The Doom: The Dark Ages release date has been confirmed for 15th May, coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and on day one with applicable tiers of Xbox Game Pass.
Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel to the Doom 2016 reboot and Doom Eternal, nipping back in time to the last time that the Doom Slayer was out and about for some demon bashing. You’ll go thoroughly medieval on those demons, which will include a mix of very familiar foes from the series as well as some all-new enemies.
So… what do you need to defeat those all-new enemies? Well, some all new weapons, as well! This time around you’re able to whip out a Flail to knock some heads in, or rev up a throwable chainsaw shield, like a motorised Captain America shield. It can block, be thrown, parry and deflect, all with a single contextual input.
Where Doom Eternal was a lot about acrobatic FPS combat, id Software say that The Dark Ages will make you feel like more of a tank, where strafing and ground-play is much more viable. The shield-saw will live as your left hand, with your gun in the right.
There’s actually three melee weapons that will come out dynamically, be usable for combost, finishers and a new glory kill system that can also be used with another single button input.
But sometimes you need to go even bigger than that. The Slayer will also be able to hop into the cockpit of his Atlan, a huge skyscaper-sized mech that will let you go toe-to-toe with kaiju-sized demons, and there’s also the Mecha Dragon complete with jet engines and a huge amount of weaponry for when you need to take to the skies. Both promise to have upgrades and broader experience built around them instead of being one-and-done.
Obviously.
The game will take players to multiple worlds and environments that are more than just about fighting, but can also be explored to find secrets, upgrades and more. You can do all of that and then come back to the main focus of the level to face huge enemies.
After the fallout surrounding the production of the soundtrack for Doom Eternal – which we won’t relitigate – the soundtrack in Doom: The Dark Ages has been made by Finish Move to give another metal soundscape to really sink into.
Built into the game is a more granular difficulty system, letting you tone things down and up, speeding the game up or slowing it down to suit your needs and preferences.
The release date news has been confirmed a couple days after it was leaked ahead of time. Thankfully that’s not all that the Xbox Developer_Direct stream had to show off, with id Software digging deep into what makes this game tick.
Also featured in the stream were more games expected in 2025. We visited Compulsion Games to talk about South of Midnight, Sandfall Interactive to look at Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and the surprise that was Ninja Gaiden 4 and Ninja Gaiden 2 Black.
