Doom: The Dark Ages [Review]

Doom: The Dark Ages felt like a repeated beat instead of an encore. Nothing that it was presented to me was particularly egregious, it is a very polished game that runs flawlessly with amazing artistry behind it, in many ways. Still, it never really feels that it is a game to be remembered like Doom (2016) was for me, and, as for this being a prequel to that game, it feels a return to a safer formula that, at that time, was quite revolutionary.

In hindsight, it is 2025, and while I'm one of the few that actually prefers the 2016 game when compared to the sequel, Doom: Eternal, it is like a monkey pawn situation: yes, Dark Ages is more of what I liked from before. Unfortunately, it is really samey, and while fun and gorgeous, repetitive.

A game that sometimes feels a bit too corporate and iterative, nothing really stands out. Many demons are back and some are new, and yes, the new weapons are mostly fun, but all of them are too much designed around the playable character (the SLAYER) instead of searching for some inspiration that could “break” or “build” some flow intentionally.

It is an action game, for sure, and while can be challenging, difficult even, everything is granular and repetitive, it is not a matter of mastering the game to conquer what's next, but to try one, two times and then complete the challenge, proceed to the next one, in a pacing that I'd describe as robotic, including weird fade outs and cuts to standard and static menus with boring map traversal outside the shooting. It is not vertical at all, and while the “medium range” battle distance is achieved here, so it plays different from many other Doom games sure, that's the only “cheeky” and unique aspect of the game.

This is a feeling that developed for me while progressing through the game, though. On the first hours of it, I was really excited. Everything started to get more robotic on stage 10 onward. Before getting to the half of the somewhat short campaign.

Almost every aspect of the game suffers from this, to a degree: the music is forgettable, there aren't different modes or any kind of unexpected gameplay scenarios other than the main campaign. And while, yes, everything is polished with amazing animations and impressive visuals, the word is too static, nothing really breaks, molds or interact, and while the bigger maps are a nice idea on paper, they're not nearly as interesting as they seem.

While the polish and presentation could lift some spotty execution of the Dark Age's systems, unfortunately, the story is far from good. All the characters are forgettable and every new introduction is bland, generic, and uninspired, nothing that could enforce the moniker of “Dark Ages” really exists in this game, nor really makes it unique.

In my opinion, Doom: The Dark Ages is not worth its price tag, it wasn't for me, at least. Maybe if it was cheaper or if they add some other intriguing game modes or levels. Until then, it is a game that is better than most action games, but far from being great.

I played the game on Ultraviolence difficulty and the game was at 120% speed for most of the time. This was far from the hardest setting, but, unlike Doom 2016 or other great action games from the past, I don't really want to play it again anytime soon, sadly. Not because it is bad, really. It is more Doom, and that's cool.

7/10

Something curious happened while getting this review from my backloggd to post here. I've noticed that I... Don't have any capture from Doom: The Dark Ages. All the captures in this post are from IGDB.

It is relevant (even if hypocritical, of my part) to highlight the BDS movement call for boycotting Microsoft services and Gaming Products due to their complicity in the genocide in Gaza. You can learn more about it here, but, to quote the article:

“Microsoft provides the Israeli military with Azure cloud and AI services that are crucial in empowering and accelerating Israel’s genocidal war on 2.3 million Palestinians in the illegally occupied Gaza Strip”