The Best Game In The Trilogy
Doom: Dark Ages Review
Doom: Dark Ages delivers a fast-paced, satisfying shooter experience that captures the spirit of the franchise while streamlining some gameplay elements. It’s the Doom game I enjoyed the most among recent titles, striking a balance between classic intensity and modern design.
Pros
- ⚡ Ultra-fast loading times that keep gameplay flowing
- 🔥 Smooth and polished combat flow reminiscent of classic Doom
- 🛡️ Strong enemy and level design with tight, compact encounters
- 🎯 Streamlined weapon management that keeps focus on action
- 💥 Gore and enemy variety that maintain the series’ brutal charm
Cons
- 🎨 Graphics are simplified, with some textures feeling low-quality
- 😐 Human character models and faces look cartoonish, breaking immersion
- 🕹️ Lack of advanced platforming reduces vertical gameplay complexity
Doom: Dark Ages is a return to the franchise’s classic roots but with a medieval twist, delivering fast-paced, brutal shooter gameplay with a focus on smooth flow and intense combat encounters. It strips away much of the complexity found in recent Doom titles, favoring streamlined mechanics that emphasize player skill and raw action.
Level design is tight and semi-open, offering enough exploration without feeling bloated or directionless. The encounters balance large enemy hordes with strategic opportunities to utilize different combat styles and weapon stances. While maps are compact and focused, they’re packed with secrets, alternate paths, and hidden caches that reward thorough exploration that doesn’t feel tedious or a chore to do. It just came naturally for me to explore these extra areas.
One of the game’s strongest features is its ultra-fast loading times, which maintain gameplay momentum and reduce downtime. and It always amazes me to click continue only to be in-game in 1-2 seconds, and I'm playing mostly on PC so it didn't have any advantages of any console SSD optimization. This applies to checkpoints, moving over to the next level, or loading a game. This, combined with polished combat animations and visceral gore effects, creates a short but satisfying loop that keeps you engaged from start to finish.
The game keeps encounters fresh by mixing enemy compositions and terrain challenges, especially by also including segments or levels where you instead mount a cybernetic dragon in third person mode, engaging in high-speed aerial combat. The controls are straightforward: holding the fire button unleashes a continuous barrage of attacks, while a dedicated dodge button allows for swift evasions. Players also have the opportunity to pilot the Atlan mech, a towering war machine equipped with formidable weaponry, emphasizing the mech's massive scale and destructive power. Despite the initial excitement, I found both of these segments to be a bit basic and lacking refinement, but it serves its purpose, which is to be a palette cleanser within the game itself and provide some additional variety.
Graphically, Doom: Dark Ages doesn’t look much different but the previous two Doom titles, but it does consume significantly more resources because of the forced RT. Despite of that harsher but still reasonable requirements, some textures and character models still feels dated compared to modern shooters or even contemporaries in the same engine like Wolfenstein II or Indiana Jones and The Great Circle. Although, this stylistic choice complements the fast gameplay and nostalgic vibe anyway. While the game maintains Doom’s trademark gore and demon designs, the human characters and faces fall short, giving off a cartoonish vibe that detracts from the otherwise gritty atmosphere. The sound design is punchy and atmospheric, with iconic weapon sounds and the usual heavy metal soundtrack that fuel the game’s intensity.
Conclusion
Doom: Dark Ages stands out as a refined, fast-paced shooter that successfully blends classic Doom gameplay with modern sensibilities. Despite some graphical shortcomings, its combat flow, level design, and pacing deliver an engaging experience that fans of the series should not miss. Out of the three recent Doom games, I would say Doom: Dark Ages one is my absolute favorite.
