Doom Through The Dark Ages

Doom is a franchise of esteem and acclaim, but even a pioneering IP and brand such as this can't go through history without a few dark periods... or dark ages if you will.

Doom: The Dark Ages, that is.

Yes, there's a new Doom game, the third one in the last decade. The timing of the release is interesting, being so close to the launch of a new Nintendo system. Imagine if they somehow pulled it off as a launch title for the Switch 2. It's not impossible, in fact; most if not all prior Doom entries can be played on the original Switch. The Dark Ages being part of the Switch 2 launch lineup would have been amazing, but I'm certain a port is still possible somewhere down the line. Most Doom games are designed to be port-able (and yes, even portable) after all.

If you were from that era, Doom was one of those games you just inevitably played. Whether it was on a friend's shiny new PC running cutting-edge DOS, the school computer, or the many, many, many home console ports of it. Doom was a game where if you were determined to play it, there was an accessible option, even if it meant pretending to work in the school computer lab for extra credit.

Doom kickstarted the FPS golden age, but it was also a dark age right out of the gate. You see, at the time of its initial release not everyone owned, or felt the need to own, a personal computer. Home PCs were quite expensive too, which meant playing Doom required befriending that one rich kid who had the personality of glue or being really sneaky about accessing the school computer.

Consoles were the primary mode of gaming for most, and so Doom was ported to as many of those systems as technically possible, all to reach the legions of hungry console gamers. It was nice to find a version of the game for your console, be it the original PlayStation or even the SNES, but the downside was that most of these ports were just not up to the task.

And so, all these messy console versions unintentionally created a dark age for the franchise. Imagine if your first impression of the PC masterpiece was the horrifically clunky SEGA Saturn port. That would just leave sour memories until you got around to playing the real thing. Things did get better over time, as some ports managed to optimise things really well, with Doom 64 (for the Nintendo 64, duh) still regarded as an absolute series highlight among fans.

Now, having so many versions also started an ongoing tradition to port to Doom to well... anything really. Everything from dentistry imaging equipment to a calculator. Yes, there is a port for the Atari 2600, too. The tradition echoes the idea of how this is a game you simply have to play by any means necessary.

The second game did more of the same but turned up to 11, and was then followed by an ultimate final chapter expansion, all arriving in short order. Doom swiftly achieved everything it set out to do and its creators, id Software, moved on to challenge themselves with other projects. The problem was, though, that other game developers were not ready to move on, and so another dark age clouded the gaming landscape: the age of endless Doom clones.

Hexen, Blood, Alien Trilogy, Shadow Warrior, Dark Forces, Marathon, Rise of the Triad, Killing Time, Exhumed, Alien Breed, Zero Tolerance, Congo, and... these are just what I could drum up off the top of my head. It's a minor miracle that the sheer number of studios creating Doom clones didn't trigger another market crash. To be fair, some of these were actually quite decent. Personally, I've got a soft spot for Exhumed on the SEGA Saturn.

Quake was born out of Doom, and for the longest time, it was id's main IP. This eventually led to the single greatest FPS multiplayer deathmatch experience in Quake III: Arena. Then Quake 4 happened, a release so poor and so panned that it immediately plummeted the IP into a dark age from which it has yet to escape.

There may be bad Doom ports, but there has never been a bad Doom game. At worst, there was a divisive Doom game - the third mainline installment, appropriately titled Doom 3 - though it was not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. Instead of the relentless heavy metal energy of its predecessors, the third entry was an atmospheric and gripping survival horror experience. Importantly, it put story and narrative at the forefront to enhance immersion and presentation, without hurting the flow of gameplay progression. The graphics were on the absolute cutting edge of technology for their time, and still hold up remarkably well today. In fact, the port on the original Xbox was nothing short of a miracle, a feat the PlayStation 2 and GameCube simply could not fathom.

So, Doom 3 wasn't a dark age, but it was a bit like Capcom's own Street Fighter III, in that it didn't draw in hoards of players consistently over the years (despite a successful launch). It was underappreciated by most gamers even when critics raved about the graphics, but it's clear today how this is a game most fans appreciate more in hindsight. It may not be the best entry point for the franchise, but it is an FPS for the thinking gamer.

There was supposed to be a Doom 4, but it never materialised and this is likely for the best. id Software knew better than to have another repeat of the Quake 4 fiasco. Still, development hell meant a new Doom title was dormant, even though the franchise itself was far from being inactive, as prior games continued to see ports on every new platform. Everything can and should run Doom, after all.

Yet, the absence of a new Doom game for an entire hardware generation did create a dark age for the FPS genre as a whole. Production budgets had ballooned to the point of excess; the graphics got better, multiplayer became the primary focus, and while single-player experiences presented jaw-dropping set pieces and cinematic flair, the actual level design was practically non-existent. Some releases even delegated the single player to serve as a glorified tutorial.

To fill the void, a new sub-genre emerged in indie gaming: Boomer Shooters. The Boomer Shooter is essentially a continuation of the Doom-clone trend. Honestly, most of these can be quite middling at best, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a dark age, it's just one of those over-saturated indie trends that, for better or worse, creates a wealth of affordable retro options for enthusiasts.

Moreover, something big needed to happen. 1993 needed to happen all over again.

And it did.

In 2016, Doom was born anew, a reboot and reimagining rolled into one major rebirth for the franchise and the FPS genre as a whole.

The genre itself needed a wake-up call and a good ass-kicking, and in 2016 the brand-new Doom did all this and more. More than anything, it showed developers how single-player can and should be done. The intricate and thought-out levels felt like a godsend, and the visceral combat system mixed firearms with brutal melee attacks like no other game before it. Its follow-up, Doom Eternal, turned things all the way to 11.

For its next step, Doom needed to take a step back, travel back in its rich yet mysterious lore; a return to its own dark ages to rediscover its own novelty.

Doom: The Dark Ages isn't just about taking a step back in a timeline, although learning the origins of Doom Slayer (I still prefer 'Doom Guy', personally) as the ultimate weapon provides a context to his perpetual bad mood. Nor is it about re-inventing the wheel, but rather it's about what Doom has always been about: never getting comfortable and daring to try new things.

The 2016 template could have been recycled, but that would have been too easy, and so The Dark Ages makes a bold statement by allowing the core combat mechanics to mature and evolve, and not being afraid to adopt modern-day trends into its level design.

The most jarring thing about The Dark Ages isn't the medieval backdrop, but rather its stark emphasis on defensive play. Doom games were always about bull-headed offensives, but here the relentless offensive assault is balanced out nicely with some defensive tactics. The Slayer carries a shield, and yet it does more than just sponge damage; the shield can be used to parry enemy projectiles. In true Doom fashion, however, the shield can also be used to absolutely maul enemies by brutally ramming them and parries can lead to some brutal counterattacks.

The combat, when studied and practised properly, can create an effortless and rhythmic flow of unhinged violence. Once you get grips with the melee combos and parries, you generate health and ammo on the fly, no longer needing to search for pickups. Reaching this level of combat proficiency can feel incredibly rewarding.

The level design feels like a stark departure from its immediate predecessors. Certainly, there is some exploration and secrets to discover, but the progression is largely arena combat-based featuring some truly epic set-pieces. It's still very much Doom in its design philosophy, but it isn't shy about embracing some of the good parts of modern FPS design. There are certain sequences so epic and larger-than-life that you almost feel like you're in a dramatic end sequence of a Halo game.

It's probably a bit crass to declare whether Doom: The Dark Ages is the best game in the series; in the context of this rich and daring franchise it's quite irrelevant to debate which game is 'best'. Instead, it's better to celebrate what The Dark Ages represents: a franchise that not only pioneered and set the benchmark but also wasn't afraid to experiment and rewrite its own rules.

Doom: The Dark Ages is a damn fine FPS game.

Meanwhile, I'm still going to try to manifest the inevitable Switch 2 port. Yes, I do believe it can run Doom, too.