Doom: The Dark Ages |OT| Mod City

After playing The Dark Ages for five hours, frankly, I have mixed feelings. Is it a bad game? No, it's quite good, actually. It has a lot of work put into it and it has its moments, that's for sure.

That said, in an attempt to please everyone it has become a game for no one. If there's a concept of "overengineering", then TDA has had an "overdevelopment".

- The game has a surprising amount of story, namedropping, some characters and factions, but strictly speaking I don't give a flying frag about them at all and those resources would have been better spent elsewhere
- The art is still divine and the game works well for me (HDR is especially good), but TDA looks hardly 2 GPU generations better than Eternal. Forced ray-tracing is used here only to save development time at the cost of optimization, and technically the game became somewhat lesser. The system of dynamic gibs is tamer and the number of unique combat animations dropped by a lot.
- Gameplay-wise, game simultaneously collects all the errors of Eternal and all the boredom of 2016. Yes, they've removed the Super Mario Bros jumping puzzles, but at the same time they've completely lost the main achievement of Eternal: insane mobility. Absolutely everything movement-wise is reduced to a shield with a cooldown and you are actually chained until it recharges and cannot move around the arena. Jumping is also nerfed significantly. That would be much less annoying if the arenas were less cworded. Typically, enemies can easily corner you and spam several attacks of different colors in a second. And they hit you in the back without indication and take off the hp to zero. This is not a skill issue, it's just chaos. That being said the parry windows are wider than Atlantic Ocean and the game even on ultra nightmare is more tedious than hard.
- All this spam of color-coded attacks, different types of enemy shields and enemy patterns actually reduces to zero creativity and freedom of playstyle. You can fight off or penetrate certain enemies with a strictly defined weapon or method, the game literally dictates you how to play correctly. At later stages it's simply not fun.
- There isn't enough ammo for any kind of long gunfight, and the radius of all the guns has been reduced to the shotgun radius of other games. Aside from the railgun, not even the stabber shoots that far.
- The music is there, I guess. That's all there is to say about it. Mick Gordon in the background could add a point to my score because game becomes definitely better even with Eternal score. Music is also bugged? Some segments are too silent and some random sounds are too damn loud.
- Levels became bigger, yet much simpler. All these huge empty spaces just killed the complexity of levels from Eternal and 2016. Maybe it gets better after the certain point, I dunno.
- All these attempts to 'make gameplay more varied' came down to completely cheesy two-button segments with a dragon and a mech, and even there they managed to add ripostes and attacks of different colors.

In short, the game has a lot of mechanics (some of them are even good), but most of them are strictly melee-based. Shooting in TDA is quite secondary in nature and often does not really determine the flow of the battle. There is no mobility and you basically play as a tank build from Souls game, not the Doom Slayer. So far, you just grind through the game with two attacks: your fist (and even then you have limited ammo ffs) and a chainshield. On the fifth hour this is getting boring.

There's tons of content in this game, tons of stuff, but it just doesn't add up to a cohesive picture or gameplay philosophy. I feel after meme-reviews like "DOOM IS SO COOL" will die down The Dark Ages will be considered quite controversial entry in the series.
 
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I would imagine the first hours will be the most boring. Same thing happens in Eternal with it's first few levels. Personally I didn't fall in love with that game until the Cultist Base which I think is the third level.

ShaiKhulud1989 said:
The game has a surprising amount of story, namdropping, some characters and factions, but strictly speaking I don't give a flying frag about them at all and those resources would have been better spent elsewhere
Click to expand...
This is the weirdest thing. It already started with Eternal and even if I LOVE that game I didn't give a fuck about the story, just thought that Daisy being there was funny and moved on. Who thought that DOOM needed MCU levels of lore and story? I just want a lonely tech base in mars to shoot demons in with a few portals to hell, nothing else.

Oh and thanks for the lengthy review! Appreciated.

Kacho said:
Click to expand...

Infernal Chasm (track 14) is the shit. Any other bangers of that calliber? Some of the previous tracks are kinda meh.
 
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SnapShot said:
Slay

GOXc-D8-PXAAIz-YWU.jpg
Click to expand...
how-you-doin-joey.gif
 
ShaiKhulud1989 said:
- The game has a surprising amount of story, namedropping, some characters and factions, but strictly speaking I don't give a flying frag about them at all and those resources would have been better spent elsewhere
Click to expand...
god! what i was afraid of, zero idea why they are so invested in their stupid, convoluted mess of lore and narrative. just keep it basic
 
lmao, saw the install as 17gb and was pretty impressed. Didn't realize that was for the fuggin artbook and soundtrack….
Actual install is 77.5 gb, on Xbox at least. Got the next two days off with this and the Sinking City UE5 remaster, good times.
 
Played a bit last night. Completely different than Eternal or Doom 2016, but closer to 2016. Shield bash is fun, areas are big with lots of secrets, so far it lacks that "Wow" factor of either game, but still enjoyable. Lack of Glory Kills is very disappointing so far, it really made the other Doom games feel visceral, rhythmic, and satisfying. Punching dazed enemies just isn't the same as ripping them in half with your bare hands.
 
ShaiKhulud1989 said:
After playing The Dark Ages for five hours, frankly, I have mixed feelings. Is it a bad game? No, it's quite good, actually. It has a lot of work put into it and it has its moments, that's for sure.

That said, in an attempt to please everyone it has become a game for no one. If there's a concept of "overengineering", then TDA has had an "overdevelopment".

- The game has a surprising amount of story, namedropping, some characters and factions, but strictly speaking I don't give a flying frag about them at all and those resources would have been better spent elsewhere
- The art is still divine and the game works well for me (HDR is especially good), but TDA looks hardly 2 GPU generations better than Eternal. Forced ray-tracing is used here only to save development time at the cost of optimization, and technically the game became somewhat lesser. The system of dynamic gibs is tamer and the number of unique combat animations dropped by a lot.
- Gameplay-wise, game simultaneously collects all the errors of Eternal and all the boredom of 2016. Yes, they've removed the Super Mario Bros jumping puzzles, but at the same time they've completely lost the main achievement of Eternal: insane mobility. Absolutely everything movement-wise is reduced to a shield with a cooldown and you are actually chained until it recharges and cannot move around the arena. Jumping is also nerfed significantly. That would be much less annoying if the arenas were less cworded. Typically, enemies can easily corner you and spam several attacks of different colors in a second. And they hit you in the back without indication and take off the hp to zero. This is not a skill issue, it's just chaos. That being said the parry windows are wider than Atlantic Ocean and the game even on ultra nightmare is more tedious than hard.
- All this spam of color-coded attacks, different types of enemy shields and enemy patterns actually reduces to zero creativity and freedom of playstyle. You can fight off or penetrate certain enemies with a strictly defined weapon or method, the game literally dictates you how to play correctly. At later stages it's simply not fun.
- There isn't enough ammo for any kind of long gunfight, and the radius of all the guns has been reduced to the shotgun radius of other games. Aside from the railgun, not even the stabber shoots that far.
- The music is there, I guess. That's all there is to say about it. Mick Gordon in the background could add a point to my score because game becomes definitely better even with Eternal score. Music is also bugged? Some segments are too silent and some random sounds are too damn loud.
- Levels became bigger, yet much simpler. All these huge empty spaces just killed the complexity of levels from Eternal and 2016. Maybe it gets better after the certain point, I dunno.
- All these attempts to 'make gameplay more varied' came down to completely cheesy two-button segments with a dragon and a mech, and even there they managed to add ripostes and attacks of different colors.

In short, the game has a lot of mechanics (some of them are even good), but most of them are strictly melee-based. Shooting in TDA is quite secondary in nature and often does not really determine the flow of the battle. There is no mobility and you basically play as a tank build from Souls game, not the Doom Slayer. So far, you just grind through the game with two attacks: your fist (and even then you have limited ammo ffs) and a chainshield. On the fifth hour this is getting boring.

There's tons of content in this game, tons of stuff, but it just doesn't add up to a cohesive picture or gameplay philosophy. I feel after meme-reviews like "DOOM IS SO COOL" will die down The Dark Ages will be considered quite controversial entry in the series.
Click to expand...
cant believe this... but I think it's a skip for me. I disliked Eternal (well ok I finished it but it was mid to me)
 
I always appreciate the maps in Doom games. Its easy to see where youve been and where you need to go. And where the items you havent picked up yet are located!
 
Definitely liking it more and more, I'm not too far from the halfway point. I came across some weird music bug or something though where the music was just.... completely gone the entire stage, lol.
 
It seems my CPU is suffering from degradation and i wont be able to play this until i fix the issue, have fun everyone
 
I love the differing opinions on this series. I loved 16 & really loved Eternal(my fav FPS). Only through level 1 & it looks very promising. Only modern FPS series I care to play.

Stinks they couldn't work something out with Mick but hopefully will be a small gripe for the duration of my playthrough.

I think the shield bash is meant to be used as often as possible to maximize mobility. Get surrounded? Shield bash away.

Yea parrying at level 3/5 is a little too easy but I'm good with that. Most of the projectiles are slow too. Still feels satisfying.
 
Spukc said:
The biggest noticeable absence is honestly the soundtrack. Too often I have found myself in levels where no music or music in the background. This tied with the slower pace of the combat makes the game feel significantly weaker in the game play department. You just don't realise how much of an affect Mick Gordon's soundtracks had on the game play on the previous two until it is gone. There just isn't enough, and the existing amount, is good, but it doesn't feel like doom and is far too lacking.

Example, I had a boss fight that had gold armour that I had to deflect its attacks back at it, on ultra violence it was significantly too easy, I spent a lot of the time waiting for the boss to attack and then to top it all off, there was no boss music or anything.
Click to expand...
Something like this happened to me on a rider in gold armor. No music on a really intense segment was weird. Soundtrack can be good, but it doesn't hit nearly as hard as Mick Gordon's work. I think they underestimated how much of the new-DOOM identity is wrapped up in his music.
---
I'm probably about 4-5hrs in and the game is quite good. It's like demon pinball and heavily based around the shield. This is a DOOM: Captain America game. We'll see how that holds up in the long run.
 
Looks interesting. But I haven't played any id game since they fucked up with Mick Gordon. Will probably pass on this too.
 
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I played for about an hour. I'm positively surprised.

I'm in the camp of people who couldn't get into Doom: Eternal. It was too chaotic, had too much resource management, too much platforming, and too many enemies and projectiles. Playing Eternal felt like work for me. If ADHD was a video game, this was it.

Now, in Dark Ages, I still don't care for the story right now, and that is fine. The Slayer feels nimble while also giving off "tank" vibes. It feels perfect. The shield mechanics are fun and, much more importantly, have implications for traversal that keep you zipping around the battlefield.

There are plenty of enemies, but there isn't that constant, overbearing barrage as there was in Eternal. The Middle Ages aesthetic mixed with science fiction works very well for Doom. So far, I don't feel like I need to keep tabs on 10 different ressources and gauges.

This feels, so far, much more like Doom 2016 with new twists. And in fact, it feels much more like classic Doom than Eternal so far. And I absolutely love the constant glory kills being gone, those got old in the last game.
 
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ShaiKhulud1989 said:
After playing The Dark Ages for five hours, frankly, I have mixed feelings. Is it a bad game? No, it's quite good, actually. It has a lot of work put into it and it has its moments, that's for sure.

That said, in an attempt to please everyone it has become a game for no one. If there's a concept of "overengineering", then TDA has had an "overdevelopment".

- The game has a surprising amount of story, namedropping, some characters and factions, but strictly speaking I don't give a flying frag about them at all and those resources would have been better spent elsewhere
- The art is still divine and the game works well for me (HDR is especially good), but TDA looks hardly 2 GPU generations better than Eternal. Forced ray-tracing is used here only to save development time at the cost of optimization, and technically the game became somewhat lesser. The system of dynamic gibs is tamer and the number of unique combat animations dropped by a lot.
- Gameplay-wise, game simultaneously collects all the errors of Eternal and all the boredom of 2016. Yes, they've removed the Super Mario Bros jumping puzzles, but at the same time they've completely lost the main achievement of Eternal: insane mobility. Absolutely everything movement-wise is reduced to a shield with a cooldown and you are actually chained until it recharges and cannot move around the arena. Jumping is also nerfed significantly. That would be much less annoying if the arenas were less cworded. Typically, enemies can easily corner you and spam several attacks of different colors in a second. And they hit you in the back without indication and take off the hp to zero. This is not a skill issue, it's just chaos. That being said the parry windows are wider than Atlantic Ocean and the game even on ultra nightmare is more tedious than hard.
- All this spam of color-coded attacks, different types of enemy shields and enemy patterns actually reduces to zero creativity and freedom of playstyle. You can fight off or penetrate certain enemies with a strictly defined weapon or method, the game literally dictates you how to play correctly. At later stages it's simply not fun.
- There isn't enough ammo for any kind of long gunfight, and the radius of all the guns has been reduced to the shotgun radius of other games. Aside from the railgun, not even the stabber shoots that far.
- The music is there, I guess. That's all there is to say about it. Mick Gordon in the background could add a point to my score because game becomes definitely better even with Eternal score. Music is also bugged? Some segments are too silent and some random sounds are too damn loud.
- Levels became bigger, yet much simpler. All these huge empty spaces just killed the complexity of levels from Eternal and 2016. Maybe it gets better after the certain point, I dunno.
- All these attempts to 'make gameplay more varied' came down to completely cheesy two-button segments with a dragon and a mech, and even there they managed to add ripostes and attacks of different colors.

In short, the game has a lot of mechanics (some of them are even good), but most of them are strictly melee-based. Shooting in TDA is quite secondary in nature and often does not really determine the flow of the battle. There is no mobility and you basically play as a tank build from Souls game, not the Doom Slayer. So far, you just grind through the game with two attacks: your fist (and even then you have limited ammo ffs) and a chainshield. On the fifth hour this is getting boring.

There's tons of content in this game, tons of stuff, but it just doesn't add up to a cohesive picture or gameplay philosophy. I feel after meme-reviews like "DOOM IS SO COOL" will die down The Dark Ages will be considered quite controversial entry in the series.
Click to expand...
I really get the feeling that this game wont do that well sales wise.
People kinda getting bored of Doom again
 
I have finished the first level just now. I am feeling a bit underwhelmed. It feels maybe a bit more casual? I dont know, I have to continue playing but Eternal made a better impression for me in the first level
 
DarkStream said:
I played for about an hour. I'm positively surprised.

I'm in the camp of people who couldn't get into Doom: Eternal. It was too chaotic, had too much resource management, too much platforming, and too many enemies and projectiles. Playing Eternal felt like work for me. If ADHD was a video game, this was it.

Now, in Dark Ages, I still don't care for the story right now, and that is fine. The Slayer feels nimble while also giving off "tank" vibes. It feels perfect. The shield mechanics are fun and, much more importantly, have implications for traversal that keep you zipping around the battlefield.

There are plenty of enemies, but there isn't that constant, overbearing barrage as there was in Eternal. The Middle Ages aesthetic mixed with science fiction works very well for Doom. So far, I don't feel like I need to keep tabs on 10 different ressources and gauges.

This feels, so far, much more like Doom 2016 with new twists. And in fact, it feels much more like classic Doom than Eternal so far. And I absolutely love the constant glory kills being gone, those got old in the last game.
Click to expand...
I heard people saying that it still has more management than 2016, can you expand on that?

What do you manage in dark ages other than ammo?
 
Just booted it up again. Man, credit where credit due. The art direction and graphics on this are awesome. Game is pushing my 9070XT to the max. Looks and runs amazing.
 
Omg i want doom 2016 gameplay...omg i want doom eternal gameplay...omg why are they trying to change the formula? Whiners man. Game is great, shooting feels great and its a new formula, same shit gets boring. This game does things the others didnt and that give it its own identity. We will have the 2016 lovers, the eternal lovers and the dark ages lovers. The one thing in common ia that we are all Doom lovers so fuck the rest. Game is lit.
 
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Chuck Berry said:
welcome origin GIF
Click to expand...
It's funny how some people loved the glory kills in doom while they shat on boring, samey, pace destructing finishers in other games.

I personally hate the concept, imagine a frenetic fps where you have to stop every 10 sec for a lenghty finisher to get ammo or some shit, how the fuck is this old doom feeling? I only played doom on my snes when i was little and i don't remember any finisher whatsoever.
 
GymWolf said:
It's funny how some people loved the glory kills in doom while they shat on boring, samey, pace destructing finishers in other games.

I personally hate the concept, imagine a frenetic fps where you have to stop every 10 sec for a lenghty finisher to get ammo or some shit, how the fuck is this old doom feeling? I only played doom on my snes when i was little and i don't remember any finisher whatsoever.
Click to expand...
Don't worry, TDA replaces glory kills with constant and annoying AF slowmo.
 
Chuck Berry said:
welcome origin GIF
Click to expand...

Honestly I can understand people not wanting them. Is just that I found very satisfying executing enemies in the previous games. It was like a dopamine hit. Here, there are executions but they dont feel as cinematic, they are a little bit more generic
 
GymWolf said:
It's funny how some people loved the glory kills in doom while they shat on boring, samey, pace destructing finishers in other games.

I personally hate the concept, imagine a frenetic fps where you have to stop every 10 sec for a lenghty finisher to get ammo or some shit, how the fuck is this old doom feeling? I only played doom on my snes when i was little and i don't remember any finisher whatsoever.
Click to expand...
I just enjoy the glory kills because it allows me to reset and figure out what to do next. In such a fast paced game, I think that is good
 
Gonzito said:
Look



There is a list of modifiers, one of them is enemies reactivity and the other one projectiles speed, I think people are not realizing that you can make the game faster if you like
Click to expand...

that's because people buy a game assuming the game designers, you know, designed the game.
 
I agree with the recommendation to use auto-sprint. Only wish the sprint light-up border of the screen effect was less pronounced. Just started Siege. Seems like an open-world-ish segment. This shit rocks.
 
So in these wide open hub like areas, do enemies just constantly spawn in as you run from place to place or to each objective? Or is there a set amount and eventually you could be running across large, barren landscapes?
 
CrustyBritches said:
I agree with the recommendation to use auto-sprint. Only wish the sprint light-up border of the screen effect was less pronounced. Just started Siege. Seems like an open-world-ish segment. This shit rocks.
Click to expand...

I have read somewhere that you can remove this effect in settings I believe

Chuck Berry said:
So in these wide open hub like areas, do enemies just constantly spawn in as you run from place to place or to each objective? Or is there a set amount and eventually you could be running across large, barren landscapes?
Click to expand...

Sometimes due to progress in the mission you backtrack to some areas and they respawn, but normally no. Once you clear an area is clear
 
how it does on 3080 10gb?
Can I play on max settings with DLSS at least on balanced?
(I am considering getting it even still)

Is path tracing an option over ultra nightmare?
 
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Is there a hud info when the shieldthrow is replenished? I throw the shield but can't tell when it's ready again. Is there a cooldown indicator?
 
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Gonzito said:
I have read somewhere that you can remove this effect in settings I believe
Click to expand...
Yep. To turn off the sprint screen border effect it's Settings->UI->Screen Effects. Not sure what all effects aside from sprint that will disable, but with auto-sprint it's probably a necessary compromise.

This game isn't really slow like I thought. If Eternal was like Slayer on a skateboard, this is like Slayer pinball. Loving it.
 
Chuck Berry said:
And how do you feel about that? Is it boring? Is it relieving?
Click to expand...

I think it's a solid choice so far. I really like the shield, it makes combat feel dynamic, especially when there's a large gap between enemies and the Slayer. You can almost fly toward them thanks to the shield's mobility. I've configured the game so that enemies are aggressive, and it's very challenging, particularly with enemy projectiles set to the fastest speed.

The graphics are insanes, textures are crisp, DLSS4 looks spectacular and performance is excellent (though keep in mind I have a 4090, so take that with a grain of salt)

The only thing I miss is the glory kills, as I mentioned before. That said, I'm starting to warm up to the combat now and enjoying it more and more. The slayer feels like a tank, its heavy but very aggresive. Music and sound is good although sometimes it feels like the mixing is a little weird, the music is no loud enough

I'll keep reporting my progress.
 
GymWolf said:
I heard people saying that it still has more management than 2016, can you expand on that?

What do you manage in dark ages other than ammo?
Click to expand...
Since I'm only an hour in: nothing, really.
That might change later on.

  • Your gauntlet has charges. These recharge over time, or you can pick up items to charge them. It's not something I'm actively monitoring, and that works fine.
  • You can only throw your shield so often, but it recharges so quickly that it doesn't matter.You can only block so much with your shield, but that is pretty irrelevant as you shouldn't be blocking but parrying and shield bashing. The shield bash is also on a cooldown, but it's really quick. The shield doesn't use gasoline and the like.
  • I honestly have not thought about ammo once in my first hour (in contrast to Eternal...).
  • Glory kills give extra health, but so far I have always found plenty of health pickups on the battlefield.
So far, I'd say they work more with cooldowns that are relatively short instead of active ressource management of ammo, health, fuel etc. I mean, that is still there to an extent, but not as in your face as in Eternal. In Eternal, you literally die if you don't keep on top of ressource management.

I think people saying that this has more management going on than 2016 simply stems from the idea, that you have many more gameplay options, which automatically invokes "clutter" and ressource management. But as I said, so far it's not really in your face like Eternal.
 
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