After almost 10 years of silence, Doom returns with a brutal medieval roar of blood and blades, and it is glorious. Doom: The Dark Ages A Return to Carnage is back, bringing the franchise blasting forth into the limelight just without the futuretech and chainsaw rifles. Instead, we have rusted steel, razed settlements, and a raw brutality that feels shockingly human. The Doomverse is primal once again, and it's more savage than ever.
A New Era, An Old Fury
The franchise's shift from post apocalyptic scifi to savage medieval warfare draws some raised eyebrows when first teased. The fans of the original trilogy remember the visceral combat and mechanical monstrosities that helped define its identity. But, The Dark Ages doesn't abandon that identity or primal nature, it reforges it.
Gone are the sleek metallic hallways and laser resurfaced battlefields. We are once again treading paths across a low tech world of muck and debris, fallen kingdoms of rotten parapets, where once great bastions now stand broken and ruined, paperthin superstition ruling over the remnants of scientific understanding, and the world may be darker, but the carnage? It's still crankable to eleven.
Steel Instead of Circuits
The combat is less evolved and more devolved in The Dark Ages. This isn't about plasma grenades and big metal suits. Every encounter feels heavier, slower, and more deliberate. You will swing your axes with a crushing weight, striking downed foes and igniting heirloom oilflails, dodging flaming, greaseslicked arrows launched from speed machines known as siege engines. The enemies are no longer men of metal, but mutated zealots, forged knights, and beasts of mass and madness, corrupted by an ancient technocurse that has lay dormant like a virus seething in the bones of the world.
The game leans even heavier into its steampunk origins, and we see gear powered ballistae, steamdriven siege engines, crude exosuits powered by blood rituals. It is medieval, yes but its Doom medieval.
Narrative: Bleak, Brutal, Brilliant
Set around 300 years prefall of the last technocratic empire, The Dark Ages is the telling of Kael Thorne, a disgraced knight grappling with his humanity, and a curse that provides him power at a terrible cost. The campaign unfolds like a terrible tale in a history book corrupted with blood, consists of betrayals, failed loyalties, and unyielding warfare. It is surprising how personal it feels though, while not as emphatic as narrative of its predecessors.
Where the earlier titles featured the bombastic bravado of some hero on a hero's journey, Kael is a tortured, exhausted being, making choices that seem morally grey. It is not about a rally of strength, but more "how far would you go to survive a dying world?"
A Deranged Love Letter to Fans
Developers took note of player feedback from previous versions. Though the state is darker and movement is morose (think WWII films), the spirit of Doom remains. Developers removed the chainsaw and replaced it with a bloody* serrated greatsword that has geardriven inner geek. Players now weather waves of waves of heretics in what was formerly horde mode ("Siege mode") where players remain within the dilapidated walls of a fortress. Multiplayer is also as aggressive as ever now that crossbows, boiling oil, and gearcutting executions add to the carnage.
Final Thoughts
Doom: The Dark Ages: A Return to Carnage isn't just a reboot; it is resurrection (with scars and teeth). The game takes risks, it jumps hard into atmosphere, and it provides a rare thing: a reinvention that respects who the franchise is while creating a bloody brand new identity.
So, if you're here for the carnage, you're going to get a good one. If you're here for the story, however, you might just find something raw, unrememberable and surprisingly human in the blood and iron.
