If there’s one thing I admire about modern id Software, beyond the technology, it’s their refusal to freeze an idea in amber. Doom, as a series, could have coasted forever on refinement alone. Instead, over the last decade, id has treated Doom as a living system, one that’s allowed to mutate, even at the cost of initial discomfort. Doom (2016), Doom Eternal, and now Doom: The Dark Ages share a lineage, not a template.

That willingness to evolve is also what makes each new entry harder to judge on first contact.

When I first played The Dark Ages, I enjoyed it, but I felt a quiet resistance forming. Coming off Doom Eternal, a game that still feels like an almost impossibly tuned expression of momentum and aggression, this new direction seemed heavier, slower, more grounded.

I recognized the feeling immediately, because I’d felt the same hesitation years ago when Eternal replaced the purity of 2016 with resource juggling, movement puzzles, and relentless forward pressure. Eternal didn’t fully reveal itself to me until I committed to it, until I learned its language well enough to stop fighting it.

The Dark Ages required the same patience.

Its combat shifts away from the airborne ballets of Eternal toward something more intimate and physical. Shields are no longer just tools, they’re the rhythm section. You break enemy defenses by wearing them down, hurl your own shield to stagger or lock on, then launch yourself across space to finish the encounter up close. It’s less about constant verticality and more about controlled violence. The result feels deliberate rather than diminished. Different does not mean weaker; it means re-tuned.

What surprised me most is scale. For the first time since the sprite-based chaos of early ’90s Doom, id is comfortable throwing enormous hordes at the player again. Once the industry moved fully into polygonal worlds, that density quietly disappeared. The Dark Ages brings it back. The pleasure comes not from survival alone, but from learning how to dismantle mass efficiently. Mastery here is about flow through numbers, not just reflex.

The level design supports this beautifully. Traditional key-and-door progression sits alongside larger semi-open environments that reward exploration without losing tension.

Technically, the game is absolutely stunning and absurdly well-optimized. There’s a reason it stood out visually last year. But visuals will fade. What matters is longevity.

I keep a small, intentional rotation of Boomer shooters installed at all times. Old friends. Doom. Quake. Unreal Tournment. Gears. Halo. Doom Eternal. Games I can load up for ten minutes or two hours and still feel sharp.

Doom: The Dark Ages has earned a permanent slot there.
That’s how I know it’s my pick for Game of the Year