DOOM: The Dark Ages Review – Hell Hath No Fury Like a DOOM Slayer Scorned (2025)

The DOOM Slayer returns to unleash carnage in DOOM: The Dark Ages, a medieval-fueled action spectacle where blades and shotguns collide. Set in a brutal prequel era of the DOOM universe, this game delivers unrelenting chaos, demon-slaying intensity, and raw, unforgiving combat. Prepare for relentless battles, visceral takedowns, and a world drenched in fire and fury.

DOOM: The Dark Ages Review Pros:

• Awesome graphics.
• 69.26GB Download size.
• Steam achievements.
• Own in game achievement system called milestones.
• Full controller support.
• The game will prompt you to go and get the latest Graphics card drivers if you are behind.
• Accessibility options – font scale slider, enable magnify, subtitles, subtitles scale slider, subtitles background opacity, and field of view slider. Camera shake amount slider, environmental screen shake, aim assist, aim assist strength, high contrast mode, shield throw Seek, enable parry recolor, weapon bob, world desaturation, threat detector, and Hud scale.
• Video settings – window mode, monitor, aspect ratio, resolution, refresh rate, v-sync, present from compute, resolution scaling mode, resolution scale, performance metrics, and resolution scaling target fps.
• Video settings – chromatic aberration, depth of field, sharpening, film grain, upscale, DLSS, and FSR settings, NVIDIA reflex mode, HDR, motion blur, and motion blur amount.
• Advanced graphic settings – overall quality, texture pools size, quality for shadow, reflections, lights, particles, decals, volumetric, texture filtering, geometric occlusion, and directional occlusion.
• Colourblind support.
• Mouse and keyboard support.
• You can remap the controls for both the controller and the mouse and keyboard.
• Controller presets allow southpaw.
• Mouse and keyboard presets allow ESDF.
• The Extras menu houses collectible viewer, weapon skins, Slayer skins, Atlan skins, Dragon skins, Milestones, and linking to the Bethesda account.
• 3 save slots.
• 6 game difficulties – aspiring slayer, hurt me plenty, ultra violence, nightmare, pandemonium, and ultra nightmare.
• Hardcore mode, as in one life, then it’s game over, is the Ultra nightmare difficulty.
• You can change difficulties at any time, and on standard difficulties, you can use the combat assistance modifiers.
• Objective markers can be set to – always in, on the compass, or none at all.
• Difficulty modifiers – parry window, enhanced targeting, empowered attacks, tutorials, objective markers, damage to player slider, damage to demons slider, enemy aggression slider, game speed, daze duration, enemy projectile speed, and resources value slider.
• Amazing heavy metal-inspired soundtrack that gets you pumped!
• Cutscenes are a mix of high-level Fmv and in-game sequences.
• First-person shooter gameplay.
• Tutorial pop-ups as you play.
• As always, the game has top-notch voice work.
• Familiar controls to previous Doom players, but also to first-person shooter fans.
• So many memorable characters.
• The story is one that grabs you instantly and never lets go.
• Your shield can block projectiles, be thrown as a weapon, used to hit switches, and you can lock into an enemy and then charge at them to deal Mega damage.
• This is what adrenaline gaming is all about.
• Damage an enemy enough to daze them, then melee for health drops. Oh, and it looks awesome.
• The Power Gauntlet lets you melee enemies and Store power so you do massive combos. enemies killed with this weapon drop gauntlet-shaped ammo.
• Life sigils are big green helmets you pick up and use when you die. If you don’t have any, then you respawn at the last checkpoint.
• Collect armour and shields from pickups.
• Breakable objects and doors, walls, etc.
• There is no point of return door that once entered…. You cannot go back.
• Automap is the system used for the map, and it will show where to go, where you have been, and any loot lying around the world.
• Enemy projectiles can be deflected and sent back at them.
• With a button press, you scan the area and have any collectibles and mission markers show up.
• It’s such a big, beautiful, ugly world.
• A quick, easy-to-use radial menu lets you swap weapons instantly.
• Find drop pods to get new weapons.
• The game does cater to my motion sickness avoidance.
• Amazing set pieces.
• Find secret keys for secret areas.
• Each chapter has a completion percentage for collectibles and discoveries, giving the game a lot of replayability.
• You get new toys doled out as you progress, and it makes every level feel like a new experience.
• A chain shield, which is a shield with a chainsaw around it. When you throw it at enemies, you can stun or kill enemies, but the camera also slows down. A really cool trick with it? Shoot at metal like enemy shields to heat them up, then throw the shield to shatter it!
• So much eye candy from particles to body parts, Doom has it all.
• I couldn’t stop smiling as I mowed hordes of enemies down.
• Find and smash Gold chests for gold, which you can use at the Sentinel to upgrade weapons.
• Sentinel Shrines allow you to upgrade your guns, shield, and melee weapons.
• Gold, rubies, and wraithstones are the game’s currency.
• Each enemy type is unique, and they also get an initial introduction pop-up.
• Leaders are huge enemies and have an icon over their head; kill them to permanently increase your health, ammo, or armor.
• Green goo lets you throw your shield at it, and then you jump to your shield, which makes it act like a grappling hook.
• Find weapon and armour skins in secret areas.
• The game constantly mixes it up with bullet hell style shooting sequences, big, huge epic fights.
• So many memorable set pieces.
• You get to play as three different characters, each with their own skins – Slayer, Atlan, and Dragon skins.
• Has an option to have the original face health bar from the original Doom game.

DOOM: The Dark Ages Review Cons:

• The mouse cursor stays on screen even when using a controller.
• No benchmark test for the graphics and performance.
• So many options, it’s overwhelming the first time around.
• Couldn’t find a way to change the button icons used in-game.
• I get motion sickness quite badly, the game caters to me, but it does take a bit of tweaking this and that to get it going.
• You get a pop-up frequently when booting the game that requires a mouse to click away. It could be a thanks for buying the game, or it could be that a graphics card update is available.
• I didn’t see many reasons to replay the game, the collectibles, and that didn’t really hook me to go after them all.
• Heats up my fans like you would not believe.
• The flying sections are not good and really let the game play flow down, and the general feel of the game it doesn’t feel like it fits.
• Personal, obviously, but I couldn’t sit there and play hours at a time for some reason, one maybe two levels at a time, and that wasn’t cool.

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DOOM: The Dark Ages

Official Website:

Developer: id Software

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Store Link:

Steam