I’m not sure how Id Software will ever top Doom: The Dark Ages

When discussing a potential Wolfenstein 3, Bethesda stablemates MachineGames once said that they’d yet to introduce mecha-Hitler, because once you do that, there’s nowhere to go.

Doom: The Dark Ages feels like it’s hitting that ceiling, swapping the robo-fuhrer for a skyscraping mech and a “fire-breathing, gattling-gun-toting cybernetic dragon.” Id’s latest is a prequel to Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal, this time giving players the chance to go literally medieval on as many demons as they can.

This time, the Doomslayer is a walking tank. Director Hugo Martin calls him a “weapon of mass destruction.” There’s a clear shift away from the constant movement and platforming of Doom Eternal, into something that’s far more focussed on a sense of power and force.

“In Doom Eternal, you felt like a fighter jet, in Doom: The Dark Ages, you’ll feel like a walking tank,” says Martin. The gameplay we watched saw enemies bounce off the Doomslayer as he waded through them with little thought. The player can still dash and close the distance on enemies, but it’s less frantic and focused on speed than Eternal was. From the gameplay footage shown, this certainly feels like a change for the better.

The Doomslayer has some new (old) toys including the shield saw, which allows players to block enemy fire, parry attacks, reflect enemy abilities, and even throw it like Captain America. Martin says this is all done via one input, which will react contextually to the situation. “In Doom, it was run and gun. In Doom Eternal, it was jump and shoot. In Doom: The Dark Ages, it’s stand and fight.”

Doom: The Dark Ages looks to ditch some of the gun combat for a knock-down, drag-out fight. The Doomslayer has an iron flail, a spiked mace, and an electrified gauntlet. An all-new melee system means that players can now follow up perfect parries with knock-out blows, or shotgun blasts for the classic approach.

The other huge mechanical changes come in the form of the Atlan, a 30-story mech, and a cybernetic dragon. From the gameplay footage, the mech, which Martin says will appear in the story as a pacing break, looks like a Megazord battle from Power Rangers. You’re smashing through buildings, crushing regular enemies underfoot, and ripping and tearing whatever you can get your hands on. This is what I mean when I  say the game feels like it can’t get bigger than this. There’s no next step up, short of making a Doom game in space and piloting a planet-killing celestial being.

Pair that with the dragon gameplay, which Martin says “isn’t one-and-done,” and Doom: The Dark Ages appears to be aiming for a scope far beyond what the previous entries managed. Both the mech and the dragon will have a full suite of abilities and mini-bosses. It wasn’t made clear how often you use these mechanics, and if they can be revisited as part of the game’s non-linear exploration.

“The gameplay we watched saw enemies bounce off the Doomslayer as he waded through them with little thought. The player can still dash and close the distance on enemies, but it’s less frantic and focused on speed than Eternal was.”

Id is toting that the game will feature the largest play spaces they’ve ever included in a Doom game, and from the footage, it feels just a few steps shy of open-world. There’s a huge focus on exploration, with abilities and side stories hidden for players to find. Locations from the slayer’s past and “worlds beyond,” were teased. It’s unclear if these are levels from the main path, or if these will be side areas.

While a lot about Doom is changing with Doom: The Dark Ages, the very best thing about the previous two entries, the glory kills, are back and better than ever. These hyper-violent finishing moves are still key to the player’s survival, as well as generating extra ammo and other supplies. However, the glory kills get a much-requested makeover in that, for the first time ever, they are no longer canned animations.

In the previous two games, when an enemy got into a state where they could be glory-killed, the game would snap the player to a specific spot for a specific animation. This is no longer the case, the animations are significantly more fluid and can be executed anywhere. Players can also do much faster glory kills to maintain momentum in a fight. Id hopes that this will solve the awkwardness from the first two games when a player would get two enemies into a glory kill state, but in the time it took to execute the first animation, the second enemy would no longer be stunned.

This is an excellent change, and from the footage, it appears to add a great sense of speed. I could easily see how the Doomslayer being tankier, and slightly slower than the last game, paired with the canned animations could be a problem, but this is a smart solution.

If Doom: The Dark Ages is the last of this Doom trilogy, Id is setting the stage to go out on a spectacular high. Combat looks refined and bursting with the kind of experience and nuance you only get from three attempts on a series. It looks like a rare game that can genuinely be described as “epic,” thanks to the mech and dragon battles, and the overall vibe of the game is immaculate.

The second our presentation ended, I reinstalled Doom Eternal for a fix. Doom: The Dark Ages looks confident, and I could easily see it in the conversation for the year’s best come December. Between this and Indiana Jones, the Bethesda side of Microsoft is enjoying a wonderful run of form.