Doom: The Dark Ages - Review - Karan Benchmarks

Doom: The Dark Ages – Review

Reviewed by Karan Parmar | May 15, 2025

After spending over 25 hours in Doom: The Dark Ages, I can confidently say id Software has taken a bold and successful leap into darker, medieval territory. This isn’t just another Doom game with a reskin—it’s a complete reimagining of what Doom can be. Slower, heavier, more grounded, and full of brutal melee combat, this entry proves that the franchise can evolve without losing its identity.

Story & Setting

Unlike the more abstract storytelling in Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal, Doom: The Dark Ages leans more heavily into narrative and lore. The game is set in a time before the events of the previous games—a gritty dark age where Hell hasn’t just invaded Earth, but corrupted entire realms. You play as the Slayer in his earliest form, summoned by the Order of the Night Sentinels to stop a full-blown demonic apocalypse.

What stands out is the richer world-building. Through cinematic cutscenes, lore scrolls, and NPC dialogue, we learn about the factions at war, ancient prophecies, and the cursed origins of certain demonic species. The Maykrs also return but are portrayed in a more ominous, manipulative light. While the plot isn’t Shakespearean, it’s engaging enough to keep you curious between blood-soaked fights.

Cutscenes are well-directed, voice acting is solid, and there’s a surprising amount of emotional weight behind some character moments. It won’t win Game of the Year for writing, but it’s much more story-driven than its predecessors—and in a good way.

Combat & Gameplay

Combat is where Doom: The Dark Ages truly shines. Gone is the parkour-heavy, ultra-fast flow of Doom Eternal—instead, you get a more deliberate and brutal pace that fits the medieval setting perfectly.

The biggest addition is the Shield Saw, a mechanical arm-mounted weapon that functions as both a shield and a chainsaw. You can block attacks, parry strikes, throw it like a spinning blade, or use it in bloody close-range executions. It feels incredibly satisfying to master.

Other weapons also encourage up-close brutality. The Impaler lets you skewer demons and slam them into walls. The Shredder fires flails that explode on impact. Each weapon has unique mods and multiple upgrade paths that significantly alter their behavior—this adds strategic depth and replayability.

Glory kills return, but they’re even more brutal, often involving crushing, decapitating, or incinerating enemies with the Shield Saw. There’s less emphasis on mobility and more focus on precise timing, spacing, and weapon switching.

What I appreciated most was how every encounter felt like a small puzzle. You can’t just run and gun. Enemies have patterns and weaknesses, some requiring parries or explosives to break their guard. This shift adds a layer of challenge and satisfaction that Eternal lacked for some players.

Weapons & Customization

The arsenal is a mix of familiar favorites and brutal medieval tech. You’ve got:

The Combat Shotgun – Now fires molten shells with splash damage.
The Rocket Pike – A harpoon-like launcher with explosive bolts.
The Bone Grinder – A heavy melee weapon that stuns enemies.
The Shredder – Launches flails that detonate on surfaces.
The Impaler – Shoots giant stakes for one-hit impalements.

Each weapon has multiple mods and an upgrade tree. Instead of just basic stat boosts, upgrades can drastically change how a weapon functions—like giving it flame effects, bouncing projectiles, or area-of-effect finishers.

Then there’s the Rune System. You can slot runes into your armor or Shield Saw to gain perks like faster cooldowns, health regen on parry, or explosion on block. You can experiment with builds: tanky parry-focused Slayer, high-damage glass cannon, etc. It’s surprisingly deep for a Doom game and adds RPG-like customization.

Level Design & Exploration

The game features over 20 campaign levels, and each one is massive, vertical, and hand-crafted with purpose. You’ll explore a variety of stunning locations:

Gothic cathedrals with blood altars
Forests twisted by demonic energy
Collapsing mountain fortresses
Hell-infested villages and graveyards

Level design balances linear progression with optional exploration. You’ll constantly find hidden routes, lore scrolls, and platforming challenges. Unlike the high-flying double-jump sequences of Doom Eternal, movement here is grounded. Platforming focuses more on timing, crumbling bridges, moving walls, and solving environmental puzzles.

One highlight is the addition of Siege Zones—optional areas where you face waves of elite demons for rare upgrades. These are tough, but incredibly rewarding.

Graphics & Visuals

Visually, Doom: The Dark Ages is stunning. It ditches the neon, cyber-hell aesthetic of Eternal for a grim, medieval fantasy style that’s both beautiful and haunting.

Environments are packed with detail: flickering torches, swirling mists, crumbling ruins, molten lava rivers, and ancient machinery powered by demonic runes. The lighting work is phenomenal. Firelight glows and casts shadows naturally. Rain beads on armor. Particle effects like ash, embers, and blood feel tangible.

Enemy models are grotesquely detailed. You can see flesh tear, bone splinter, and armor shatter as you fight. The Slayer’s new armor is a masterpiece of brutal design, complete with dents, dried blood, and glowing runes.

Audio & Soundtrack

Sound design is top-notch. Weapons sound meaty and powerful, especially the Shield Saw which screeches like a buzzsaw grinding metal. Demons roar, shriek, and gurgle. Ambient noise adds to the dread—whispers in tombs, distant wails, echoing thunder.

The soundtrack, composed by Finishing Move, blends industrial metal with medieval chants and ominous orchestral tones. It’s heavy and fast during fights, eerie and atmospheric during exploration. While Mick Gordon isn’t involved, the new composers nailed the vibe and delivered a worthy soundtrack.

Voice acting is solid, especially from returning lore characters and the Maykrs. It’s more cinematic, but doesn’t go overboard with dialogue.

Difficulty & Challenge

This game is hard, but fair. The default difficulty (Veteran) is already pretty tough. Enemies hit hard, and the new parry system demands good timing.

Thankfully, the game offers extensive customization. You can fine-tune difficulty through sliders: enemy aggression, parry window length, health drop rates, etc. This lets you tailor the experience to your preference, whether you want a relaxed power fantasy or a Souls-like grind.

Boss fights are standout moments. These are multi-phase battles that test everything you’ve learned. Dodging, parrying, switching weapons, using cooldowns wisely—all come into play. Some bosses even adapt to your tactics.

Bugs & Glitches

The game is generally polished, but I did run into a few bugs:

One crash during a cutscene when tutorials were enabled
Occasional unresponsive inputs when switching from ranged to melee
Minor clipping issues with enemy corpses

None of these were game-breaking, and a day-one patch fixed most of the early problems. It’s one of the more stable AAA launches I’ve seen lately.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

Incredible medieval setting with rich atmosphere
Brutal, satisfying combat with new depth
Unique Shield Saw mechanics
Deep customization and weapon mod system
Stunning visuals and lighting
Killer soundtrack that fits the tone
Great performance on both PC and console
Smart, layered level design

Cons:

Slower pace might not appeal to Eternal fans
Occasional bugs and crashes
Some cutscenes feel too long
Not every weapon feels equally useful

Final Verdict

Doom: The Dark Ages is a bold, bloody, and brilliant evolution of the series. It slows down the gameplay without dumbing it down, offering deeper mechanics, smarter combat, and a more atmospheric world. This is not just another Doom game—it’s a whole new chapter that redefines what Doom can be. If you loved Doom’s fast, chaotic gameplay but also enjoy games with weight, challenge, and atmosphere—this is a must-play.

Rating: 8/10

Special thanks to Bethesda for providing the review code.
© Images and screenshots used in this review are courtesy of Bethesda / id Software.

Buy the Game

You can purchase DOOM: The Dark Ages from the following official platforms:

Support the developers and experience the full power of the Slayer’s origin story firsthand.

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