In my head, Doomguy has always been this powerful, brutal, will-do-whatever-it-takes badass who doesn’t have the patience to indulge in excuses, melodrama, and long-winded monologues. He revels in combat (as evidenced by the wicked grin plastered on his face as he mows down Hell’s minions), is unapologetically menacing, and is a force of nature who strikes fear in the demonic hearts of his enemies, ripping limb from limb those that dare stand their ground.
He’s a mean, green killing machine who lives only to rip and tear. Or rather, he was.
A loyal dog does not a Doomguy make
The thing I hate most about Doom: The Dark Ages (henceforth referred to as TDA) is that it’s this idea of what I think Doomguy stands for that id Software (the devs) flipped on its head. Doomguy is meatier and weightier this time around, hitting like a literal tank, but he’s now been cast as a bit of a misunderstood soldier: broody, emotional, and (shudder) loyal.
Warning: Minor spoilers
There’s this scene in the latter half of the game where a fortress is under siege and Hell’s Titans are closing in. Doomguy and his king (again, ick) are watching their respective mech’s being repaired and refuelled – Doomguy’s mech is severely damaged and missing an arm. A technician looks at said mech and tells the king, “It won’t be ready in time, sir”. Then another voice announces, “Refuelling complete. Royal Atlan Online.”, that being the king’s mech.
Cut to the king looking knowingly into camera, then to the mechs exiting the fortress – king in Doomguy’s damaged mech and vice versa – both exchange a respectful nod (Doomguy acknowledging the king’s largesse) before heading into combat.
I’m sorry, but what the hell? Any other Doomguy would have glanced at his own arm-less mech, brushed past a sputtering king, and walked out with the Royal Atlan.
(Here’s a clip from Eternal for reference)
Then there are other similarly discordant scenes. One finds the slayer brooding in his room, throwing cups around and grumbling; the only woman in the game who isn’t a witch from Hell has a look of understanding and perhaps pity whenever she speaks with Doomguy. Oh, and for some unknown reason, Doomguy has big, black, doe-like eyes.
Enter teenage cousin
My teenage cousin (he’s 15) popped over in the middle of my TDA playthrough and stared in awe as I ping-ponged across a vast field of enemies, bestowing each with a righteous bonk of death as I right-clicked and re-targeted demons in rapid succession. Gameplay looked so epic that he wanted to have a go, so I let him.
Five minutes in, he gave up. This is how that conversation went:
“How do I play?”
“WASD to move, mouse to aim.”
“Duh.”
“Left click to shoot, right click to block, right click to parry, but best to only right-click when you see green attacks.”
“Why?”
“The shield will break after a few hits that aren’t green.”
“Oh. Ok.”
“E to melee, but only when the enemies have a yellow halo, and only if your melee is charged, and only if you’re in range.”
“How do I know I’m in range, and where’s the charge?”
“You’ll see an E on their heads when you’re in range; otherwise you’ll just see a glowing halo. The melee charge indicator is at the bottom of the screen”
“Where?”
“Near that little squiggle.”
“…”
“Oh, and you also press E if they have a purple halo.”
“Err… Ok. When do they glow yellow and purple?”
“Once you’ve damaged them enough”
“Ok”
“R to throw your shield.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s the best weapon in the game, and throwing the shield does a lot of damage.
“Pressing 1 through 6 cycles weapons, or press and hold Q to slow time and open the weapon wheel or tap to quick switch”
Kid presses Q.
“The icons look the same. How do you tell which is which?”
“You’ll figure it out”
“Also, F switches weapon types in each class, and remember to use 2 against regular shields and 3 against blue shields.”
“What? Why?”
“The machine gun will heat up regular shields until they glow red, then you can throw a shield at them to make them explode.”
“So I also throw my shield at the blue shields to blow them up once they’re hot?”
“No, those blow up when you shoot with 3. You can also press the numbers twice to cycle between weapons of the same class.”
Looks confused.
“Don’t worry about it. Just start playing and you’ll figure it out. Oh, and you can right-click to hold the shield in front of you, then continue holding right click until you see a red marker on an enemy, then left-click to hurtle towards the enemy and shield bash them.”
“But you told the shield would break if I hold down right click.”
“It will, so be careful when using that attack.”
“Ok…”
Starts playing…
Gets overwhelmed. Shield breaks. Dies. Repeat.
Frustrated sighing.
“Why did I die that time?”
“You can’t shoot through some attacks / See, there you got hit from behind / You didn’t switch to your plasma rifle for the blue guys, press 3 next time / Throw your shield when their shield glows red.”
“How do I parry what I can’t see?”
Shrug
Cuz half-heartedly plays for a bit longer, switches to Black Ops 6.
There are two points to take away from this conversation: the awe is real (some of the set-pieces and boss battles are legitimately epic) and combat is as needlessly complicated as it first appears.
Where’s the ‘rip and tear’ (part 1)?
TDA’s combat takes some getting used to, but I think it is second only to Eternal’s. It’s just that combat is very different, defensive by design, and tonally sets a pace that doesn’t gel with my idea of what Doom should play like.
From the trailers, my initial impression was that TDA – a prequel to all of Doom – was set in a more primal and barbaric time with combat that would be more visceral, more brutal, and with perhaps a guttural, Viking-metal soundtrack to match the visuals (spoiler: there isn’t one). TDA fails to meet most of these expectations.
My problem with TDA’s combat is that you, Doomguy, are no longer dictating the pace of combat. The entirety of TDA’s combat revolves around parrying green attacks and dodging orange ones, with the occasional melee bash thrown in when you’ve parried enough attacks. You can get a few shots in, but only between parries and only if your bullet’s trajectory is unimpeded by unparryable energy waves. More often than not you enter a combat arena and wait for the attacks to start so you can start parrying. Couple the parry mechanic with a melee mechanic that sees you instantly teleporting from one weakened or stunned demon to another, and you’re essentially left with combat that’s not unlike Pinball or Pong, where you’re bouncing back attacks and bouncing off enemies. This over-reliance on parrying and the shield allows the demons to dictate who you attack, and when. Once you start, you have very little control over the flow of combat.
Contrast this with Eternal’s where you zip around the map sniping weakspots, circle-strafing to clump enemies so you can BFG them or send a rocket their way, and isolating the ones you intend to chainsaw for ammo or glory kill for health. It’s easy to get overwhelmed but you’re always in control, and you always have options.
Then there’s Eternal’s berserker mode, a power-up that magnifies Doomguy’s power for 60 seconds or so. In Eternal, the Slayer rips demons apart with his bare hands in rapid succession. TDA’s berserker mode simply amps up your gun’s power, allowing you to kill demons faster with bullets.
Speaking of glory kills, there are none in TDA. Or rather, there are glory kills, but they’re far few in number, lacking in variety, and rarely happen. If this is your first Doom, glory kills – first introduced in Doom (2016) and further enhanced in Doom Eternal – can be triggered on enemies when they enter a weakened or stunned state. When triggered, you destroy said enemy in gruesome fashion: by ripping it limb from limb, smashing its skull into its chest with the mother of all bonks, or as in the case of the mancubus, ripping its beating heart from its chest and stuffing that still beating heart down its throat, and more. There were, I believe, 40-plus such kills in Doom Eternal, and I don’t think I encountered more than a handful in TDA.
The worst offender in this regard is mech combat. Piloting a hulking mech in a Doom game should be special. In TDA, it isn’t.
Mechs suck
Mech combat is bland and underwhelming. All you do is walk up to demon titans and left click to punch, press space to dodge green attacks, and right-click when a yellow bar gets filled. When said bar is full and you right-click, you punch a little harder or stomp your feet and the titan might die. If not, repeat.
That’s it. That’s all there is to it.
It’s also mighty frustrating that Doomguy himself doesn’t bring any badassery to mech combat. I’d have loved to see him rip his mech’s arm off and swing it like some sort of mace when overwhelmed, topple buildings onto hordes of swarming hellspawn, or perhaps even hurl boulders at distant Hell Carriers. Put me in a mech, and I’m sure even I could flail mindlessly till things died. Who needs Doomguy?
Where’s the rip and tear (part 2)?
Above all else, Doom for me is defined by its soundtrack. Robert Prince’s soundtrack in the 1993 Doom is as iconic as the Super Mario theme song. It never fails to conjure up an image of Doomguy’s pixelated, blood-smeared face and psychotic grin. Mick Gordon’s Rip and Tear, BFG Division, and Hellwalker are synonymous with the 2016 reboot and have, I believe, a large part to play in the game’s success and iconic stature.
The Dark Ages, though? I can’t think of one memorable soundtrack, a single moment that made me go “Woah! I’m playing a new Doom.” TDA has some incredible sound design but no memorable music. What I’ll remember from this game is the whump-whump-whump of Doomguy’s giant steps, the electric crackling of the plasma gun, and the tinkle of shattering armour. What I have no recollection of, just one day after finishing the game, is the soundtrack.
Without delving too deep into the politics of what happened, id did Mick dirty, and I think we’re all paying the price for it.
A masterpiece in the making, perhaps
Doom: The Dark Ages is technologically brilliant, features some of the most fun combat sequences I’ve experienced since Eternal, and boasts of art design that is head and shoulders above anything I’ve played on PC this year. It’s very much a Doom game, but also one that takes a fundamentally different (and in my opinion, discordant) approach to character development and combat style.
Perhaps there was a time in Doomguy’s past when he was a broody, doe-eyed grunt who enjoyed parrying before he learned to rip and tear. Perhaps this game is a masterpiece and I’m just too set in my ways to notice. Whatever the case, the game is fun, definitely worth playing at least once, but not so good that I’d consider spending Rs 5,999 on it.
Xbox Gamepass version of the game reviewed on PC
