During a recent hands-on demo of Doom: The Dark Ages, I found myself unexpectedly reminded of Halo 3. Midway through the experience, I was mounted on a cyborg dragon, unleashing a barrage of machine gun fire across a demonic battle barge. After taking out the vessel's defensive turrets, I landed my beast atop the ship and charged through its lower decks, turning the crew into a gruesome mess. Moments later, I burst through the hull, leaping back onto my dragon to continue my crusade against Hell's machines.
Fans of Bungie's iconic Xbox 360 shooter will recognize the similarities to Master Chief's assault on the Covenant's scarab tanks. While the helicopter-like Hornet has been replaced by a holographic-winged dragon and the giant laser-firing mech by an occult flying boat, the essence of the experience remains: an aerial assault transitioning into a devastating boarding action. Surprisingly, this wasn't the only Halo-like moment in the demo. Although the combat core of The Dark Ages is unmistakably Doom, the campaign's design echoes the late-2000s shooters with its elaborate cutscenes and emphasis on gameplay novelty.
Across two and a half hours, I played four levels of Doom: The Dark Ages. The first level, the campaign's opener, mirrored the tightly paced, meticulously designed levels of Doom (2016) and its sequel. The subsequent levels, however, introduced me to piloting a colossal mech, flying the dragon, and exploring a vast battlefield filled with secrets and powerful minibosses. This departure from Doom's traditional focus on mechanical purity feels more akin to games like Halo, Call of Duty, and even old James Bond titles like Nightfire, which are known for their scripted setpieces and novel mechanics.
This direction is intriguing for Doom, especially considering the series once rejected a similar path. The cancelled Doom 4 was set to resemble Call of Duty, with a modern military aesthetic and a focus on characters, cinematic storytelling, and scripted events. Id Software ultimately scrapped these ideas for the more focused Doom (2016). Yet, here they are again in The Dark Ages, set to release in 2025.
The campaign's rapid pace is punctuated by new gameplay ideas reminiscent of Call of Duty's most innovative moments. My demo began with a long, elaborate cutscene reintroducing the realm of Argent D'Nur, the opulent Maykrs, and the Night Sentinels—the Doom Slayer's knightly comrades. The Slayer is portrayed as a terrifying legend, a nuclear-level threat. While this lore is familiar to Doom enthusiasts, the deeply cinematic approach feels new and reminiscent of Halo. This continues into the levels, with NPC Night Sentinels scattered throughout, similar to UNSC Marines in Halo. Although they don't fight alongside you, their presence suggests you're part of a larger force, much like Master Chief.
The introductory cutscene features significant character work, and it remains to be seen if this is what Doom needs. I prefer the subtle storytelling of the previous games, conveyed through environment design and codex entries, with cinematics reserved for major reveals, as in Doom Eternal. However, the cutscenes in The Dark Ages are brief, setting up missions without interrupting the game's intense flow.
Other interruptions come in the form of new gameplay segments. After the opening mission, which starts with shotgun slaughter and ends with parrying Hell Knights using the Slayer's new shield, I found myself in the cockpit of a Pacific Rim-like Atlan mech, wrestling demonic kaiju. Then, I was soaring on the cybernetic dragon, taking down battle barges and gun emplacements. These tightly scripted levels shift the campaign's pace, introducing gameplay ideas reminiscent of Call of Duty's most memorable sequences, like Modern Warfare's AC-130 gunship mission or Infinite Warfare's dogfighting. The Atlan mech is slow and heavy, making Hell's armies look like Warhammer miniatures, while the dragon is fast and agile, offering a different experience from classic Doom.
Many of the best FPS campaigns thrive on such variety. Half-Life 2 and Titanfall 2 set the standard, and Halo's mix of vehicular and on-foot sequences adds rich texture. However, I'm unsure if this will work for Doom. The Dark Ages, like Eternal, is a complex shooter demanding constant attention as you weave together shots, shield tosses, parries, and brutal melee combos. In contrast, the mech and dragon sequences feel less engaging, almost like QTEs.
In Call of Duty, switching to a tank or gunship works because the mechanical complexity isn't far removed from on-foot missions. In The Dark Ages, however, there's a clear divide between gameplay styles, making the transition jarring. While Doom's core combat remains the star, the mech and dragon sequences feel like a step down from the intense ground combat.
My final hour of play introduced "Siege," a level that refocuses on id's exceptional gunplay but expands the typically claustrophobic level design into a vast open battlefield. The goal is to destroy five Gore Portals, reminiscent of Call of Duty's multi-objective missions, yet it also evokes Halo's contrast between interior and exterior environments. The larger spaces require rethinking weapon ranges, using charge attacks to cover vast distances, and employing the shield to deflect artillery.
Expanding Doom's playspace can lead to unfocused moments, with backtracking and empty pathways disrupting the pace. I would have liked to see the dragon used more like Halo's Banshee, allowing for aerial assaults and divebombing into miniboss battles to maintain the pace and integrate the dragon more seamlessly.
Despite the overall shape of the full campaign, it's fascinating to see a resurrection of ideas once deemed unsuitable for the series. The cancelled Doom 4 featured scripted setpieces and vehicle scenes, similar to what we see in the Atlan and dragon sections. Id Software's Marty Stratton confirmed that Doom 4 was closer to Call of Duty, with more cinematic elements and characters. These ideas were scrapped, yet they've returned in The Dark Ages, featuring boarding action setpieces, lush cinematics, a broader cast of characters, and significant lore reveals.
The question remains: were these ideas always a bad fit for Doom, or were they just ill-suited when they resembled Call of Duty too closely? While I share the skepticism of fans who once feared "Call of Doom," I'm also excited to see id Software potentially make this approach work within the modern Doom framework.
The core of The Dark Ages remains its intense, on-foot combat. Nothing in the demo suggests it won't be the centerpiece, and everything I played confirms it's another fantastic reinvention of Doom's core. While I believe this alone could support an entire campaign, id Software has other plans. Some of the new ideas feel mechanically thin, raising concerns that they might detract from the experience rather than enhance it. However, there's still much to see, and only time will contextualize these demo missions. I eagerly await May 15th, not just to return to id's unparalleled gunplay, but to satisfy my curiosity: Is Doom: The Dark Ages a well-crafted late-2000s FPS campaign or a disjointed one?
