Doom: The Dark Ages has a new official trailer, and at this point id Software and Bethesda are just holding me down and pouring Doom lore over my head

The Doom Slayer shooting the Skull Crusher at a demon during the Doom: The Dark Ages trailer. — (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Doom: The Dark Ages is a pseudo-Christian, science fiction hell pit seeking to challenge the overwhelming violence of the amoral Doom series after three decades of mayhem – or something, I don't know, I just watched its new trailer wholly soaked in lore, and now my brain is pulsing.

"The makers felt a weapon as powerful as the Slayer," a narrator says Doom protagonist, "should be guided." We watch as knightly Slayer – crowned in a medieval-ish silver helmet rather than his usual modern military green – is imprisoned and bound in chains of lightning.

DOOM: The Dark Ages | Official Trailer 2 (4K) | Available May 15, 2025 - YouTube

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Based on this trailer alone, Doom: The Dark Ages looks set to be an intense Game-of-Thrones-in-space experience, which pairs well with the skull-cracking, wet gloom of every other Doom game.

But, as someone whose favorite aspect of Doom is zooming around maps like a werewolf while I listen to Nine Inch Nails, I'm a little hesitant about The Dark Ages' apparent number of cinematic cutscenes.

id Software studio director Marty Stratton, though, tells Edge magazine that the developer is now focusing on lore because many fans have been invested in the series' story. Plus, id Software has "data that shows that, in Doom Eternal, an extremely large percentage of people who play through the game watch the cutscenes."

Now that I think about it, I guess I do watch Doom cutscenes, too. I'm just also listening to Nine Inch Nails and eating a hamburger.

Doom director claims The Dark Ages can be beaten without using a gun, but "the game's not necessarily built to do that."

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