Shield Thine Eyes

A review of "DOOM: The Dark Ages", how much I love "DOOM" (2016), and my new favorite weapon in video games.

“Look at me! I am the captain now!”

Id Software has done it, yet again.

They’ve reinvented DOOM for a third consecutive game, and DOOM: The Dark Ages might be my favorite playing game in terms of combat loop, in this reboot series of titles.

So my history with DOOM as a franchise goes back a bit. I have played every game in the mainline series and finished every game to completion, save for “DOOM 64” and “DOOM 3”. I love this series. They’re kind of what I go to for comfort in the world of gaming. They’re like ‘shooter soul food’ to my gaming appetite. Every time I play a game in the series, either returning to previous titles I’ve finished or playing through the ones I haven't gone through yet, I get into a sort of relaxing ‘flow-state’ with them. It’s a haven for me in the world of video games, where I know the breadth and the depth of each game relatively intimately. It’s a certain security I feel in playing this franchise, I don’t get with many others while playing games.

My favorite of the whole series has to be “DOOM” (2016), the first of the reboots, and even with the subsequent releases of both “DOOM Eternal” and the third and most recent game, “DOOM: The Dark Ages”, this remains the case. There is just something about that game that captivates me to this day.

It’s something that I can’t quite quantify… But I think the whole package of that first game has yet to be matched in terms of sheer quality all the way through its main campaign. From the irreverent tone, the goofy personality of the Doom Slayer, the surprising amount of lore hidden in the codices of the game, to the unbelievable and unrelenting industrial heavy-metal soundtrack by certifiable genius composer Mick Gordon, everything about that first entry just hits for me. Upon the release of “DOOM” (2016), it went from an uncertainty as a product to an undeniable bar for quality in the first-person shooter genre. It’s still great to look at, runs beautifully on whatever platform it plays on, it has some of the best sound design in the medium, and plays buttery-smooth. It’s maybe my pick for the best shooter I have ever played.

My time with “DOOM Eternal” is well-documented here on this Substack, so I will keep it brief. It’s a lightning-fast rollercoaster of hellacious wonderment that left me exhausted by the end of both the main campaign and its DLC. It’s a triumph for a cultivated style of gameplay that remains the very best constructed of the series, at the expense of player expression as a result. If you can endure the game’s brand of demonic tango, you can become a formidable dance partner in its alluring neon-tinged style of choreography.

I love “DOOM Eternal”, but it’s not for everyone.

“DOOM” (2016) remains my personal favorite, but “DOOM: The Dark Ages” might be right alongside it, in terms of my sheer enjoyment. It’s so good immediately, and only gets better the longer you play it. I’m not trying to diminish Eternal, don’t get me wrong. I think that while the previous game is successful at what it sets out to do, I prefer playing “DOOM: The Dark Ages” more. Id Software has drilled down on specific points of the gameplay to lower the skill ceiling needed to interact with it, and I think the smart changes, mechanical choices, and thematic decisions they decided to make for this new game are for the better.

In some ways, every game in this reboot series is a reaction to the last iteration. Id Software, at its core as a studio, is an iterative company in terms of its game design fundamentals. They learn and take the things that worked and didn’t from each game, and drastically change and alter the core gameplay loop each time. It’s kinda cool there are different flavors of “DOOM”, all with specific changes that work in their separate ways.

Each game in this new series feels different, looks different, and sounds different, all while retaining the core design language, thematic tenets, and original philosophy of “DOOM” as a franchise. It’s pretty mind-boggling how different and how good each game is when compared to the others in its series. I think every game exists on its own remarkably well, but also lives alongside each other in conversation with each other. You can see a design through-line here in these last three games that feels reactionary. What do I mean by this?

Id Software put out the first game in 2016 as a confident statement. “We are here, ‘DOOM’ is back, and it’s better than ever.”

“DOOM Eternal” builds upon that game with deep mechanical complexity, changing the format in the process. Every weapon and mechanical interaction in both the combat and puzzles is a sort of “key” that fits specific locks in the game’s design. Every enemy has a weakness, and each gun has a specific function in its kit to expose that enemy type in order to take advantage of the combat puzzle, for instance. This raises the game’s skill ceiling inherently, given that they have many ‘keys’ for these ‘locks’, but it makes for a rewarding and consistently thrilling dance of gameplay if you can grasp and execute on it.

“DOOM: The Dark Ages” pulls back on the mechanical complexity of this ‘weak-point key-into-lock’ arsenal system, and creates a sort of ‘all-purpose’ tool in the Slayer’s Sentinel Shield, to interact with the game’s design, instead. Paring down these systems does a lot of good for the legibility and execution of that same idea introduced in Eternal, but this time, in a more digestible and accessible way without sacrificing the fun of the game’s combat.

The Shield is the big new addition in this game, and after having used it, I never want a “DOOM” game to not have one again. It feels incredible to use. It’s even better than the Super Shotgun’s grappling-hook implement in “DOOM Eternal”, which I had previously dubbed the ‘best feeling mechanic in video games’. It’s even better, does way more, and feels incredible in combat. It’s one of the best feeling tools and weapons ever devised for a first-person shooter.

They built the entire game around the Shield this time, and I just love the way it interacts with every part of the world and setting in the campaign. You use it primarily, of course, for combat. But also puzzles, and tricky solves for bonus items hidden throughout the nooks and crannies of The Dark Ages’ holo-map.

The Shield is used in so many novel ways, with too many to list here. The tagline for this game is ‘Stand and Fight’, and that’s exactly what you do. You are encouraged to take cover behind your shield while distant groups of enemies hurl pulsing neon volleys of plasma across the battlefield, in your direction. You can use your shield to parry, block, and even throw it into enemies with the Saw upgrade, which can stun, stagger, and all around put your enemy on the back foot. It’s vital you use this for harder fights too, as tougher enemies have more ways to fight you with different movesets. Gaining the upper hand is essential to winning tougher battles. When you are at your best, you feel like a brutal and aggressive Warhammer 40K ‘Captain America’, bashing, smashing, and crushing your foes, relying on your trusty shield to do so. It feels great.

Encounters in the Dark Ages have been flattened, and your movement has been changed to account for this difference. The Doom Slayer feels heavy in this game, with every movement feeling weighty as a result. Gone are your aerial maneuvers from Eternal, with the double-jump and dash being removed from your locomotion. In its place is a brand new, ‘boots on the ground’ feel to the gameplay that, while different, works just as well, if not better, in some ways than Eternal’s high-flying combat.

The name of the game this time around is strafing. You are tethered to the Earth, for the most part, and the new loop of encounters takes place on the mortal coil. You aren’t jumping and pirouetting here like you were in the previous two games, but you also aren’t a lumbering doofus with a gun, either. It’s a good balance of the two, that while a bit slower, is still a wonderful time. You bob and weave between enemy attacks this time around. It’s sort of like a considered and weighty ‘bullet-hell’ at times in the combat. Green waves of energy coming your way can be parried by your shield and set back into the enemy’s direction, which never got old for me. You are dodging back and forth, and up and down in your foes’ directions, and the give and take of the space in between feels tactical and satisfying. It feels like you are trying to suss out each encounter, giving and taking land between you and the enemy you’re fighting. Getting up close, right in a demon’s face, and blasting the shit out of them with the Super Shotgun feels so good here.

When you get up close, you have the opportunity to punch an enemy in its face, similar to the other games. But this time, your melee weapon can be selected as you play through the game, with different types of close-encounter implements able to be located in metallic weapon caches found during level exploration. You can select between a crushing gauntlet, a spiky flail, and a bony mace once you find them all, and each does different amounts of damage depending on what you choose to use. My personal favorite of these was the flail. Whipping the hell out of my opponents felt great, as there is a lot of heft to each melee option. Each melee implement is governed by ‘charges’, which functionally can be replenished by ammo on the ground as you play. Either you can pick up ammo for the melee, or it can recharge on a cooldown.

This goes hand in hand with the removal of the ‘glory-kill’ limb-specific execution mechanic from the previous games, which was vital to the flow of combat. In its place is a more free-flowing open finisher melee execution that doesn’t lock you into place while you fight. It’s a curious change, as I think I prefer how it used to be, but the change isn’t that different from how it was initially. It just doesn’t take as long to execute a kill when the purple indicator shows up on an enemy, as compared to the cinematic flair of the previous system. It’s fine? I think I liked how it was, to be honest.

There are breaks in the combat with two gimmicky modes of gameplay in the Dragon flight sections, and the rock-em sock-em Atlan segments of the game that divide the action up and keep it all varied. They’re perfunctory mostly, and kinda middling at the best of times, but the change-up in gameplay is welcome. Each plays akin to “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” in these bits of diversion, where you rely on pattern recognition to solve easy encounters. They’re low-stakes, cinematically charged setpieces that are relatively fun for what they are.

All in all, this version of DOOM’s combat is excellent, and it may be the best in this new series of games. It’s for sure my favorite type of gameplay in the series. The combat is well-made, responsive, hefty, and sounds so damn good. I love pretty much every aspect of the way the game plays. The fact that the core gameplay loop has been reimagined again, and that it’s even better, is staggering to me. Sure, this will divide the fanbase on who prefers what, but in my opinion, having options for what you like is rare and pretty cool. Not many series get the chance to reinvent themselves this many times, and be good in each way they do it.

The number of enemies on screen in battles is truly staggering. You need to keep your head on a swivel at all times, here. If you don’t pay attention, on harder difficulties, you can easily get swarmed and die in an instant, if you are not careful. There are larger ‘leader’ enemies in “DOOM: The Dark Ages”, which are essentially akin to mini-boss characters you encounter in the larger-scale fights. The leaders have a health bar at the top of the screen that is protected by a shield, which can only be lowered if their enemy force has been whittled down. Once that has been done, you can fight them, and as a reward for killing them, they can give an upgrade to your basic abilities or skills, like ammo, health, shield, et cetera. Each one of these fights gets hairy, but I loved doing them, even as the game went along.

There are optional fights here that, when conquered, can yield optional rewards like collectibles or currency, too, if you want to get all of the ‘stuff’ on the map. It’s good fun to treasure hunt! In keeping with the previous two games in the reboot series, there are lots of collectible toys and golden currency spots to find on the map, the latter of which you use to upgrade your weapons in the menus. Id has slimmed down the amount of currencies you are juggling to just a standard ‘gold’ currency for chests that you can collect to fund your weapon modding habits. Busting open chests you find hidden throughout the levels always felt satisfying, as you are showered with golden coins for doing so. This game feels hefty in its myriad interactions, and breaking golden chests feels crunchy. I liked doing that a fair bit.

Getting gold allows you to level up your weapons, kitting them out with modifiers, different functionalities, chaining perks, et cetera. Your arsenal is expansive here, even more so than the previous two games in the reboot series. Instead of having multiple functions for every gun like in 2016 and Eternal, you instead just collect a second version of the type of firearm you can equip, and they do a variant of the first kind’s firing capability. For instance, you’ll get an energy gun that, when you collect its second version, becomes more powerful and deadly. It’s very cool to have almost two revolving armories of deadly weapons to enact your holy revenge on the demonic hordes infesting the land.

The types of weapons here fit well with the themes of The Dark Ages’ story. There are all manner of wacky guns to collect that are all visually distinct, feel unique in their gameplay, and sound muscular when you fire them. Some of my personal favorites of the bunch are, the ‘Pulverizer’, a gun that grinds up human skulls to spit out bone ammo flak in a wide arc at enemies (I’m dead serious), the ‘Chainshot’, a medieval ball-and-chain cannon that when shot, can retract back to its barrel and be charged up for larger, more devastating attacks, and of course the Super Shotgun, made even better in this game, somehow. There are even more guns to shoot, too, but these are just my favorites. They also included the ‘BFC’, or “Big Fucking Crossbow”, the cheeky, medieval-themed version of the beloved ‘BFG’ from the series’ past entries. The designers had a lot of fun making these weapons, I bet. I sure had fun using them.

“DOOM: The Dark Ages” is a prequel to the events of “DOOM” (2016), but it’s not really that important, I think. The story is fun, albeit pretty self-serious, and not very engaging. It’s a twist on the character of the Doom Slayer to initially be presented as this sort of ‘nuclear option’ for the Maykr race (first shown in Eternal), to be used when the going gets tough. It’s pretty cool to see just how dangerous the Doom Slayer is here. He literally gets launched from low orbit as a nuke, practically, when needed.

I think the tone and the story are not nearly as irreverent or as good as 2016’s is. I think I prefer how goofy and tongue-in-cheek the character of Doomguy is in the first reboot as compared to here and Eternal, where he is more reserved and serious. I miss the personality of that game and the character of the Doomguy as shown in the first one. Eternal and The Dark Ages double down on the lore and the dead-serious nature of the story. I think everyone in the main cast of characters just needs to lighten up a bit and hack away at some demons. Sure, it’s a serious sitch, but come onnnn have some fun, guys!!

The story has never been the series’ strong suit, but making elaborate cutscenes, getting deep into the details on the backstory of the Sentinels, the Maykrs, and the state of the world also feels like a bridge too far, as well, in my opinion. I hope they bring it back a little bit in the tone department to being a little bit silly. I think id Software needs to poke more at how silly the whole franchise is. That’s in keeping with the fun Easter Eggs and little bits of humor strewn about the original games, after all. “DOOM” 2016 felt looser, and more fun because of that tone, and a return to that flavor would be a welcome change for me.

The last bit of this game I wanted to touch on will be brief. The music. I found it pretty disappointing overall. This is the only one in the new series so far not done by Mick Gordon, the composer of the first two games, and it shows. This time it’s done by the company “Finishing Move”, which seems to be a contract house to finish music for games, TV, and films. I don’t know too much about them, but I think that the entire soundtrack here is a bland mix of middling to bad, in the music department. Which is a shame, given how much I love the first game’s music. It’s an all-time soundtrack for me. I have mentioned this before on this Substack, but the mark of a great soundtrack for me is if I listen to it outside the piece of media it is in. 2016’s soundtrack is fantastic, so that most definitely fits that bill for me. It’s soooo good. I was unmoved by the soundtrack here. The sound effects are good, so I mainly focused on that aspect of the audio, but the songs here just seem boring. They’re various mixes of heavy metal drivel, from what I could hear.

The most damning thing I can say about it, is that it’s boring. The quality of things is important to me in media. Be good, be bad, but please… never be boring in your makeup. The worst you can be is unremarkable. The music may be my biggest issue with the game, I think.

“DOOM: The Dark Ages” is a brilliantly made and expertly crafted first-person shooter. It’s got everything you could want in an FPS video game, and it’s an excellent addition to the franchise. It’s the best of the reboot series of games in the gameplay department, has an amazing addition to the combat and puzzles with the Sentinel Shield, and is the most fun game to play through in the entire franchise. As a trilogy, you can’t go wrong with any of these games, but this most recent title is one of the very best. While not as landmark as “DOOM” (2016), I think it is one of the greatest FPS experiences you can have, with one of the best main campaigns ever made for a triple-A shooter. It’s so good, I started it again on a higher difficulty, right after finishing it.

I highly recommend this game to all players, regardless of skill, to experience one of the very best shooters ever. It’s brilliant. Well done, id. If this is the end of modern DOOM, this batch of games is a legendary trilogy to place on the shelf. I loved this game.

As always, I appreciate your time, and don’t ever forget… KEEP GAMING!!