All hell has broken loose…again. I’m of course referring to the recent launch of DOOM: The Dark Ages, which has felt like a longtime coming, with Eternal having launched back in March 202 we0, back during the start of the pandemic.

It was a shitty time, to say the least

Dark times indeed, though we move from the dark times to The Dark Ages, which is looking to do the near impossible task of following up Eternal, which was by many accounts a great success with how the game continued to capitalize on the core gameplay of Doom 2016, which itself was seen as an excellent return to form of the Doom formula. I think one of the startling notions Eternal brought to the mix was indeed a mix-up of sorts to the traditional run and gun style that has helped to earn Doom and Doom likes the moniker “Boomer Shooter”, in equal parts to show the antiquated style of gameplay’s age, but also as a way to possibly alert old school fans they will likely not be tripping over the modern day inconveniences that often litter and leave trashed the battlefields of our current day under heaps of financial garbage and loathable refuse.

But one example of the modern day inconveniences
I speak of

Which won’t even be a remotely possible temptation this time around, not that Doom has been known to dip it’s toe into the pools of financial madness in such a way, though Dark Ages has forgone the need of multiplayer entirely this time around, with developers id focusing solely on the single player experience. Which is fair, as 2016’s multiplayer wasn’t even worth a mention till the 6.66 update, which still only brought the mode up to the speed of lagging behind every other shooter on the market, albeit while maintaining an entertainment factor. Eternal, in spite of it’s best efforts, was never able to make their asymmetrical demon vs Slayer mode ever stand out in a meaningful way.

How a screenshot like this encapsulates an experience
that qualifies as pedestrian seems absurdly improbable

Which, once again, brings us to focus on The Dark Ages, and what it brings to the table. Keeping in mind this is more of a vibe check article and not one I consider a full blown preview, I still wanted to kind of grapple with some of the more immediate intricacies The Dark Ages (TDA) was serving up in it’s first three levels, as it became apparent from moment one how developer id has shifted it’s focuses in terms of the minute to minute.

That turn of phrase mentioned just now is a fitting one in our approach to understanding the temporal spacing TDA occupies, as it falls in line with a notion I’ve borrowed from the philosopher Hegel in the past, and his idea of “the pendulum swing” in critiquing shifting ideologies re-appropriated for game design critiques in this instance. The notion I speak of entails the idea that our shared reality normally has massive shifts in movements and perspectives over time, swinging in extremity from one side to another in response to the previous ages ways in a moment of self correction. When this notion is applied to the notion of gameplay from one title to another, you essentially see developers course correct in response to negative feedback or the success of the game itself, giving way to trying something new, and TDA represents the pendulum at it’s center most point for the modern Doom trilogy. In-between either apex of the pendulums furthest swing, TDA looks to stabilize the momentum between Doom 2016 and Eternal, by being the middle ground of the two. More than just the mindless simplicity of run and gun, but far more down to Earth than the high flying shenanigans Eternal’s acrobatic sense of swift wonderment brought about with it.

A successful romp through one of Eternal’s varied
demonic gauntlets feeling like some hellish version of
a Cirque de Soleil performance where you somehow
played the part of every acrobat within the theater of
the damned

Which I think does become kind of a focal point from which the entire experience pivots upon, contributing in a big way to either make or break the engagement level of any player with a more rigid mindset of what they prefer and what kind of entertainment they seek. With TDA not being quite as brutally simplistic in approach to the bare bones design of what 2016 offered up, which even the creative director Hugo Martin pointed out became far too repetitive by games end, and no where near as chaotically frenetic as the perpetual motion that the gameplay loop Eternal possessed, one of which even left me with the posit Eternal became almost an action-shooter as opposed to a traditional FPS.

With all of these sentiments kept in mind and considered as an amalgam of energy experienced as a result of Eternal’s machinations, we saw a sizable portion of the player base feeling the game was too demanding in how it wanted the player to go about their slaughter sprees, thus prompting the next pendulum swing in which id followed through with in moving forward to the follow up title. TDA occupies some strange place in the middle of both previous Doom games, somewhat methodical without the anchored posturing of purely gun driven gameplay, while attempting to maintain the energetic edge of constant combat combos that pushed players to be kept on their toes at all times. TDA pushes this notion in new ways, by introducing both a defensive mechanism (a chainsaw shield) that can be used offensively, along side a parry, defensive maneuvering which can unleash offensive havoc when used in appropriate conjunction with your full arsenal, all of this in the name of countering hell’s demonic forces with in the vein of some stylistic timed countering.

Parrying…so hot right now

If we hearken back to the conceptual middle ground TDA is seemingly set on standing it’s ground with in it’s approach of carving out a niche betwixt it’s two predecessors, you quickly realize this middle ground TDA is hellbent in occupying is indeed a compromise between the two modes of design. The saying “the best compromise is one in which no one is happy” may turn out to be a damning indictment in limiting the potential capabilities of success TDA is able to meaningfully expound upon, and a sentiment I look forward to deconstructing further.

~Pashford

(Legacy ATE)