The Dark Ages’ Is The Most Fun I’ve Had With A First-Person Shooter In Years

Holy hell, DOOM: The Dark Ages is nightmarish good fun. It’s a very different beast from previous entries in the long-running series, but it just might be the most fun I’ve ever had playing a DOOM game. It’s certainly the most fun I’ve had in a single-player first-person shooter in a very, very long time. I’m very picky when it comes to shooters, but this one is pure fun. I put it up there with 2016’s DOOM or Titanfall 2’s excellent campaign (which also came out in 2016).

The game is just wildly entertaining. There’s a lot of story here, as you fight swathes of space demons across multiple planets. I’ve never played a DOOM title with this much narrative meat. It’s a galaxy-spanning war for survival that takes you between mission after mission, each with its own flare or gimmick. This is all about lore-building, painting in the background of the DOOM universe. If you’re not interested in the story, you can just ignore it, but there’s a lot here for fans who want more.

Every new stage is a rush. At times, you’re blasting your way through a pretty standard level, hunting down keys to open up new pathways, killing everything that stands in your way. Other stages are much more open-world, with multiple objectives to knock out in whatever order, and lots of optional areas to explore. Not all of these are just you against the demons. In some, you’ll hop on the back of a dragon and assault enemy outposts from the air, or strap into a skyscraper-tall mech and blast mega-demons to smithereens. These feel almost like arcade-style missions. There is endless variety and tons of secrets to find – some a lot harder to track down than others.

Enemies get tougher and more varied as you progress. Imps, Hell Knights and Cacodemons abound, but also mounted enemies whose riders have to be taken out before you can kill the mount. Flying enemies zip around above, some hurling ghostly skulls at you, others wielding annoyingly long whips. Phalanxes of shielded enemies can slow you down, but just heat a single shield with gunfire and smash it with your shield toss and the blast will take out the whole line. Some demons fire hellish blasts at you while others leap in with hard-hitting melee attacks. There are often countless scores of enemies in any given fight, far more than we’ve seen in past titles, and you’ll navigate AOE blasts, bombs on timers, incoming axes and all manner of other dangers. It’s frenetic and wonderfully chaotic, but this tanked-out Doom Slayer is more than up for the job.

The arsenal is, of course, the main attraction here. It’s quite different than it has been in the past, now that the Doom Slayer is equipped with his trusty razor shield. The shield is as much an offensive weapon as anything. Locking onto an enemy let’s you leap forward to land a crushing blow, giving you the ability to really fly across the map. You can also hurl it at enemies (or use it to navigate certain points on the map, either by using it as a kind of grapple or to unlock gates). Often, you’ll use the shield to parry any green-colored hellspawn blasts that enemies hurl at you, either from a distance or in melee. This sends the blast back at demons in devastating counter-attacks. I rarely use the shield to block, but it’s essential to parry.

On top of the Slayer’s Shield, you have various melee options including an incredibly fun flail, though your melee is limited to some degree by its use of limited ammunition. (The Chainsaw is, regrettably, not one of these). You can’t spam melee attacks, basically, though as with every other weapon there’s typically an abundance of ammo scattered about each stage, and melee attacks spawn ammo drops as well. Enemy takedowns spawn health, and certain enemies will drop both shields and health when you take them out with a shield throw. You can also leap from high points into a mob and send a shockwave out that takes out scores of baddies all at once. It’s basically fall damage in reverse.

The guns are universally badass this time around. Many of them have more than one form, allowing you to switch between two different modes. One automatic rifle can transform into a single-shot rail gun that hits incredibly hard. The standard shotgun can transform into a close-range double barrel variant. Ammo remains the same for both variants, effectively doubling the gun-pool without doubling ammo types. One rifle shoots bone-shards in a wide spread, handy for weakening mobs. Another sends out a powerful chain-whip that you can charge up for powerful mid-range blasts at stronger foes. All of these, including the shield and melee weapons, can be upgraded for gold or rubies at shrines across each level. Defeating bosses gives you various upgrades to max shields, health and ammo as well.

One thing this game does very well is pace out its upgrades. You’ll find new weapons as you progress, and then upgrade them along whatever upgrade path you choose, adding fire damage or the ability to shock enemies to various weapons. All of these weapons remain viable throughout, and while you’re never limited on which weapon can take out which enemy, I found myself switching between guns constantly just because each one is so much fun to use. Lob a few grenades with your grenade launcher, switch to the pulse rifle and weaken some shield-bearers, toss the shield into the mix and take out a mob all at once, then leap forward with the shield attack and lay out a tougher enemy with a few well-timed flail hits, then duck out of the fight and turn, lighting up some explosive containers, swing around the map and grab some health and then dive back in for more, parrying some green missiles back into a mini-boss. It’s a wonderfully entertaining gameplay loop that’s both satisfying and addictive.

DOOM: The Dark Ages moves a bit slower than past titles with its lack of double-jump or air-dash, but it’s in no way slow. Frankly, I’m enjoying it much more than Eternal and even more than 2016’s excellent DOOM reboot. The Doom Slayer moves at a thudding, deliberate pace but he’s still quick, and the ability to leap across the battlefield with your shield attack makes him highly mobile. While the shield might lead some players to think this is a more defensive game, the reality is it’s still incredibly aggressive. You’ll just need to use your parries to take down harder enemies. Depending on your difficulty setting, the parry window can be either very generous or a lot harder to time, though this is no Sekiro even on its hardest difficulty. There are a bunch of accessibility options as well, and you can basically fine-tune the gameplay to fit your playstyle and experience. There’s endless replay value given just how much fun the combat is, and how many secrets I’ve left undiscovered.

Add to all of this yet another banger of a heavy-metal soundtrack, stunning graphics that not only provide stunning vistas and massive scale, but hordes of enemies onscreen at once, and this is quite simply one of the best shooters in years, exceeding all of my expectations. It’s also unabashedly single-player, with no tacked on MP or live-service elements (though it’s so much fun, I actually wouldn’t mind a multiplayer mode). 2025 has been a very good year for video games so far, and DOOM: The Dark Ages is yet another must-play title to add to your list. The game releases on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on May 15th and will be available as a day-one Game Pass title. I can’t recommend it highly enough.