"In Doom we asked you to run and gun, in Eternal, you were jumping and shooting, and here, we want you to stand and fight."
The Doom series' chatty Creative Director Hugo Martin begins the demonstration of Doom: The Dark Ages with a statement that makes me want to play before I've even seen a second of the fresh gameplay sequences that were shown to a gathering of the world's press on Tuesday. Those are words that honour the iconic studio behind Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and Rage. "Stand and fight". The Doom Slayer is newly born, the Makers have recently given him his insane superpowers, and when we now rewind the tape, it's more clear than ever that he was at his most powerful several hundreds of years ago.
As usual, there are demons everywhere and the Doom Slayer's job is never finished. In the upcoming The Dark Ages, there are more enemies than the game series has ever offered before, and in order to be able to reduce the clutter and look fiercely cool at the same time, id Software has developed a couple of new game mechanics that seem to fit the medieval design theme perfectly. There is a Shield Saw tool this time that comes in handy both when blocking and parrying enemy attacks, but also as a projectile that can be thrown using its chainsaw blade (which is so typical of the game series) to saw through oncoming debris. It's also possible to use the shield as a tool to slingshot over passages that are too far to leap over, something that makes the Doom Slayer look like an armoured, bloodstained, medieval Spider-Man in a couple of the sequences that we witnessed.
id Software has developed a new version of the in-house engine id Tech that can now render larger environments and more enemies without eating up too much RAM. This has led to The Dark Ages feeling more expansive and clearly less enclosed from what I saw, when compared to both Doom (2016) and Eternal. There are even select parts of each level that, according to Martin, are of the sandbox type, something that creates new challenges and, above all, opportunities. "Stand and fight" means anything but super-linear battles in narrow corridors. Instead it's about not backing down, always attacking and doing it on the premises that you yourself consider to be the most fun. There seems to be a greater emphasis on choices in The Dark Ages than before and the role-playing elements that were baked into the battles in Eternal are gone.
Martin also highlights the fact that the studio listened to the players' criticism and input and built The Dark Ages around a proper story where cutscenes, voice acting, and motion capture acting formed a more solid foundation. From what I saw, the villains look more evil than ever, and the series' simple mythology seems to have been deepened and expanded considerably, which is very welcome. The adventure begins at The Makers' home where the Doom Slayer (similar to Gears of War) is imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Fast forward a couple of minutes and he's freed and understandably annoyed, which leads him to chuck on a giant Conan-like cloak and grab one of the new medieval weapons to bring death and destruction to the underworld.
Doom: The Dark Ages looks fantastic. It seems bigger, more stylish, grittier, angrier, and darker. The music is by Finishing Move and it sounded excellent in the material that was shown. Old friends, new enemies, the balance between good and evil shifts during the game, which seems to work very well together with the medieval theme, so much so that I'm very excited for the upcoming launch on May 15th.