Doom: The Dark Ages launches on PS5 May 15 – id Software reveals new gameplay details

Hello everybody! This is Hugo Martin, Game Director on Doom: The Dark Ages reporting from the offices at id Software – we are all hard at work polishing this latest installment in the franchise. It’s almost ready and we can’t wait for you to play it.  In the meantime, we have a new look at gameplay we put together for you. There’s lots to breakdown from the video, so let’s get started – I’m guessing you’ve got some questions, let me try and give you some more details…

What’s the new combat loop in Dark Ages, and how’s it different from Eternal or Doom (2016)?

High level – you could say it’s a blend of the two but with a new, medieval toolkit. We’re looking to create an experience that has the depth of Eternal’s loop with the simplicity of Doom (2016)’s control scheme. As a player, you performed a lot of cool actions in Eternal, and each action/attack had its own input. In Dark Ages we have a brand-new set of cool medieval actions to perform but this time, with fewer buttons to press!

The depth/simplicity is achieved by making the behavior of items like the Shield-Saw change based on the material it interacts with. It’s contextual: the shield throw ricochets off plasma shields hitting other enemies (feels awesome), it sticks into flesh (stun locking larger demons), or it can shatter armor creating an AOE blast – all with a single button press.

I love analogies: it all adds up to us having fewer strings on the guitar this time – but we added frets to maintain the mechanical depth of the experience, giving the player something new to learn and master.

With all of this, we are relying on familiar FPS inputs to execute these moves, giving the loop an intuitive learning curve. The actions feel impactful and fun to execute, and the results give you a tactical advantage – fun on the outside smart on the inside.

What do the “rings” around enemies indicate?

The yellow rings you see appearing around the characters are falter indicators. “Falters” is a meta in Eternal and 2016.  Great players figured out what caused falters and they started to stack those attacks to stun-lock powerful enemies (which is what we hoped they’d do). It’s important that we clearly identify the moment an enemy falters in Dark Ages so more players can begin to explore what causes it and how they can use it to their advantage. You don’t have to rely on falters to be successful but on higher difficulties it can give you an extra advantage – and if you choose to play on Ultra Nightmare you’ll need every advantage you can get!

More story in Doom?

Yes! There are three pillars of engagement in Dark Ages; combat, exploration and story – three reasons to play, narrative is just one of them. Players don’t want a story in Doom, they want a good one, something that enhances the power fantasy, gives you even more motivation to fight through to the end of the campaign. Through story we can build bigger and better adversaries, worlds to discover and obstacles to overcome.

The story synopsis reads: With the Slayer imprisoned at the start of Dark Ages the balance of power between good and evil is shifting, and time is running out. Our hero is a feared outsider among an imperiled people, his strength controlled by the gods they serve, in a world under siege by an ancient evil.

At this point in the Doom Universe timeline, this game being a prequel – we start at the beginning of the Slayer’s time with the Sentinels. He is the outlander, blessed with power by the Sentinel’s gods known as the Maykrs. Our subjugated hero stands now as the superweapon in a medieval war against the armies of hell.

When does it come out?

May 15, 2025! We are so excited for you to get your hands on what we hope will become – the best Doom game we’ve ever made. It’s got something for everyone, loads of great combat, tons of exploration and an awesome action story that’s worthy of the Slayers legend. Plus you’ve got encounters with the Atlan (giant Doom mech) and Dragon to look forward to!

Anyway, thanks for reading – look out for more info to come.