DOOM: The Dark Ages

[one-armed dwarf]

 

IMO, this looks like a gameplay departure from Doom Eternal. It's noticeably slower, and the press release says it's a more grounded, impactful game.

 

Quote

Inspired by the original DOOM (19 93), players overcome the odds in The Dark Ages in firmly grounded, heavy-hitting clashes featuring destructible demons, vicious melee strikes and more. With the right combination of ranged bombardment & melee aggression, anyone stepping into the Slayer’s boots will make Hell quiver in theirs.

 

I know people love parry systems, I don't personally cause I think many games lean on them too heavily and produce a combat system heavily slanted towards a more linear way of dispatching enemies. It's cool as an additional option on everything else, but seems to have a heavy focus here with the shield. It also blocks, and it doesn't look like you can jump unless they're hiding that (there's what looks like a context sensitive jump attack at 1:20). So a huge departure from the very multilayered momentum-driven combat systems that Eternal had, this imo looks quite a bit more static

 

But they need to try new things, so this is that new thing. Probably not going to be as skillfully demanding as Eternal but lets see. To be clear I still think it looks really good

[Maf]

I don't believe a lot of that combat is indicative of the actual flow of the game, and more just presentation for ideas. There's no UI, no reticle, can't tell if that's a level or hub world because it's so barren, he's just walking forward so they can splice scene transitions. I'm not particularly interested either way but that doesn't look like the real game to me. 

[one-armed dwarf]

I mean putting the trailer aside, the mere description of the game as 'firmly grounded' is like the opposite of what you'd describe Eternal as. It's definitely doing something extremely different

[Maf]

It could be. They also show him riding a dragon and giant mech, though. 

 

It does look like they're going for something different for sure. To me this looks like a semi open world game or something. Maybe a explorable hub world with levels and dungeons? Clearly they're taking a medieval approach with shields and dragons. 

 

It's hard to say because the trailer doesn't confirm much, but talking about the flow of the game. I dunno, maybe you can't jump. That would definitely be going back to the dark ages of Doom. But I don't believe that trailer is a true representation of the game, more just the ideas they have

[one-armed dwarf]

I don't think it's open world, I think the flat openness is accommodating the more grounded combat. The arenas in 2016 but especially Eternal were extremely vertical. Eternal in particular was more vertical than horizontal at times, you could basically use the enemies as platforms with the chain grab stuff.

 

So I think the level design is flatter on purpose for that, for this more tanky/parry based less kinetic take. They must know that level design is an important thing in Doom and having an OW wouldn't make much sense. 

[DANGERMAN]

I suspect it won't play anything like it, but it kind of reminded me of Painkiller. 

 

Doom Eternal took some time to click but it got there and I loved it, so they're 2 for 2, plus Rage played great, so I trust id 

[mfnick]

I’m excited but worried. Eternal is potentially my favourite shooter ever. Up there with Titanfall 2 and CoD 4 easily. But the setting, saying it’s more grounded and people mentioning here the arenas look more wide and open but flat (I adored the verticality in Eternal) is all worrying me. That’s all the opposite of what I loved before. I’m a sicko and even really enjoyed the platforming, I want more as it broke up the shooting arenas nicely and felt great IMO. Also not sure I want to worry about a shield and a parry in my DOOM. 
 

But, Eternal has earned them some trust bucks with me so will stay hopeful until I see actual gameplay not just a gameplay movie. 

[Nag]

I'll play this and to be fair I'm hopeful they do dial it back a bit... I think it's fair to say I enjoyed 2016 more than Eternal, I'll freely admit I have to go through these on easy as I don't have the skills nowadays and Eternal just seemed like a constant barrage of decision making that pretty much made me freeze... I need time to make my plays goddammit. 

[Maf]

I was looking at Eternal on my PC today. Apparently I haven’t played it in over a month

 

I still wasn’t enjoying it but hearing it takes a while to click, maybe I’ll just push through until I can ‘find it’ so to speak. But I really dislike their resource management and cool down timer gameplay stuff 

[one-armed dwarf]

I'm going to start a new playthrough on the second hardest difficulty, the hardest one being a permadeath one, fuck that. See if I can develop a more satisfying muscle memory with it. 

 

Eternal is definitely one of those games that makes me look at those UW monitors and imagine how cool it would look on those

[mfnick]

3 minutes ago, Maf said:

really dislike their resource management and cool down timer gameplay stuff 

It’s probably just not for you then tbh. I thought I’d hate all that but it really clicked with me for some reason. 

[DANGERMAN]

4 minutes ago, Maf said:

I was looking at Eternal on my PC today. Apparently I haven’t played it in over a month

 

I still wasn’t enjoying it but hearing it takes a while to click, maybe I’ll just push through until I can ‘find it’ so to speak. But I really dislike their resource management and cool down timer gameplay stuff 

There's just too much going on in it. Once you acclimatise to it it's really fun. Problem is, you so much as go for a shower and you need to relearn what button if flame and how you bring up the chainsaw 

[Maf]

 

Here's the two guys talking about the game

 

They really are emphasizing this is literally a more grounded game than Eternal.

 

Saying things like in "Eternal you were like a fighter jet, in Dark Ages you're like a Abrams Tank." That they've reimagined the combat loop from the ground up, and it's more a return to classic Doom than the newer games. Then the quote that really stands out is "Doom 2016 was run and shoot, Doom Eternal was jump and shoot, Doom Dark Ages is stand and fight"

 

I only watched the first 5 minutes, maybe they elaborate further 

[one-armed dwarf]

Can't believe you doubted me 😔

 

I think the combat looks like GoW Ragnarok but as a FPS. Whereas Eternal is more DMC with cooldowns

[Maf]

I watched a bit further and one thing they say is they're swapping tools for depth. So they're streamlining the controls and giving you less stuff, but each thing evolves and takes mastery. 

 

@one-armed dwarf I still don't think that trailer is what the game will literally play like and more is representation of ideas. But yeah say good bye to chain jumping and 4 different cooldowns (yay)

[Nag]

That description sounds good to me...

[mfnick]

[DisturbedSwan]

Handy for me this is coming to PS5, easy Day 1 purchase for me. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Some info coming out about this, not sure if we'll see more soon

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Doom/comments/1eof9mz/supposed_quakecon_dark_ages_showcase_descriptions/

 

Summary

 

World is much more open than previous games
▪️ Three melee weapons: Flail (collects ammunition), Mace, and Fists (creates chains of electricity)
▪️ The saw shield can be used to traverse the map
▪️ Saw Shield can be thrown at enemies
▪️ Less verticality than Doom Eternal; jumping is weightier and heavier now (comparable to Power Armor in FO4)
▪️ Glory Kill system has been reinvented
▪️ New weapons revealed; Double-barrel Plasma Ehotgun, Single-barrel shotgun
▪️ You can nail enemies to the wall with the Nail Gun
▪️ The giant mech can be used several times throughout the Campaign
▪️ The mech fights with its fists and a double cannon
▪️ Mech can perform Glory Kills and has a specialized HUD

 

Less verticality definitely tracks with the way they've been talking about this game, looking very grounded and more Dark Souls-ey almost. Doom with sword and board. 

 

I would be lying tbh if I said they way they describe the combat sounds exciting to me cause none of it sounds quite as satisfying as Eternal's momentum driven combat. But it sounds like they want the systems and interactions between them to remain brainy, but not as high in executional intensity as Eternal so I think it will still turn out to be an interesting game.

[mfnick]

1 hour ago, one-armed dwarf said:

World is much more open than previous games

😭😭😭😭

 

Another game series which is probably not going to be for me anymore.