Looking for a cathartic release or relief for an itchy trigger finger? Doom: The Dark Ages is an adrenaline-fueled first-person shooter (FPS) game where there is so much frenetic demon-slaying action that you hardly have time to blink.
It’s a gothic shoot-‘em-up fantasy that combines the medieval and futuristic, complete with familiar demons and weapons from the seminal Doom franchise.
Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel to the 2016 Doom as well as the 2020 Doom Eternal games, where you play The Slayer. Deployed by Maykrs who control and subdue The Slayer using a device known as a Tether, The Slayer aids King Novik and his Night Sentinels to beat back the demonic hordes unleashed by the evil demon overlord, Prince Azrakh.
Bigger, badder, bloodier
Doom: The Dark Ages takes place in a unique setting that is a juxtaposition between the medieval and futuristic. Think ruined gothic cathedrals with gleaming lights, ancient fortresses housing a modern command centre with computer consoles, and futuristic airships flying alongside dragons.
It’s still a Doom game but feels much bigger and badder, where you as The Slayer can ride a mechanised dragon decked out with autocannons, fight gigantic demons in a mecha suit and shred demon hordes with a serrated shield.
And, true to Doom tradition, there is plenty of gratuitous violence and gore, with very graphic depictions of demon slaying and dismemberment. But there is also sadness and suffering witnessed among the humans, with casualties crying in pain, clutching their missing limbs or bodies impaled on stakes as you fight alongside the Dark Sentinels.
Unlike traditional Doom games, Doom: The Dark Ages offers a good variety of action instead of just plain shooting. There’s a throwable serrated saw shield and a range of melee weapons. The shield also serves as a puzzle-solving device as it can be thrown at certain spots and teleport The Slayer to the shield’s location.
Doom: The Dark Ages has plenty of secrets and collectibles to be found, such as skins, codex entries and toys in the form of action figurines of Doom characters, as well as Demonic Essences needed for upgrading The Slayer’s health and ammo capacity.
Gems and gold can be collected and used at Sentinel Shrines to upgrade guns, melee weapons and the shield, so it is rewarding to explore the levels and find as much loot as possible. There is some puzzle-solving required to unlock secret areas and loot, which are indicated on the very useful map.
The single-player campaign has a total of 22 levels and can be completed in less than 20 hours, but if you are hell-bent on trying to find all the collectibles, it will take longer than that.
The game thoughtfully warns you of the points-of-no-return, so you can have a chance to double back and find all the collectibles before leaving the map if you are a completist. Even if you realised that you missed something on the tally board at the end of the level, you can replay any cleared levels to find all the secrets and collectibles.
Although collecting toys isn’t especially lucrative, the amusement you get in seeing The Slayer actually playing with the toys after collecting them is well worth the effort!
Shooting, punching and bashing
Doom: The Dark Ages features a diverse arsenal of destructive and fun weapons including all-time favourites like the shotgun, plasma rifle and launcher, as well as a cruel new weapon called the skull crusher.
As its name implies, the skull crusher crushes up skulls and fires the bone shards, effectively mincing enemies in its path. It’s a great weapon for clearing out large groups of low-level demons. Plus, it provides some chuckles in seeing hordes of demons dramatically shredded by the bony projectiles!
There are also damaging weapons like the reaver, launcher and the powerful BFC (Ballistic Force Crossbow) which harks back to the overpowered BFG in the previous Doom games. Some weapons also have different variants, like a regular shotgun versus the super shotgun which is much more powerful but is slower to reload.
What is unique in The Dark Ages is the use of a shield with a serrated edge, which is great for dashing and bashing targeted demons. You can also throw it like a boomerang to splice and dice your foes during both trajectories, or to cut down your foes like a chainsaw up close.
Besides the shield, the Slayer can also wield a variety of one-handed melee weapons on the other hand. These include a powerful gauntlet for inflicting devastating punches on foes, as well as the flail which is useful for bashing in enemies with shields from a distance. But melee attacks are not unlimited — you need to collect powerups, just like picking up ammo in order to execute them.
The combination of shooting and melee combat is super satisfying, with a conscious effort of the game to force you to switch tactics or use some skills you would not normally use for certain tough bosses.
Some battles can be challenging, but thankfully, there is plenty of ammo and powerful attacks that you can use to defeat the demonic hordes and tough bosses. Besides mowing down demons by just being a distant sharpshooter, the game rewards you for getting up close and personal with melee attacks and parrying, especially with tougher and larger enemies.
A well-timed shield-block can reflect a green blast known as a Hell Surge back to the enemy, and certain perk upgrades can make a shield block even more damaging or charge up your weapons.
And with the dragon and mecha suits, there are even more epic battles and combat sequences to relish. So don’t think of Doom: The Dark Ages as just a straightforward shooter – there are plenty of innovative elements that make the overall combat a lot more interesting.
No guts, no glory
Of course, what is a Doom game without gratuitous violence and over-the-top blood and gore? Let’s be clear – Doom: The Dark Ages is not for the faint of heart or those who feel queasy at the sight of blood.
Be warned that there is plenty of gory graphic violence, including blood splatter, dismemberment and exposed bones that can ruin your appetite. I would advise against eating bolognese or chunky tomato soup while playing the game.
The graphics for Doom: The Dark Ages are visually spectacular, with beautiful sweeping landscapes of a medieval battlefield filled with demons fighting shoulder to shoulder with futuristic soldiers and space shuttles.
Even the expansive interiors do not disappoint, with gleaming control centres and candle-lit cathedrals with stained glass windows that are innovative and awe-inspiring. It is definitely worth taking a break from the hectic demon-slaying action to admire the beautiful graphics and innovative level design.
Doom: The Dark Ages’ system requirements are quite demanding to handle the fast-paced action, loads of enemies and plenty of projectiles and explosions. To play Doom: The Dark Ages optimally, the recommended PC specs are:
- Processor: AMD Zen 3 or Intel 12th Generation CPU @3.2Ghz with 8 cores / 16 threads or better (Examples: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X or better, or Intel Core i7 12700K or better)
- Memory: 32GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia or AMD hardware raytracing-capable graphics processor with 10GB dedicated VRAM or better (Examples: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 or better, AMD Radeon RX 6800 or better)
- Storage: 100GB available space
- For 1440p,60 FPS, High Quality Settings, NVME SSD storage required
I played on my PC fitted with an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, 64GB DDR5 RAM and AMD Radeon 7900 XTX graphics card, and the game runs smoothly on 4K resolution, even with the copious blood splatters, intense shredding of demon bodies and plentiful disembodied limbs flying around.
Despite the high demands of the game and extremely fast-paced action, I was pleasantly surprised that I did not encounter any crashes or hangs.
TL;DR
Doom: The Dark Ages is an addictive, adrenaline-fueled FPS that provides for some excellent de-stressing and cathartic release. It has a unique setting of a medieval and futuristic, and favours melee attacks over shooting for boss-level demons, making the gameplay more interesting than traditional shooters.
The gratuitous violence, blood and gore as well as the intense action and adrenaline rush might be too much for playing while eating or just before bed. Despite the heavy graphics demand and fast-paced action, Doom: The Dark Ages performs admirably well on my PC rig.
Doom: The Dark Ages is available for PC on Steam and for PlayStation 5 at S$99.90, and for Xbox Series X|S at S$99.75. It is included as part of the Xbox Game Pass, which makes it a great deal for subscribers.
For the full price, I felt that Doom: The Dark Ages is expensive for a rather short game with limited replayability unless you want to try out different difficulty modes and replay levels to find all the collectibles.
