Doom will change fundamentally in 2025, but at the same time remain true to what fans expect from the series.
Doom: The Dark Ages is going to be different – that much was immediately clear from the latest edition of Xbox Developer Direct.
The developers at id Software, who have been working on the legendary series since the first Doom in 1993, brought new scenes with them for the show and also revealed the release date: May 15, 2025.And the time has finally come.
But before we go into detail, let’s see the gameplay first:
And that’s also an all-clear: Doom: The Dark Ages remains true to the series tradition and presents itself as a playable death metal album cover – just as brutal, uncompromising and dark as fans would expect.
So what are these six major changes exactly? Glad you asked!
The 6 major changes explained
Table of Contents
1. Speed
Doom: The Dark Ages will massively change the pace of the game compared to its predecessors. “If you were a fighter jet in Doom Eternal, you are now a battle tank,” say the developers. So the fighting is less acrobatic and more grounded instead The classic strafing to dodge projectiles comes back into focus, along with new mechanics like blocking and parrying.
2. Shield
At the center of this new philosophy is the Slayer’s new circular saw shield. It can be used to block, parry, and as a projectile, and can even be used to close the gap to opponents in a flash while dashing. With the right timing, enemy projectiles can be thrown back or melee attacks can be countered.
3. Melee combat
The Slayer’s new melee maneuvers go hand in hand with the shield, and he can now strike with his fists, a mace, or a huge morning star, and even unleash powerful combos. This dynamic system also replaces the static glory kills from the predecessors with physics-based finisher animations that no longer snatch players out of control.
4. Exploration
Between the usual linear levels, larger areasare regularly interspersed, which can be explored to your heart’s content. At the edge of a large battlefield, for example, the Slayer will be able to enter secret caves and hidden dungeons where valuable resources await. No, the new Doom will not be an open-world game, but for the first time it offers optional space for larger discovery tours.
5. Vehicles
For even more variety, there will be story segments in which we take the controls of a giant Atlan mech or sit on the back of an armed dragon With these vehicles, id Software stages massive aerial battles or fights against demons that are several stories high for the first time in the series. The dragon is even supposed to allow you to explore some of the larger sandbox areas vertically.
6. Storytelling
Instead of outsourcing a large part of the story to text panels, as in the predecessors, this time the entire plot of Doom: The Dark Ages is to be told elaborately in the form of dialogues and cutscenes. “To experience the entire story, you just have to play the game and not struggle through tons of codex pages,” says game director Hugo Martin. The plot is therefore not a secondary matter , but finally a fully-fledged core component of the new Doom installment.
Doom remains Doom
Doom: The Dark Ages does things differently. But what the new gameplay scenes also make unmistakably clear is that this shooter is and remains just as brutal and uncompromising as fans have come to expect for 32 years now.
With the double-barreled Super Shotgun, we process grotesque monsters into juicy pulled pork while we nod to the thumping guitar riffs with the button. The switch to close-range combat doesn’t replace shooting as the main activity, but merely adds new options to the arsenal of familiar big guns.
Doom doesn’t become more defensive either. Even the shield is not a purely defensive tool, but creates a target for our offense – whether it’s making an opponent stagger with a successful parry or using it as a projectile to thunder at an enemy from a distance.
Medieval as the perfect entry point
As a prequel, Doom: The Dark Ages also changes the tone a little. This time, we travel back in time to before Doom 2016 and experience the Slayer’s backstory during the war between the Argenta on Sentinel Prime and the armies of hell, in which the Maykr race is also heavily involved.
In contrast to its predecessors, we can expect less sci-fi and more medieval-inspired fantasy. Instead of slaughtering our way through spaceship corridors, we’ll be slaughtering our way through ancient temples, foggy forests, and gloomy dungeons.
“This also makes it the best entry point in the series for newcomers – you experience the prequel to what is thematized in the old games, and you don’t need any prior knowledge,” says executive producer Marty Stratton.
Multiplayer? No, thank you!
What you don’t need for Doom: The Dark Ages either: multiplayer reflexes. This time, id Software is deliberately avoiding any online components such as PvP or co-op in favor of the single player. Marty Stratton says:
We’re only making the campaign. We decided this early on so that we could fully concentrate on it and make it as extensive as possible. Only by doing so could we finally realize cool elements like the dragon or the Atlan mech, which we’ve wanted to do for ages.
For Doom fans, it should be clear by this statement at the latest: id is consistently building on the traditional strengths of the series with The Dark Ages and not daring to experiment unnecessarily.
In 2025, Doom seems more like a bastion of single-player shooters against the barrage of seasons and battle passes than ever before.
Editor’s conclusion
I have to take my hat off to how id Software once again manages the balancing act between modernization and tradition in a shooter series whose legacy is sacred to many fans and that has shaped an entire genre.
New ideas like this – if I may – just plain cool saw-shield fit surprisingly smoothly into the no-frills blasting I expect from every new Doom. The creators never go so far as to dilute the old recipe too much. Instead, it always feels fresh and exciting.
That Doom: The Dark Ages will be released in this form at all in 2025 borders on a miracle. An expensively produced and polished single-player shooter without loot boxes, events or other service clutter from a AAA studio with unparalleled know-how – according to all current metrics, something like this shouldn’t even exist anymore.
I love the fact that this series and its creators are still defying the zeitgeist after 32 years. And that they continue to serve me a kind of gloriously over-the-top action that I simply can’t find anywhere else in this form.
