REVIEW – DOOM: The Dark Ages hones one of gaming’s most iconic franchises into a symphony of blood-soaked carnage. Following the stellar 2016 reboot and the high-flying chaos of Eternal, id Software slams the brakes and slingshots us into the distant past. At the peak of his reign, the Slayer is the most terrifying entity in all existence — a nightmare that stalks both demons and mortals alike. Once again, id has rebuilt its flagship series from the ground up, and the result is devilishly good.

DOOM: The Dark Ages takes players further back in time than any game in the franchise, likely by thousands of years. The Slayer is imprisoned by the Makyrs — celestial beings shrouded in mystery. If you’ve followed the modern DOOM lore, you’ve seen flashes of their influence in DOOM (2016) and Eternal. But it’s in Eternal’s DLC where you truly rip through their angelic façades — quite literally.

While technically a prequel, The Dark Ages kicks off a fresh narrative thread. A new demon prince rises — he may not look like much, but his guttural voice oozes menace. The Sentinels — or at least their legacy — return to fight beside you, familiar to those who tore through DOOM Eternal. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a lore buff to dive in. The Slayer hates demons, terrifies everyone in his path, barely speaks, and prefers to solve problems with excessive force — in that order.

The campaign is satisfyingly beefy, clocking in around 15 hours on a first playthrough. I often backtracked to hunt down resources and secrets, initially playing on default difficulty. Later, I revisited most of the game on higher settings, and it only got better — more brutal, more rewarding. Some levels stretched over an hour, which had me worried at first. But even when the game crashed once, I was only sent back ten seconds thanks to generous checkpoints — a welcome evolution from Eternal’s punishing autosave system.

I won’t spoil where you go or what you face — just know it’s far more than demon fortresses and fiery hellscapes. The essence of modern DOOM is its combat, and this time around, it’s the tightest, nastiest, and most satisfying it’s ever been.

Like an Abrams Tank

Back in the day, DOOM (2016) was compared to driving a freight truck. Eternal felt like piloting a fighter jet. The Dark Ages? Imagine an Abrams tank barreling through a battlefield, crushing everything in its path — and you’re the turret. The Slayer now wields a massive shield, initially a defensive tool, but soon enhanced with a chainsaw mod, turning it into a spinning, decapitating frisbee of death.

Tap the left bumper, and the shield flies in a straight line, slicing clean through lesser demons and snapping back to you, no matter how far you’ve moved. Against tougher enemies, it slams into their torsos, dealing hefty damage and temporarily immobilizing them. Left trigger blocks incoming attacks, and with the right timing, you can parry those pesky neon-green projectiles. The game offers plenty of accessibility options to fine-tune the experience, letting you ramp up the brutality or scale it down for a more casual rip-and-tear session.

Melee has seen a serious overhaul. First up: the classic Power Fist. Charged punches now deliver massive impact and restore ammo. The iconic glory kills? They’re out. Now, when an enemy’s low on health, a purple glow signals it’s time to smash — with quicker, more dynamic animations. Bigger demons still get the cinematic treatment if you line up the kill correctly — usually ending with the chainsaw tearing something vital in half.

The weapon roster hits harder than ever. Gone are the “use this mod for this enemy” puzzle battles of Eternal. Every weapon has a distinct role, and most come in two variants — like the Combat Shotgun and the Super Shotgun — which you can switch between on the fly with the X button. Once upgraded, the Combat Shotgun sets enemies ablaze, dropping armor, while the Super Shotgun remains your go-to for point-blank devastation. There’s also a new take on the BFG — but I’ll let you discover that carnage on your own.

Energy weapons also shine. One variant applies debuffs from mid-range, while another pumps out high DPS but demands precise aim. It’s a system that actually encourages player choice — use what you like, when you like. Heavily armored enemies need to be overheated before they become vulnerable, but no weapon is mandatory. As long as you’re mixing in melee, you’ll rarely run dry on ammo.

Stand Your Ground

Elite enemies sometimes show icons above their heads — health, armor, or ammo. Defeating them for the first time grants permanent stat boosts, which adds an incentive to seek them out. Ammo is split into categories like “Shell,” “Skull,” and “Launcher,” and juggling these resources becomes part of the strategic layer. While some of these mini-bosses are on the main path, many are tucked away in hidden areas, rewarding thorough exploration.

DOOM: The Dark Ages isn’t open world, but it’s noticeably more open than its predecessors. You’ll still blast through tight corridors, but most levels give you space to roam. There are three upgrade currencies scattered across the game, which you’ll trade at Sentinel statues for improvements to your weapons, shield, melee, and shield-specific perks.

To break up the rhythm, you’ll sometimes hop into an Atlan mech. The controls are simple, the pacing brisk, and the sequences short enough to avoid overstaying their welcome. Then there are the dragon-riding segments, where the Slayer takes to the skies on an armored beast, raining hellfire down on demonic strongholds.

Both systems play similarly — left trigger to dodge, right trigger to attack. The dragon sections are more open-ended but also more restrictive in combat: once you lock on to a target, you evade incoming attacks by flicking the stick while holding the trigger. The Atlan has one unique mechanic: a meter that fills and lets you unleash devastating finishers with the right bumper.

These moments are less about deep mechanics and more about sheer spectacle. The Atlan gets a massive chain gun, and the dragon has chase sequences where you mow down demon airships. They’re not the most replayable parts of the game, but they spice up the campaign with big, cinematic flair. I’ll likely skip future Atlan replays, but the dragon stages — with their secrets and pacing variety — will bring me back.

Not Bad for a Five-Year-Old Console

I had access to the Xbox Series version only during testing, and honestly, it didn’t disappoint. Both the Series X and S held up impressively, though the S naturally delivers a softer image. I’m itching to see how it looks cranked up on PC, but that’ll have to wait until launch day. Since it’s a Play Anywhere title, the review access was tailored specifically to Xbox—no big surprises there.

Even with default settings, the controls felt fantastic. I nudged the sensitivity up a bit and stuck with the standard 90-degree field of view. The Slayer feels heavy in all the right ways—when he slams into the ground from a high jump, enemies around him feel it in the form of a seismic shockwave. Forget dashing or double-jumping; that’s gone. Instead, you can sprint, and while it felt a bit odd at first, the base movement speed is still fast enough that it never feels like a downgrade. Combine a sprint with a jump and you’re suddenly leaping across ten-meter gaps like it’s nothing. Aim your shield, press the right trigger, and the Slayer launches at his target like an armor-plated missile. It’s an excellent tool for repositioning in the chaos or escaping a tight spot.

Enemy waves are relentless, and death is always just one misstep away. Fortunately, you’re constantly healing by tearing through demons and collecting their dropped health packs. That, combined with flawless performance, kept things running buttery smooth on both consoles. I genuinely can’t recall a single frame drop across my entire playthrough. Powered by the stunning iD Tech 8 engine, DOOM: The Dark Ages looks spectacular—even if it lacks the path-traced sheen of its PC counterpart. The Series X version in particular is razor-sharp, with fantastic HDR implementation and texture work that’s downright jaw-dropping.

A New Path, a New Sound

The worlds you explore and the horrors you face here are unlike anything DOOM has ever thrown at you. That goes double for the cinematics and the soundtrack. With Mick Gordon gone, Finishing Move steps in—and they absolutely crushed it. While their score might not be as catchy or hummable, it nails the mood of this new chapter with eerie precision. This is DOOM in a different era—less chaotic, more deliberate, and colder in tone.

There are more cutscenes than you might expect, but none of them drag. The game takes a show-don’t-tell approach, leaving a lot of the story open to interpretation rather than spelling it out. As always, the Slayer keeps quiet, letting his allies do the talking. A familiar-sounding, though slightly altered voice feeds him key info through his suit, and the execution is solid. The story has a clear beginning, middle, and end—no cliffhanger here—but it doesn’t tie a neat little bow on the Slayer’s fate either. It’s mostly solid, occasionally excellent, and even surprised me a few times, which is rare for the franchise. The voice acting holds its own throughout. It’s not Shakespeare, but it sure as hell isn’t Neil Breen either.

As far as bugs go, I ran into just one: a single freeze during gameplay. Thanks to the forgiving auto-save system, I only lost about ten seconds of progress. That’s a big win. DOOM: The Dark Ages joins the short but growing list of recent Xbox releases that launch in top-tier technical shape—at least on console.

Back to Hell and Loving It

DOOM: The Dark Ages hurls you into the Slayer’s golden age—draped in a stylish cape, charging through twenty brutal chapters with razor-sharp pacing. The overhauled combat, dynamic level design, and creative gameplay twists make this my personal favorite entry in the franchise to date.

-Gergely Herpai “BadSector”-

Developer: id Software
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Genre: FPS
Release: May 15, 2025