I'm the right age for boomer shooters, but I didn't play them growing up... or any shooters, really. I just wasn't coordinated enough for those kinds of games at the time, and I gravitated more towards RPGs. By the time I picked up Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal, though, things had changed. I'd played a few soulslikes at that point and (ironically) my reflexes are much better now as an adult. I'm still not super into boomer shooters as a genre, but I fell in love with the new Dooms.

I love everything about them. The frantic gameplay. The ambience and environments. The music. The stupid, over-the-top story. The story of Doom Eternal felt like it copied the homework of a power metal album cover and, for me, that was a feature. So I was pretty excited to pick up Doom: The Dark Ages. I know many found the inclusion of a more detailed story, with more characters, a turn-off. But the dumb-ass narrative about magic space Vikings in their war against the forces of Hell is exactly my kind of shit.

The gameplay is at once a departure from the previous titles and the same in all the ways that matter. You must still always be in motion, lest the endless hordes overwhelm you. As you dance, you must balance your health, shields, and ammo, with special attacks to recover each of them. The decadent brutality of the Slayer's animations, the blood and gore, are all the same ultraviolent fare I was looking for.

The addition of the Slayer's shield does not engender passivity. While you can use it to block, it's almost useless in that capacity. Rather, it facilitates a charge attack that assists in traversal, aids in exploration, and provides a parry mechanic. The parrying meshes shockingly well with Doom's combat. You may only parry special green attacks, but the attacks are frequent, the parry window is generous, and you're rewarded well for successful parries. Initially parries simply build up stun on an enemy, exposing them to critical attacks. Midway through the game, however, you unlock runes that trigger an attack when you successfully parry, and these attacks are powerful and worthwhile.

The super shotgun, as always, feels staggeringly cathartic to fire. But the Slayer's movements also carry that delightful weight that was absent from previous titles. When the Slayer jumps off a ledge, he lands with an echoing boom that damages nearby foes. When he charges with his shield, you feel the impact at the terminus. The game just feels so fantastic to play.

I frequently found myself at very low health, only to somehow survive until I could punch some health out of a grunt. I suspect the game manufactures these scenarios, both with the resource dance and by lying about the Slayer's remaining health. But I don't begrudge it. The added tension was welcome.

Exploration still mixes easy puzzles and platforming with secret hunts in large, circuitous maps. The maps are wider and more open than ever before, however, which facilitates more sweeping combat sequences and scenes. The first time the map opens up like this is very cool. But the sheer scale of the maps is a bit exhausting, and they are less interesting to look at than maps from the previous two entries. By the end of the game, I was over it. I'd seen almost exactly two too many massive maps of blood swamps.

The Dark Ages also introduces sequences where you pilot the Slayer's giant mech or ride his pet cyborg dragon. Unfortunately the experience of playing these segments does not live up to how cool the concept is. They're bad, and I think the game would have been significantly stronger without their inclusion.

The dragon sequences play fine, but the maps that the dragon traverses are mostly empty, and it feels to me like they add very little. The mech is ponderous and slow, with a focus on dodging attacks to build up your own powerful strikes. There's very little depth here, but quite a bit of tedium. Your attack charge drops to zero if you're hit even once, so you're incentivized to play defensively, making these sequences drag out long past the point of enjoyment. A late-game boss fight pits the Slayer in his mech against, essentially,

To summarize, Doom: The Dark Ages is great fun. The fact that Id has managed to explore new gameplay elements in each modern iteration of the series, yet stay true to their core design philosophy and gameplay loop, is an enormous triumph. And the story, while probably not for everyone, was fun. That said, I think it would have been improved by removing the mech and dragon sequences and having a few more focused, linear levels near the end of the campaign.

I agree the dragon and mech levels get a little old. It was hard finding my way around the levels with the dragon.

I will say the DLC completely revamps the combat and adds some more depth. I went from hating the Chain Spear to preferring it over the shield. You should give it a shot, especially if you liked Eternal at all.

I have the same opinion as you. The game is awesome and super fun but my interest to play it till the end has diminished. I think is because the story is a mess and not very interesting... Eternal was better in that regard. Also it does not introduce anything new past mid-game. Maybe a couple boss fights would have helped.

I loved Doom Eternal and I'll check it out!

DLC is a banger, liked it more than the base game

I loved DOOM 2016 and absolutely adored DOOM Eternal, my second favourite game of all time.

But something about TDA didn't click for me. I played it on release and I have seen that they've really revamped the gameplay and really ironed out a lot of kinks.

One of my biggest issues was the use of slow down on ever successful parry and melee attack. Which I believe they've toned down now.

I bought the DLC so I want to replay the game and give Revelations a shot.

Nice write up. Definitely loved the heft and weight of doomguy in TDA. I really didn't enjoy the dragon sequences that much but thankfully they weren't in much of the game.

Even though the robot sections were really simple in terms of gameplay they still felt really cool to me. Loved boxing some tyrants.

Haven't played the DLC yet but it's super highly regarded, some people saying it's the absolute peak of doom content from the new trilogy

I really don’t get the complaints about the Atlan sections. The dragon stuff I can understand, even though I think they’re fine, but I dont understand what people have against piloting a giant robot. The sections are short enough to not overstay their welcome, not too mechanically complex as to take away from the main gameplay, and punching giant demons in a giant robot is just awesome. Lie what is tedious about this? You punch shit for maybe five minutes like three times during the whole game, and then go about the rest of the gameplay.

I feel all 3 games lose steam towards the end since you stop getting new weapons like 70 - 80% through (and you've also probably seen most/ all of the non boss enemies by then)

Still enjoyed all of em.

(working through Trial of the Gods p1 for the first time atm)

I played a bit on launch but found it overstimulating, so I dropped it.

Came back last month, turned off the music (sue me!) and normalized the gameplay sliders (I had sped it up to 150% previously), and fine-tuned my controller layout. And fell in LOVE. It was SO good.

Then I bought the DLC, which honestly was disappointing. The way they tied the endgame into the main missions but blocked off by endgame doors was just silly IMO. It felt way too gamey. Plus I think it was outstaying its welcome for me too, by that point. Might have enjoyed it more if I came back to it months after the main game, rather than back-to-back. I also preferred the shield over the chainspear.

I haven’t played any of the remakes of doom. Any worth checking out? I remember them looking pretty cool

I definitely plan to check it out!

Yeah I definitely missed the glory kills.