Doom: The Dark Ages – Revelations makes the Slayer into a flying tank

The Doom Slayer is undergoing yet another transformation in Doom: The Dark Ages – Revelations. If he was a fighter jet in Doom Eternal and an iron tank in The Dark Ages – as explained by Game Director Hugo Martin last year – Revelations is turning him into a tank that flies.

Revelations is set to be a huge expansion to Doom: The Dark Ages, promising around 10-12 hours of playtime, which is equal to both of the DLC packs that were released for Doom Eternal. But within that, there are multiple facets and styles of game that you’ll get to explore. Six core levels will feature within the new story, taking id’s level design to new heights of maze-like complexity (really looking to channel more of the tone of the 90s originals), and with one of these being a sprawling hub level filled with secrets and a lashing of Metroidvania-like progression to how you can explore it. But then there’s the endgame.

For the first time, there’s more than just a horde or arena mode, as with the Ripatorium, and there’s a bona fide endgame that continues to ramp up the difficulty and variety further and further. You’ll unlock the Master level difficulty after beating the game; there are classic levels from old games that have been reimagined within the modern game engine, and as you complete these, you’ll earn the Astral Key to unlock and let you fight one final mega boss. But even that isn’t the end, as the Master Arena Key grants access to more combat spaces filled with some of the most demanding battles id can think to cook up, and then there’s the revamped Ripatorium 3.0 with new encounters and challenges.

For those who want to keep going, to keep blasting demons, ripping and tearing, this feels like a dream, almost.

All of this is built around the Chain Spear. At the start of the new story, the Doom Slayer is brought low, his armour destroyed, his Shield Saw busted up, and he’s destined for a stint in Purgatory. But, like that Rorschach quote, he’s not locked in Purgatory with all these demons and things trying to kill him, they’re locked in there with him. As you rebuild the Doom Slayer’s power, you can still make great use of the Shield Saw (quick switching to and from this tool as you want it) and the returning arsenal of weapons from the main game, but id really want to push you to master and improve the Chain Spear.

And with good reason. You can stab with it as a melee attack, slam down onto the ground for a powerful shockwave like the hammer in Eternal, throw it like a sniper shot, slash with it to break armour and parry incoming energy beams….. and it’s got a grapple ability similar to the Meat Hook from Eternal to boot.

It’s this that will really transform the grounded gameplay of The Dark Ages, back towards something like Eternal, where you will fling yourself through the air and rapidly move around the battlefields. A degree of aftertouch is possible, so you can push up to gain more elevation at the cost of distance, or right and left to gain more speed and fly further. Heck, the grapple will even let you just casually swing and rotate around an enemy, constantly blasting them from all sides with whatever weapon is in your other hand.

Many of the enemies you’re facing off against will still have their energy attacks, releasing slow-moving projectiles with a certain colour that you’re able to parry back at them in a riff on the bullet hell genre, and you’ll still have to deal with those one way or another. As the spear is upgraded, though, it will be able to do things like shatter a Cacodemon shield wall to breach their defences far more quickly.

The faster speed that grappling gives you also gives you what you need to deal with new and returning enemies. The Archvile is back, there’s a Pain Elemental, and a Warlock which is all about buffing its allies and evading your attention, making them a priority to deal with early on in an encounter.

That added movement is also sure to play into how you explore the hub world of Purgatory. For this DLC, id are removing the secret markers from the world map, forcing you to really explore and reveal the hidden areas and pathways for yourself. It’s here and through retreading ground with the Master Key in hand that you’ll find classic levels, mostly based on Doom 2 and loosely connected to the current fiction, recreated within modern graphics and with a modern interpretation as opposed to being pixel art, to give this a different feel to the classic levels found in Doom 2016.

All in all, Doom: The Dark Ages – Revelations feels like id Software wants to wrap a bow on the past decade of Doom. Marty and Hugo say that there’s a little wiggle room left within the story, but in terms of gameplay, this looks to be the best of both worlds, between the eye-melting speed of Doom Eternal and the steadier pace of The Dark Ages, focused purely on getting the most out of the Chain Spear through the campaign and deep into the endgame.

Tags: Doom, Doom Eternal, Doom: The Dark Ages