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Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel preeminently focused on the ripping and tearing. At today’s Xbox Developer Direct, id Software brought us our lengthiest look at The Dark Ages to date, with an emphasis on what matters most to every Doom Slayer: How it’ll feel to shoot, smash, and otherwise pulp the demonic hordes of Hell.
According to game director Hugo Martin, The Dark Ages is a return to boots on the ground, gun in hand blasting—as long as we aren’t counting the bits where you’ll be riding a cyberdragon or piloting a mech suit.
“In Doom Eternal, you felt like a fighter jet. In Doom: The Dark Ages, you’ll be an iron tank—heavy, strong, but still fast. A grounded combat system with an emphasis on power over the acrobatics of Doom Eternal, and a balance between enemy projectiles and player movement speed that makes strafing to aim viable again, just like in the classic Doom games.”
However, that “return to form” as Martin calls it isn’t without new permutations to the Doom combat formula. Combat in Dark Ages will incorporate contextual mechanics like the new Saw Shield, which—in addition to being revved up and thrown for ranged eviscerations—allows the player to block, parry, and deflect a variety of enemy attacks, all with one button.
Likewise, a different input will provide access to the Doom Slayer’s trio of melee weapons, which includes a flail, an electrified gauntlet, and a spiked mace—each possessing its own combos and upgrades. As a key pillar of the new melee system, Glory Kills have been overhauled to provide additional fluidity to Dark Ages combat.
Instead of locking you into fixed animations as they had in previous Dooms, Glory Kill finishers can now be performed on the fly without interrupting the flow of the fight. It’s “an all-new, un-synced, completely in the player’s control Glory Kill system—from any angle, in and out as you see fit,” Martin said. “And it feels amazing.”
In a Q&A session during an early press screening of today’s showcase, Martin said “it was really important that you’re able to finish off an enemy, to transition from melee strikes to guns to shield play to an execution or glory kill, and not feel like there’s a break in the action.” Echoing the sentiment, executive producer Marty Stratton said that “when you play, that fluidity, it plays into everything you’re doing,” and that “it’s amazing how cohesive it all is” in moment-to-moment combat.
In motion, Dark Ages looks like it’s finding an interesting middle ground between the run-and-gun gameplay of Doom 2016 and a sturdier, stubborn, head-on mode of aggression—a good match for the medieval spin on Doom’s usual scifi aesthetic. It’s like fighting in an advancing shield wall, except some of the warriors in the throng have scifi guns that spray mulched skull shards.
Doom: The Dark Ages launches on May 15, 2025.
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Kurt Indovina
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