DOOM The Dark Ages is the next game in id Software's legendary FPS franchise, published by Bethesda and, by extension, Xbox Games Studios. The DOOM Guy will grace PC, Xbox Series, Game Pass, and even PS5 with his menacing presence on May 15th. As hinted at in its comprehensive presentation during the Xbox Developer Direct, this new installment intends to bring huge changes to the demon-slaying formula. Starting with radically different gameplay compared to DOOM 2016 and Eternal, a more in-depth story, and a certain immensity, not to say outright excess, in its game design. And, with three hours of gameplay under our belts in this preview, we can already say that the term "excess" is clearly not usurped.
DOOM The Dark Ages: the medieval prequel to a legend
From the first presentations of DOOM The Dark Ages, id Software immediately announced the color: it will not be a simple "Eternal 2.0" with a few small new features to satisfy the fans. It is not even a direct sequel. On the contrary, the studio wants to delve deeper into the past of the DOOM Guy, to show us how he reached the legendary status we know since the 2016 reboot, and to do it in the most epic way, with a medieval twist. With this new installment, we go back well into the franchise's timeline, literally into its Dark Ages. This era is the scene of an eternal war between the Maykrs (the "Angels") and the Demons of Hell. In the middle of this conflict, we have the humans, led in particular by King Urdak.
Continuing the momentum initiated by Eternal, DOOM The Dark Ages intends to tell us a more in-depth story in the lore of the saga, compared to the classics of the FPS genre, with scenarios often fitting on a postage stamp. This translates into more polished staging, more cutscenes, and a lot of exposition. This is how our preview of the game began. Naturally, we won't elaborate on this subject further, waiting to see the full game to discover where its synopsis will take us. We can, however, note the fact that, at the beginning of the adventure, our dear DOOM Guy seems to be the slave of the Maykrs, using it as a weapon of mass destruction by exploiting his visceral hatred for demons, but against his will. We can easily imagine that he's not going to let this happen, and that his captors are likely to have a rough time sooner or later.
Let's take advantage of this intro cinematic to take a moment to look at the graphical and technical aspects of DOOM The Dark Ages. As part of our preview, we were treated to an ultra-powerful PC, with no less than an RTX 5090 under the hood, for an experience of absolute fluidity in 4K with all the visual controls maxed out. Once again, id Software pulls out all the stops, with a title displaying beautiful visuals and truly epic artistic direction, at least in the levels we played. That being said, DOOM 2016 and Eternal were already magnificent in their time, and this new opus doesn't at first glance mark a jaw-dropping graphical difference compared to its predecessors. It remains to be seen what the rest of the title has in store for us and whether it will be well optimized on less well-equipped PCs, as well as, of course, on consoles. However, we would tend to trust the studio and its perfect mastery of its in-house engine on this front.
Very different gameplay, but still just as devilishly enjoyable
Our fight begins as the forces of Hell attack a human colony of some importance to the Maykrs. They naturally deploy the DOOM Guy to defend their interests. To do this, we literally go to war, with incredibly classy armor, a good old shotgun, and one of the big new features of DOOM The Dark Ages: a shield, which will later be equipped with a chainsaw. As indicated by id Software, goodbye to the mobility-focused "fighter jet" gameplay of Eternal, we embody a real tank, advancing resolutely behind our shield to crush everything in our path. A radical change of dynamic, which somewhat confused us during the first few minutes.
We played through the preview on Ultra Violence difficulty (Hard for those in the know), and our lack of experience with the game's new mechanics often caused us to fall from grace. Forget about dashes galore and crossing an arena at lightning speed while jumping everywhere. With this new installment, we generally keep our feet firmly planted on the ground, shooting at everything that moves, and blocking the blows that come our way. Even in Ultra Violence, careless mistakes are quickly paid for, despite the many ways to heal and recover armor, by picking up objects on the ground or eliminating stunned enemies.
However, to say that the basic gameplay formula of DOOM The Dark Ages lacks dynamism would be far from the truth. We will often face veritable hordes of demons, and the presence of a shield makes the action anything but passive. We will indeed have to show good timing to reflect certain blows back to our opponents' faces. We can also make a forward charge to eliminate an entire group of enemies in one go, or send our looper to chainsaw demons or destroy armor by overheating them with our shots. Overall, melee combat is much more diverse here, with several weapons at our disposal, such as the flail or a reinforced gauntlet.
Naturally, it wouldn't be a DOOM game worthy of the name without plenty of weapons. In the three hours of play we were given, we discovered around ten of them. This ranges from the standard shotgun to the iconic Super Shotgun, including the plasma rifle, an assault rifle that reloads by crushing a demon's skull, a nail launcher, and a chain-linked cannonball launcher. Thus, DOOM The Dark Ages fully embraces its medieval atmosphere, with a very varied and particularly well-designed arsenal for the occasion, without forgetting its great classics. However, we will have to wait to explore all of the game's gameplay proposals in more depth to have a more definitive opinion on it. In any case, it will definitely take a little time to fully appreciate its flavor.
Despite this radical change in gameplay, one distinctive element of the franchise is still very much present: a brutality that is as extreme as it is devilishly enjoyable. From the moment the game puts us in control of DOOM Guy, the pleasure of blasting the demon is immediate, keyboard/mouse in hand, although the title is also perfectly suited to playing with a controller. Both the feel of the weapons and the enormous slaps we deliver are exquisite, accompanied to perfect it all by a sound design that hits very hard. Of course, the music that accompanies our glorious massacre is just as pleasantly pummeling our ears, even if unfortunately we will have to do without the brilliant Mick Gordon. That being said, the sound settings on our preview PC sadly drowned out the game's soundtrack compared to the sounds of the tumult of combat. We hope to be able to enjoy it more when we have the final version of the game in our hands.
The craziest excess game for id Software?
The medieval way of disemboweling demons in series isn't the only thing that changes significantly in DOOM The Dark Ages. Traditionally known for its "corridor" dimension, the license opens up greatly here, notably with the integration of numerous "open zones." Veterans, however, don't panic: this isn't about moving to an open world. Think of it as more conventional levels, but amalgamated together into a single large block. We actually ended our preview on such an area, announced by Bethesda representatives present at the event as "one of the biggest in the game."
The idea was to close infernal portals scattered throughout the level. We could therefore explore it freely and choose which objective to go to, with occasional small optional dungeons, which included some nice rewards. It was in one of these that we discovered the weapon that fires a chain-mounted ball, which we instantly appreciated for its effectiveness. While it is possible to go straight ahead and focus on the main objectives of such areas, the game encourages us to comb through them to not miss anything. By doing a little exploration, we covered the area in just under an hour. A rather reasonable duration, in itself.
Especially since DOOM The Dark Ages is shaping up to be downright huge. Our roughly three-hour preview only allowed us to experience the first chapter, with many cutscenes removed to give us more playtime. Furthermore, controlling DOOM Guy on foot is just one of the game's options. We were treated to a small glimpse of a level piloting a mech the size of a New York building, which proved to be as oversized as it was devilishly satisfying. We had a blast sticking titanic slaps into the faces of equally enormous demons, or tearing them to shreds with a machine gun the size of an airplane.
Finally, we were also able to try another of the big new features of DOOM The Dark Ages to vary its gameplay: the mecha-dragon phases, which will potentially bring back good memories for fans of Panzer Dragoon. Our feelings on this subject are, however, less glowing. Our mount was indeed quite clumsy to control, and the shooting phases were far from being as impactful as when piloting DOOM Guy or the mech in his image. According to Bethesda representatives, this is the part of the game on which id Software still needs to make some refinements, and we hope that this will be felt when it is released on May 15th.
We await DOOM The Dark Ages… with the irrepressible desire to smash some demon
With three short hours of gameplay under our belts, we only wanted one thing at the end of our preview: to return to DOOM The Dark Ages to better familiarize ourselves with its new, more medieval gameplay, which is as brutal and enjoyable as its predecessors. This new installment promises to be truly enormous, in every sense of the word. We're therefore marking each day of the calendar that separates us from May 15th with demon blood, to see if the final game will deliver a slap as satisfying as this first glimpse, both visually and in the delicious sensations that its frenetic action provides. We're also curious to know what will happen to the DOOM Guy to catch up with the two previous installments. Finally, let's hope that the dragon phases will be more accomplished, so that the father of the FPS can give us another complete and masterful lesson. Roll on the big return to Hell!
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