DOOM: The Dark Ages creates innovation through simplicity for bloody carnage

Watching an artist complete a piece of work is a gratifying experience, and I had engrossed myself in watching the Slayer masterfully rip apart demons in my chance to preview DOOM: The Dark Ages. If DOOM 2016 was a high for fans, The Dark Ages is going to break that ceiling, inviting everyone along for the ride.

Designers at id Software went out of their way to make The Dark Ages an experience everyone can enjoy, making players a deadly artist of destruction against the hell-ridden armies of the underworld. We didn’t get a full tour of The Dark Ages, but what we saw gave us hope and excitement about playing it sooner rather than later.

Capturing the allure of swift carnage that comes with any expectation of a DOOM title is a challenging prospect. By trimming the fat from DOOM Eternal, The Dark Ages breaks away from acrobatic maneuvers and welcomes a more down-to-earth, medieval experience, encouraging close-range combat and head-on tactics by adding dynamic features: a shield, several melee weapons, and unsynced glory kills. Although not groundbreaking, they’re important pillars that prove to lift up the next DOOM entry, especially as the franchise introduces an open-world experience.

Carving out the brutal basics 

The core of DOOM has always been about running and gunning. It doesn’t get any simpler than that, as developers shared in the preview, and it was a core design philosophy for DOOM 2016. After 30 years, they want to build on those basics with flair that doesn’t overcomplicate that core experience. To make The Dark Ages more approachable, several new attacks and abilities can now be unleashed using single controls. The parry on your shield, the chainsaw, and the block are all completed with a one-button click. The same goes for melee attacks and using guns.

The parry system stands to be the most exciting combat feature added to DOOM. The ability to briefly stun enemies and reflexively pay back the attacks could become a gratifying sensation, especially against larger demons. It also leans into the motif of the Slayer becoming a heavy tank, marching across a battlefield and cutting down enemies with his powerful arsenal. Dodging is still a required mechanic since not every attack can be parried, and timing will be key to everything.

The simplified approach means quicker combat and less time finding combinations to use during combat to maximize demon slaughter during every encounter. Refining these combat mechanics slims down the combat experience, keeping the violence all on screen and empowering a player as they charge through the brutal landscape with their favorite weapons. It’s a direct response to DOOM Eternal, which partially suffered from adding a grappling hook and pushing players to constantly remain in the air, attacking, dodging, and staying as mobile as possible.

The Dark Ages improves the combat experience for players who aren’t as comfortable with first-person shooters. But the complexity of combat is still there at higher difficulties for those who want a more punishing experience.

It makes it easier for a wider audience to jump into the game, the id team also introduced a lot of customizable settings, such as an adjustable parry window, stun time, game speed, resource values, and much more. A customizable difficulty setting should appeal to beginners and veterans alike, keeping everyone on the edge of their seats as they blast their way through this medieval hell as the Slayer.

With the combat experience tied together neatly, the dev team added another core component: open-world exploration.

Taking DOOM on the road

There was a small amount of exploration in DOOM 2016 and DOOM Eternal, but this is being expanded on in Dark Ages, where players have the freedom to explore how they see fit between missions. There are mini-bosses to challenge, secrets to unlock, critical resources to find, and much more. Players use their arsenal to unravel these mysteries, with plenty of demons to stomp along the way.

The way the team has laid it out makes it sound like a great catalyst between missions of pure mayhem. There are chances to focus on preferred weapons and playstyles in these sandbox environments, beating waves of demons in a bloody path of destruction, all the while tracking down unique secrets.

We’ve only seen brief glimpses of what this gameplay looks like, without a clear visual picture of how exploration works or how massive the area is in the grand scheme of things. It’s been described as a DOOM sandbox full of war and riches, but how deep that sandbox is remains to be seen. The way it sounds makes it exceptionally appealing, but we still don’t really know how this all works or what to expect from these features.

The type of sandbox I’m imagining includes side objectives with dynamic battles against powerful demons alongside the main story. Combine this with the simplified controls of playing as the Slayer, and The Dark Ages can become a pillar of success in id’s already impressive history of first-person shooters. Everyone will be able to try it for themselves when the game officially releases on May 15.