

DOOM: The Dark Ages
664
in-game
Data taken from Steam

Cloud Gaming

DOOM: The Dark Ages is the prequel to the critically acclaimed DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal that tells an epic cinematic story worthy of the DOOM Slayer’s legend. Players will step into the blood-stained boots of the DOOM Slayer, in this never-before-seen dark and sinister medieval war against Hell.
Developed by:
id SoftwarePublished by:
Release Date:

Latest Patch:

Categories and Accessibility
The categories have been assigned by the developers on Steam
Tags
Tags have been assigned by users on Steam
Fallout 4
Available in:
• 1 subscription (PC Game Pass)
Has been in:
• 9 bundles (Fanatical)

From 6,80€ and with a PC Game Pass subscription
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
Available in:
• 1 subscription (PC Game Pass)
Has been in:
• 5 bundles (Fanatical)

From 8,50€ and with a PC Game Pass subscription
Fallout: New Vegas
Available in:
• 2 subscriptions
Has been in:
• 6 bundles (Fanatical)
• 1 free (Epic Games Store)
• 1 subscription (Prime Gaming)

From 4,25€ and in 2 subscriptions
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Has been in:
• 1 bundle (Fanatical)

Not in Sale
DOOM Eternal
Available in:
• 1 bundle (Fanatical)
• 1 subscription (PC Game Pass)
Has been in:
• 6 bundles
• 2 subscriptions

From 9,99€ and with a PC Game Pass subscription
DOOM
Has been in:
• 8 bundles

From 3,69€
DOOM + DOOM II
Available in:
• 1 subscription (PC Game Pass)
Has been in:
• 4 bundles

From 3,49€ and with a PC Game Pass subscription
DOOM 3
Available in:
• 1 subscription (PC Game Pass)
Has been in:
• 4 bundles
• 1 subscription (Prime Gaming)

From 3,40€ and with a PC Game Pass subscription
Reviews
The reviews are taken directly from Steam and divided by regions and I show you the best rated ones in the last 30 days.
Reviews on english:
85%
11,514 reviews
9,860
1,654
21.3 hours played
Written 1 month and 2 days ago
Cannonball simulator. You're the cannonball.
Mayhem on a grand scale, fun guns, satisfying shield application. Fixes the worst flaws of Eternal and generally does its own thing.
25.7 hours played
Written 30 days ago
This is different from D2016 or D:Eternal. Yes, it has its cons:
- music is kinda generic, nothing special. It is not bad, it just exists.
- Giant robot and dragon sections are excess. I hope, it will be skippable. Ok once though
- it takes longer to speed up than eternal. The real fun begins only in the last third of the game.
- it has more plot but it’s all feel kinda useless. Expensive cutscenes tell no story, characters lack character. I still have to go to the codex to make all this mess clear.
But, it is really fun game to play. It's different fun but it is fun.
It’s not slow (yes, you have to play on nightmare, turn on “sprint” in settings), it’s not simplification or something (may be a bit, compared to Eternal).
Zero regrets, will play again.
56.4 hours played
Written 16 days ago
TBH I don't really want to talk about this game,
in order to play this freaking game I have to upgrade my whole freaking PC just for this game.
Threw more than 3100 CNY (430 USD) and 499 CNY (70 USD)for the game's premium edition.
Fuck Nintendo for rising game price to 80 dollar.
Fuck Microsoft for asking 70 dollar for TDA.
Fuck Mandatory Ray-Tracing which is one of the biggest gaming scam of all time.
The game not even look that good with ray tracing,but more than half the FPS compare to Doom Eternal.
And the latest Path Tracing?
Oh c'mon,this is DOOM not some fucking cinematic trash game.
Enjoy your 3000+ USD GPU running 720P with Path Tracing enable,
this is 2025!
No fucking 2005!
No fucking XBOX 360 720P era.
The fact my fucking RTX3070 have to use DLSS in fucking 1080P to
get acceptable FPS is fucking Ridiculous.
Modern gaming create fucking trash TAA make games look fucking blurry AF.
And then Nvidia offer a fucking DLSS solution to solve the blurry issue.
I guess modern issue need modern solution hmm?
The whole fucking gaming industry create this TAA trash then sell you the hardware solution.
Fucking scam!
This game has crash issue no matter what GPU you're using,
no matter is AMD or Nvidia.
id software can blame Nvidia's trash driver as much as they can.
The thing is that if there is not Mandatory Ray-Tracing,
instead its optional,
we will not even have this conversation.
Please fix your fucking game for the love of god.
Some ppl can even run the game by using a fucking GTX 1660 which has not fucking ray tracing capability.
Some modder even create a mod for 4GB VRAM GPU to run this game.
Do you guys really try to optimize the game like you did in Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal?
I can't even notice 99% of the ray tracing in this game.
Some ppl call this game as the best doom game,
oh c'mon,do you really know WTF are you talking about?
The story is so fucking forgettable,
characters are forgettable,
99.99% of the time Doom Guy just stand here listen to whoever is talking.
There are way too many cutscenes in this game which eat up some budget of the game.
Ya know why modern Triple-A game are so expensive?
Cuz those fucking useless high budget cutscenes.
Gameplay is even more forgettable,
just spam shieldsaw throw and impaler,
that's it.
There is nothing to master,
nothing to learn.
For those doom-tubers,
you can spin whatever you want to make this game look good.
This game doesn't deserve at full price no matter is 70 dollar or 80 dollar in your region.
I hate fucking ray tracing in this game for killing all my fucking frames,
the slowmo in this game is fucking painful.
They have all the slider in the game but without a button to turn off slowmo.
You parry,
you slowmo.
You melee,
you slowmo.
Fuck those slowmo,
I'm playing a fucking fast-pace first person shooter!
It's looks cool at first!
But the more you play,
the more painful you get.
You have NOT fucking i-frame for 99% of the time!
so why the fuck always slow myself down?
for what???????????
Just for demons to repositioning themself then shoot me in the back?
How I died in this game?
10% of the time I got smash in the face when doing melee combo.
90% of the time I got shot from nowhere,
those fucking fodders shot some fucking almost hard to see projectiles from any angle.
Every death feels so cheap.
All in all,
even though I dislike this game so much,
I still appreciate they at least try to do something new rather than to make Eternal 2.
But please rethinking about fucking push-forward combat again in the next game.
I pre-order Doom Eternal and this game.
But I will never pre-order another id software game,
unless its actually worth my hard earn money.
27.3 hours played
Written 1 month and 5 days ago
Just a very solid game. Fun gameplay loop and great enemy variety. I don't think it's better than Doom Eternal, but honestly still a banger.
10.8 hours played
Written 26 days ago
It would have been easy to just repeat what 2016 and Eternal did, add some modifications and slap a $70 price tag.
In a way, their effort to change the dynamic of gameplay is respectable, but at some point you have to say "If it isn't broken, don't touch it"
There's several new additions, but the most important is the Shield, which you'll use to parry green attacks and block red ones.
This is the main problem of Dark Ages. Every enemy has a attack pattern
Once you play one or two hours, you learn it all. There's little to no variation in their attacks so you'll always know how to approach an enemy. After a couple of encounters, the game just becomes repetitive. A chore.
Worst of all? Each time you parry a green attack, you activate a slow-mo. Read that again: Each time you parry. You're going to be doing a lot of that and it just slows the game.
There's no way to deactivate this. For a game that takes pride in how much customization you can implement into your game with many difficulty sliders and options, the fact there's no way to deactivate something so annoying as slow-mo is just shocking.
The only way to achieve this is by using a cheat engine configuration but this will set your game speed to normal.
If you played this game on normal (100%) speed opposed to 150%, i'm sorry but you've basically ruined your experience in Dark Ages.
You need to play this in 150%. No Ifs and Buts. 150% is the definitive way. But that also means you can't use the cheat engine mod so I guess we're just out of luck.
Regarding the story:
I don't know. I skipped all cutscenes from chapter 10 to the end.
The main protagonists of Doom are Doomguy and the demons. Everyone else is secondary.
I genuinely couldn't care any less about Generic Soldier, Generic General Woman, Mister "Look At Me I Got Evil Horns and a Deep Voice I'm a Really Menacing Demon" guy. And don't lie to yourself: You don't care either. This is a franchise about gameplay over story. We don't need nor want your snoozefest epic lore about how Doomguy is this really special person in a secret order of whatever fighting a eternal war of whatever reasons against demons.
Overall: 6/10 game. The bad outweighs the good. There's still a fun experience to have here but it's definitely not worth the price.
I would recommend just buying Gamepass and trying it there.
26.8 hours played
Written 14 days ago
9.5/10
Dark ages is the best part of the Doom trilogy, brutally, fast and adrenaline action.
Of course the shield along with the flail and later the runes is awesome, literally captain Slayer i enjoyed it.
Surprisingly good story.
Audiovisual, atmosphere excellent, technical condition too.
No bugs and crashes
I recommend it.
22.3 hours played
Written 26 days ago
Let me tell you the last word right now, this game is amazing in every way. After experiencing the latest version of this great franchise, I have to say that I enjoyed it very much. The action, shooting, and weapon design are at their best, the sound, physics, and animations have also improved a lot compared to the previous version. I also liked the previous version very much and it became one of the best shooting games I have ever played. The game is such that it maintains its greatness and diversity until the end and gets better after each level. I am currently waiting to continue playing in its expansion. New mechanisms such as the shield and mace are great. The super shotgun weapon is back, stronger and more epic than ever, as an integral part of the game. Don't hesitate for a moment to experience this game, it is one of the best in its genre.
11.3 hours played
Written 1 month and 1 day ago
if you were good at eternal, you're not going to like this game
the elimination of quick switching is a double edged sword. On one side, its good for a certain demographic of players,namely people who enjoy a slower gameplay, with less quick reaction time and switching. counter-intuitively, it makes the game very dull and boring at times for people who were good at eternal or just liked eternals quicker gameplay.
I recommend this game to people who enjoyed the gameplay of 2016, if you liked eternal a lot, then i'd wait for a discount
18.8 hours played
Written 10 days ago
The game play is way different from 2016/Eternal in a way that is not fun for me. The mech battles does nothing for your progression and feels clunky. For me I just didn't find any enjoyment. Eternal is by far the best game play I've experienced in a Doom game. Game enjoyment is subjective to individuals and for me it's just not fun.
58.2 hours played
Written 20 days ago
Cannot recommend this game to anyone looking for a Doom experience. After completing maybe half of the game, I have realized this game is at BEST a 5/10.
It's a complete exercise in tedium. Parrying has entirely ruined the experience. Depending on how sweaty you get with the parrying, the game is actually markedly too easy, even on Nightmare difficulty. If you focus on parrying over actual gunplay, it makes the encounters far too easy. When you combine this with how frequently you can slow time (weapon wheel and shield throw) you can slow each encounter down to a crawl almost the entire time, making for way too many ways to cheese the game but it also just ruins the run and gun flow that with a Doom game is suppose to be an adrenaline rush. No adrenaline rush when you can slow time much of most of the fights and strategize every move you are going to make.
The game is too long, and it isn't a good thing. With an exciting fun-to-play game you almost don't want it to end. This game, you just want it to end so you can check off a box and move on to a game that is actually fun, perhaps even revisiting Doom Eternal or Doom 2016. This game is a slow paced pile of crap that just beats you over the head with one boring uninspired fight after another. In addition to this, the designers found it to be necessary to add the Mech and Dragon levels, which are the most boring un-intuitive experiences I have ever had in a Doom game. Why? Why even add these to the game? Did they think that adding neccessary fat to the mix would convince people that they are getting their monies worth?
The auto save areas are just terrible. There's only a few encounters that caused me to have to reload a dozen times because they were long and drawn out to the point where they last like 10 minutes. It is always these area's where the auto save saves you like 3 miles from where the encounter is, forcing you to spend a couple of minutes running back to the encounter only to die again and have to run a f'n marathon to get back to an encounter that lasts way too long. Why? You know you are creating an encounter that has about 49 bosses in it and you couldn't have designed the auto save to engage shortly before entering it? Terrible.
The music sucks. The ambient music that you listen to while not in enemy encounters it's like this eerie build up music, which would be cool to hear a few times where you were expecting a jump scare or a new terrifying enemy to pop out from a hell portal, but instead it plays this constantly throughout ever single level often times when you are searching for keys or a secret area. I realize you lost Mick Gordon but for the love of God you couldn't find anyone to make a few tracks that were badass? You have one single fight encounter that's just a 30 second guitar riff you play on loop EVERY SINGLE fight in the game and it gets old after the first level or two.
Outside of the graphics and the gunplay this game is just a major letdown. Hopefully the next Doom game (assuming there is one) just go back to the roots and stick to it. Also, the fact that multiplayer is completely omitted is just inexcusable. Delay the game and have multiplayer. It doesn't have to be earth shattering just something. You complete this game at max difficulty and there is literally NO reason to return to it. Period. It's a one and done game. I would never imagine wanting to revisit this boring stinker of a game ever in my entire life.
55.9 hours played
Written 28 days ago
i think both doom dark age and doom eternal are excellent overall but both felt different to me. while the story line is not great in doom series overall but its satisfying , doom is known for its fast paced chaotic game play combined with suitable soundtracks.
for me doom eternal was a bit more challenging and more fast paced however dark age was better in some aspects, i enjoyed both equally.
it would be much better if doom dark age had more innovation in mech and dragon part too.
8.6 hours played
Written 6 days ago
Denuvo wont let me play my game, Thanks so much for making it impossible to play a $60+ game
23.2 hours played
Written 5 days ago
Wait for it to go on sale. Its fun for a little while but the story, music, and levels just arent great. Not compared to Eternal at least.
17.7 hours played
Written 15 days ago
Doom but for Parry addicts
The best Pacific Rim game you could ever want, and you get Doom Quake edition on the same package.
Extremely satisfying doom combat where you throw yourself at the enemies full force. My only gripe is once you use your favourite guns you're gonna stick to one gun only most of the time, probably due to complaints to how eternal worked as a styleswitching kinda game and how people just wanted to use what they wanna use, this game allows you to play what you wanna play. Probably my favourite Rocket Launcher Gameloop in any game ever, only way to make it even better was if there was Rocket jumping.
The package is packed to the brim with game, to a point where it tires you out, like two full course meals worth. Frankly, I enjoy it, but you gotta dose it right, and going back to back on those final levels tired me out, but I was having a lot of fun and don't regret it.
TL;DR
Game that will get you to say HELL YEAH to it many times
16.4 hours played
Written 30 days ago
Doom 2016, great game 9/10.
Doom Eternal, legendary game, 11/10
Doom the Dark Ages 8.5/10 because the music isn't nearly as good.
So let me clarify, Doom The Dark Ages isn't a 10/10 because Eternal exists and because Mick Gordon didnt do the soundtrack. This is still a damn good game, DAMN GOOD. But it's not Eternal because it needed about 3 more months in the oven.
9.6 hours played
Written 1 month and 3 days ago
I've been playing DooM games since it was called Wolfenstein 3D
DooM 2016 despite it's flaws, felt brutal, the music, the glory kills, like a war
DooM dark ages feels like airsoft by comparion, weak sauce bro
27.1 hours played
Written 19 days ago
I think it's incredible that even when id software makes a game around a bad idea the end product turns out to be really fucking good video game
19.0 hours played
Written 8 days ago
The third game in the Doom renaissance, much like the third game of the original trilogy, is technically quite impressive, but overall disappointing in its highest moments, and downright frustrating in the lowest.
I'll get this out of the way immediately: The game is far too easy, and though that's a problem I find myself having with a lot of games, it's the reasons [i]why[/i] Dark Ages is so easy that really drag it down when compared to prior entries in the series, and make it kind of dull even if it was its own entirely new IP.
From the start of the game you have access to a shield bash attack - It has about a second's worth of cooldown between uses, and it launches you full speed into whatever enemy you have targeted while rendering you seemingly invincible for the duration. Upon impact, you explode with enough force to kill 20 of the random fodder demons around you, and they all drop health. You can also toss the shield as a boomerang that pierces through fodder demons and kills them instantly, and you don't even need to wait for it to return to use it as a regular shield again, it just teleports back if you press the button.
Sometimes the fodder demons have shields, but if you shoot them a couple of times (or once with the Super Shotgun, even at range - Or hell, sometimes you don't even have to shoot them) they get "Superheated" and a single toss of your own shield will not only destroy the superheated shield, but will explode and kill all the fodder demons nearby, making them all drop armor.
You can turn the game up to a higher speed, you can increase enemy health and damage, you can play on Nightmare with all the sliders turned up and it doesn't make a bit of difference - The fodder demons pose no threat, they die immediately and drop so many resources that it's difficult to actually die in any encounter that includes them (which is most of them.)
Heavier demons aren't quite so weak, but the number of them that get instantly killed (or put into an execution state) from a single shield bash into their face (which stuns them) with a follow-up blast from the super shotgun is frankly ridiculous.
Hell knights, Revenants, Mancubi and Arachnotrons spawn in just to get bonked on the head and shot once constantly. Sometimes the heavier demons are armored, which means you might need to bonkshoot a second time with a shield toss thrown in the middle, but every now and then I find myself shooting off the demons' armor plating anyway.
The shield also allows you to tank damage while it's up (as expected) but there's rarely a reason to do this outside of the few enemies that have a hitscan-ish attack that don't die in one hit. It also has a parry that completely obliterates everything in the game-
-To clarify, the parry is unbelievably easy to pull off (even with the parry window turned down to its shortest) and as soon as you get a shield rune that gives you an attack on parry, doing it to an oncoming projectile is almost guaranteed to kill everything around you, and stun/maim even heavy demons. Parrying melee attacks will stagger bigger demons too, which would be sensible if they didn't all die in two seconds immediately after.
It introduces different melee weapons but each one renders the previous one completely pointless. The third weapon is a big hammer that refills ALL of your ammo for ALL of your guns when it hits anything, and does absolutely absurd damage to the target and even hurts things around it. The downside is that it has a longer cooldown but since you can recharge melee cooldowns by parrying things and melee pickups are everywhere, you're never really hurting for it.
There's waaaay more guns than in previous entries, but you swap so slowly between them that you're almost disincentivised to use them. Each gun seems to have a different purpose but the majority of them are outclassed by the shield:
[i]The enemy has an energy shield that will explode if you shoot it with a plasma weapon?[/i]
Too bad, the shield toss (after a couple of cheap upgrades) will bounce between targets if it hits an enemy shield, killing them all much faster.
[i]There are lots of enemies and you need crowd control?[/i]
The shield explode whenever you use one of its infinite dashes.
[i]Single big targets?[/i]
The shield toss can stun bigger demons in place for a while.
[i]HUGE enemies?[/i]
Just parry their attacks - Some of them you never even have to shoot.
I started out trying to use a lot of weapons on my Nightmare run, and it eventually devolved into a Super Shotgun-fest, since I was never running out of ammo and it does absurd damage to anything it hits. It's almost the only weapon worth using since you can close the distance to enemies in an instant at any time.
The rocket launcher was also pretty useful for two reasons: Parrying an attack makes it so splash damage from the rocket launch heals you for a short while, which makes most encounters trivial on its own - But much [i]worse[/i] than this is all down to the enemies' [b]awful, awful, awful[/b] AI.
Doom 2016 and Eternal used the roster of demons so well that I genuinely can not find any fun within the senselessness of Dark Ages: Demons will spawn into the arena 50 metres away from you, far enough that they can't actually shoot you, and then just STAND STILL. You can lob rockets at them all day until they die and they won't move, and I cannot understand how this enemy behaviour made it into the game.
I cannot defend Dark Ages on novelty alone.
Yes, it is very [i]different[/i] from all previous entries in the series, but its differences are not what makes it bad.
The terrible design choices and compromises made to the level, enemy and player design are what make it bad.
You are too strong at all times but only need to use 10% of the tools you are given.
Maps and enemy counts are bigger than ever, but they're mostly just open wastelands with hordes of fodder demons that provide no meaningful challenge nor cathartic satisfaction when defeated.
The game has no idea which of its enemies are actually threatening and which aren't, so it will repeatedly throw you into cramped arenas with lots of Hell Knights and expect you to have trouble these trash mobs that die immediately, or put Arachnotrons and Mancubi in places where they are very easy to shield bash.
The dev team seems to have no confidence in their ability to balance all this crap so they didn't even bother to try, hence the addition of fine-tuning difficulty sliders - You can call it player choice, but I'm calling it a cop-out. The only way you can make the game slightly challenging is by playing it at 150% speed.
This is to say nothing of the writing, which is about as stock as you can get.
The game's universe has interesting ideas to explore, but there's no overarching themes, none of the characters actually develop in any meaningful way, the [b]one[/b] entire female character they have is the most Mary Sue thing in Doom history and she spends most of the game either doing nothing, getting kidnapped and needing to be rescued, or being so overly powerful that she could probably fight Doomguy, all whilst having no emotive reaction or growth to anything that happens in the plot - Nobody does.
Doomguy himself is a moron throughout most of the game.
The mech sections were fun - Once.
The dragon sections were fun - Once.
The less said about them the better because they show you everything they have to offer within the first 5 minutes of either.
All the secrets are displayed clearly on the map and aren't at all secret.
There are wide open underwater areas with invisible walls.
There's a weird amount of backtracking that was fixed by Eternal's fast travel but isn't included here.
Keys are marked clearly on the map, but locked doors aren't??
It has around 5 bosses, by which I mean it has 2 bosses but the second one is reused a bunch of times for the last two missions.
I could keep going, but I've ran out of space.
Don't buy this garbage.
22.0 hours played
Written 25 days ago
This game has some good aspects, but a lot of bad, and worse, boring aspects.
[h3]The good: [/h3]
The shield is fun! Parrying is alright, the timing is really generous and I decided to lower it. I like that that's an option! The other shield moves are great.
The graphics are good. I don't like that they went all in on raytracing after how optimized and lightweight the rendering engine was in the last two doom games, but it still looks good.
The sound design is mostly good. Some of the sfx are a little over the top, but everything sounds weighty and satisfying.
The gameplay loop is pretty fun. Nothing crazy.
The weapons are great! I used all of them a lot except for the grenade launcher and the plasma guns.
[h3]The bad: [/h3]
The slow motion every time you land a parry or melee attack is unbearable. It makes it incredibly hard to time the next parry when deflecting combos. Totally breaks the flow of combat. I don't mind freeze frames in most games, these ones are just like 5 times too long. Insane that there's no option to turn this off.
I don't like that they removed most glory kills. They were kind of the defining feature of new doom. I'm not sure why they decided to axe them, I never found them boring. Cyberdemons weightlessly ragdolling like they're in gmod looks dumb.
The dragon and mech sections are extremely bad. The controls are jerky, there's no momentum to your movements, they play like an arcade game from the 80s. They were just a chore to play.
[h3]The boring[/h3]
Holy shit, the story is so mind numbing. I have never cared less about a video game story. So much of the budget was spent on these cutscenes full of characters with no personality. Doomguy doesn't have any motivations and has lost all the character he had in 2016. It's been said a million times, but the plot is forgettable generic fantasy nonsense. The only character I liked a little bit was the villain, but even he was not that interesting. I think I just liked his visual design.
The final boss [spoiler]is fun, but he has three very similar phases, and then there's another level and a fourth phase. What? [/spoiler]
Unique bosses felt really scarce, replaced by lots of repeated minibosses. The minibosses are fun though!
The level design is super boring. Most of every map is just endless flat arenas. They don't feel like real locations, and I never felt a desire to explore them. There was some fun non euclidean gimmicks in the cosmic realm, but nothing you haven't seen before.
[h3]Conclusion[/h3]
Despite its clearly much higher budget, this game lacks any of the charm of Doom 2016. 2016 was lean, it did a lot with a little, it had interesting characters and conflicts, actual themes and ideas to convey, and it felt fresh. It's hard to make a sequel live up, and even more so a prequel, but any amount of budget or raytracing does not make up for a lack of soul.
I hate to not recommend this, because I genuinely did enjoy a bunch of the combat, but I'm bored to tears by the rest of the game it exists in.
Oh, and they didn't even end the game with doomguy getting locked in the coffin where he wakes up in 2016.
25.5 hours played
Written 21 days ago
WHAT IN THE ACTUAL WORLD ARE PEOPLE TRIPPING ABOUT lmao this is the best doom without a doubt and ive played them all countless of times so
66.1 hours played
Written 21 days ago
Two forced turret sections, flying dragon missions, giant mech missions. Not really much DOOM here, and I think it's a big step back from both previous games. I like the guns, and the two melee weapons Flail and Dreadmace. People are saying the skull ammo weapons aren't preferred, and they must not be using the Ravager. That thing can absolutely shred through a horde of heavies. Just shoot them till they die, don't press E when the game says you can. Some of the other guns are good, but you never need to change weapons, unless you run out of ammo. You get a lot of ammo when you melee, so if you are doing that you will probably not run out of ammo. Melee gets charged when you parry, which is the core mechanic of the game. I prefer the weapon switching and using specific weapons for taking out priority targets. Music is awful, and I can't remember as I am typing this what any levels soundtrack is. They redo the DOOM 2016 intro in a really cool way. Nightmare was fun in a lot of places, but I hate the dragon and Atlan missions. I was challenged at some points, but I would've liked a lot more heavy and Baron's instead of so many shield fodder demons. Five Barons, seven Mancubi, eight Arachnotrons all on a battlefield, and then 3 Cyberdemons spawn. Scenarios like that would be nice. $70 for a single player game is a bit nuts, and $100 for DLC and skins? I sure can't wait to play it, where they might have a reason for me to use the forgettable BFC.
18.4 hours played
Written 19 days ago
Alr so maybe I was a bit harsh with my initial review, I guess I understand the combat better as a "pick a weapon and stick with it" type thing contrary to the previous two games. When I went in with that mindset, I was enjoying the combat much more, and I appreciate this game for doing something that isn't just Doom '16 again.
With that said I'm still leaving my review negative because $100 for fkin Doom is nutty, especially when this is still my least favourite of the three by a long shot.
33.8 hours played
Written 21 days ago
It was a solid game with no replay value/ multiplayer and not worth the $80 USD! This game made me a believer of subscriptions like Xbox Game Pass. Campaign was short and could be beat with a couple of days worth of free time. Wait for a sale and hopefully DLC patch/update can add an extra game mode/ type to make the price worth it.
31.2 hours played
Written 24 days ago
После DOOM Eternal переход к The Dark Ages дался мне не сразу — первые три главы я то забывал использовать щит, то делал это крайне неуклюже. Но, хвала высшим силам, это быстро прошло. Ведь щит здесь — 66,6% всей игры, и именно он полностью меняет привычную формулу DOOM. Сначала это ошеломляет, но в этом и есть прелесть новизны.
Меня не особо волнуют споры вроде "Eternal лучше" или "Игра стала медленнее" — это две разные игры, и Dark Ages предлагает свой уникальный опыт. Мне безумно понравились все механики, завязанные на щите: парирование, оглушение, рывки, система брони, которую нужно сбить, чтобы добраться до демонской плоти. Отдельный кайф — возможность выбрать 2-3 оружия, выстроить под них стратегию и пройти игру, не меняя их. А испытания оружия и вовсе открывают глаза: то, что казалось бесполезным, после прокачки бьёт не хуже остальных.
Враги здесь по-настоящему опасны (особенно на "Кошмаре" и выше) — некоторые способны вызвать панику и заставить ошибиться. Отдельные демоны наносят неожиданно длинные комбо, которые нужно сначала парировать, а уже потом контратаковать. Палач остался безжалостной машиной для убийств, но стал ещё мощнее — его прыжки теперь могут снести в мясо всякую мелкатню. Антагонист не превратился в очередного гиганта вроде Иконы Греха — это [spoiler]концентрированная сила в сравнительно небольшом теле, которому, однако, требуется поддержка ведьмы.[/spoiler]
Сюжет не стал главной фишкой, но не разочаровал — было интересно. А короткие переключения вроде управления Атланом, битв с титанами или полётов на драконе (кому-то они могут показаться душными) не успевают надоесть, потому что их немного, и они не мешают основному экшену.
Первое прохождение на "Кошмаре" помогло мне отвыкнуть от Eternal, с его рывками и гансвапом, и полностью погрузиться в новые механики. А теперь — время для "Абсолютного Кошмара", где нужна максимальная концентрация и безупречное исполнение.
DOOM: The Dark Ages — совершенно новый опыт с отличной графикой, продуманной подачей оружия и механик, интересным сюжетом и, вопреки некоторым мнениям, хорошим саундтреком (хоть и не таким запоминающимся, как в Eternal).
6.3 hours played
Written 18 days ago
Way way better than Eternal, but it's spiritually a Quake game.
35.8 hours played
Written 24 days ago
I'm a huge fan of Doom 2016 and Eternal. Played Eternal to death. The Ancient Gods DLC is some of my fav gaming experiences of all time.
INITIAL EXPERIENCE NOT GOOD:
I didn't like The Dark Ages initially. I actually left the game for 2 weeks after playing it at first. After giving it another try, I think it's probably the best Doom game yet. It's definitely between this and Eternal.
I just finished the campaign last night and immediately started another play through. Then I bought the digital upgrade in anticipation for the DLC.
Both Eternal and Dark Ages hit that sweet spot where you get sucked in with an incredible flow to the carnage. Once you find your rhythm, they both put you in the ultimate fun zone.
Starting out in Dark Ages, I was playing with the rhythm I learned in Eternal, and I didn't have fun.
It's also not as obvious find your flow in The Dark Ages.
I played the first few levels and didn't get hooked. The trailers and the market response of "it's not as good" flavored my experience. And that combined with my understanding of the new parry system meant I wasn't having all that much fun.
Granted, now that I've finished the game, I can see it was 100% a me problem. I didn't understand the systems, I was misusing the parry and combo systems. Once I started playing with the mechanics and finding my rhythm, it was a blast.
Case in point: once I restarted my next play through on Nightmare difficulty, the first few levels were waaay more fun and flow filled because I was dancing to the right rhythm.
So, the game is definitely recommended for any fans of Doom games. Just know that if your not having fun, you might be like me, and you might just need a little more time to find your rhythm.
Finding your combos via the parry system, super shotgun, melee and shield bash, it's honestly more fun (at times) than Eternal.
The sound of the shield ringing will be in your head all day.
Another plus: the vibe of the game. The story, world, and characters are a level up from Eternal. The levels and the environments are insane. The Cosmic Realm is a huge highlight. Standout. Wish there was more of it.
The scale of the levels is also insane.
CONS:
The game is not perfect. There are downsides.
The Atlan and Dragon sections are definitely a weak point of the game.
They feel shallow, bolted on, clunky and kind of pointless by comparison to the core gameplay. Lots of potential, and fun World building experiences, but once you get what they are, they just aren't up to the same quality of gameplay as the core game. Once you realize that, then they feel like they're really just getting in the way of the fun. The Atlan parts especially. Just feels like a bunch of melee smashing and the world around you feels like a bunch of toys. Not quite as epic as the scenes would have you believe them to be.
I'd much have preferred just more regular Slayer missions and levels.
Lack of glory kills is definitely a vibe dampener. I listened to Hugo Martin (creative director of the game) talk about why they removed them. They found that including them in the new open battlefield style of gameplay, with way higher enemy counts, just felt tedious and not fun. So they removed them to improve the battlefield flow, so you don't get pulled out of the battle rhythm and go stationary to execute demon. I get it, and I agree with him the choice to remove them does improves your flow.
That said, when you compare the experience between Eternal and Dark Ages, the inclusion of glory kills just give a way more full on carnage vibe that's missing from Dark Ages. Yes, flow is improved, but with the angle of The Dark Ages, you'd expect it to be even MORE blood and guts style carnage, not less. So removing them comes with it's own cost.
Just compare the Berserker mode from Eternal vs Dark Ages and it's no comparison. You literally don't Rip and Tear in the addition that I was expecting to be the most Rip and Tear.
Another downside: at times I felt like the enemy roster became repetitive. At times it felt like I was just facing the same types over and over. I never felt that in Eternal. I don't know how many different enemies you face in this game versus Eternal. I wouldn't be shocked if there was the same or similar, but that was the feeling I had at times.
That said: on the enemy front, I will say that the whole "take on the battlefield formations" angle is very cool. As is the way it forces you to sequence your battlefield attacks to get to the leaders and take them out. Great addition to the combat puzzle philosophy.
The weapons in the game are also great. Though some of them, like the grenade launcher, I just felt were totally pointless and hardly ever used. Never felt that about any weapons in Eternal.
Chainshot and Ravager (skull crusher) are my fav new weapons. Such a blast.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
While not perfect, it's an amazing addition to the franchise. More of a slow burner to get into. Once you find your rhythm in the fun zone, it's oodles of fun. It's every bit as good (if not better) than Eternal at times and I can't way to see what carnage the id Software dudes have lined up for the DLC
21.5 hours played
Written 13 days ago
UPDATED - June 26th
The game play is okay, the glory kills are almost gone which is a real shame, and some of these dumb mini bosses ARE NOT FUN, like at all, one guy has two moves and all you do is stand still and parry back at them ten times till they die. I HAD TIME TO VAPE MID FIGHT. This game has potential. So instead I just bought classic DOOM games on the summer sale, hope this will get better later but I doubt it.
June 20th
Glory kills severally restricted? Why???
I will write a more in depth review after beating the game, but glory kills have been done dirty.
26.5 hours played
Written 15 days ago
It's a decent game, but not a good Doom game. Mech and dragon parts are extremely boring. Overall combat feels really shallow, wait for green light, parry and shoot. The game overall is terribly optimized. Also regular Nightmare feels waaaay too easy. GKs are gone which is great for speedrunning, but terrible for casual. It's no longer rip and tear, it's wait and parry. Go play 2016 or Eternal again, this game is not worth the price. One day when it's sub $30 get it.
19.3 hours played
Written 1 month and 5 days ago
Really, really good game. The key thing to note is that if your only looking for, "Doom Eternal 2" then you wont find it here. Its much slower and more methodical then any of the newer doom games which may not be for everyone.
Gameplay wise your a wall of death that demolishes nearly everything that tries to stop it and it feels amazing. Story is also a bit more prevalent here but only barely
TL;DR: Buy the game
23.7 hours played
Written 26 days ago
A good game but not a good DOOM game. If you're looking for a classic shooter, with a focus on gunplay, look elsewhere.
Also, can this studio move away from this trend of pushing more and more story into this series? These games are at their best when we dont have a ton of plot
33.0 hours played
Written 29 days ago
Another stellar entry in Doom franchise. Kickass weapons, over the top music, amazing enviornments, non stop shooting and the new parry goodness. Landing the parry attacks feels so good, Its fun as fuck to parry enemies, shoot them up and make the battlefield your playground, all this while volume to the max and blasting metal through your speakers. Superb Gaming experience. Talented devs. at ID did it again.
They could have played safe and made a copy of eternal which was excellent and a complete FPS. But still they went to a different route and made the dark ages. Not many devs do that when they got a successful formulae at their hands. Big props to them. Whoever designed the pulverizer needs a raise, what a badass design and creativity. Fuckin skull getting crushed and used as ammo.
I love all Doom games equally and The Dark Ages stands should to shoulder with the rest of the games. Only thing i missed is glory kills and platforming. Loved FPS platforming in eternal. Also slayer looks the best in this game, the cape suits him.
Still the greatest FPS series of all time. 9.5/10
12.3 hours played
Written 15 days ago
After beating this game, I was left a little disappointed, but overall, it's still a solid game. The story and characters are pretty boring though, and for being a prequel I think that it was a little weak, especially when comparing it with the lore found in 2016 and Eternal. But the game-play loop found in Dark Ages is very fun and satisfying; the Slayer quite literally feels like a tank in this game. Still though, the story was pretty eh, and the music was also pretty average (all the tracks sound the same to me). I just think this game felt a little underwhelming compared to how good 2016 and Eternal are, mainly story and lore-wise. Although it is my least favorite of the new Doom games, it's still worth checking out. Not quite sure if it's worth the money, though.
52.2 hours played
Written 24 days ago
The price is high for a game, but I really enjoyed playing. Music is still good, movement makes you feel like an unstoppable freight train and the visuals are insane. Definitely recommend this game
9.2 hours played
Written 6 days ago
fast paced and feels like a doom game. with they would have done more with the dragon and the mechs but it is what it is.
1.3 hours played
Written 1 month and 2 days ago
The game itself is fun and its new mechanics are cool. But it forgets what makes Doom the thrill it is and removed much of what made Doom Eternal and Doom 2016 the demon slaying fun it is. And for its price I don't think it's worth what it adds with the stuff they removed.
(Some) Stuff they added:
-Shield Throw
-Shield Dashing
-Parrying
-Fun Giant Mech Levels (They were fun and I don't think they were the worst)
-Riding Dragon Levels (In my opinion it's not good)
(Some) Stuff they removed:
-Most Glory Kills(From my experience I only got quick kick animations and shield slicing. So it could just be harder to do than Doom Eternal)
-Double Jumping and Regular Dashing
Note: With the new shield dashing, how I said it it’s like oh it’s just a replacement but the dash works on only enemies and you can only go to them. So you don’t have actual quick movement unless you want to charge headfirst into the enemy.
153.6 hours played
Written 14 days ago
It isn't DOOM Eternal. If you want to play Eternal, go play Eternal.
Early levels are kind of a chore, but after the first two, the open-ish levels are great. Upgrade system with the shield and melee weapons are amazing, and then when you get the shield runes , and then the dreadmace, so much fun.
Ignore the mech and dragon levels please.
39.5 hours played
Written 1 month and 2 days ago
This game is amazing on every front. Killer graphics, killer game play, killer music. Just a beauty of a game. Nothing beats getting to parry an oncoming enemy attack and then going in for the kill. So damn satisfying. The Ray tracing effects are through the roof as well. I played this on my 4080 super/Ryzen 7950 3D with 64 gigs of ram. I was well over 100 fps through it all. And mind you I was gaming on a samsung G9 49" 5120x1400 monitor as well. Thanks again ID software for delivering such an amazing experience.
16.9 hours played
Written 11 days ago
Honestly wait for a sale on this one.
The game isn't bad. Probably around a 6.5/10. Its just a big step down from 2016 and Eternal. It feels like a hollow shell of doom.
A lot of reviews will claim its more of a 'sidegrade' but imho its definitely a downgrade. The combat never feels as intense or visceral with the lack of glory kills, the new mech and dragon mechanics suck ass, encounters are too few and far between in general, secrets are not interesting, the story is god awful, and last but certainly not least the music is a major step down. The introduction of shield made the combat way too linear and 1-dimensional as every single answer to every enemy is always parry.
The performance is incredible, but so was 2016 and eternal. Id pick it up for around $30 or so, or maybe go on gamepass and get it there for free.
34.4 hours played
Written 8 days ago
Feels like they were making a Quake reboot and slapped the DOOM assets in. Very Fun. The story is way to intrusive and makes no sense, but the gameplay is great.
30.5 hours played
Written 11 days ago
I deeply appreciate that the new Doom games starting from 2016 have made the case for their existence by designing novel FPS combat systems for each entry.
1.8 hours played
Written 16 days ago
looks great performs great, but I don't enjoy it. easily my least favorite Doom game in the series.
0.1 hours played
Written 17 days ago
Im sure it's a great game, but if you have a bad pc, you can't even play it, so yeah it's my bad but now im depressed for the next week.
22.1 hours played
Written 17 days ago
[Nightmare]
+ Graphically, the game excels. Environments are meticulously detailed, lighting looks natural thanks to ray-tracing and characters, especially in cut-scenes, are finely detailed with excellent material work everywhere. I think there are games that are more impressive visually, but none that run better for how good they look. The game runs pretty much flawlessly, not just on top-of-the-line rigs mind you, with no hitch or stutter in sight. Its technical accomplishment makes it a joy to play.
- However, while the cut-scenes are visually very impressive, the story they help deliver is extremely forgettable and generic. The lore spread about the game's collectable codex pages also doesn't really add any sort of depth. The game takes itself way too seriously, while failing to deliver any character, or anything really, to care about within its narrative. A DOOM game can have a story, but this definitely isn't the way to do it.
* From a game-play standpoint, it's impossible for me not to compare this game to its predecessor, Eternal, my favourite game of the trilogy. For me, Doom Eternal is a faster, more intense, more challenging game that demands more from you: cool-down management, weapon switching based on enemies, movement skills, positional awareness and level knowledge and more. But, if you rise up to meet its challenge, it is one of the few games that can put you "in the zone", making you forget about everything except the demons you rip and tear through. The Dark Ages is just not that. It's fun, but requires much less of you and thus never reaches that zenith that Eternal could reach.
+ A good chunk of the weapons are pretty fun to use: Pulverizer, Ravager, Chainshot, Rocket Launcher, Super Shotgun and especially the Cycler. They look and feel great and have perks that change your play-style enough to make things interesting.
- Sadly, the game never really encourages you to switch them during combat, which is made even clearer by how slow the animation to do that is. It's helpful to switch on higher difficulties for sure, but you can also stubbornly force your way through fights with the weapon of your choice. The only things that might make you try other weapons are their Mastery challenges, but nothing else and sadly nothing within the core game-play loop.
+ The shield is a great addition, however, allowing you to parry both enemy melee attacks as well as green enemy projectiles. Parrying is easily the most important mechanic in combat, but thankfully feels great to use and it's always satisfying to stun enemies after parrying all their consecutive attacks. You can also throw the shield to clear smaller enemies, or lodge its rotating saw edge into larger ones, rendering them immobile, both very useful in fights. It can also have a perk that activates upon a successful parry, but your choices of perks don't really differ enough to warrant experimentation.
* While not really a negative, the game has less bullet-hell encounters than initial coverage let me think. I expected something along the lines of Returnal's projectile patterns filling my screen more often, not as often as in Returnal certainly, but enough for bullet-hell to be more central to the combat. It didn't feel like that overall and there is a boss fight towards the end of the game that does more of what I wanted, I just also wanted to see that more throughout the game's combat arenas.
- Speaking of boss-fights, they're all weirdly stacked inside the game's final chapters. More boss-fights, spread out across the entire game, would have helped with pacing, spectacle and overall challenge.
+ With all that said though, the game's cycle of combat arenas, light puzzling and inspecting the map (which is very well done) to search for collectables is still plenty of fun and I don't regret scouring every nook and cranny for secrets or bonus encounters.
+ I like the changes the Cosmic Realm brings to the level design, id trying to bring Lovecraft's impossible geometry to life through clever tricks resulting in some nice little environmental puzzles and set-pieces. Nothing truly ground-breaking, but something that I would've liked to see more of throughout the game.
+ While many seem to dislike the dragon sections, I found that, if you get what the game wants from you with the lock-on controls during fights, they're actually pretty fun and, more importantly, they're very impressive in their scale, adding some justification to id's decision to require ray-tracing, since baking indirect lighting for these would have increased iteration times quite a bit.
- The music is, sadly, quite forgettable and the game knows it, since the audio mixing makes sure the soundtrack remains in the background and goes unnoticed surprisingly often.
+ There are a lot of accessibility and difficulty settings you can use to customise your game-play experience and tune the game to your liking. That is always a plus.
17.1 hours played
Written 21 days ago
It's great when big companies can afford to experiment with a stable franchise. Keep making new and cool games!
10.2 hours played
Written 23 days ago
Es increible como downgradean un doom hay que tener huevos para hacer este juego embolante y aburrido eh
11.4 hours played
Written 24 days ago
I personally preferred this entry to Eternal. Eternal felt like it meandered a bit too much and almost had too much complexity. The Dark Ages is much more reminiscent of DOOM 2016, and in my opinion that is a good thing. The story is silly and fun, the weapons all feel good and worth using, and the game is much tighter than Eternal, which felt a bit too floaty and arcade-like for me.
If you preferred Eternal to 2016, you may be a little disappointed, but this is still about as rock-solid a shooter as you can get. It's optimized brilliantly, the sound is exceptional, and the graphics are great.
Super pleased with this game. Sometimes you just need to rip and tear.
104.0 hours played
Written 24 days ago
[b]Playtime[/b]: 83 hours, 100% achievements on Nightmare difficulty.
[b]Overall Recommendation[/b]: Recommended
[h3] Overall Impression[/h3]
[b]Rating: 8/10[/b]
The third iteration of the legendary DOOM reboot is a great successor to the two previous entries in its own unique way. Comparisons aside, DTDA is a fantastic FPS that attempts to create a new spinoff for the franchise. New mechanics and a new combat loop make it definitely DOOM: it puts you under pressure and asks you to make split-second decisions to win battles against hordes. However, it has some flaws.
[h3] Gameplay Mechanics [/h3]
Once it clicks, the gameplay feels great. This time, all the grapple hooking and jumping are stripped from combat. That's the biggest difference from the last iteration of the series. You move in flat spaces, navigating through projectile bullet hell, parrying, and attacking with weapons, a shield, and melee. The shield is a great addition, used as a weapon and for quick traversal and gap-closing, parrying, and blocking. All weapons feel great; each one belongs to a class with two members, and you switch between them with a control button. The only issue is that, once you upgrade to the second weapon in each class, there's no reason to use the first one, as it feels weaker. Switching is less responsive than in DOOM Eternal, as the game discourages quick swapping. Three upgradeable melee options are available. Generally, it doesn't make much difference which weapon or melee option you select; if you play the game as intended, you will master the combat easily. The greatest problem with the combat is the slow-motion and kickback when you parry or melee. It's very annoying and makes no sense, considering id Software's decision to cut down on most glory kills to avoid interrupting the gameplay flow. That's exactly what parrying and melee do. At the time of this writing, an update has been announced to disable this slow-motion. The enemy AI for some demons is weird, if not funny. They sidestep to change position, which looks awkward. Especially the Pinky Riders: not only do they sidestep, but they occasionally turn their back on you and run in the opposite direction. This contrasts with DOOM Eternal's pinkies, which rushed toward you immediately upon spawning. The AI is not as aggressive, even on higher difficulties. With some exceptions, like Hell Knights, most enemies just stand there or barely move, quickly sidestep, which looks bad. The two new alternative gameplay elements, the giant Titan mech and the dragon, are fun only the first time. They get old and boring very quickly — nice ideas that break the pace but are poorly implemented. The swimming, another pace-breaking element, is just pushing the forward button to navigate to the next checkpoint. It becomes tedious in later playthroughs. The idea of life sigils is a love letter to classic arcade cabinet games but is not well implemented. Upon death, the gameplay abruptly stops, and you are presented with a pause screen asking whether to use a sigil. Your death is not shown, and the pause screen completely destroys the immersion. At the time of this writing, there are rumors that this will be patched. Exploration and Secrets: I liked them. Some will argue that they are simplistic, but I think they are nicely balanced. Anyone who wants harder puzzle challenges should play Portal — this is an FPS game. Bosses: They were adequate. By the time you reach the endgame bosses, you are well-prepared to handle them easily, even on higher difficulties.
[h3] Level Design [/h3]
I loved it. The Lovecraftian realms are particularly exceptional. It's a joy to navigate and behold. While most combat arenas are huge, flat spaces, levels have a decent amount of verticality as you navigate them. It's a shame there’s no photo mode at the time of this writing.
[h3] Graphics[/h3]
I am a "Gameplay First" type of gamer; as long as graphics serve the gameplay, I am okay with them. That said, when high-end graphics complement great gameplay, they’re icing on the cake — I’ll take it. Compared to the previous games in the franchise, DTDA shows a definite improvement in graphics: ray tracing by default, better reflections, better skyboxes, better water physics, and breakable objects. However, I see little improvement in textures and detail, such as foliage. The gameplay animations look somewhat rough and could use extra frames to make them smoother. Also, faces and facial expressions are lacking. At a later stage of the game, the Doom Slayer reveals his face. I didn't like his face at all. At some point, he makes an angry face and clenches his teeth — it looks bad. It’s disappointing. Gaming graphics are advancing pretty quickly, and I think id Software has a lot to catch up on. Look at Black Myth: Wukong.
[h3] Difficulty [/h3]
The game is easy, even on the highest (Nightmare) difficulty. Nightmare was my first playthrough, and I hardly encountered difficulty spikes, except in the Siege chapter, where the action picks up, presenting the first serious skill check. The numerous options to configure gameplay features and fine-tune difficulty are, in my opinion, a terrible idea. The game creators should craft the rules for how the game is played. Letting players fine-tune almost every aspect of the gameplay destroys a common ground for players to compare their gameplay experiences. For example, “You played on Nightmare? Me too, but what parry window or projectile speed did you use?” This is bad.
[h3] Music [/h3]
Im sure you've heard takes like,“Its not Mick Gordon. I couldn't care less about Mick Gordon. Hear me out: this soundtrack obliterates anything Gordon has ever written. It's an amazing metal soundscape that matches the on-screen slaughter. It's perfect. Good job, Finishing Move Inc.
[h3] Sound Design / Audio FX [/h3]
In a nutshell: perfect.
[h3] Lore [/h3]
Honestly, I don't care about storytelling in games. The story is pretty generic, but I don't care.
[h3] Replayability [/h3]
At the time of this writing, replayability is poor, if any exists. I 100% completed the game on PC on the hardest (Nightmare) difficulty. I have zero motivation to do a permadeath run (Ultra Nightmare) or chapter-permadeath run (Pandemonium). So, after completing the campaign, there's nothing to do. The game needs a horde or arcade mode, like the one in DOOM Eternal. I’m waiting for DLCs, which I will happily play because I love the gameplay despite the problems mentioned.
[h3] Performance[/h3]
Performance varies by system, but I had no issues over 84 hours. Running on a Radeon 7800XT, 32GB RAM, and Ryzen 9 processor. Impressive load times, almost instant. No crashes whatsoever, and 60 FPS on Ultra Settings.
[h3] Final Thoughts [/h3]
A great addition to the DOOM series. It is a joy to play despite my criticism. Finally, comparing it to DOOM Eternal: Let's be real. DOOM Eternal is the greatest video game of all time. DTDA has big shoes to fill and can’t compete. id Software promised a different game, and that's what they delivered. Verticality, speed, resource management, and freedom in movement were replaced by more grounded gameplay with a shield, parrying, and large, flat bullet-hell arenas. Do these new additions create an equally rich and deeply engaging experience as DOOM Eternal? My verdict is no, but it's still a great game. Recommended.
7.0 hours played
Written 25 days ago
Gonna be honest other than the art style this feels like a step back. The removal of glory kills hurts on both a fun and a mechanical level. Fodder demons are so stupidly weak it's completely unsatisfying to kill them. Arenas all feel the same because they all wide and pretty flat and exploration is less interesting for similar reasons. The dragon and mech segments are just straight up bad and annoying. You can really feel Mick Gordon's absence in the OST, none of the music is bad, hell some of it is pretty good but none are very memorable. The chainsaw shield is really cool at first but the sound it makes when parrying gets grating fast and throwing the shield rarely felt satisfying. There's also too many weapons that look too similar making it harder to tell what weapon is which on the weapon wheel (which I prefer to use over pressing the numbers) and removing the color coding only makes this issue worse. This game has probably the same amount of story as Eternal and 2016 but has twice as many cutscenes so they just feel bloated and boring. At least this game made me want to play Eternal and 2016 again.
18.5 hours played
Written 26 days ago
A really disappointing step back from Eternal. While I actually liked the changes made to movement, my issue stems from the lack of variety in gameplay for much of the game. Weapon swapping is bizarrely slow, and there's not much incentive to use most of your arsenal. I played on nightmare and, using the super shotgun almost exclusively, didn't find the game to put up much challenge.
In short, it's the same problem with Doom 2016 -- at some point the game just turns samey and monotonous, and I really hope this isn't the future of the series.
79.7 hours played
Written 26 days ago
After the hit that was Doom Eternal, this game certainly had a lot to live up to so I'll start right off the bat by saying this game is not Doom Eternal and I think that's okay. This game offers a simpler and more streamlined experience compared to its predecessor which makes it more accessible but it still offers a good challenge to those that want it.
I was worried that the introduction of the shield would incentivize a more passive playstyle but it really doesn't. First of all the shield is somewhat limited in what it can block. It can absorb virtually any attack but even some pretty weak attacks will cause it to break and become unavailable for a time so avoiding projectiles is still preferable.
Not only that but the shield has its own variety of attacks including a surprisingly long range shield bash, a parry, and a shield throw. All of which are very quick and flow well into the combat loop of the game without breaking the pace.
The weapon variety feels pretty good too. With the exception of maybe two weapons, they all work pretty well and are fun to use in different ways. I quite like the upgrade system which utilizes 3 different collectible currencies. For example the tier 1 upgrade for any weapon uses Gold but the later upgrades use Rubies and Wraithstones. This means that once you get a tier 1 upgrade you no longer need gold to upgrade that weapon. This creates a scenario where you're incentivized to upgrade weapons you wouldn't normally use and try them out. Plus the upgrade currencies are plentiful enough that your chosen arsenal should be fully upgraded with much of the game still to go which is something I loved about Doom Eternal
Finally it would be remiss of me not to mention the MASSIVE depth of accessibility options that the game has allowing players to customize large parts of the game experience including even the game speed! Moreover, if you find the game too easy then you can go the other way and make the game far FAR harder than even Ultra Nightmare difficulty.
Overall, I highly recommend this game to anyone who has enjoyed the modern doom experience. It's simpler than Doom Eternal without sacrificing the fast paced and rewarding gameplay.