I’d all the time recognized Doom was a extremely regarded online game franchise. Nonetheless, up till now I’d solely watched from the sidelines—seeing an amalgamation of untamed Let’s Performs of its chaotic run-and-gun fight in my poor school days, witnessing people play it on unconventional laptop home equipment, and blasting composer Mick Gordon’s heavy steel authentic soundtrack in my leisure with out absolutely greedy the context to why its gnarly songs went so unbelievably exhausting on Doom (2016).
Now, with id Software program and Bethesda Softworks’ newest entry within the 32-year-old first-person-shooter collection, Doom: The Darkish Ages, serving as a prequel to its newly christened trilogy—whereas wedding ceremony two motion genres I’ve a excessive affinity for and am coming round to, sci-fi and fantasy—I’ve lastly jumped into the deep finish on the collection with its newly launched recreation on my PlayStation 5.
I went into Doom: The Darkish Ages anticipating its signature FPS chaos combined with the demonic, style-switching fight I really like within the Satan Could Cry—a collection I take advantage of as my metric for motion video games. I obtained one thing way more wild: a Doom recreation that one way or the other additionally channels different greats like Halo and Gears of Struggle and but stays purely, unapologetically Doom, filled with relentless motion and satanic insanity in contrast to something I’ve performed earlier than.
After sleeping on the collection for too lengthy, I’m conscious now—Doom completely fucking rocks.
A tasty pastiche of sci-fi and darkish fantasy
As a prequel, Doom: The Darkish Ages eases gamers into its mayhem, setting the stage for an all-out battle between alien overlords, medieval warriors, and hell’s demons. The sport sees Doom Slayer below some thoughts management, caught in a battle the place Tonka-toy-built knights (geared up with high-tech comms just like the Avengers) face off towards a horde led by a warlord rocking Dracula’s muscle armor. Early on, Doom Slayer is handled with the identical gravitas as a Closing Fantasy summon, given a easy directive: annihilate every thing in his path with the identical chilly effectivity as a strolling nuclear weapon.
The Darkish Ages‘ story? It’s there. Granted, it primarily serves as an epic backdrop, mixing darkish fantasy with a contact of sci-fi, all whereas ferrying gamers from one bonkers WatchMojo “High 10 Insane Doom Slayer Kills” video second to the subsequent. Among the many standout sequences that had me sit ahead in my chair have been Doom Slayer piloting a large mech like a Pacific Rim veteran—and driving the again of a cybernetic dragon armed with an identical gun that seemed prefer it was lifted straight off a steel album cowl.
Even past Darkish Age‘s huge set-piece spectacles, its moment-to-moment gameplay is pure old-school gaming bliss. All through the sport’s 22 ranges, frenzied gamers run and gun by an ambush of demons, grabbing shields, ammo, and well being potions littered across the battlefield or provided as an incentive for ripping and tearing by demons with their naked fingers.
Fight and platforming that’ll mild each neuron in your mind
Regardless of the sheer chaos of the Darkish Ages‘ setting, its fight is the place it really shines, providing a wealth of technique beneath the insanity. As its killer field artwork suggests, Doom Slayer fights off demons with firearms that drop from the sky like orbital provide capsules, making certain every battle seems like an escalating arms race the place hell is on the again foot. New weapons enter your arsenal at each stage, permitting customization and fluid switching through the weapon wheel. After adapting to the velocity and ferocity required to outlive because the Doomslayer, I discovered myself favoring the next weapons:
- Grenade Launcher: Excellent for beginning and ending fights, delivering fast and efficient crowd management like Junkrat from Overwatch 2.
- Impaler: A needle gatling gun ultimate for long-range enemies, stacking harm earlier than detonating with the Defend Noticed.
- Accelerator: An vitality weapon that seems like Halo’s plasma pistol, providing precision and uncooked stopping energy
One other pleasantly stunning a part of Darkish Age‘s fight that felt as rewarding to unravel as its fight encounters was platforming its environmental puzzles. I discovered Darkish Ages’ emphasis on stopping and smelling the roses by closely encouraging exploration to be simply as a lot of a mind teaser as its experimental providing of fight mixtures. Exploration is closely promoted, and Darkish Ages persevering with the collection’ implementation of a map that well separates exhausting progress from aspect content material with icons and markers for the place hidden objects like gold and gems to improve gear was a godsend, making it simple to double again and search out upgrades, codex entries, or skins with out shedding momentum. I discovered it the right mix of motion and curiosity-driven exploration for a recreation about killing demons.
After which there’s the Defend Noticed—a brand new weapon launched in Darkish Ages that I doubted would match Doom’s FPS fight. However as soon as I mastered it, it grew to become my favourite weapon in its stock.
Defend Noticed is my new greatest buddy
Whereas I used to be initially apprehensive over whether or not or not the sport’s implementation of a defend would bathroom down its lightning-fast fight, it rapidly grew to become my favourite weapon within the recreation. Not simply because it saved my ass a ton in sticky conditions, however for a way far more texture its added to its gameplay. The Defend Noticed isn’t only for blocking oncoming sword slashes and fireballs; it additionally doubles as a Mjolnir-like instrument, letting you grapple to secret areas to uncover treasure, execute enemies with a defend bash, or ricochet right into a line of overheated enemy shields from a hail of the Doom Slayer’s gunfire for explosive crowd management. By far, my favourite use case for the defend noticed was with its excellent parries.
Like in Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Darkish Ages‘ Defend Noticed transforms parrying right into a high-stakes rhythm recreation, rewarding gamers who search out oncoming inexperienced hearth balls and sword slashes and ship them flying again at enemies. Even when I used to be underleveled in a brutal boss battle, or preventing uphill in a handicap battle, a wonderfully timed parry might flip the tide in my favor and eke out a satisfyingly primal win in an in any other case unwinnable battle. The DMC sicko in me beloved the sheer Royal Guard-style energy the Defend Noticed empowered me with, letting me stunlock enemies in essentially the most disrespectful means attainable.
Whereas melee fight in some video games takes a backseat, right here it’s every thing, not only for model, however for survival. Touchdown brutal in-your-face punches (or mace flails) funnels health-regenerating orbs, shields, and ammo into Doom Slayer like a vacuum. The sport rewards ruthless aggression, encouraging gamers to embrace the chaos, chain Glory Kill every time attainable, and dominate the battlefield as an alternative of hiding behind cowl and enjoying it secure.
The music doesn’t fairly stay up to date
Oddly sufficient, my largest gripe with the sport is its soundtrack. It by no means hit as exhausting as I wished it to. Whereas it does an okay job of underscoring the sport’s bedlam, it by no means fairly amplifies the gunplay, defend throws, and eyebrow-raising boss reveals the way in which I felt it ought to. If something, it went unnoticed the extra I performed; even to a beginner, that struck me as a sacrilegious takeaway from the sport.
A couple of hours in, I barely seen the music ramping up earlier than fights, prefer it was struggling to punch above its weight (greater than I used to be in a boss battle) to match the sheer madness on display. Ending Transfer (recognized for Borderlands 3, Halo Wars 2, and The Callisto Protocol) composed the soundtrack, however for a recreation like Darkish Ages, music wanted to be a driving power, not simply background noise. Ultimately, I turned Darkish Ages‘ music quantity down and blasted Gordon’s previous tracks as an alternative to make up for what the sport lacked sonically.
Total, Doom: The Darkish Ages is an electrifying style mash-up and an unbelievable entry level into the franchise that lives as much as the hype it’s garnered over the previous 30 years, and I’m glad I finished sleeping on it.
Doom: The Darkish Ages is accessible now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Collection X/S, and PC.
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