The 1993 Doom is still a titan – an indomitable fiery force. It changed the gaming landscape forever, and even your gran has heard about it. Chances are, she's pretty good at it too. It's enduring for a reason. But what is that makes Doom, well, Doom? Doom: The Dark Ages is a departure in many ways – after all, it has a shield and parries now – but still manages to feel like a natural evolution.
It's a legacy that's also on the mind of developer id Software. "We still feel like we have to live up to that legendary game. We think of it as like a classical piece of art. I'm an artist, so it's like the Mona Lisa to us," says Doom: The Dark Ages game director Hugo Martin. And id Software need to make Leonardo da BFG when it comes to filling its next canvas. "That's where we started, with this incredibly fun game [where] the combat is incredibly approachable. Everybody could pick up Doom and enjoy it. Killing demons in 1993's Doom – it's as fun today as it was back then."
Firing on all cylinders
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An early FPS that elevated the genre, Doom was all about navigating maze-like levels and just shooting anything that got in your way with increasingly devastating weaponry. Back then, you couldn't even aim up – all bullets hit any demon ahead of you regardless of elevation. Revisiting them even now (last year's new Doom + Doom 2 port from Nightdive Studios is phenomenal), there's a joyous simplicity to the way they play. "We think if the games are fun, and they find them entertaining, then it'll still have a place amongst gamers," says Martin.
Revisiting the Doom legacy is crucial. "We play it at the start of every project," says Martin of the first Doom. "The thing that stood out to me the most this time, which was kind of staring us in the face the whole time, was how slow the projectiles moved. [It was] just a reminder of how grounded the combat was after Eternal." They key is to remember that the first Doom wasn't only a fantastic game, but how innovative it was too. "There was nothing else like it. So we start every project with how we're going to innovate this time."
For Martin, those slow projectiles stood out, not just in terms of their speed or lack thereof but in "how hard they hit, and they create this three dimensional shmup maze". With Doom Eternal, movement was encouraged through the enemy movement more than it was their incoming fire. "We very much were encouraging you to move up and along the y axis, up in the air. Then you play the original Doom, and there's just as much movement, but it's all happening on the horizon line, and it's very much glued to the ground."
How would revisiting that concept work within the context of the modernized Doom series? "It was like an aha moment," says Martin. "We took the projectiles, slowed them down, made them hit harder, made them bigger, as a test – and removed double jump. Immediately it was like: there you go, that's the start of this new combat loop."
While going hands-on, I immediately notice the change – especially when it comes to the shmup comparisons. A lot of incoming fire are now waves of projectiles rather than single blast, be they vertical slices of energy to waves of orbs (green ones of which you can parry with the shield saw). It's most noticeable in the siege level I play – a larger than usual huge sandbox stage with true hordes of demonic enemies and loads of optional objectives.
Doom, too
"What was so fun about Doom 2 is how it opened up."
The wider approach to this level, and others in Doom: The Dark Ages, is also inspired by classic Doom. "Well Doom 2, right?" says Martin. "What was so fun about Doom 2 is how it opened up. You take all that speed and all that horizontal x axis movement, then you give the player more AI in a bigger space to play in, allowing moments of this game to open up like that."
The big difference comes in how Doom: The Dark Ages weaves together the original Doom's projectiles and Doom 2's open spaces with its shield saw. "That's then complimented by the other aspect of this game that's new, which is the 'stand and fight' [concept]," says Martin. After all, Martin also tells me that feeling aggressive is crucial to getting across that Doom flavor – and Doom: The Dark Ages might be one of the most aggressive entries in the series to date.
"Strafing to aim is alive and well in Dark Ages, as you saw," explains Marin. "But then the green projectiles certainly call you into combat, and then the green melee attacks bring you close. A lot of the AI will encourage you to fight them at close range and go mano a mano, which makes you feel powerful." Whether it's using gunfire to heat the metal armor of hellspawn before shattering the brittle targets with a shield throw, or knocking enemy attacks back at them while supercharging your own deadly strikes, the shield enhances the feeling of empowerment rather than being something you just hide behind.
These ideas were always there in the classic Doom games, but Doom: The Dark Ages makes them feel reimagined thanks in large part to its clever loop that encourages shield, melee, and gunplay to all feed back into each other. Doom: The Dark Ages isn't like any other Doom I've played, while still feeling like a natural evolution 32 years later – and that's what makes it so exciting.
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