Though there was some suspicion and concern over 2016's revival of Doom, the developer id Software has since proven that it's got the chutzpah to keep the franchise going. Twice over, in fact, considering the fact that Doom Eternal straight-up reinvented the wheel when it came out in 2020.

Now, a full five years after Doom Eternal's rapid-fire triumph over the hordes of Hell, we're looking at a full-fledged sequel and a narrative prequel to its story: The Dark Ages. While the story of Doom (and DOOM, as it were) is interesting enough in its own right, in a particularly cheesy kind of way, it should go without saying that gameplay is king in this franchise, and that is bound to remain the case in The Dark Ages.

The discussion about value and whatnot is obviously a big concern, yes, but we've already discussed that in a previous article. Today, we're purely interested in comparing and contrasting Doom: The Dark Ages with Doom Eternal's respective gameplay loops, and that's precisely what we'll do below.

Pre-order Doom: The Dark Ages right here at 2Game!

How is Doom: The Dark ages different from Doom Eternal?

"At the start of every development cycle, I play the original Doom again, and have the team play it too," said id Software's game director Hugo Martin in an interview with GamesRadar. "I realized that we still didn't hit the mark. For long-time fans of the series, people who played the original Doom, you'll see it's really a return to form," he claims.

The entire development curve of the modern Doom franchise begins to make perfect sense as this particular statement crystalizes into being: id Software is trying to bring back the glory and unprecedented violence that the original 1993 DOOM game first brought up. The 2016 Doom title was thus a more reasonable first-person shooter, while Doom Eternal ditched any silly pretense of "realism" or "groundedness" and turned the Doom Slayer into a veritable fighter jet.

These two games are wildly different from one another in practice, though they absolutely belong to the same series, story-wise. With that in mind, it only makes sense that Doom: The Dark Ages would attempt an entirely different approach yet once more, this time pivoting into the third direction.

"If you were an F22 fighter jet in Doom Eternal, this time around we wanted you to feel like an Abrams tank," explained Martin in his interview. "It means you're more powerful and grounded. The combat system for new players – those who only got into Doom with the reboot – I think with The Dark Ages they are going to feel like this is a reimagined combat system. But for long-time fans of the series, people who played the original Doom, you'll see it's really a return to form."

There's an interesting statement if we've ever heard one: could it be that Doom: The Dark Ages might actually be on to something? Doom has honestly never been much of a medieval-themed game, leaving Gothic aesthetics back for Quake to fall upon, but we do genuinely think id Software is on to something here.

"You're heavier, more powerful, and grounded," Martin adds. "We're making strafing-to-aim a thing again. You'll be weaving between projectiles, just like you did in the original Doom, to deliver that Super Shotgun blast to the chest… It almost creates this three-dimensional 'shoot 'em up' puzzle that you're weaving your way through."

And there it is. Now it all makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

Doom Eternal fans may find Doom: The Dark Ages a wildly different experience in the end

Crucially, Hugo Martin himself admits that there simply wasn't a way for id Software to add even more verticality to the game than Doom Eternal already offered. Doom Slayer wasn't going to become even more acrobatic, because he already was the absolute pinnacle of an FPS protagonist. Instead, and quite funnily so, the way forward was to ground things down in every meaningful way.

The Dark Ages is slower, more meticulous, and also literally more grounded as in horizontal. Players will face larger hordes of enemies than ever before, prowling about on larger maps than we've ever had in a Doom game. The goal will now be to bob-and-weave between projectiles to deliver the killing blow. And frankly, that does sound exactly like the original DOOM gameplay loop, now that we think of it.

None of that is to say that The Dark Ages is somehow devolving back into simplicity, keep in mind. If you need an obvious example of this not being the case, well, there's the controllable demon-slaying mech and the massive super-charged rideable dragon. If novelty's what you're concerned about, The Dark Ages won't be an issue.

Heck, even on a more grounded core gameplay-loop level, remember that The Dark Ages is introducing a host of melee weapons, a chainsaw shield, and goodness knows what else on top of the battle-tested fan-favorites. It's not like we'll be wanting for variety here.

"You will have that [chainsaw shield] in your hand at all times – you're basically dual-wielding. I want players to feel like Aragorn, or Leonidas at the hot gates of 300. You're the hero of a massive battle in an FPS, in a Doom game no less," Martin says. "There's a lot of stuff you can do with the shield. You can block attacks, you can parry projectiles, there are melee weapons you can combo attacks with – you use it to solve problems. You basically exploit weaknesses with the shield in your left hand, and then you hurt things with the guns in your right. It's pretty simple."

Make note of the parrying system, specifically: if you feel you might miss Doom Eternal's rock-paper-scissors-nuclearcannon combat system, fret not because id Software is still keeping fans of Eternal's specific quirks in mind. At the same time, there's no denying the fact that The Dark Ages will be a meaningfully different, bespoke FPS experience that stands on its own two feet.

Doom: The Dark Ages is due to launch on PC on May 15, 2025. Over the coming weeks, we'll have lots more coverage discussing it coming your way, so stay tuned and strap right in. It's going to be a hell of a ride.

Pre-order Doom: The Dark Ages right here at 2Game!