The Medieval Madness of ‘Doom: The Dark Ages’ [Monster Mania]
Monster Mania is a monthly column celebrating the unique and varied monster designs in horror gaming.
The Doom franchise has always been synonymous with demons and black metal. The series has made its bones on a gruesome bestiary whose ilk pairs classic demonic abominations with cybernetics, creating some of the most memorable monsters in all of gaming. However, after 30 years of dominating the horror FPS space, but having had few significant additions to its hellish roster, I felt like Doom was failing to capitalize on demonic monster designs as it once had.
And in typical id Software fashion, the latest instance of wading knee deep through hell, Doom: The Dark Ages, is precisely the flail to the face brutality infusion that the granddaddy of demonic shooters needed. A sequel that, despite what the naysayers expounded before its release, is so much more than a simple reskin of its predecessors. And while this new dark ages sci-fi infused aesthetic is notably front and center, as with all methodically designed monsters, this new drastic art style switch-up is but the beginning of revamping the series’ iconic demons.
Even before discussing the aesthetic changes, enemy identification is of the utmost importance in a shooter such as Doom. Being able to identify enemies in a split second, prompting players to access their internal Rolodex for monsters’ combat capabilities, is vital to the flow of surviving demon hordes. So, if you’re going to change these classic designs, you have to enhance their design flavor while not erasing their identity.
And in this regard, Doom: The Dark Ages demons are nothing short of a black metal album art come to life. First and foremost, if you’re going to recycle monsters from previous series entries, you do it precisely as Doom: The Dark Ages has. Demon’s new medieval era-inspired look adds a hellish touch, which may include period-appropriate shackles and rusted armor. However, id Software’s approach to redesigns is more than just cosmetic; they also impact gameplay.
It would be one thing for the Revenant’s redesign to have simply traded its jet pack and shoulder-mounted rockets for its grim reaper hood and dual-wielded sickles. However, instead of missiles, the Revenant now fires ethereal skull projectiles and has moments of invulnerability that extend the life of this harasser enemy type. Meanwhile, the beloved Pinky Demon is no longer riding solo and has been renamed the Pinky Rider, as an energy-blasting demon now mounts it. The addition of the rider essentially doubles Pinky’s lifespan, while also providing it with a new ranged means of attack. And then there are series favorites such as the Imp Stalker, which may seem more familiar than some of its demonic brethren; however, that’s the brilliance of the subtlety of the demon’s design. Imp Stalkers are not only more ferocious in appearance, but their classic attack pattern now feeds directly into the game’s new “stand and fight” methodology.
If I’m being honest, Doom: The Dark Ages‘ “stand and fight” mantra initially came across like PR jargon. After all, Doom is all about circle strafing at high speeds while letting your firearm of choice rip, before getting up close and personal to give a demon a face full of buckshot. However, how this mantra and the newly introduced hell surges are used revitalizes the deadliness of even the most familiar of Doom’s demons.
Doom: The Dark Ages‘ stand and fight emphasis removes the frantic verticality of its predecessor, Doom: Eternal. Leading the charge for this new approach to combat is the latest addition to the Doom Slayer’s arsenal, the shield saw. Have you ever wondered what it’d be like if Captain America could decapitate foes with his shield? No? Well, that’s your problem, but for horror sickos like myself, Doom: The Dark Ages seamlessly facilitates this fantasy in the series’ biggest gameplay shake-up since 2016’s Doom’s glory kills.
While the shield’s offensive capabilities are deliciously destructive, the defensive abilities are, for lack of a better phrase, game-changing. If you told me the word“parry” would ever be associated with Doom, I would probably clarify several times that we were talking about the same game. While players can deflect light projectiles from demons at the cost of shield durability, elite demons, such as the Stalker Imp, are imbued with new hell surge attacks.
Hell surge attacks are large enemy projectiles that are either red or green. While red projectiles can be blocked at a significant cost of shield durability, green projectiles can be parried when correctly timing a block with the shield. Parrying sends the enemy’s projectile firing back at them, dealing not only damage, but also triggering collectable runes that provide the Doom Slayer with massive damage attack potential. Parrying can also be used against several melee-focused enemies in Doom: The Dark Ages, such as Hell Knights, Cyberdemons, and Agaddon Hunters. Parrying an attack briefly stuns these heavy-hitting horrors, opening them up to an attack or just providing the Doom Slayer a moment to escape their grasp.
Naturally, Doom: The Dark Ages introduces several new demons, which I plan to highlight in a future Monster Mania installment (as they are deserving of a column’s entire, undivided attention), but I am continually impressed with the respect id Software has shown to its classic monsters. The alterations to their design could have very well begun and ended with their aesthetic, as some feared, but the studio’s reverence for them made them a focus on making them refreshing combat threats.
Had the shield saw been introduced without the synergy of hell surges and parrying, I more than likely would have still had a pretty great time with Doom: The Dark Ages. However, applying hell surges to some classic enemies not only makes them refreshing combatants but also fuels the saw’s seamless integration into combat, done to the degree you would think it had been introduced and refined over several iterations. We could have very easily seen a Doom sequel that proceeded down the path set by Doom: Eternal. But instead, id Software chose to use its monsters as a vessel for its most radical and satisfying addition to gameplay in decades.
Categorized: Editorials
