The DOOM franchise has long stood as a paragon of fast-paced, chaotic, and unapologetically violent first-person shooters. With 2016’s DOOM and its hyper-agile successor DOOM Eternal, id Software reinvented the formula with speed, aerial combat, and heavy-metal fury. But in 2025, the studio has taken a bold, divisive turn with DOOM: The Dark Ages, a gritty prequel that swaps speed for weight, acrobatics for armor, and plasma for iron.
This new vision grounds the Slayer—both literally and narratively—into a darker, medieval-inspired setting where melee takes center stage. While the combat delivers a satisfyingly heavy rhythm and new tools expand the strategic sandbox, The Dark Ages is not without its missteps. Structural flaws, inconsistent pacing, and underwhelming side mechanics hold it back from becoming a masterpiece. But in terms of pure, blood-soaked melee bliss, it’s one hell of a ride.
Trading Speed for Strength: A New Type of Slayer
Where DOOM Eternal had you double-jumping, dashing, and gliding through arenas like a demon parkour master, The Dark Ages has other plans. From the moment you boot up, you’ll notice the Slayer feels different. He’s slower. Heavier. Grounded. And that’s by design.
In The Dark Ages, your mobility is limited—no double-jump, no infinite dash spam. Instead, you’re a tank in fur and steel, stomping across battlefields with controlled momentum. The verticality is restrained, and the chaos is channeled. The result is a more methodical tempo that rewards timing, stamina control, and positioning over raw speed.
For longtime fans, this shift might feel jarring. It’s a big departure from the adrenaline-fueled flow of recent entries. But once you settle into the rhythm—parrying, countering, bashing, executing—it clicks. The power fantasy doesn’t vanish; it transforms. You’re no longer a jetpack berserker. You’re a battlefield juggernaut.
The Shield-Chainsaw: A Masterstroke of Melee Design
The undisputed star of DOOM: The Dark Ages is your primary tool of destruction: the shield-chainsaw, a brutal hybrid that perfectly embodies the game’s design philosophy. Equal parts offense and defense, it acts as a parrying weapon, projectile deflector, ranged boomerang, and close-quarters finisher—all rolled into one.
Learning the timing of parries becomes crucial. When an enemy’s attack glows, parry at the right moment to stun and follow up with devastating counters. Mistime it, and you risk unleashing redirected projectiles—or eating damage. It’s high risk, high reward, and immensely satisfying when mastered.
The shield can also be thrown to disarm enemies or upgraded to create an impenetrable wall during intense firefights. The feeling of shielding yourself from a barrage of fireballs, then emerging with a chain-flurry finisher, never gets old.
As you progress, other melee weapons like the flail, electric gauntlet, and spiked mace come into play. Each one adds nuance to the already rich combat system. These weapons have charge limits, forcing you to rotate between them, creating layers of tactical decision-making during fights. It’s less run-and-gun, more “dance of death”—a phrase that fits the game’s tone perfectly.
Combat Rhythm: Souls-like Precision Meets DOOM Ferocity
While the mention of “Souls-like” might trigger assumptions of dodgy stamina meters and oppressive difficulty, The Dark Ages integrates just enough of that formula to elevate the DOOM experience without diluting its core identity.
Enemies come in familiar flavors—Imps, Revenants, Barons—but they’re smarter now, more reactive. They’ll counter, adapt, and exploit your mistakes. Health, armor, and ammo are rarely given freely. Instead, you’re pushed into an aggressive loop: shoot to stagger, parry to open up, melee to finish, and repeat.
The Reaver Chainshot, a satisfying chain-hook projectile, allows you to launch into enemies or yank them toward you for brutal takedowns. At full charge, it cleaves through demons like a guillotine. Combine that with glory kills and you have an elegant, albeit bloody, ballet of destruction.
This core loop is where The Dark Ages excels. The intensity is sustained, but it’s a different kind of intensity—slower, heavier, and far more focused on deliberate action than mindless spray-and-pray. When you hit your stride, you feel unstoppable.
The World is Wide, But Often Empty
Not everything in DOOM: The Dark Ages lands as cleanly as its combat. The game abandons tight, linear levels in favor of a semi-open structure. On paper, this sounds like a way to breathe life into the DOOM formula, but in execution, it stumbles.
Levels are larger, with branching paths, locked gates, and secrets tucked behind backtracking and key hunts. But the novelty wears off fast. Revisiting the same areas across missions feels repetitive, especially when the puzzles are little more than glorified switch hunts or fetch quests. There’s no sense of emergent storytelling in these exploration segments—just a checklist.
Worse, the rewards for completion often fall flat. Instead of jaw-dropping weapons or cool cosmetics, you’re mostly handed upgrade shards or stat boosts. In a game that oozes style and attitude, this utilitarian approach to rewards feels out of place.
The decision to go semi-open-world ultimately detracts from the campaign’s pacing. Just as the combat hits its stride, the game slams the brakes for another detour or dull puzzle. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it’s a consistent drag on the experience.
Highs and Lows of Experimental Setpieces
To break up the flow, The Dark Ages introduces two major gameplay setpieces: dragon-riding and mech combat. Both are ambitious. Only one succeeds.
Let’s start with the dragons. The concept? Epic. The reality? Not so much. Limited mobility, sluggish controls, and copy-pasted turret enemies make these sections feel like an obligation rather than a reward. The bosses here are forgettable, and the entire sequence feels disconnected from the game’s otherwise tight mechanics.
Now contrast that with the Atlan mech segments. Here, the Slayer mounts a towering war machine and turns the battlefield into an explosive playground. These sequences offer a glorious power trip—massive rockets, ground stomps, Gatling guns—and break up the melee-centric combat nicely. While still simple in control, they’re fun, flashy, and inject a jolt of energy just when the campaign needs it.
It’s clear that id Software wanted to diversify the experience, and while they succeeded partially, not all experiments are equal. The mech wins. The dragon whimpers.
A Medieval Nightmare Worth Exploring
From a visual and narrative standpoint, DOOM: The Dark Ages is a marvel. The setting—a twisted hybrid of medieval fantasy and techno-hell—is atmospheric, bold, and full of character. Imagine gothic castles with demonic circuitry pulsing through stone walls, or cathedrals turned into flesh-forges. The art direction is consistent and striking throughout.
This prequel explores the origins of the Slayer, building his mythos through cryptic cutscenes, ancient scrolls, and visual storytelling. You’re not just killing demons—you’re walking through the annals of legend. His armor, fur-caped and scarred, tells its own tale. The world, harsh and hopeless, fits his journey.
At 22 campaign levels, there’s a lot of content here. While some levels drag, the majority offer enough varied enemy types and arena configurations to keep you engaged. The overall tone is more solemn, but not without DOOM’s signature absurdity and over-the-top violence.
Final Verdict: Heavy Metal, Heavy Footsteps
DOOM: The Dark Ages may not reinvent the franchise entirely, but it confidently reimagines it through a darker, grounded lens. The combat is its crown jewel—measured, brutal, and incredibly rewarding. The shield-chainsaw is a weapon for the ages, and the melee loop rivals anything DOOM has ever done.
But around this brilliant combat core, the supporting pieces wobble. The level structure lacks cohesion. Exploration and puzzle-solving feel dated. Dragon-riding flops. And the pacing suffers from its semi-open aspirations.
Still, for those willing to embrace the shift—from agile demon-sprinter to armored demon-slayer—the payoff is immense. This is DOOM with weight, fury, and lore. It’s the roar of a warhammer in place of the hum of a plasma rifle—and it works.
Pros
✔ Masterful melee combat with strategic depth
✔ The shield-chainsaw is a game-changing mechanic
✔ Excellent visuals and artistic direction
✔ Impressive mech combat segments
✔ Expands the DOOM lore with gravitas
✔ Long campaign with high replay value
Cons
✘ Repetitive level design and forced backtracking
✘ Weak dragon-riding sections
✘ Underwhelming puzzles and side objectives
✘ Inconsistent pacing outside combat
Should You Play It?
If you’re open to change and want a DOOM game that feels like a medieval metal album brought to life, The Dark Ages is well worth your time. It’s not the fastest or the flashiest entry, but it might be the most brutal. Just temper your expectations—and swing that shield with style.
