Doom: Dark Ages was one of my highly anticipated games this year that I wanted to play. I’ve been a fan of Doom since the first one. And I’m not talking about the 2016 Doom, I’m talking about 1993 MSDOS Doom where you had to insert 5000 floppy disks to install the game. Ok, that was an exageration but yes, I love Doom. So when Id Software and Bethesda Games revealed the trailer for Doom: Dark Ages, I was excited.
I’ve always been playing Doom on PC but for Dark Ages, I decided to play it on console for the first time. Why I opted to play this on my PS5 is solely because of the new parry and dodge system. Usually, most FPS games, I’ve played on PC. So after clocking about 22 hours into the game, I have to say I am surprised about Doom Dark Ages. It is still fun to play and different from the 2 Doom games before. Doom 2016 is still the best for me. Doom Eternal was good but was exceptionally hard to play. Dark Ages is a little different. Setting is more medival than space. I still prefer the space setting to be honest. Doom Slayer has fur which I find kind of ridiculous. And he has a shield. I was skeptical about the whole shield thing. But after playing a few hours, I really enjoyed using the shield. Parrying with the shield is fun! Plus you get to throw the bugger and it comes back to you like a boomerang.
Doom Slayer’s has an awesome aresenal of weapons, you can use to destroy demons. They are really fun to use. My favs are the cycler and the trusty super shotgun. Cycler for distance and super shotgun for close ups. I suggest you level up your fav weapons quick. As for melee, I still love using my fists cos once they are fully ranked up, you can do a 4 hit combo on the big guys till their shields fall off and just plain kill them. The mace is fun to use as well and the deadmaut, that one is really good and heavy but slow af. You can only use it once and the charge up takes a lot of time. so perhaps you can use it for boss fights but not a barrage of demons.
Besides the shield and the medival setting, Dark Ages has a Atlan and a dragon. The Atlan makes you feel like a Pacific Rim movie. Its fun but gets boring. Its a good thing there are not many stages of it. Using the dragon, is basically flying around like in How to train your dragon movie. The flying system is surprisingly quite easy to use. I enjoyed flying it, cos I really suck at flying. However I hated the dodge system for both the Atlan and Dragon. It just felt silly dodging when you are a giant or when you are flying.
The Doom soundtrack has always been a wet dream for metalheads. Doom 2016 and Eternal, you had the brilliant, Mick Gordon running the helm. Sadly Mick and Bethesda dont work together anymore. Dark Ages soundtrack really grew on me. When I first played it, the music was really soft and I was irritated cos you dont play metal music soft. Especially when you are out killing demon spawns. The good thing is, after a patch updgrade, the music is back up and all hope is restored. The soundtrack ain’t no Mick Gordon, but it held off its own and its heavy and brutal. Love it!
All in all, Doom: Dark Ages is still a Doom game. Its metal heavy, great kills and a cool story line. If you enjoyed the last 2 Doom games, you are gonna have a good time with this as well.
