The Slayer’s protect also can work in tandem along with your bulging bag of boomsticks in some extremely satisfying methods. Come up towards a platoon of troopers marching behind seemingly impenetrable metal shields of their very own? Simply pump a couple of tremendous shotgun rounds into their metallic cellular cowl to warmth it till it’s visibly molten, earlier than frisbeeing your protect straight at them to ignite the whole group and bathe your self in precious armour pickups from the ensuing explosion.

The Dark Ages’ protect is probably essentially the most devastating interpretation of the phrase ‘the very best offense is an effective protection’, and it makes the brand new Doom really feel like the best unofficial Captain America recreation ever made. Solely, as an alternative of preventing a military of Nazis you’re battling essentially the most evil villains that Hell has to supply. Which, I suppose, are each one and the identical.

At any charge, no sooner had I settled into The Dark Ages’ sensational new protect-wielding fight system, than I used to be abruptly whisked into the cockpit of a large Mecha-Slayer to tackle the tallest terrors to ever emerge from a Hell portal. The Atlan assault mechs have solely been teased previously couple of Doom video games, however in The Dark Ages they’re lastly pilotable, and I used to be completely thrilled to get behind the controls of one among these inexperienced-helmed goliaths to be able to elevate some hell. Or ought to I say, raze some hell, as I stomped out tiny tanks and crashed via bridges lined with troops on my method to going toe to towering toe with every Titan demon attempting to take me down.

Sure, Doom: The Dark Ages takes the collection’ signature extremely violence and actually elevates it into Kaiju-sized carnage. Its Atlan fight is straightforward in setup however severely satisfying in execution, as you repeatedly pump the precise set off to unleash combos with a pair of college bus-sized fists, with every profitable blow you land filling up a particular meter consisting of two halves. Fill it midway and you may ship a strong stomp that sends a shockwave via the earth under and opens up cracks of damaging lava that stagger your opponent. Fill it utterly and you may deal a devastating ending transfer to drive Lucifer’s leviathans to go in peace. Or extra particularly, in freshly shredded items.

If you happen to like your 50-storey-tall fisticuffs with a facet order of gargantuan weapons then worry not, as a result of halfway via the extent a whopper of a weapon drop gave my mech entry to a machine gun so giant it might use an aeroplane hanger for a holster. Performing excellent dodges on incoming enemy assaults powers up each barrels of this not-so-mini-gun, and I used to be quickly blasting gloriously gory chunks of flesh off every Titan’s torso that showered on the troopers under. You don’t usually see this a lot raining blood with out shopping for a ticket to a Slayer live performance and sticking round for the encore.

Sadly I used to be solely given the smallest style of those supersized shootouts, since my fingers-on shortly switched tracks from Godzilla to Sport of Thrones as I slipped out of the Atlan’s cockpit and into the saddle of a cybernetic dragon, full with twin cannons and a pair of dazzling laser wings. Hovering via the skies above a humungous holy metropolis, I took the combat to a collection of Hell Service airships, once more performing excellent dodges to energy up my assaults to demolish the artillery alongside their sides and the lethal assault cannons atop their hulls. With every airship’s defenses down, I used to be then in a position to swoop all the way down to its uncovered touchdown zone, leap off my dragon to briefly blast via Hades’ hordes on the flight deck, earlier than protect-bashing into its central energy core and forcing the entire thing to erupt like a Hellspawned Hindenburg, as I flew to security aboard my scaly skybound steed.

Each the Atlan and cyberdragon sections proved to be propulsive palette cleansers wealthy with spectacle, however I used to be itchin’ for extra of that bitchin’ protect and shoot ’em up motion. Fortunately the Slayer was quickly introduced again all the way down to earth to unleash additional terror on terra firma as my fingers-on completed with a style of one among Doom: The Dark Ages’ sprawling sandbox ranges. Whereas the earlier gameplay stretches had been dynamic however considerably directed motion set items, this bumper battlefield stage dubbed The Siege gave me the liberty to sort out its aims in any order and progress via it totally at my very own tempo.

Thus, in between exhilarating encounters with waves of closely armoured Mancubuses and protect-based mostly slugfests with tremendous heavy Cyberdemons, I used to be additionally in a position to scour the panorama in all instructions for gold to spend on weapon upgrades, collectible toys, and even model new weapons so as to add to my rising arsenal of demon-destroyers. This included the Reaver Chainshot, which delivered highly effective charged up assaults that principally allowed me to fireplace a cannon ball to immediately mulch a monster, earlier than retracting it on a sequence and firing it once more to crush their minion mate beside them. Form of like a Chain Chomp however not practically as lovable.

The expanded map additionally supplied loads of nooks and crannies to hunt via for well being and armour pickups, together with melee ammo for the Slayer’s new flail and electrified gauntlet assaults. That’s proper, as if the Slayer wasn’t already badarse sufficient, he now manually reloads his punches like he’s Henry Cavill within the toilet brawl scene from Mission: Unattainable – Fallout.

The general impression I bought from The Dark Ages’ Siege map is that, though it’s giant in measurement, it’s nonetheless dense with breathtaking discoveries and numerous encounters. Some open-discipline fights locked mini-bosses behind a morale meter, holding them resistant to my assaults till I’d hustled to take out a couple of dozen of their underlings. Different caves I explored featured nearly no fight in any respect, as an alternative difficult me to make use of my protect for environmental puzzle-fixing, both as a grappling hook to launch me to in any other case unreachable areas or a software to control the controls of a wide range of arcane machines. There have been great surprises nearly in every single place I seemed, but in addition some not so great ones… like the large tentacle that abruptly emerged from the bottom beneath my toes in a swamp space and turned me from unstoppable beast to lately deceased instantly.

With that, my time within the Slayer’s fight boots was up, and what a quick however completely good trip it had been. If this small style is something to go by, then I am fairly positive that the one motive id Software program is asking this one Doom: The Dark Ages is as a result of the title of The Final Doom was already taken three many years in the past. From its satisfying protect-based mostly fight shake-up and engaging sandbox stage constructions, to its Pacific Rim-rocking skyscraper-sized beatdowns and its dazzling dragon-using dogfights, the crew behind Doom: The Dark Ages is seemingly throwing the whole lot however Hell’s kitchen sink into making this the largest and finest marketing campaign seen to this point within the seminal shooter collection.

It’s additionally set to be essentially the most accessible. If you happen to’ve ever needed in on the wanton demon destruction however have beforehand been too intimidated to strive, Doom: The Dark Ages seems to have you ever coated. Not solely is there an expanded variety of issue settings to select from this time, with six completely different ranges of problem from the exceedingly light Aspiring Slayer to the completely psychological Extremely Nightmare, however there are additionally instruments to tweak nearly each facet of the expertise. That features sliders to regulate the whole lot from parry timing home windows to the harm dealt from every assault, and the general velocity of the motion. Whether or not you need it to be a friction-free energy journey or a synapse-straining punishment, Doom: The Dark Ages appears to have the flexibleness to permit any stage of participant to turn into a god tier Slayer. What’s extra, because it’s a prequel to the 2016 reboot, you possibly can go in utterly recent even if in case you have NFI what a BFG is.

Doom: The Dark Ages is about to reach on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Sequence X|S on Might fifteenth. Till then, if you’d like a each day dose of doom, you can simply spend a couple of minutes scrolling via social media. However if you’d like extra Doom: The Dark Ages, remember to try our interview with the crew at id Software program and the gameplay overview trailer.

Tristan Ogilvie is a Senior Video Producer at IGN’s Sydney workplace. He lately switched from Twitter to Bluesky, however in both case he is about as talkative because the Doom Slayer.