...I also experienced a no footstep sound bug where my footsteps literally disappeared. Its all documented on my channel for those who never experienced such bugs, i did unfortunately.
Music - The music in this game is good... it really is. But its just nowhere near as good as micks unfortunately. I was hoping that it would be, but I understand now that was nearly a impossible task. Still, there are moments where the music DOES hit well, its just not as good as micks. So i am labeling this as a con, but to be fair its one of those "up to the player" cons.
Value - This is a big one for me right now. In a day and age where games are going to start charging you 80$ retail, this game being $70 retail doesn't hit home as strong value for me considering its campaign only right now and I finished the campaign in 15 hours. I've played this game a extra two hours after completing it hunting achievements. I am nearly 100%. 15 hour campaign for me, full current price when I recently played Expedition 33 and have 40+ hours in that game and I am currently exploring Oblivion remastered and we all know how many hours you can get in that game...all for $50 retail. Its a hard sell iIMO. Die hard doom fans will pick it up instantly, but i HIGHLY recommend at least waiting for a 25% off sale to bring it more in line with campaign length to price expectations.
All in all, as a game i thoroughly enjoyed Doom The Dark ages. It 100% has its faults no doubt and issues, but is still a solid entry into the doom franchise. I wouldn't say its my personal favorite of all the DOOM games I've ever played, but I did enjoy this one a lot (especially the dragon levels, DAM those were awesome).
Thank you for reading and if you want to see my game play of this game, check out Hypnotic LIVE on YouTube for the full live review of Doom The Dark Ages.
Thanks for reading!

Beat the campaign in around 16 hours on ultra-violence with most of the secrets found. Very fun as all doom games, but not worth full price, recommending it on sale, at least 50% off. It's a sidestep from Eternal with a sprinkle of Hexen, feels much easier on the same difficulty.
Movement is fast like classic Doom, but without all the crazy dashing and jumping of Eternal.
Really enjoyed doomguy's new shield, coming from Space Marine 2 the parry mechanic is just as satisfying, maybe a bit overused.
Lots of weapons to choose from, and without the rock-paper-scissors mechanic you can once again use whichever you prefer, although some of them are far more effective than others.
Didn't encounter any technical problems besides a single bug in one level having an invisible tutorial window.
The one true complaint i have is the complete absence of content outside of the campaign. It's fun, sure, but not 80€ fun.
Lack of multiplayer aside, which i never cared for anyways, it's missing all the good stuff from the previous games that made them much more replayable: no master levels, no horde mode, no arcade mode, nothing. They brought back the skins feature for player and weapons, but the very few implemented are mild recolors of the defaults, and coming from Eternal's huge list of skins and even models it's very disappointing.
Doesn't look like it has modding support either, also disappointing considering they started doing it for Eternal and seemed like a thing they'd keep in mind for developing future games.
The one thing it has going for replay value is the very customizable difficulty settings.
Hopefully they follow their trend of adding game modes in free updates in the future.

For some, the hardest part of playing The Dark Ages will be letting go of Eternal. I see this game as an overcorrection from Eternal. DOOM is one of the most respected franchises ever, and while each entry has its own camp, nearly all of them are beloved by the majority of players. That said, there’s always an inevitable clash between industry trends and player expectations. Sometimes, pushing a franchise forward is necessary. I respect the fact id keeps trying but it's not always as easy to appreciate a work for what it is, though I still appreciate it's fresh.
If you thought Eternal was too "gamified," guess what? Dark Ages is also too gamified just in a different way. Sure, it’s more grounded and rounded across the board. I don’t know why people label this as a "stand and fight" game because, believe me, it’s not. It still has the DOOM run-and-gun mayhem at its core; it’s just not as rhythmically demanding as Eternal, where optimal play required using every weapon in your arsenal while platforming like a madman. I loved Eternal, but Dark Ages is more of an all-rounder. It’s still rhythmic in terms of parrying (the timing window is forgiving, so you’ll get it naturally), but you have more freedom in weapon choice. If you preferred 2016, this might address some of your issues though I doubt the 2016 camp will inherently fully embrace it.
Grenades are gone, replaced by a trusty shield that’s just as eager to chop enemies apart. Melee and close-quarters are better than ever. The weapons are creative enough to keep the flow engaging, and the BFG has been swapped for a BFC (a crossbow, obviously), which fits the theme quite well. I miss the Crucible already, there’s no equivalent here but it is what it is. Unfortunately, glory kills feel downgraded. I get why, but unless you approach enemies from specific angles, you’ll see the same few animations repeatedly. After Eternal’s variety, this left a sour taste.
I finished my Nightmare playthrough in about 18 hours, collecting around 3/4 of the upgrades and secrets. And that’s where my biggest gripe lies. Collectibles aren’t just codexes and toys they’re tied to upgrades, too. This baffles me. We’re drowning in soulslikes and RPGs, open worlds packed with busywork. I do that every month. Now I am doing more of the same in DOOM? I don’t see the necessity. If it were just a few levels, fine but most are sprawling, encouraging free-roaming exploration. At first, I welcomed it, but it got old fast. I lost focus and grew bored, the worst possible outcome in a DOOM game. Regardless, I still appreciate how some missions lets you take them at your own pace and do objectives in any order.
The levels themselves are monotonous and lack dynamism. This is another consequence of stepping back from Eternal, where some accused the game of turning into Mario Galaxy with its platforming. Fine, keeping traversal grounded is certainly a choice but the levels also lack distinction. Most look and play the same, with some elevation but nothing like Eternal’s verticality. You’ll mostly run circles in arenas.
Dark Ages is more accessible than Eternal, which some found demanding. In fact, it might be the most accessible DOOM yet. Achievements are easy to 100%, and Nightmare was rather easy until the final missions, where the game unapologetically spams enemies. The challenge wasn’t playing "Simon Says" with the parry cues but constantly getting hit from off-screen. It’s still tailored for hardcore players but is not an exact ''sweaty palms'' game like 2016 either. Dark Ages itself plays like a mediator between two different DOOM entries.
The mech (Atlan) and dragon sections are disappointingly shallow. The Atlan feels clunky, with little room for mastery—mostly just perfect dodges and button-mashing. The dragon is underwhelming, requiring lock-on attacks and more of the perfect dodges. You can’t park your dragon and freely explore; landing zones are predetermined. The only real interaction is chasing fleeing ships (loot goblins, essentially) to be rewarded by the mission challanges. It’s bland.
If you wanted cinematic presentation in DOOM for whatever reason, you’re in luck. Dark Ages has the most presentation in the series. Funny, considering 2016 initially prided itself on anti-narrative (though even it had unskippable cutscenes). Eternal drowned in convoluted lore dump, while The Dark Ages goes for a straightforward, cinematic approach. It’s easy to follow, and I don’t mind it being there but do I care? Honestly, hard to give a shit.
The Slayer is still the dude. He rips, tears, and makes folk run for their life. But the rest of the cast? Generic military tropes, Sentinel war councils, and bits of outsider-vs.-locals perspective. It was interesting to see how the Slayer earned his place, but the storytelling relies on tired, overused set pieces. I don’t care about Sentinels war plans or whatsoever, just let me shoot something in the face.
The pacing also feels stretched. Unique bosses are unevenly spaced (you fight all in the last 3 chapters), and the only rune, Rage, is introduced late for gimmicky fights. I missed traditional power ups, this type of gameplay could have benefited greatly from them.
The guns still feel punchy, but mastery challenges only reward skins. I didn’t feel compelled to upgrade everything, sticking to one or two favorites. Each weapon has two mods (switchable anytime), and upgrades grant perks like the classic flame flares (armor on hit) for the shotgun its often associated with.
I recently revisited DOOM 3. Love it or hate it, it was a bold departure. Made during an era of industry experimentation, took risks. Newer DOOMs feel more like Painkiller than DOOM 3 in an ironic way. Players clearly love weapon-juggling, fast-paced combat, and arena shooters hence the indie boom of "retro-feel boomer shooters," many of which are even faster than this trilogy. Most aren’t true to DOOM's (or Duke 3D's) roots either, but that’s just how trends go.
I never opened the map until I hit a breaking point. Constantly checking the map isn’t something I associate with DOOM. If you love exploring every corner of given levels, more power to you. But this isn’t my idea of an FPS sandbox. I expect something more calculated and focused; Dark Ages sacrifices that precision of the former two for openness. Still thrilling, but its highs are lower due to design restrictions.
The new remix of the main theme (the one that greets you in the menu) is cool and all, but the rest of the BGM... If you could ask the soundtrack itself, it would agree that it misses Mick Gordon. At some point, Gordon had to move on, but it’s a shame how he departed. I don’t think the new tracks are as memorable as those in the former two. Must be a part of why I got bored. The music has the similar tunes, sure, but is not as vibrant, intense and energetic. Instead it's more flat and obviously far less experimental although some might still find it catchy. The mixing needs some serious help however.
DOOM strangely followed Tomb Raider's path so far, a beloved franchise from '90s making a strong comeback with arguably a great reboot debut, followed by a more divisive sequel and finishes up with a messier entry. That's just how I interpret it. What's next? Another reboot? That I don't know but I do know this: Dark Ages is still a good game. It's just not my type of jam. Each to their own, I don't feel apologetic as I hated both RAGEs hence feel like id sometimes do miss the mark but the ongoing theme here is clear enough. It's what you prefer. To me, Dark Ages will remain the weakest link of the new trio. Maybe it should take a longer break but whatever's next, I want to believe it'll be always good to play more of DOOM. The lack of multiplayer is saddening actually.
★★★½☆☆
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It’s incredible to see ID software put out 3 completely different combat frameworks for a FPS in the last decade. Each game is different while being distinctly DOOM. Not many publishers take that kind of risk.
DOOM 2016 asked you to run and gun. DOOM Eternal asked you to jump and shoot. While DOOM The Dark Ages asks you to stand and fight. Imagine these 3 games were your kids. They are all different and You love them all equally for their unique qualities.

no traversal stutters, no pre caching shaders, looks fantastic and runs well above 100 frames on my 3080 on ultra nightmare preset settings. Not sure why something like this has to be so rare in modern day gaming, but its certainly appreciated that the game runs perfectly without any hitches or issues
also the game is just really fun