4/5 ★ – nickmazz15's review of DOOM: The Dark Ages.

DOOM: THE DARK AGES REVIEW - A different ride from the previous two installments but once you get on its wavelength its a helluva great time. The combat really revolves around the shield and springboards off from there. Blocking, parrying, bashing and slicing enemies with the shield first then using guns against them. There’s no need for constant weapon swapping like in Eternal and it took a few chapters to get over that muscle memory. You can stick with one gun for a bit and its fine. Maybe not as much thought needs to be put into this during combat but its still incredibly satisfying to batter demons in countless ways. Good variety of enemies and when a horde of them are after you its thrilling to zip around and combat them with the shield then go in for the kill. The sound design across the board is fucking outstanding. It all feeds in to making the action bone crushing and fulfilling. The medieval setting was a little disappointing. The art direction just wasn’t that striking but once the second half of the game takes you to hell the visuals become so much more rad. There’s certainly was a drop in quality with the music. The team they got to replace Mick Gordon try and the tracks aren’t bad but iffy sound mixing and a lack of connection between combat stretches and the music just make it all not hit the same. I enjoyed the mech sequences. Don’t over stay their welcome and are a nice change of pace. The dragon sequences though aren’t the best. I like flying around enough but the combat is on rails and the least fun in the game. Also if id Software insists on introducing more story to DOOM, at least make it more lively. Why is everything in the story so serious? Doom Guy should be the only super serious character cause it’d make a fun contrast to a more colorful cast. Regardless of some little things here and there, DOOM: The Dark Ages is a great time and never gets old even with a meaty twenty hour run time. Only gets better the deeper you smash in.