2025 Preview: Doom the Dark Ages is keeping its feet on the ground

The eighth major Doom entry is set to dial down the verticality and focus on ground-based combat

Words by

Chris Scullion

1st Jan 2025 / 4:00 pm

It’s a bit odd to be looking forward to a game even though we probably already know how it’s going to end.

If you’re not down with your Doom lore, the 2016 reboot opened in Mars with protagonist the Slayer breaking free from a sarcophagus, shortly before laying waste to a bunch of demons. Doom 64, the game that comes canonically before Doom 2016, ends with the Marine (as he was then) deciding to sacrifice himself by staying in Hell to prevent any more demons from leaving.

Developer id Software has confirmed that Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel to the 2016 game, and will take place in between the events of Doom 64: as such, we’re probably going to find out how the Marine left Hell, how he became the Slayer, and (based on how the game will seemingly end) how and why he ends up being locked in the sarcophagus.

What we also know for now is that The Dark Ages – which publisher Bethesda describes as an “FPS epic like nothing id Software has ever made before” – will take place in a medieval-style setting, meaning you can expect more than your fair share of massive gothic castles and the like.

Doom 2016 and its sequel, Doom Eternal, never shied away from presenting the player with intimidatingly immense architecture, and it sounds like The Dark Ages will be no different. There will seemingly be one aspect in which it will differ, however, and that’s verticality.

The last two games had a lot more of it than Doom veterans may have been previously used to, with a lot of climbing up large structures, a fair amount of platforming and battles which saw you leaping onto enemies from above.

Interviews with the game’s creative director, however, have suggested that this time, the verticality will take a back seat, and the player will be more grounded: in one interview, it was explained as the difference between an F22 fighter jet and an Abrams tank.

It’s safe to assume, then, that we can expect less springing and more strafing as players will be executing the old ‘dodge then damage’ routine seen in Dooms past.

A new Doom means new weapons, and sure enough Bethesda has confirmed that The Dark Ages will feature a mix of old favourites like the Super Shotgun and some new additions including “the face-shattering Flail and revved-up, throwable Shield Saw”.

The game’s debut trailer also showed a rather macabre weapon which consists of a gun with a grinder attached. By feeding skulls through the grinder the player can then fire skull fragments at enemies like a bony machine gun. He’s got no respect for the dead, that lad.

All of the above makes it clear that Doom: The Dark Ages is set to be just as relentlessly action-packed as its two most recent predecessors, and we really can’t wait to see exactly how this reimagined combat plays out, and how this new setting fits into the overall story.

Yes, it does appear that we know how Doom: The Dark Ages is going to end. But if ever there was a series that proves the real enjoyment comes from experiencing the journey taken to get there, it’s undoubtedly this one.