DOOM: The Dark Ages is much easier than Eternal, here's why

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DOOM: The Dark Ages has officially entered early access, and after the game has received extremely high praise from reviewers and publications alike, including myself, I wanted to share my thoughts on the gameplay changes versus the previous game, DOOM: Eternal.

Quick showcase of shield gameplay in DOOM: The Dark Ages

The Dark Ages has taken a step back from Eternal and taken a page out of classic DOOM games, where players encounter a more bullet-hell environment with many more enemies on-screen, rather than multiple stronger individual enemies as seen in Eternal. Additionally, The Dark Ages introduces a parry system through the use of the Slayer's shield. There was no parry system in Eternal, only openings for the Marauder enemy.

In short, the parry system has made The Dark Ages a complete breeze at Nightmare, and after only a few hours with the game, I quickly noticed how the entire game revolves around the use of the shield and parries. Since The Dark Ages has removed glory kills, which provided invincibility frames and were constantly used to maintain survival in Eternal, players are now required to move around the much larger level more frequently in search of armor/health packs or to quickly dispose of fodder demons for slithers of health.

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This has changed the combat loop from hopping from individual enemies via glory kills, as I did in Eternal, to maintaining as much speed as possible and utilizing the new "teleport" system introduced via the shield. The shield enables players to quickly dash to an enemy, dealing significant damage to the target and damage in an area around it. Players need to use this to get into fights and also exit them when overwhelmed.

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Parriable attacks

With no glory kills, which provided health, ammo, and invincibility in Eternal, The Dark Ages has instead balanced the increased number of enemies per level by providing a typically larger area to fight in with more cover, the ability to block attacks with the shield, and parriable attacks indicated by the color green.

What does this mean for players? Players wanting to take on the game at Nightmare difficulty should get extremely comfortable parrying as many attacks as they possibly can, as there are brief windows of invincibility during the parry animation. Additionally, using the shield to take down enemies at range is extremely useful, especially when you can use the block button to call back the shield instantly for a follow-up shield bash charge.

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Additionally, using the shield to stun the strongest enemy, or the enemy that is constantly launching projectiles, is heavily advised, as this enables the player to reposition, gather health/armor, kill fodder enemies for health, etc.

Ultimately, I have found The Dark Ages is considerably easier than Eternal, all because of the introduction of the shield, parrying mechanics, and the ability to stun enemies. Has this ruined the game? Absolutely not. The Dark Ages is still an incredibly fun game, and a title I highly recommend to any FPS gamer who enjoys fast-paced, brutal action. It simply plays differently than Eternal, and while easier at Nightmare, it's still challenging and proportionally rewarding.