Doom: The Dark Ages drops multiplayer for the "largest" campaign in the FPS franchise

We had a chance to check out Doom: The Dark Ages in a hands-off preview and Q&A with id Software. Here's what you need to know about this medieval FPS prequel!

Tom West

Published 23 Jan 2025

If, after seeing the Doom Slayer's next demon-blasting adventure during the Xbox Developer Direct, you're looking for more information about the game, you've come to the right place. We recently had a chance to take part in a Doom: The Dark Ages hands-off preview and Q&A with id Software to dig up a few more juicy tidbits for the upcoming Game Pass game!

Tom's early take —

Doom: The Dark Ages dropping multiplayer seems like the right call

Make sure you bookmark the Doom: The Dark Ages achievements before they arrive!
Release date: May 15, 2025
Platforms: Xbox Series X|S and PC
Game Pass Tiers: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC

Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel to the fantastic Doom (2016), taking us to a dark medieval planet where a war is being waged against the forces of Hell. This entry drops multiplayer altogether and focuses on the core single-player experience, adding new melee mechanics complete with parries, Atlan war machines, a Cyberdragon, a reworked Glory Kill system, and more.

Ahead of its appearance in the Xbox Developer Direct, we had a chance to see the shooter in action and ask id Software studio head Marty Stratton and creative director Hugo Martin a few questions about the upcoming game.

Id Software refers to Doom: The Dark Ages as a "summer blockbuster event with everything on the line," and it sure looks that way. Everything we saw during the Developer Direct was big, with some levels even featuring gargantuan demons in the background, giving us a glimpse at the monstrosities we'll be smashing with our Atlans.

The game kicks off with the Doom Slayer imprisoned and Hell’s forces gaining the upper hand in a medieval war between good and evil. Once free, we’ll power through a “cinematic sci-fi fantasy world” as we hunt down the game’s main villain. Id Software has put the story front and center for Dark Ages, so we can expect to see full cutscenes that feed us all the information we need without relying on codex entries and other lore items collected throughout the game.

“If you're going to tell a story, then make it something that I just play through the game, and I get the whole story. I didn't need to read like a ton of Codex pages to fill in the blanks,” Martin said. “And then tonally, just part of what the medieval genre, or fantasy genre, brings is it's more serious, it's more cinematic. I think people see in the footage that it's visually more like [Doom] 2016 you know, like, where it's just the darker, cinematic world. And I like that.”

Stratton says Dark Ages will offer the "largest, most expansive, [and] most epic" campaign we've seen in the franchise, which is great because we're only getting a single-player campaign this time around. Multiplayer has been completely dropped, and we'll instead spend our time slaughtering huge hordes of demons filled with more fodder than we’ve seen in previous games, unlocking powerful weapons, exploring a plethora of deadly locations, and more.

The move means the team was able to implement new gameplay features too, and as such, we’re going to be playing around with the Atlans we saw littering the hellscape in Doom Eternal and the Cyberdragon.

Doom's new medieval setting makes for potentially glorious combat

Both the Atlan and Cyberdragon will act as “pace-breakers” throughout the game, slowing down the core gameplay for something different. We were told that both will have their own kind of missions, complete with a full array of upgrades to unlock and mini-bosses to take on.

Stratton gave an example of one particular mission in a floating city, where the Cyberdragon (armed with fire breath and a Gatling gun) will be able to land in specific areas while we take out Hell Galleons. We'll be able to jump back and forth between riding the dragon to obliterate defenses and slaughtering demons as the Slayer inside the Galleons themselves. The Cyberdragon will also be able to explore the levels, finding caverns and other patches to fly through.

As for the Atlan, its missions will be more linear in scope, but will have “some surprises.” The Developer Direct gave us a look at the Atlan in action as it slugged it out with Titans. Everything looked heavy and powerful, so I’m looking forward to piloting one of those things for myself.

While I’m excited to play through a story-focused entry, we’re all here for the combat, right? I mean, blasting demons into meaty chunks is the soothing experience we all return to the series for. As Stratton and Martin said during the dev direct, Doom (2016) was all about run-and-gun gameplay, while Eternal was jump-and-shoot. For The Dark Ages, we will stand and fight.

To achieve this, the team has built new melee combat and Glory Kill systems, giving us more tools to feel like a badass on the battlefield. We’ll have three melee weapons at our disposal: Iron Flail, Electrified Gauntlet, and Dual-Spiked Mace, plus the Shield Saw for defense and dishing out brutal damage. While the melee weapons all sound badass, the Shied Saw will likely be our most-used piece of equipment, acting as a “Swiss Army Knife” for combat and traversal.

We’ll also be able to sprint this time around, and combined with the Shield Saw’s lock-on feature that drags you to enemies to bash them, you’re able to rocket across the map like a “pinball.”

Although the maps are larger and filled with more enemies, Martin says, “In many ways, the game is actually faster, but because it's more grounded and the control scheme is streamlined, it doesn't become more complex or overwhelming. So, you just rocket through the larger spaces using your shield. It feels like web-slinging, to be honest.”

Martin told us that id Software wants to make you feel like a “weapon of mass destruction,” so “at times, you're just going to be slaughtering demons en-mass, and then other times, there'll be higher tier demons who challenge you mano a mano.” While we’ll see many returning demon types, there are a few newbies on the way too and when fighting the big baddies, parrying, faltering, and strafing will be key.

Strafing is returning in Dark Ages, allowing you to run and gun while evading enemy attacks. This is possible due to the larger maps we’ll be exploring, with larger flat areas for combat that won’t dump tons of obstacles in your way. According to Martin, larger enemies will “Throw combos of melee strikes which you have to parry in order to stagger them and falter them.

“Faltering is a big part of the experience, figuring out how to falter enemies, to create openings using your shield and your guns, and then some enemies are more vulnerable to melee strikes and stuff.” Martin also points out that parrying some of the big guys during a fight can send out shockwaves that falter smaller enemies around you, causing a small pit among the chaos as you go head-to-head with the beast.

To help with the power trip, id Software has added a host of new ways to customize the difficulty, giving you the tools to make it as easy or as tough as you like. For instance, you’ll be able to customize the parry windows without changing any other setting, giving you a generous length of time or creating a tight window of opportunity that requires lightning-quick reactions to perform.

The controls have been simplified for greater accessibility. Your melee attacks are all linked to the right thumbstick, while your shield uses the left trigger, and as always, the right trigger is used for blasting away with the many guns you’ll be devastating the Hellspawn with.

Meanwhile, the medieval setting doesn’t mean that the Slayer won’t have a whole suite of firearms to play with. As we’ve seen in the gameplay so far, the Super Shotgun is making a comeback alongside a host of new weapons like the Skull Crusher and Rail Spike. When designing the weapons for Dark Ages, id Software wanted them to feel more “brutal,” with weapons like the Skull Crusher appearing more like a torture device to fit the medieval theme.

Speaking of medieval themes, executions seem like a pretty good place to end this piece. The Glory Kill system has been overhauled this time around, allowing for unsynced executions that give you the ability to hack through the demonic hordes smoothly as you tear them limb from limb.

In the previous games, Glory Kill animations were synched. These animations almost brought combat to a brief standstill, which could feel jarring, especially when performing the same animation time and time again. You can now stagger multiple enemies at a time before carving through them like a warm knife through butter.

“When you go to an enemy, we have like a pool of melee animations that the engine picks from and so each one feels different,” Martin explained. The team wants you to feel like Leonidas in the movie 300, where he cuts through multiple enemies, ”first with his spear, then with his Spartan sword and shield,” and much like that scene, Glory Kills will slightly dilate time to give it a slowed-down, cinematic feel.

The darker style, badass Glory Kill system, and power trip of Doom: The Dark Ages are all an instant "yes" from me. Throw in the Atlans and Cyberdragon, and oh boy, this has the potential to be the best Doom id Software has delivered. Of course, I won’t know how much I like it until I can get hands-on with it, and thankfully we won’t be waiting too long, as it launches on Xbox Series X|S and PC on May 15, 2025.

Even from this small look at Doom: The Dark Ages, I know the FPS will be trying its hardest try to blast its way into the best Xbox first-person shooters with its brethren! What do you think of this medieval-themed Doom game so far? Will you be slaying demons with flails and maces in May? Drop a comment below and let us know!

Written by Tom West

Tom has been playing video games since he was old enough to hold a controller, experimenting with a number of systems until he eventually fell in love with Xbox. With a passion for the platform, he decided to make a career out of it, and now happily spends his days writing about that which he loves. If he’s not hunting for Xbox achievements, you’ll likely find him somewhere in The Elder Scrolls Online or fighting for survival in Battlefield.