I never anticipated that Doom: The Dark Ages would evoke memories of Halo 3, yet halfway through a hands-on demo with id Software's gothic prequel, I found myself mounted on a cyborg dragon, unleashing a barrage of machine gun fire against a demonic battle barge. After destroying its defensive turrets, I landed my beast on the ship, charged through its lower decks, and turned the crew into a bloody mess. Moments later, the warmachine was obliterated as I burst through its 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 similarity to Master Chief's assault on the Covenant's scarab tanks. The helicopter-like Hornet has been replaced by a holographic-winged dragon, and the giant laser-firing mech by an occult flying boat, but the essence remains: an aerial assault transitioning into a devastating boarding action. Surprisingly, this wasn't the only moment that echoed Halo. While the combat core of The Dark Ages is unmistakably Doom, the campaign's design has a distinct "late-2000s shooter" feel, with its elaborate cutscenes and emphasis on gameplay novelty.
Over 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 aforementioned dragon, and navigating a wide-open battlefield filled with secrets and powerful minibosses. This marks a significant departure from Doom's traditional focus on mechanical purity, instead resembling the likes of Halo, Call of Duty, and even old James Bond games like Nightfire, which are known for their scripted setpieces and novel mechanics.
This direction is intriguing for Doom, especially considering the series once veered away from such elements. The cancelled Doom 4 was set to resemble Call of Duty, not just in its modern military aesthetic but also in its focus on characters, cinematic storytelling, and scripted events. After years of development, id Software decided these ideas didn't fit the series, opting instead for the more focused Doom (2016). Yet, here we are in 2025, with The Dark Ages embracing these elements.
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 knightly brothers-in-arms of the Doom Slayer. The Slayer is portrayed as a terrifying legend, a nuclear-level threat. While this lore is familiar to Doom enthusiasts who have delved into the prior games' codex entries, the deeply cinematic approach feels new and reminiscent of Halo. This continues into the levels, with NPC Night Sentinels scattered throughout the environment, similar to UNSC Marines. Although they don't fight alongside you in the levels I played, there's a stronger sense of being part of an army, much like Master Chief leading the charge.
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 Eternal. However, the cutscenes in The Dark Ages serve their purpose well: they set up missions without interrupting Doom's signature intense flow.
There are other interruptions, though. After the opening mission, which starts with pure 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 a cybernetic dragon, taking down battle barges and gun emplacements. These tightly scripted levels create a significant shift, introducing gameplay ideas reminiscent of Call of Duty's most memorable sequences, such as Modern Warfare's AC-130 gunship mission or Infinite Warfare's dogfighting. The Atlan is slow and heavy, making Hell's armies look like Warhammer miniatures, while the dragon is fast and agile, offering a different experience that feels far removed from classic Doom.
Many of the best FPS campaigns thrive on this variety. Half-Life 2 and Titanfall 2 set the standard, while Halo's mix of vehicular and on-foot sequences adds rich texture. However, I'm uncertain if this will work for Doom. The Dark Ages, like Eternal, is a complex shooter that demands 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 on-rails experiences with combat engagements resembling 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, akin to a middle school guitar student playing alongside Eddie Van Halen. While Doom's core combat remains the star, when I'm beating a giant demon with a rocket-powered mech punch, I shouldn't be longing to return to the ground with a double-barreled shotgun.
My final hour of play introduced "Siege," a level that refocuses on id's exceptional gunplay but expands Doom's typically claustrophobic level design into a vast open battlefield. The goal, to destroy five Gore Portals, echoes Call of Duty's multi-objective missions, yet it also reminded me of Halo—the grand scale of this map versus the tighter routes of the opening level evokes the contrast between Halo's interior and exterior environments. Here, the excellent core shooter systems are given new context in larger spaces, requiring you to rethink the effective range of every weapon, use charge attacks to close vast distances, and employ the shield to deflect artillery from oversized tank cannons.
Expanding Doom's playspace can lead to unfocused moments—I found myself backtracking and looping through empty pathways, which disrupts the pace. I would have liked to see The Dark Ages incorporate the dragon more, using it like a Banshee to fly across the battlefield, rain down fire, and dive into miniboss battles, maintaining the pace and integrating the dragon more seamlessly.
Despite the overall shape of the full campaign, I'm fascinated by the resurrection and reinterpretation of ideas once deemed unsuitable for the series. Little of the cancelled Doom 4 was released, but a 2013 Kotaku report mentioned "scripted set pieces" and an "obligatory vehicle scene," which is exactly what we see in the Atlan and dragon sections—mechanically simple scripted sequences reminiscent of Xbox 360-era shooters.
In a 2016 Noclip interview, id Software's Marty Stratton confirmed that Doom 4 was "much closer to something like [Call of Duty]. A lot more cinematic, a lot more story to it. A lot more characters around you that you are with throughout the course of the gameplay." All of this was scrapped, making it intriguing to see these elements return in The Dark Ages. The campaign features large boarding action setpieces, lushly rendered cinematics, a broader cast of characters, and significant lore reveals.
AnswerSee ResultsThe question now is: were these ideas always a bad fit for Doom, or were they just ill-suited when they resembled Call of Duty too closely? While part of me remains skeptical, I'm also excited about id Software's attempt to integrate these elements into the modern Doom formula.
The core of The Dark Ages remains its on-foot, gun-in-hand combat. Nothing in the demo suggested it wouldn't be the centerpiece, and everything I played confirmed it's another fantastic reinvention of Doom's core. I believe this alone could support an entire campaign, but 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 more 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?
