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.
But when a Diablo 4-ass demon king plans to grow his power in Hell, the Slayers' wardens request a mysterious Bishop Creed to "launch the Slayer." This is the point where you start bursting fat aliens' brains out with monstrous guns, or breaking their eight limbs off with a ball-and-chain flail.
"I can never rule as king," the demon growls at you, "so long as you are the only one they fear."
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.
