[Final review] - [Doom The Dark Ages]
Its now 2025, the next highly coveted chapter, in the Slayers gut wrenching demon killing horror, is highly anticipated. That was until, Bethesda said, congrats, now there is a parrying mechanic, and we toned down the glory kills a bit.
People said WTF? As the title of the game suggests, this is the dark ages, we used shields then, so I guess it fits? I got 26-hours into the game thus far, and I truly believe that they dropped the BS I didn't like in the previous 2 Doom games, but kept what I did like from them.
DTDA still has arena battles as before, and the game will lock you into them, once you've crossed the trip wire threshold. But the previous games didn't have very large maps, so you felt like you were in tighter spaces. The maps in this game are so large, you feel like your playing an open world game, which I feel, is pretty cool.
It takes what I like in an open world game, but gets rid of the unrelenting RPG elements, where you feel like you have to run all the NPC's lives, cause they could never go to the bathroom, without you guiding them.
Some of the maps, I could tell they took ideas, from the forest maps in Halo 3. The game has a balance of natural Earthly style environments, and futuristic other worldly environments. Each map brings something new to experience, as such, I enjoy the map design, as much as I enjoy the gameplay.
Is your horrorscope mars, you'll enjoy being there as well. I've never played a Doom game, that had this level of geometric complexity, when on Ultra Nightmare graphics levels.
Do you love platforming? You'll be doing some of that in DTDA, and your shield will help you to parcore in different areas. You use this sometimes to get where you are going, at other times, to access secrets. The game won't always be on foot however, sometimes you'll be flying a dragon called Sarate, who has a body mounted canon, which delivers hot death, to anyone in range.
At other times, you'll be operating a giant mech called an Atlan, for which you will use to punch through barriers, and deliver the smackdown, to those pesky Titan class demons.
I honestly didn't mind the parrying mechanic, I felt the gameplay aspect of that was fun. It was nice putting the enemy in a daze like their high, then going in for the finisher. Once you've upgraded your shield with the saw, now you get to slice into your enemy, while shooting a shotgun up their butt.
There are multiple ways to reach 10 in the battles, and as you upgrade your weapons and capabilities, you can enjoy all the ways to kill a demon. Because lets be honest, your going to get payback for what they did to Daisy!
Who's that in my ear? Vega Omega, he's in my Slayer suit, telling me what my next objective is, so glad we have him, since were alone after the loss of Daisy. lol! Its not overdone however, so I don't mind. You get a lot more weapons in this game, some are great, some not so much.
Some appear to be more for show, doing limited damage, others doing high damage, while looking the part, and their not even fully upgraded yet. My favorite weapon in the game, is the plasma rifle, called an Accelerator. Later I acquired the double barrel version, Cycler, which does double the damage, which equals double the fun.
The ever popular combat shotgun, double barrel shotgun, rocket launcher, there all here, with some new new weapons added, like the shredder, impailer, the chainbolt. Nothing like launching a steel weighted heavy ball attached to a chain, into a demon to remind him your there.
There are also multiple types of melee attacks you can choose from. As you progress through the game, new options will become available to you. In essence, you choose your method of melee attacks, not the game.
Many people are sad, about the loss of Mick Gordan, who was famous for the awesome electric guitar shredding, that composed the music in Doom 2016. Unfortunately, due to contract agreements, and him getting screwed over, he got replaced by the time Doom Eternal was released, and the change in music style showed, and not for the better.
In DTDA, they brought in Finishing Move, who's composers comprised of Brian Trifon and Brian Lee White. And while the music is no Mick Gordan, I actually really liked the music in the game, and probably the best were going to get these days.
The graphics are the best of any Doom game, IMO. Here's the thing though, in order to enjoy all the graphics setting's set to Ultra Nightmare on a 4K screen, you need a powerful computer, with at least an Nvidia 3080 GPU, and yes, RTX is required, as is the 580 driver. So, with that said, if your still rocking a GTX card, Bethesda says get out, RTX only club.
Even if you only have a 1080P capable setup, your going to be lowering your graphics settings, cause if all your running is a 3060, 4060, 5060 GPU, you will not enjoy the FPS you get, and you'll hope and pray DLSS turned on, will save you. DTDA brings next gen graphics.
I have an Intel 10870H 8-Core 16-Thread CPU, an Nvidia 3080 16GB-VRAM GPU, and 32GB of DDR4 PC3200-MHZ system RAM. Setting everything to Ultra Nightmare graphics levels on a 4K 144-HZ monitor, I was only getting 35-FPS. Turning on Adaptive Resolution, Present From Compute, and activating DLSS set to Ultra Performance, is what gained me between 60-FPS, to 95-FPS.
The game looks amazing at these levels. If you can budget it, to gain 144-FPS, I would really recommend a modern system that has an Nvidia 4080 or 5080 GPU. Either that, or lower the graphics settings, or run a 1440P (AKA 2K) setup.
Considering that my computer is 4-years old, I am plenty happy with the performance I'm getting, you just have to set your expectations to be reasonable, based on the machine you have. Getting 60-FPS is glass smooth, 75-FPS average is slick, and 80-FPS or above, is as smooth as an oil slick, so I'm happy!
I love that there are lots of GPU settings to choose from. Thank goodness for the invention of DLSS with AI, cause 35-FPS is not going to cut it, its great for traditional film movies, but in video, that's chugging!
Speaking of which, the accessibility options are equally thorough, for which I appreciate! I won't go deeply into it, but I suffered a situation that partially disabled my left hand, which you need to move around in PC games.
I was able to set those options up, as well as tune the difficulty setting, so I could actually enjoy the game. Previous Doom games didn't care about those with disabilities. I was happy to see, that DTDA was different, and allowed someone like me to play it.
Are you someone who appreciates the story lore of Doom? Worry not Doom fans, cause DTDA is loaded with story lore, for you to read, in the form of Codes pages. Do you have the physical copies of pas written Doom books?
Well, there is more to strain your eyeballs on so enjoy. Speaking of story, DTDA takes place after Doom 64, and before the modern Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal games. Thus, it will fill in that juicy Slayer lore you crave.
In conclusion: Is DTDA 100% classic Doom, NO! Is DTDA 100% modern Doom Eternal style, NO! DTDA is a game that I feel, falls in-between the classics & modern, combining elements of both genre's. Its got just about everything you would want from a modern Doom game.
Some like the parrying mechanic, some don't, I however don't mind it at all, as it just adds to the overall gameplay of Doom. The dev's made the game challenging, but it can be only as challenging as you want it. I would 100% recommend DTDA, to any Doom fan. Now, attach those upgraded skins to your weapons, lets seek justice for Daisy!
