I've seen surprisingly little about DOOM: The Dark Ages across Lemmy so far even though the game has been out for almost a week. I thought I'd post my thoughts here.
My personal context:
About a month ago I wanted to get back into the DOOM mindset so I replayed The Ancient Gods (on Nightmare) for the first time since the first time I played through them and it reminded me just how much I loved the visceral challenge of DOOM Eternal.
Since that took me all of like a week, I installed DOOM 64 since it came with Eternal and realized I had never played through it, let alone even got familiar with what it added to the old DOOM games. Holy hell what a cool game. The lighting, the colors, the sounds, the level scripting. The game is a technical improvement in so many ways over the original DOOM and DOOM II. But hot damn is it difficult: a bullet hell in so many ways (those fucking arachnotrons EVERYWHERE). However, rewatching the promotional material for DOOM: The Dark Ages I realized this is a good way to get into the mindset of what was about to be released.
My thoughts on The Dark Ages
I cannot sing the praises of ID enough for refusing to just make more levels for DOOM Eternal. This game is such a cool change to the formula. Giving the Slayer a shield and the weight of a fucking boulder really immerses you in the sense that the Slayer is the legend that Samuel Hayden respected and that Olivia Pierce feared. Honestly, I can't not think about how ID must have been heavily inspired by God of War (2018), and God of War Ragnarok while working on the sound design, control mechanics, and art direction for this game. The only thing I think is a little ridiculous, gratuitous and goofy is how everytime the Slayer touches the ground it sounds like there's an earthquake starting. But it's a video game, it can be goofy.
The new mechanics in the game are extremely fun and I would say they're all gracefully redesigned to fit the new tone of the game. Demons are repurposed so well and I love seeing the design inspirations from various older games return (like the revenants remind me heavily of those from DOOM 3 and the imp stalkers are so similar in behavior and sound to those from DOOM 64). The melee weapons are as satisfying as they should be in a DOOM game, and throwing the saw shield around feels exactly how it should. I can't find any kind of fault with the mechanics of the game. *chef's kiss*
I'm about halfway through the game right now on Ultra Violence, and I'm stuck wondering when the challenge will come. There are so many life sigils littered around the game that I have yet to die and be sent back to a checkpoint. Maybe that's part of the narrative point, or maybe I'm still in the phase of the game where mechanics are being introduced (which is a theory only reinforced by how I just reached the Ancestral Forge where you get a new [spoilers redacted]).
On the other hand, both DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal waited until maybe 2/3 or 3/4 the way through the campaigns to take the training wheels fully off and throw the full force of hell at you. That's what I want. That's what I need. If I don't get that, I will remember my time in the Dark Ages fondly since it's fun, it's indulgent, and it's satisfying. It's just not scratching the same itch that "VEGA Core" and the "Mars Core" master level do.
Overall, loving the new game. I just don't think I'll end up loving it, or replaying it, as much as I do the previous 2.
