If you happen to’ve spent any time on the web, you will have seen the “what I anticipated vs. what I obtained” memes. If I might make one for Doom: The Darkish Ages, in my anticipated column I’d reference the sooner Doom video games — Everlasting and the 2016 tender reboot of the franchise. However for the “what I obtained” column, there’d be an sudden combine. These earlier Doom video games would nonetheless be there, as in most respects The Darkish Ages may be very very like its predecessors. However I’d additionally throw in Band of Brothers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pacific Rim, The Necronomicon, and a set of one of the best bodice-ripper romance books literature can present.
For The Darkish Ages, id Software program takes the story manner again to the early days, to a time earlier than the demons invade Mars and Earth. The Doomguy, often called the Slayer, is a supersoldier enhanced by aliens who’ve styled themselves as humanity’s gods. When these gods and their human collaborators are besieged by the legions of Hell, the Slayer will get to doing what he does finest: ripping and tearing till it’s executed.
The Slayer has an arsenal of weapons to help him in his quest. The sequence’ time-honored favorites, just like the tremendous shotgun, make an look. However on this old-timey prequel of kinds, the Slayer has all new weapons to get medieval on demon asses. I’m truly actually stunned at how a lot I loved utilizing each weapon on this recreation. Sometimes for video games that provide you with a diversified arsenal of weapons, just one or two are price utilizing, as there’s solely so some ways a factor you shoot folks with is materially totally different from one other factor you shoot folks with.
However every gun in The Darkish Ages was designed with a definite function and sufficient utility to nonetheless get the job executed exterior that function. The accelerator breaks vitality shields and with upgrades can paralyze enemies. The impaler works as a semiautomatic pistol to mow down swarms of fodder however also can transition right into a sniper rifle that shoots bullets the size of railroad spikes. However although I really like each gun equally, it’s the Slayer’s protect that makes fight so dang entertaining.
Utilizing the Slayer’s protect is essentially the most enjoyable I’ve had enjoying a shooting-focused recreation as a result of now, as an alternative of taking pictures bullets, I am the bullet. Utilizing the protect’s cost capability, I can shoot throughout the battlefield ramming into enemies and turning them into paste. When that capability’s on cooldown, I also can use the protect to parry assaults, reflecting them again the place they got here for enormous injury. Parrying’s helpful to interrupt enemy armor and shield your self and, not like in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it doesn’t take a sophisticated diploma in theoretical physics to determine the timing.
Between the protect, the Slayer’s melee assault, and all of the weapons, fight in The Darkish Ages looks like coming into mini circulation states. Each motion suits collectively like a ballet of carnage. Shoot the metallic armor to weaken it, throw the protect to destroy it, after which, by the point it’s returned to my hand, the enemy has unleashed a blast I deflect again to kill it. And since fight is a lot extra concerned than level and shoot, I can bear the truth that there’s not a whole lot of enemy selection or distinctive boss encounters.
One other battle between the “what I anticipated” and the “what I obtained” columns is how unusually peaceable and Zen-like enjoying The Darkish Ages is. The degrees are giant, stuffed with secrets and techniques and collectibles that I get pleasure from trying to find. Finishing a stage one hundred pc doesn’t really feel like an train in tedium however slightly a reward for perseverance and intelligent puzzle fixing, particularly for somebody like me who may be very a lot not a completionist.
Along with the ripping and the tearing, there are different particular sections of The Darkish Ages through which the Slayer pilots both a big-ass Doomecha preventing enemies Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots model, or a big-ass dragon with flying sections. These moments have been a miss for me. Regardless of the “rule of cool” novelty of the mecha and the dragon, with out the number of the Slayer’s weapons, fight in these sections is boring as — forgive me — hell. All you do within the mecha is stroll and punch. All you do with the dragon is fly (poorly) and shoot a cannon (additionally poorly). They’re actually cool to take a look at in cutscenes, however mechanically, I’d slightly be again on the bottom.
However my favourite a part of this complete recreation is the story. I do know that’s not one thing you’re imagined to say about Doom. It’s Doom: the story is superfluous to all of the demon killing. However serious about the narrative id laid out, I begin laughing and kicking my ft like a blushing schoolgirl, as a result of this Slayer is a lover!
Similar to within the different video games, this man can’t be bargained with and he has no ethical ambiguity. If you’re a demon, you die. If you happen to allow demons, regardless of how “good” or “noble” your reasoning is, you die. And he’s simply so fashionable at killing issues, inflaming my competency kink.
However greater than that, although in earlier video games the Slayer doesn’t converse exterior of pained grunts and his face is roofed for a lot of the recreation, the way in which this man emotes belies a lot depth. There’s a second in the course of one of many dragon sections the place, simply earlier than he hops again on his loyal steed, he takes a beat to position his hand tenderly on the creature’s neck. However my favourite Slayer second comes early within the recreation. He’s being held in stasis by his alien masters as they don’t need to deploy him and thereby draw Hell’s consideration. He’s compelled to observe as his human allies are overrun, and he’s so overcome with rage that he’s capable of briefly break the chains that bind him. You could possibly be forgiven for believing the Slayer is pushed by the need to conquer Hell, however that’s solely partly true. In The Darkish Ages, he’s simply as a lot a lover as he’s a fighter, and the most popular factor a person can do is rip and care.
The Darkish Ages is so good as a result of it brings out the child in me. Describing it to different folks makes me sound like a toddler making an attempt to clarify one thing that sounds nothing like what you’d count on from a Doom recreation as I ramble off occasions with no regard for shaping a coherent story. “After which, an enormous mancubus appeared, and I parried its blast with my protect after which a bolt of lightning got here down from the sky and it killed a bunch of demons. And it was superior.”