When director Hugo Martin defined that the mantra for Doom: The Dark Ages was “stand and battle” throughout Xbox’s Developer Direct earlier this yr, I used to be immediately enticed. It is an concept in direct opposition to id Software program’s earlier recreation, Doom Everlasting, a shooter constructed on hyper-kinetic, perpetually cellular firefights. There may be, nonetheless, a single enemy in Everlasting that does demand you “stand and battle” – the Marauder. Maybe probably the most controversial enemy ever featured in a Doom recreation, it’s hated by many… and cherished by me. And the second I realised that the trick to Doom: The Dark Ages’ fight was reacting to brilliant inexperienced lights – the exact same factor that’s key to killing a Marauder – I knew I used to be all-in.
Don’t fear, The Dark Ages doesn’t pressure you into a cage battle with an enemy that’s as quick and fiddly as Everlasting’s Marauder. Positive, there may be the Agaddon Hunter, who’s protected by a bulletproof protect and lashes out with a lethal combo assault, however the legacy of Eternal’s notorious battles lives on not by means of a single enemy, however each enemy. Rethought, recalibrated, and reforged, the concepts behind the Marauder have been utilized to The Dark Ages’ core fight design. The end result? Each encounter has the smarts of a Marauder face-off with not one of the frustrations.
The Marauder is a little bit of an uncommon beast. Fights in Doom Everlasting sometimes have you ever operating loops round a fight enviornment, slicing down fodder enemies and bouncing between bigger foes. Everlasting has typically been referred to as a administration recreation, and that doesn’t simply apply to your sources; by means of using velocity, house, and shotguns you will have to handle the horde. That every one goes out the window when the Marauder turns up. This tough-as-nails, axe-swinging powerhouse calls for your full focus, therefore why it’s so typically fought in one-on-one conditions. On the odd event one turns up in bigger battles, the very best tactic is to keep away from its blows, clear the deck of mobs, and – lastly – stand and battle.
That doesn’t imply actually standing nonetheless, in fact – that is Doom Everlasting, in spite of everything. Moderately, it’s about asserting dominance over the house by means of cautious positioning. Get in too shut and the Marauder will catch you with a lethal shotgun blast that’s near-impossible to dodge. Fall too far again and he’ll bombard you with projectiles which can be a lot simpler to dodge, however you’ll be out of vary of his axe swing. The factor is, you need him to attempt to hit you with that axe, as a result of the one time in your entire battle that the Marauder is susceptible to harm is through the assault’s wind-up animation. His vitality protect soaks up each bullet you hearth, so that you want to place your self within the candy spot the place he’ll drop his guard and go in for the kill. When his eyes flash brilliant inexperienced, that’s your cue: you’ve bought a split-second window to blast his brains out.
A flash of brilliant inexperienced can be what you’re in search of in Doom: The Dark Ages. In a nod to the collection’ first outing, demons hearth out volleys of bullet hell-like projectiles. Inside these volleys are particular inexperienced missiles that may be parried with the Doom Slayer’s new protect, deflecting the ordnance again to its supply. Within the opening hours of the sport that is largely a defensive transfer. Afterward, although, when you unlock the protect’s rune system, the parry turns into a useful offensive software, gorgeous demons with bolts of lightning or triggering your shoulder-mounted, auto-targeting cannon.
Not like in a Marauder battle, survival is just not completely depending on reacting to these inexperienced lights. Good use of your extra simple instruments can carry you to victory. However the protect runes make parrying one of many strongest elements of your arsenal – one price activating as many instances as doable. And when you weave it into your fight method, you’ll quickly discover that the foundations of The Dark Ages’ parry share widespread floor with Eternal’s Marauder fights. You’ll want to discover the appropriate distance, since demons received’t hearth projectiles at shut vary, and when the inexperienced orbs seem, you’ll want to maneuver into the appropriate place to catch them. After which, like catching the Maruader mid-swing, you want fast reactions to rating the parry itself. All this calls for focus, so your travels throughout The Dark Ages’ battlefields develop into a collage of pocketed one-vs-one fights with a number of highly effective demons. You stand and also you battle. Simply as you probably did towards the Marauder.
Maybe probably the most cited argument towards the Marauder was the way it interrupted Doom Eternal’s circulation. You merely can’t battle it utilizing the strategies you’ve conquered each different problem with. This switch-up is definitely the rationale why I like the Maruader a lot: whereas the remainder of the sport asks you to do ballet, it insists you break dance. Doom Everlasting was a recreation constructed on breaking the foundations of first-person shooters, demanding that you consider sources, weapons, and engagements in new methods. The Marauder breaks the rulebreaker’s guidelines and so poses the final word problem. However as a lot as I relish that problem, I perceive why many hate it.
Doom: The Dark Ages overcomes that downside by making certain totally different “dances” are a part of the grand disco corridor of battle. Each main enemy sort has its personal distinctive inexperienced projectile or melee strike, and so your method adjustments with every foe you encounter. The Mancubus, as an illustration, fires staggered bursts of broad vitality “fences” that function inexperienced “pillars” at both finish, and so you have to weave left and proper to rating the parry on each. The Vagary launches an abacus-like volley of lethal spheres, forcing you to dash in direction of the rows you may deflect as in the event that they had been lethal tennis balls arriving in your facet of the court docket. The skeletal Revenant, in the meantime, replicates the Marauder even nearer; it’s invulnerable to harm till you may deflect one of many inexperienced skulls it fires in alternating patterns from its shoulder launchers.
As a result of each single demon calls for a totally different type of footwork, it’s by no means jarring when a new foe is launched with a left-of-field method. Positive, the Agaddon Hunter and Komodo each pose a little bit of a issue spike thanks to their intense melee combo assaults, however you’re already used to continually adapting the way in which you progress and react by the point they arrive on the scene. That wasn’t the case for the Marauder, as a result of Eternal’s ruleset was primarily based on utilizing the appropriate gun for the appropriate demon, not the place and reaction-based techniques wanted to defeat this distinctive menace.
The Marauder’s downside was by no means its design. It was that it broke the foundations and gamers weren’t ready for it. Doom: The Dark Ages trains you for one thing related by making its personal reaction-based twitch mechanic a core element of your entire expertise moderately than a mid-game curveball. Such a shift does imply that the problem has largely disappeared – the protect’s parry window is way more beneficiant than the split-second required to react to the Marauder’s eye flash, even at larger difficulties. However the underlying idea of the Marauder – locking step with an enemy, ready for the proper second, and hanging when the sunshine shines inexperienced – is all right here in each single battle. Doom: The Dark Ages could provide a very totally different tackle these concepts, however they’re nonetheless utterly recognisable. You stand and also you battle.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Options Editor.