During a recent hands-on demo of *Doom: The Dark Ages*, I found myself unexpectedly reminded of *Halo 3*. Midway through the experience, I was mounted on the back of a cyborg dragon, unleashing a barrage of machine gun fire across a demonic battle barge. After taking out the vessel's defensive turrets, I landed my beast atop the ship and charged through its lower decks, turning the crew into a gruesome mess. Moments later, the warmachine was destroyed, and I burst through its hull, leaping back onto my dragon to continue my crusade against the machines of Hell.
Fans of Bungie's iconic Xbox 360 shooter will recognize the similarities to Master Chief's assault on the Covenant's scarab tanks. While the helicopter-like Hornet has been replaced by a holographic-winged dragon and the giant laser-firing mech by an occult flying boat, the essence of the experience remains: an aerial assault transitioning into a devastating boarding action. Surprisingly, this wasn't the only moment that echoed *Halo*. Although the combat core of *The Dark Ages* is unmistakably *Doom*, the campaign's design seems to draw from late-2000s shooters with its elaborate cutscenes and emphasis on gameplay novelty.
Over the course of two and a half hours, I played through four levels of *Doom: The Dark Ages*. The first level, the campaign's opener, mirrored the tightly paced, meticulously designed levels of *Doom (2016)* and its sequel. The subsequent levels, however, introduced me to piloting a colossal mech, flying the aforementioned dragon, and exploring a vast battlefield filled with secrets and powerful minibosses. This represents a significant departure from *Doom*'s traditional focus on mechanical purity, instead resembling games like *Halo*, *Call of Duty*, and even old James Bond titles like *Nightfire*, which are known for their scripted setpieces and novel mechanics.
This direction is intriguing for *Doom*, especially considering the series once rejected a similar path. The cancelled *Doom 4* was set to resemble *Call of Duty* with its modern military aesthetic and emphasis on characters, cinematic storytelling, and scripted events. After years of development, id Software decided these elements didn't fit the series, opting instead for the focused approach of *Doom (2016)*. Yet, here we are in 2025, with *The Dark Ages* revisiting these ideas.
The campaign's rapid pace is punctuated by new gameplay ideas reminiscent of *Call of Duty*'s most innovative moments. My demo began with a long, elaborate cutscene reintroducing the realm of Argent D'Nur, the opulent Maykrs, and the Night Sentinels—the knightly brothers-in-arms of the Doom Slayer. The Slayer is portrayed as a terrifying legend, a nuclear-level threat. While this lore is familiar to *Doom* enthusiasts, the deeply cinematic presentation feels new and reminiscent of *Halo*. This continues into the levels, with NPC Night Sentinels scattered throughout the environment, similar to UNSC Marines. Although they don't fight alongside you in the levels I played, there's a stronger sense of being part of an army, much like Master Chief leading a large force.
The introductory cutscene features significant character work, and it remains to be seen if this is what *Doom* needs. Personally, I preferred the subtle storytelling of the previous games, conveyed through environment design and codex entries, with cinematics reserved for major reveals, as seen in *Eternal*. However, the cutscenes in *The Dark Ages* are brief, setting up missions without interrupting the game's intense flow.
There are other interruptions, though. After the opening mission, which starts with pure shotgun slaughter and ends with parrying Hell Knights using the Slayer's new shield, I found myself in the cockpit of a Pacific Rim-like Atlan mech, wrestling demonic kaiju. Then, I was soaring on a cybernetic dragon, taking down battle barges and gun emplacements. These tightly scripted levels create a significant shift, introducing gameplay ideas reminiscent of *Call of Duty*'s most memorable sequences, such as the AC-130 gunship mission in *Modern Warfare* or the dogfighting missions in *Infinite Warfare*. The Atlan is slow and heavy, making Hell's armies look like Warhammer miniatures, while the dragon is fast and agile, offering a different experience that feels far removed from classic *Doom*.
Many of the best FPS campaigns thrive on this kind of variety, with *Half-Life 2* and *Titanfall 2* setting the standard. *Halo* has endured partly due to its mix of vehicular and on-foot sequences, adding rich texture to the gameplay. However, I'm uncertain if this approach will work for *Doom*. Like *Eternal*, *The Dark Ages* is a complex shooter that demands constant attention as you weave together shots, shield tosses, parries, and brutal melee combos. In contrast, the mech and dragon sequences feel less engaging, almost like on-rails experiences with combat engagements resembling QTEs.
In *Call of Duty*, switching to a tank or gunship works because the mechanical complexity isn't far removed from the on-foot missions. In *The Dark Ages*, however, there's a clear divide between gameplay styles, akin to a middle school guitar student playing alongside Eddie Van Halen. While *Doom*'s core combat will always be the star, when I'm battling a giant demon with a rocket-powered mech punch, I shouldn't be longing to return to the ground with a double-barreled shotgun.
My final hour of play introduced "Siege," a level that refocuses on id's exceptional gunplay but expands the typically claustrophobic level design into a vast open battlefield. The goal is to destroy five Gore Portals, reminiscent of *Call of Duty*'s multi-objective missions, but it also evokes *Halo* with its grand scale and varied environments. This level challenges you to rethink the effective range of your weapons, use charge attacks to cover vast distances, and employ the shield to deflect artillery from oversized tank cannons.
Expanding *Doom*'s playspace can lead to a loss of focus, as I found myself backtracking through empty pathways, which disrupts the pace. I would have liked to see *The Dark Ages* incorporate the dragon more like *Halo*'s Banshee, allowing for aerial assaults and divebombing into miniboss battles to maintain the pace and integrate the dragon more seamlessly into the experience.
Despite the overall shape of the full campaign, I'm fascinated by the resurrection and reinterpretation of ideas once deemed unsuitable for the series. The cancelled *Doom 4* reportedly featured many scripted setpieces and an obligatory vehicle scene, similar to what we see in the Atlan and dragon sections of *The Dark Ages*. Marty Stratton from id Software confirmed in a 2016 Noclip interview that *Doom 4* was closer to *Call of Duty* with its cinematic focus and character-driven narrative. It's intriguing to see these elements return in *The Dark Ages*, which promises big boarding action setpieces, lush cinematics, a broader cast of characters, and significant lore reveals.
The question remains: were these ideas always a bad fit for *Doom*, or were they just ill-suited when they resembled *Call of Duty* too closely? While I share the skepticism of fans who once feared "Call of Doom," I'm also excited about id Software's attempt to integrate these elements into the modern *Doom* formula.
The core of *The Dark Ages* remains its on-foot, gun-in-hand combat, which nothing in the demo suggested would be anything less than the star of the show. Everything I played reaffirmed that it's another fantastic reinvention of *Doom*'s core. While I believe this alone could support an entire campaign, id Software clearly has other plans. I'm surprised that some of the new ideas feel mechanically thin, and I'm concerned they might feel more like contaminants than fresh air. However, there's still much more to see, and only time will contextualize these demo missions. I eagerly await May 15th, not just to return to id's unrivaled gunplay, but to satisfy my curiosity: Is *Doom: The Dark Ages* a well-crafted late-2000s FPS campaign or a messy one?
