Doom: The Dark Ages (2025) Game Review

The Review Geek

25-05-2025

This new instalment in the long-running FPS franchise has a medieval slant, but despite the 'Dark Ages' setting, it's still the game you know and presumably love. There are still hordes of demons to kill, with an increasingly powerful set of weapons, and the music score is as adrenaline-pumping as ever, to enhance your excitement as you blast monsters into oblivion.
The game is a prequel to the last two entries in the series, with a dark, occasionally complicated narrative that leads into the events of the 2016 reboot. Of course, you don't come to a Doom game for a plotline. For the most part, it's very forgettable – a lot of mumbo jumbo about the DoomSlayer being humanity's last hope against the forces of Hell – and a lot of it has been echoed before in previous games in the series.
The bolted-on narrative adds some meaning to the run-and-gun gameplay, but whenever a cutscene appears to explain away the plot, you'll probably be itching to hit the skip button, so as to get back into the thick of the very bloody action.
And if it's action you want, it's action you'll get, as you battle the hordes of darkness like a medieval badass. Movement is more weighty this time around, so you're not quite as nimble as before (which isn't to say you're particularly slow), but you do have a handy shield that you can fling around the battleground and lay waste to multiple enemies before they swarm to your locale.
You also have the ability to shield charge, so even though the Doomslayer is not quite as athletic as he used to be (there is no option to dash or double jump), you can still whiz across the landscape by targeting and jumping to an enemy with your shield. This makes moving around the battleground a lot faster, useful when you're feeling outnumbered, so your chances of survival are increased dramatically.
Of course, it's mainly your weapons that do much to boost your survivability. Early on in the game, you're armed with a combat shotgun, the Shredder (the Doom-verse's equivalent of a machine gun), and the Power Gauntlet, a melee weapon that packs a mighty punch. Later on in the game, you're rewarded with more powerful weapons, such as the Accelerator, a pulverising plasma gun that can rip apart the enemies' shields, and the Ballistic Force Crossbow, a limited ammo weapon which is especially useful at taking down the game's bosses.
You also get a couple of new melee weapons, including the Flail, a slow but powerful chain weapon that befits the medieval setting, as well as an upgrade to the shield – the Shield Saw – that sticks into and momentarily stuns the enemies, thus boosting your offensive potential.
In short, the game lets you be the badass you always want to be in a Doom game as you use your beefed-up armoury to wipe out Hell's minions. Some of these monsters are easier to defeat than others – you should have little trouble ripping apart the slow-walking Zombies and weak-assed Imps.
But more of a challenge are the Riders – annoying archers who take pot shots at you while riding giant reptiles – and the Titans, gargantuan beasts that can only be taken down with certain types of weaponry. There are 39 enemy types in total, some of which you'll have seen in other Doom games, and new additions to the franchise that match the medieval setting.
So, it's pretty much business as usual for a Doom game then. However, there are a couple of new gameplay additions that will likely prove divisive. The first of these sees you ride on the back of a dragon at various points during the game. Movement via this winged beast is smooth and slick, so you'll have little trouble flying around the corrupted landscape. However, you're required to use this flying lizard to take down building turrets and shields, which can be a little fiddly due to the need to build up a meter by dodging gunfire (easier said than done) before you're allowed to destroy the hellscape's defences.
The other new addition is a giant piece of mechanised armour that allows you to tower over the environment and smash your way through obstacles and the minions of Hell below. Unfortunately, this isn't as much fun as it sounds, and like the dragon riding, it proves as a needless distraction to the demon-pulverising at ground level. I can understand id Software's decision to modify the traditional Doom formula – some people will appreciate the variety in gameplay – but franchise purists might get annoyed by these diversions.
Despite the occasional change to formula, Doom: The Dark Ages still hearkens back to the franchise's roots. You're still required to find keys to enter previously impassable areas (and find optional secrets) within the game's expansive map, and you're often confined to specific areas until you destroy the hellspawn that litters each battleground. Fans of the franchise will welcome the familiarity, though newcomers to the series might be frustrated at the game's old-school feel and lack of depth in the puzzle department.
Doom: The Dark Ages is a fun game with super-smooth combat and a wide variety of graphically impressive environments from which to unleash all manner of glorious kills on the demonic enemies. New variations to the gameplay will please some while irking others, but for the most part, this is still a traditional Doom game at heart, which will be good news for long-time fans of this loud and bombastic series.