Doom: The Dark Ages review

This ain't your grandad's bedtime story, unless your grandad was a particularly bloodthirsty bard with a penchant for pyrotechnics. Doom: The Dark Ages actually tries to spin a yarn, and bless its cotton socks, it's a more straightforward tale than its predecessors. We're talking more cutscenes, a narrative you can follow without a PhD in demonology, and a world where even the most nightmarish fiends seem to soil their loincloths at the mere mention of the Doom Slayer. You are, quite literally, a medieval wrecking ball crashing through a demonic house of cards. The power fantasy is turned up to eleven, and the game gleefully hands you more than enough oomph to send Beelzebub himself packing.

One of the coolest bits? The sheer scale. Hugo Martin, the creative overlord of Doom and an alumnus of cinematic behemoths like Pacific Rim, clearly brought his love for big, stompy action to the party. Early on, while you're busy turning ground-level demons into meaty confetti, you'll spot colossal mechs duking it out with skyscraper-sized demons in the background. It's like a monster movie playing out as your personal warm-up act. And yes, you get to pilot one of these bad boys. The mecha fights are a bit more button-bashy than the nuanced gunplay – think rock 'em sock 'em robots, but with more metal music – but they're a cracking good time and don't overstay their welcome.

However, even the mightiest crusade can hit a lull. The story, while initially gripping, does lose a bit of its momentum the mid-point. The levels and moment-to-moment gameplay remain as engaging as a trebuchet to the face, but some narrative threads feel a tad frayed, not quite conveying the earth-shattering impact of the Slayer's ongoing rampage.

Oh, and the unlockable skins? Bit of a letdown, to be brutally honest. After hours spent sniffing them out like a bloodhound on a sugar rush, the cosmetic rewards feel a bit… meh. It’s like finding a beautifully wrapped present only to discover it’s a pair of socks. Still, for the true masochists among us, the difficulty modifiers are plentiful, ensuring you can tailor your trip to hell to be as punishingly delightful as you desire. And the loading times? Blink and you'll miss 'em. Instantaneous. Chef's kiss.

If Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal were frantic, speed-metal concerts of carnage, The Dark Ages feels more like a well-orchestrated, albeit incredibly brutal, power-metal opera. The fights are still fast, the music (oh, that glorious, chuggy music!) still slaps hard, but there's a slightly more methodical approach. Your screen isn't quite as chaotic now. Instead, encounters often feature a couple of hefty main demons supported by the usual fodder, demanding a bit more tactical thinking than simply circle-strafing and hoping for the best.

Weaponry gets a rather clever twist with a class system. Take the Impaler, for instance: a slow-firing, demon-skewering beast that hits like a battering ram – your medieval sniper, if you will. But in the same class, you've got the Shredder, which spits out bolts at a demonic rate of knots. Both use the same ammo pool, forcing some interesting choices mid-skirmish. It’s a neat system that adds a layer of strategy to your loadout.

And new to the Slayer’s arsenal of "things that make demons go boom" is the trusty shield. This isn't just for cowering behind like a scaredy-cat goblin; oh no. This bad boy is for bashing and parrying. Shield bashing closes gaps, smashes through rickety doors, and generally makes you feel like a one-man battering ram. It’s surprisingly satisfying. And you can stun-lock enemies by throwing the shield at them like Captain America and manage the demon horde like a well-suited traffic police officer.

The most important bit of the game is parrying the green projectiles with the shield to deflect them back at the enemy to stagger them for openings. Some boss battles require you to constantly parry enemy attacks to create an opening before shotgunning their limbs off. Enemy projectiles come slowly towards you in a pattern like a bullet hell game and parrying feels more akin to God of War than Sekiro, but it's fun nonetheless. And a great evolution in the Doom franchise!

Now, for a slight grumble. The finishers, or Glory Kills as we lovingly know them, feel a tad… toned down? Instead of the intricate, limb-rending ballets of the past, the Slayer often defaults to a rather unceremonious sucker punch. The truly spectacular, stat-boosting rip-and-tear moments are now reserved for primary bosses, where you get to, say, literally rip their hearts out. While undeniably cool, I did find myself missing the sheer, unadulterated gore of the everyday takedowns. Now, lesser demons often just… shatter, like demonic Lego bricks made of flesh. It’s still messy, just not as creatively messy.

And just when you thought your arsenal was complete, the game throws you the reins of a Serrat, a flying mecha dragon! Oh yes, you read that right. Taking to the skies on this metal monstrosity is a proper power trip visually. But the combat is rather clunky and boring. It reminds us of the pre-2010 gaming era, where you lock on to the enemy while hovering mid-air to perfect dodge and shoot down enemy turrets before destroying the ship or boarding it and destroying it from within.

The level design, though, is a real triumph. From besieged medieval cities and the fiery pits of Hell itself to sunken prisons and a particularly memorable level that felt like it was ripped straight from the Cthulhu-esque nightmares of Skyrim's Hermaeus Mora, the variety is stunning. Crucified demons litter the hellscapes, mountain-sized corpses of ancient titans form part of the scenery, and fortified walls bristle with menacing metal cladding. It’s a grimly beautiful world. However, the mission structure within these grand arenas can get a smidge repetitive. Most big areas boil down to completing two or three objectives – fetch a key, destroy some turrets – before you can move on. After about six hours, it starts to feel a bit like a demonic to-do list. Thankfully, later levels reintroduce more atmospheric exploration and some light, enjoyable platforming puzzles.

Right, let's talk eye-candy. Doom: The Dark Ages, running on the latest iteration of the idTech engine, looks absolutely sensational, in a "the world is ending but doesn't it look pretty?" sort of way. The artists have clearly had a field day with the medieval aesthetic, blending Gothic architecture with infernal corruption. Think towering, gargoyle-infested cathedrals whose spires pierce blood-red skies, and ancient forests where the trees themselves seem to writhe with damned souls.

The lighting is a particular standout, casting long, ominous shadows that dance with the flicker of hellfire. Particle effects explode with satisfying gusto, whether it's the shower of sparks from your chainsaw shield or the gooey splatter of a well-placed rocket bomb. Demon designs are as wonderfully grotesque as ever, each fiend lovingly rendered with glistening sinew and razor-sharp claws.

The Slayer himself looks more like a walking fortress than ever, his new, Dark Ages-appropriate armour looking both brutally functional and utterly terrifying. To some extent, the game reminds me of the rebooted God of War series, Black fur cape, a shield, a menacing walk and visiting the afterlife. There’s a bit of Kratos inspiration in here for the Doom Slayer.

We played the game of 4K resolution on our long-term MSI QD-OLED monitor with graphic settings set to max. The game runs at a smooth 55fps average on the Nvidia RTX 4080 Super. With DLSS on and set to Quality, the FPS moves to 85fps average. If you turn on Frame Gen on the base setting with DLSS, the frame rate goes from 55fps to 81fps average. All of this is with ray tracing enabled as well. This is a very well optimised game for PC and Nvidia owners.

On the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti the game ran at 45fps with the same settings, and with Frame Generation enabled, we got 78fps at 2x, 110fps at 3x and 125fps at 4x. At 3x and 4x frame generation, you can notice a slight ghosting effect, but during Doom’s frantic combat, it’s barely noticeable. It’s shocking how smooth frame generation feels on this game, unlike Cyberpunk, where the overall texture softness was rather disappointing. Doom doesn’t have that issue. Textures still hold their sharpness, and movement is fluid.

Doom: The Dark Ages is a thunderous, blood-soaked addition to the legendary franchise. It successfully melds the series' signature fast-paced, aggressive combat with a new, grimly atmospheric medieval setting. The story is more coherent, the scale is often breathtaking (giant mechs punching giant demons, yes please!), and the core gameplay loop of slaying demons remains as utterly compelling as ever. The new weapon class system and the shield bash add fresh tactical layers, and the level design is frequently spectacular.

However, it’s not a flawless victory. The story occasionally drags its heels, the much-lauded finishers feel a tad less inventive for the rank-and-file demons, and the mission structure can slip into repetition. Those unlockable skins also feel like a bit of a missed opportunity.

But let's be clear: these are more like minor flesh wounds than mortal blows. Doom: The Dark Ages is still a ferociously fun, adrenaline-pumping power fantasy that will have Doom fans grinning from ear to gore-splattered ear. It’s a 20 to 22-hour-long brutal, beautiful, and brilliantly executed crusade that proves, once again, that when it comes to demon-slaying, nobody does it better.