At a special press event this week, the release date for Doom: The Dark Ages was finally revealed as well as a ton of new footage. Since the first Doom game was released in 1993, the influential first-person shooter series has had players blitzing the armies of Hell with an ever more brutal arsenal of weapons. Each entry has been as bloody entertaining as the last, but new game The Dark Ages looks like it could offer the most ridiculously fun experience yet.
As part of an early look at developer id Software’s presentation at this year’s Xbox Developer Direct event – which confirmed Doom: The Dark Ages will be out on May 15 for Xbox Series X/S, PC and PlayStation 5 – NME was able to get a glimpse at the swaggering combat, the fantastical medieval setting and a whole lot of murdered monsters. Here are the most exciting things we saw.
The Dark Ages travels back in time
Doom: The Dark Ages is the third entry in the rebooted series after 2016’s Doom and 2020’s Doom: Eternal. However, The Dark Ages is basically an origin story, following the already turbo-charged Doom Slayer’s early encounters with mysterious military force The Sentinels. Rather than a feared and revered legend, this version of the Doom Slayer is a blood-thirsty Viking warrior.
The industrial, dystopian landscape of previous games has also been replaced by a medieval fantasy world in The Dark Ages. That means you can crush demon skulls with a flail, explore mysterious forests full of beasties straight from hell and even ride about the place on a fire-breathing cyber-dragon. The Doom Slayer looks great in fur, obvs.
There’s more to The Dark Ages than mindless violence
You’ll come for the arcade mayhem but developers want you to stick around, so they’ve created a compelling narrative to pull you through the game. As in past titles, you’re tasked with stopping Satan’s baddies from taking over. Previous games forced you to read a bunch of documents to fully wrap your head around the mystic political backstabbing, but The Dark Ages tells its tale via gameplay and a series of beautiful cut-scenes.
There’s no multiplayer either, with id Software focusing everything on the single-player story which takes place before the events of previous Doom games. This means developers can create the perfect entry point for newcomers but also flesh out the Doom universe. Add in the guitar-driven, metalhead soundtrack and you’ve got the makings of a rock and roll summer blockbuster.
The Doom Slayer is more badass than ever
The beelzebub-bashing, machine-gun-toting hero of Doom has always been a formidable force but The Dark Ages features the beefiest version of the Slayer yet. Developers Marty Stratton (id Software’s studio director) and Hugo Martin (creative director) said they wanted the Slayer to feel like a weapon of mass destruction and took heavy inspiration from classic Batman comics Year One and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight to make him as intimidating as possible. “It’s all about being aggressive. We asked you to ‘run and gun’ in Doom and it was ‘jump and shoot’ in Eternal. With Doom: The Dark Ages, you’re going to ‘stand and fight’.” Works for us.
The most brutal new weapon might be…a shield
The Dark Ages is designed to be more fluid than its predecessors. The “Glory Kill” mechanic still allows for acrobatic finishing moves on stunned enemies but this time out, you don’t have to give up control of the Slayer to pull them off. It should make hacking your way through hordes of demons a less frustrating experience.
You’re also equipped with a new shield. We know what you’re thinking, who cares about defence when you’ve got a huge gun tucked in your back pocket, but this luxury killing device comes with a few tricks. You can use it to block and parry at the press of a single button – but you can also use the shield’s buzzsawed-edge to carve up opponents and destroy the war-torn environment around you. It can be thrust into the chest of imposing monsters and can also lock onto far-flung enemies, allowing you to rocket across the blood-soaked planet like a vicious pinball. Captain America would never.
Those hellspawn really don’t stand a chance
“Doom has been and always will be about the guns, and The Dark Ages has some of the most ridiculously powerful weapons that we’ve ever created,” said Martin, teasing ancient torture machines “built to butcher, impale and shred”. Like previous Doom games, you’ll be armed with a whole host of impressive guns capable of making demon soup out of your enemies – but the medieval setting brings a nice, fantasy twist to the ultra-violence. The new trailer shows off things such as an electrified gauntlet and a spiked mace for close-quarters fighting, as well as classic flamethrowers and rail guns. There’s no need to conserve your ammo either because these weapons are powered up every time you blast a demon back to the depths.
That unstoppable feeling of controlling a god-like murder machine doesn’t stop there. Some levels let you take control of a building-sized mech suit known as an Atlan to bash-up titan-sized beasties, while others have you riding a fire-breathing, gatling gun-wielding dragon that’s perfect for turning enemies into ash as well as exploring the huge world of Doom: The Dark Ages.
The power belongs to you
The Dark Ages is not an open-world game but it is the biggest Doom game to date, with plenty to explore and uncover during each level. “You control the pace of the game, where you go, who you fight and the objectives you pursue,” said Martin.
There are also customisable difficulty settings meaning you’re in charge of the intensity of each challenge while intuitive, streamlined controls allow for epic combos. “Accessible doesn’t mean easy,” he explained. “We wanted to make sure you could master the controls, so we could ask more from you earlier.” Bring it on.
‘Doom: The Dark Ages’ is out May 15 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC