/doom-the-dark-ages-review-ps5 | Digital Trends

Only a few missions into Doom: The Darkish Ages, I felt like I’d reached the apex of motion video games. There I used to be behind the controls of an unlimited Atlan mech, eclipsing the form of battleground that felt huge to me moments earlier than. The sky above me was scorched. Buildings turned to ruins below my toes. One after the other, a military of demonic kaiju ate my metallic fists. How can it get any greater and badder than this?

It doesn’t — and that’s each the present and curse of the Doom Slayer’s newest saga.

In an try to at least one up the already hellacious shooter sequence, one which reached new adrenaline highs in 2020’s Doom: Everlasting, developer Id Software program turns each dial as much as 11 from proper Chapter 1. The battles are sooner and extra ferocious. Hidden lore turns into glitzy cutscenes. Our hero rides a mechadragon, for God’s sake. Each single piece of it’s an train in maximalist escalation, looking for a ceiling to a timeless shooter hyper violent glory. It reaches that peak, however comes up in opposition to a tough fact: There’s nothing left to climb when you’ve reached the highest.

Doom: The Darkish Ages delivers one other dose of dependable thrills by constructing on the muse established by its wonderful predecessors. The ability fantasy of all of it is stronger than ever, however Id Software program’s experiment in extra proves that there’s such a factor as “an excessive amount of” in relation to online game spectacle.

12 months One

Quite than selecting up the place Everlasting left off, The Darkish Ages is a prequel to Id Software program’s rebooted Doom sequence. It acts as a Doom Slayer origin story that pulls inspiration from Batman: 12 months One, Frank Miller’s gritty story about The Darkish Knight’s first 12 months on the job. That method lays the groundwork for probably the most narrative-focused Doom sport so far, full with huge cutscenes. It’s analogous to the bounce from Metroid Prime to Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The latter constructed on Retro Studio’s famously atmospheric journey by ratcheting up the lore and introducing a big solid of characters to ship all of it in dialogue. The Darkish Ages does the identical for Doom with blended outcomes.

The concept is that all of it takes place in Doom’s personal medieval period, the place people combat a conflict in opposition to demons with crossbows, flails, and — you guessed it — shotguns. It’s a enjoyable sufficient gimmick that permits Id Software program to think about extra primitive variations of basic weapons, however the story below that schtick is Doom’s most incomprehensible chapter so far. New characters who’re by no means correctly launched spend cinematics rattling off correct nouns that by no means actually imply something to me. Some huge cash went into making a story that kind of simply boils all the way down to “There’s a conflict taking place between people and demons.”

Extra profitable is its characterization of the Doom Slayer. Whereas earlier installments paint him as an omnipotent killer who’s at all times in management, he’s initially a device right here. The origin story entails him being decreased to a residing weapon whose character is galvanized out of his physique so as to give him a one-track thoughts that’s hyper targeted on demon killing. It’s a intelligent meta twist that turns the character’s often skinny persona and turns it right into a supply of ache that drives him down a extra layered path of revenge and destruction. A number of key sequences that present his humanity lower by means of an in any other case convoluted phrase soup.

I can perceive the intuition right here. Doom has at all times been a kind of deceptively deep sequence. To the typical participant, it’d seem to be there’s not way more to it than weapons and guts. Deep followers will let you know that there’s way more beneath the floor, and The Darkish Ages feels prefer it’s constructed to lastly reward that viewers. In delivering that, Id loses one thing particular concerning the sequence. There’s a sure mystique to previous video games that have been gentle on in-game story. They have been typically sparse and atmospheric, leaving gamers’ imaginations to fill the unfavorable house. Solely probably the most devoted followers would crawl down the rabbit gap, discovering secret lore hidden away in books or cassette tapes. These scattered tidbits gave video games like Doom a way of hidden historical past, turning followers into archivists who may commerce their findings with each other.

The larger Doom will get, the smaller its world really feels. Moist concrete seeps into each hole, making a solidified file of historical past that’s the identical for each participant. Even the little particulars are enshrined in in-game Codex entries. 2016’s Doom reboot discovered a contented medium, retaining a sparse and glossy story whereas nonetheless increasing the lore. The Darkish Ages goes full Hollywood and feels rather less particular for it.

Primal violence

The expanded scope is detrimental to areas of The Darkish Ages, but it surely does wonders for its core motion. If Everlasting was all about showcasing the Doom Slayer’s agility, this installment is all about energy. The fundamentals of taking pictures stay the identical from the 2016 reboot. I rip and tear by means of enemies with an arsenal of outsized weapons, no reloading required. Battles are fast-paced and heavy, requiring me to continually keep on the transfer whereas additionally remaining within the warmth of battle so as to refill my well being by means of gory finishers. Anytime my finger isn’t urgent down the set off, I’m losing my time.

The Darkish Ages nonetheless does all that whereas layering in a wealth of recent methods that make for the sequence’ most concerned fight system but. First, there’s my trusty Defend Noticed. I can toss it like Captain America’s protect to chop by means of weak enemies or maintain it regular to parry incoming assaults. The latter is very impactful because it offers me much more confidence to face tall within the middle of the motion as an alternative of working for canopy. Performing an ideal parry may even set off my chosen Defend Rune, which punishes any enemy who dares to lash out at me. My rune of alternative was a shoulder turret that might activate on every block, letting me spray extra lead out as an act of vengeance.

Equally, there’s a larger emphasis on melee assaults this time too. By the top of the marketing campaign, I’m capable of equip certainly one of three melee weapons: gauntlets, a flail, or a spiked mace. Every one has its personal pace and energy, however every simply permits me to chip armor off of enemies and get a few of my very own for the difficulty. It’s one other incentive to rise up shut and private, doling out three-hit combos to buff up defenses whereas leaving my enemies defenseless. Methods like that efficiently construct on Everlasting’s puzzle-like fight, which was constructed round utilizing the best transfer to high off the best useful resource. The one distinction is that I’m much more of a menace.

These new concepts pair properly with The Darkish Ages new weapons, which ratchet the chaos up much more. A few of them are your common Doom weapons, from Tremendous Shotguns to plasma rifles. Every weapon has two modes that may be swapped between on the fly and every has its personal small improve tree. The perfect weapons within the batch are the Slayer’s new medieval-flavored instruments, which actually repay the absurdity of the setting. One primitive device throws a cranium right into a grinder and shoots the shards out in a large unfold. My private favourite is a ball and chain that may be charged up, fired, and retracted. It feels extremely {powerful} and just a bit slapstick because it bonks demons. That’s precisely the form of power I search for in fashionable Doom video games.

What’s spectacular is simply how pure the juggling act of all these methods involves me, one other certainly one of Everlasting’s strengths that’s retained right here. Each button has a transparent use on the management scheme and I’m by no means left confused about what to press and when — the one exception to that’s the radial weapon wheel, which stays a careless strategy to swap between weapons on the fly. After I’m locked into an enviornment battle, fight turns into balletic. I toss my protect to at least one facet to chop down some dregs and switch to fireplace a rocket. My protect returns to me simply in time to parry an incoming assault, telegraphed with a inexperienced cue. I observe it up with just a few flail hits after which a bloody finisher. All of this occurs in a single easy movement, like I’m executing actions in a dance (a set of nice accessibility options helps make certain extra gamers can discover that very same circulation for themselves, too).

I don’t actually respect how second nature all of it is to me till I discover myself dropped right into a entice. After getting a collectible, I fall right into a darkish, slender hallway that’s stuffed with melee recharge objects. Quickly, a wave of enemies comes flooding in direction of me and I’ve to suppose quick to dam their assaults and counter with fast photographs. The motion on display screen virtually turns into abstracted, stuffed with flashing colours like a Norman McLaren animation. I don’t miss a beat, hitting all of my strikes working off inexperienced and purple streaks alone. Moments like which can be the place The Darkish Ages clicks most, placing the Doom Slayer’s instincts in my very own head. You actually begin to perceive why this man likes killing demons a lot. It’s a primal form of violence.

Greater doesn’t imply higher

With motion that robust, The Darkish Ages ought to be the very best entry within the trilogy. In spite of everything, it checks all the proper bins. It’s a technical powerhouse, stuffed with spectacular visuals that create an unlimited sense of scale, all whereas sustaining a easy 60 frames per second. Id’s stage design is at its finest right here, too. Chapters take me from hellish corridors to an open battlefield the place I perform a siege in opposition to waves of demons. Every house is meticulously detailed and stuffed with well-hidden secrets and techniques that discover methods to make use of my protect as an environmental puzzle device. The audio design is as loud and proud as ever, with gunshots and metallic music combining into one ruthless symphony of destruction. The story is longer, has a bit of additional selection, and threads in loads of epic set items.

So why wasn’t I practically as thrilled with it as I used to be by 2016’s Doom?

The Darkish Ages is emblematic of a recurring difficulty in big-budget franchise online game design. The intuition is to at all times go greater every time. How do you high Monster Hunter World? Extra weapons, creepier monsters, bigger environments. It’s all about escalation, whether or not by means of gameplay iteration or technical prowess. That’s the highest precedence right here, but it surely’s a self-defeating method that turns The Darkish Ages into probably the most inelegant and meandering sport of the trilogy.

The scope improve isn’t with out some creativity, thoughts you. Along with commonplace first-person taking pictures ranges, The Darkish Ages additionally options chapters which have the Doom Slayer piloting mechs and dragons. Each are enjoyable concepts that really feel like a teenage boy’s coolest goals come to life, however neither are precisely as thrilling as they sound. The primary mech chapter is awe-inspiring, however the precise fight methods aren’t terribly deep. I’m principally simply hitting my proper set off to slowly punch out kaiju sufficient to fill a particular meter. It will get previous quick. The fun of dragon flying is equally short-lived, as I’m largely taking down ship after ship by finishing a dodging minigame. Each gimmicks look very completely different and make for welcome system diversions, however they boil all the way down to the identical one-note duck and counter gameplay hook.

What’s particularly unusual is the place these chapters match into the story. The Darkish Ages doesn’t save both of them for some huge, climactic second. Each first happen again to again early within the run of twenty-two missions. That call signifies that the dimensions climbs to unimaginable heights by Chapter 6 after which has nowhere else to go. With no sense of mounting development, The Darkish Ages is dynamically flat for many of its run time. An epic siege in a important early chapters feels no completely different than a random enviornment battle in a lower-stakes transitional stage later. The joy turns to monotony as soon as the identical explore-and-shoot system is repeated time and again throughout 45-minute chapters that shuffle the identical enemies into completely different arenas. It’s no coincidence that 2016’s Doom is each the very best and shortest of the trilogy. The Darkish Ages is twice its size with out really including a lot.

However hey, that’s simply Doom, proper? After all each dial goes to be cranked up so far as it could actually go. The objective is to create a continuous adrenaline experience that doesn’t take its foot off the gasoline, isn’t it? Extra is the attraction.

Is that truly true although? My intuition is to say that The Darkish Ages is the logical development for the sequence, totally realizing its maximalist potential. It sounds proper in my head, however I don’t suppose that it really is. I wouldn’t describe 1993’s Doom as extreme. Maybe it was for the time, however its timeless attraction comes from its elegant minimalism. Stroll by means of hallways, discover coloured keycards, shoot demons. It’s the shooter’s model of Pong, boiling the complexity of the style all the way down to its essence. 2016’s reboot labored as a result of it carried the identical power, rejecting open-world developments of the time to create a targeted, linear journey fueled by atmospheric storytelling and heavy metallic. Id Software program has described The Darkish Ages as a return to the sequence roots, but it surely couldn’t really feel farther from them. If something, it looks like extra of a cousin to the bloated God of Warfare Ragnarok.

I don’t suppose any of this can cease gamers from having the time of their life blasting by means of demons. As important as I’m of The Darkish Ages’ design philosophy, I nonetheless spent hour after hour poking round its intricate ranges and mastering its stellar fight. I’ll have tuned out the story greater than I anticipated, however my jaw wasn’t resistant to dropping once I needed to blast an approaching large with an explosive turret. Even with its faults, that is nonetheless a bonafide blockbuster by a studio that is aware of methods to dish them out higher than anybody. It simply feels just like the pedal is as far in opposition to the metallic as it could actually go. Doom: The Darkish Ages begins cruising at 100 miles per hour and by no means pumps the brakes. That’s completely wonderful for a joyride, however you want acceleration to actually respect pace.

Doom: The Darkish Ages was examined on PlayStation 5 Professional.