Doom: The Dark Ages could be the weird sequel the series needs

Following Doom’s revelatory reboot in 2016 and its greater however not essentially higher sequel in 2020, Doom: The Darkish Ages is doing precisely what it must do: getting centered, and getting a lil’ bizarre with it. With its dramatic shift in setting and its emphasis on toe-to-toe demon punch-outs, it seems like a tough left flip for the sequence. However after my time with the demo construct at a current in-person preview occasion, I imagine The Darkish Ages’ additions to the Doom 2016 formulation are thematically and mechanically cohesive, and furthermore, they’re actually goddamn enjoyable.

Doom (2016) was an train in mechanical purity. It weaved effortlessly between frantic enviornment fight and environmental exploration, identical to its 1993 namesake. Its massive addition to the formulation was the Glory Kill, a melee finisher that primarily turned wounded enemies into well being packs, encouraging you to at all times keep within the battle. The sport succeeded on its propellant fight design, however misplaced some steam within the again half, by which level it had handed you all of its weapons, launched all your demonic foes, and granted your one massive motion improve within the type of a double soar.

Doom Everlasting constructed on the 2016 Doom’s groundwork, including hundreds extra stuff. On high of the standard unfold of huge weapons, you had an arm blade, double jumps, air dashes, a shoulder-mounted flamethrower (which might additionally shoot ice grenades), a laser claymore, and one thing referred to as the “Blood Punch.” Whereas that massive pile of recent mechanics allowed for a extra regular drip feed of treats over its playtime, it additionally by no means felt as elegant or centered as its predecessor.

Doom: The Darkish Ages feels nearer to the candy spot. It performs much less like Everlasting’s offspring and extra like its bizarre youthful sibling. One other, completely different evolution of 2016’s design, constructed contemporary atop its basis. You continue to run quick, discover keycards, and shoot demons, however id Software program has stripped away the shoulder-mounted flamethrowers, air dashes, and Blood Punches, and changed them with a bunch of recent programs — and this time, these additions really feel well intertwined with one another, and thematically at dwelling within the new darkish fantasy sci-fi setting.

The Doom Slayer’s new buzzsaw-bladed protect is the centerpiece of this mechanical streamlining. It’s at all times there, in your left hand, and it’s at all times justifying the area it takes up on the display. Its most simple operate is as a protect. Think about that. You’ll be able to elevate it to cowl your self as you advance beneath fireplace. Its barely much less fundamental operate is as a tennis racket. A fast faucet of the protect button parries inexperienced projectiles again at foes in addition to repelling the melee assaults you’ll be seeing much more of in The Darkish Ages. The designers clearly need you to stand up shut and private on this one, and your personal melee assaults have obtained a severe buff to that finish.

How do you stand up shut and private? You utilize your protect. Your protection instrument can also be a motion instrument, outfitted with a protect sprint that locks onto an enemy and zippers you towards them astoundingly quick. If you arrive, you unleash a shock wave that turns smaller demons to stick. However greater demons would possibly wish to go just a few rounds. As you commerce blows, you would possibly discover you’ve burned via your restricted inventory of melee strikes. How do you restock? As soon as once more, you utilize your protect. Profitable parries refill your melee prices, so skillful protection turns you right into a perpetual violence machine.

If that’s not sufficient, you can even chuck the bladed protect at unhealthy guys to lock them down. An enemy together with your buzzsaw protect lodged of their head gained’t essentially die, however they’ll be stunlocked till you recall your protect. It’s a helpful trick for taking a extra highly effective demon out of the battle for just a few seconds when you give attention to cleansing up the cannon fodder.

Assigning so most of the new mechanics to the protect, an object that’s at all times on the display, is fairly sensible. It meant I by no means as soon as forgot about my new skills as I scrapped via every chaotic encounter. If I obtained torn up by a Mancubus’ plasma orbs or a Cyberdemon’s vitality sword, the instrument I wanted was proper there, bobbing to the left of the crosshairs — however the precise utility of that instrument was as much as me. I used to be always pondering and making selections about methods to weave the protect into my fight circulation, whether or not for motion, protection, or offense.

Talking of offense: The weapons are good. I performed with mainstays just like the fight shotgun and plasma rifle, however my favorites had been the arsenal of comically brutal medieval contraptions. From a seemingly bottomless journal, the Pulverizer feeds rune-inscribed skulls right into a churning grinder, creating a relentless spray of bone flechettes in a horizontal line. The Chainshot prices up and fires a retractable iron ball. The Impaler launches huge railroad spikes that pin demons to partitions. Even the Shredder, which initially seems like a reskinned machine gun, achieves new mechanical complexity when it’s been upgraded. After making use of a swappable weapon mod, it will probably super-heat targets with concentrated fireplace, and people piping-hot demons could be detonated with a well-placed protect throw.

That’s what I discover most promising about Doom: The Darkish Ages. I can’t speak about one aspect of it for lengthy earlier than I’m speaking about the way it connects immediately to a different aspect, and the way that aspect connects to a different and one other. Inside its fight design, there’s a intelligent economic system at play, designed to reward you for utilizing the breadth of its instruments. Thumbing via the upgrades menu, it appears there’s even a little bit of room for buildcrafting — speccing mods and expertise to use synergies that improve your specific play type.

Doom: The Darkish Ages’ willingness to attempt one thing new is charming, and for a franchise that has been booted and rebooted, it is perhaps vital. We’ve been to Mars. We’ve been to hell. We’ve been to hell on Earth! I didn’t doubt that id might squeeze one other serving to of enjoyable from Doom, however I wasn’t actually itching to see the Doomguy return to E1M1 for an emotional homecoming. It actually seems like the liberty to forge a brand new path is maintaining the builders considering their very own work. The weapons, world, and monsters of The Darkish Ages drip with the form of adolescent enthusiasm you solely see when an artist is given permission to get a bit bizarre. In the meantime, the implementation of recent mechanics appears even handed and considerate.

Whether or not the brand new method will coalesce into an important recreation is but to be seen, however I’m excited to search out out when Doom: The Darkish Ages launches on Might 15.