I recently finished The Dark Ages, and I have some thoughts on the design. I might be retreading well-worn territory, but I haven't read basically anything about the game since launch, so I'd welcome anyone who wants to share their opinions or tell me why I'm wrong.

While playing through the game (on Ultraviolence) I could almost read the design as a checklist. Where Doom Eternal was:

• Switch weapons constantly
• Never stop moving
• Fight constantly to stay alive

Doom: The Dark Ages was to be:

• Stick with one weapon for a while
• Stand your ground
• Use strong defenses to stay alive

Unfortunately, I think all of these items introduced problems that they couldn't fix within their framework:

Stick with One Weapon:

To eliminate the need to switch weapons constantly, all of the weapons need to be able to reasonably deal with a range of threats, and the result is that a lot of them feel pretty interchangeable. Out of 11 primary weapons, 5 are short/mid-range machine guns (4 of which have ramp-up effects), 4 are sort of mid-range, low-fire-rate burst damage, and 2 are shotguns.

In general, I felt that one was as good as another, and by the end of the game I was making weapon choices based mostly on which Challenges I hadn't completed yet.

The other "weapon" groups have the same problem. The Shield Runes and Melee Weapons have relatively subtle differences that would make them useful against different threats, but not enough to make it worth the awkwardness of switching between them. I ended up using Ground Fissure for like 90% of the game (because at least that one gives armor) and never put the Dreadmace away once I got it.

Stand your ground

is interesting for a while, but as the game progresses it seems like it gets left behind, with no new principle to take its place. As the difficulty ramps up and you have to deal with more simultaneous threats, it becomes increasingly important to split up the enemies. This means a lot of running around and hiding around corners, which is exactly what I thought they were trying to avoid. And, unlike in Doom Eternal, where constant motion was "mobility," this mostly felt like "running away."

Use strong defenses to stay alive

I think this might be the strangest and most awkward decision in the game's design. While you're supposed to be dodging and blocking and parrying, you're going to eventually get hit, if just shot in the back by the horde of fodder enemies that accompanies every fight, and that means you need health and armor. But unlike in Doom Eternal, neither is easy to get. Fodder enemies don't drop health anymore*, and you don't have an always-available "get armor" tool, so you're expected to run around the arena collecting non-respawning health and armor pickups, which is just not very interesting and seems like a big step backwards.

*Okay, they do drop health, but only once you've taken critical damage. Then, because the only convenient way to get health is to be in danger of dying, the game also gives you extra resistance to dying when you're at low health, which I think makes for an uneven experience.

None of this is to say that I didn't like Doom: The Dark Ages. I did enjoy it, and I intend to eventually go back and play on Nightmare eventually. I just think its systems feel disjointed in a way that Doom Eternal's did not.

Long time DOOM fan, new to this sub. I’m sure this is a dead horse by now in this sub but I have to ask. What do you guys like most about this game? What do you think the haters get wrong? Does this game get better? I’m on my third attempt at playing and I am struggling to get through. I will finish it, I’m not looking for motivation to continue, I just want to know how this community feels about it. No hate of course, 2016 and Eternal are in my top 3 favorite FPS games. The bar was set pretty high, I don’t hate the game, just disappointed.

Im gonna give the dark ages another chance since the last time I played it the giant opened maps really put me off because in a doom game I only want to kill, I really hated the exploring part
(pls dont rip and tear me)

Question for the gamers and DOOM fans here.
If you had the chance to train under the Doom Slayer himself for 3 to 5 months, would you do it?

The training would be brutal. Strict rules, harsh conditions, constant injuries, and fighting your way through his battle arenas with the help of VEGA giving you small instructions against the demons of Hell to push yourself beyond your limits.

By the end, you'd be far stronger than when you started and would have grown tremendously both physically and mentally.

Would you take that opportunity, or would you pass?

Made: Myself
Game: Ancient Warfare 3

I must be missing something because I cannot manage to get the spear or DLC demon in the ripatorium. I just saw mayo's video on Archvile combos, so I know its possible. Does anyone know what I'm supposed to do?

I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone post about using the spear in the base game. I’m almost finished a playthrough it and found that it fits surprisingly well, and doesn’t break the game too much.

I recommend you try it if you’re on PC. Just download Kaibz mod through nexus mods the enable the spear in campaign. As a bonus, the mod also auto skips all mech, dragon and turret sequences (this can be turned off).

Hi,

Kinda desperate about my issues in Doom TDA:

GPU : Gefore 5070Ti

I get ~60fps on average down to 40-50 in heavy fights. There is no hard cap of course, it is able to go up to 70 in small spaces.

My GPU is being very lazy in DOOM TDA where it somehow works at 100% load, but doesn't even heat (stays at 40°C) and uses low amounts of power.

There is no performance difference between High or Low preset. I also tested pretty much every setting and nothing changes.

I have tried many things, among them are :

• Rolled back drivers since a recent update seemed to kill performance - nothing

• Used DLSS Swapper / profile inspector to tweak stuff Rebar & change DLSS versions.

• Ran GPU stress tests to check if my GPU was the culprit, it is able to use all of its power. Also other games don't have this performance issue.

• Power Management Mode in NVCP set to "Prefer Maximum Performance"

• Ruled out PSU issues — clocks and voltage stay stable under load, no throttling signature

I last played the game last year when it was on Game Pass on my Gefore 3070 and had better performance than that.

Anyone else with these issues?

Thanks

I noticed that a non-upgraded Accelerator plasma gun can destroy a Chaingunner's shield very fast, even faster than a SSG or the Impaler. Which it wasn't the case before the update if I recall correctly.

Ps: So there's no confusion I'm referring to the heavy Chaingunner metal shield that can be overheated not the energy shield or the fodder Shield enemies

Just so darned used to the shield controls. I keep reverting back to them despite constantly reminding myself that the spear has its own controls. The shield's mechanics are just so ingrained at this point. The spear is honestly really cool and I love what it adds and how it reworks parrying. But after playing for several hours, I'm still constantly using it incorrectly, as I'm really struggling to reprogram my brain to incorporate the spear's moveset.

I was just browsing through the mods on the Doom I + II library and came across some kind of interesting ones, like parallel Doomensions, Vanilla Doom 4 so I was wondering if someone else plays with mods on the base game or which other ones would you recommend?

I’ve been playing on UV and I loved it because it felt like I was fighting for my dam life. But when I got to the second level with an archvile I spent more than an hour trying to beat it. The only way I beat it was to lower the difficulty to hurt me plenty and it still took many tries.

I hate the archvile. Constantly teleporting, shooting projectiles and spawning enemies. On top of that it has a fuck load of health

I also heard there’s an armored versus

Edit: I’m talking about the dark ages

These guys just chickening out with their sick looking armour. It would be awesome if they threw some of these guys into the fight and we battle alongside them. and if they die at least they die with honour lol.

I've been trying to figure it out for like 30 minutes lol

It's in the second mission.

I just find it strange that, despite being put next to the combat shotgun in the weapon wheel, scrolling or using number keys puts the Super Shotgun on the 6th slot. Is there a way to change the position of weapons on the scroll wheel, because i just find this super annoying, I move between weapons with the scroll wheel and always get mixed up on where i am because of the super shotgun

The arena isnt all that bad, however, I cant seem to finish round 5 within the time limit, and thats with me using the one BFC shot they give me (in round 4 I use it with the Komodo)

I see some mods restore it possibly, but they come with too much other alterations. I just want red med kits and my game buggy the way it’s supposed to be with unobtainables.

So, in the first mission, Novak is talking about how they will send the Slayer to help humanity, at least I'm 90% certain thats supposed to be King Novak speaking. But then, a few missions later, King Novak's ghost is basically telling the Slayer to stop and that he has to let the Mayker do her thing because of their laws. So, my question is, whos side is Novak on? At first he claims to want to help humanity by sending the Slayer, but then later is discouraging him from completing his task. I havent been able to play the dlc for Dark Ages yet, plan to get it next week after getting paid and playing them all in chronological order, starting with 1, so please no spoilers, if the answer is in the dlc just say its in it and I'll enjoy finding out when I play it. Thank you 😊

I can list over 10 reasons why I couldn't stand this game.

Look I feel bad about what happened to id but it's clear Microsoft felt this game also vastly underperformed and under performed in reviews and that's why they did what they did. Microsoft gaming is a hell of a scummy company for laying off 3,200 people but it's business and if they want to save Xbox in some way they had to do what they had to do because Sony and Nintendo are just kicking their ass in sales.

Okay I get it. I'm being picky and slightly over critical but am I? For a 33 year old game that I was playing at the age of 10 years old. It was one of my first games ever and loved it ever since. Hell I even liked Doom 3 and absolutely loved quake. (I truly hope quake makes a reboot one day especially 4. I loved that game)

Before Microsoft laid off 140 people at Id software, they said they had just shy of 300 people working on this game and this is what we got? 300 is a lot for a game with no life content updates and very basic fps with no build system or upgrade or stats system OR multi player. Now 130 or so people worked on 2016 doom and it was a vastly superior game... Now why is that? This franchise having 140 people like it did for eternal might be just what it needs to bring back life to the franchise and make Doom great again anyway I digress.

Here are my top 10 reasons why I hated to see where doom went.

1. Too arcade feeling. The game went a different direction that didn't feel like doom of the past games. I'm not talking about getting rid of platforming and air dashes. I'm very happy they got rid of that. The weird pacing and overall beat em' up style shield bashing made the game feel insanely repetitive and I never felt like I was truly in danger cause hey, I can rely on my shield that will take everything out.

2. Game isn't hard... At all... And I know it will be said. Bro play Ultra nightmare! That's not what I mean by "hard" of course dying by one hit is hard. That is just stupid artificial junk hardness. I wanted the enemies to ACTUALLY fight back or try to take my shield or at least give me trouble before I bashed it threw it at them. Nope it's just bash everything and win.

3. Almost zero emphasis on gunplay over shield combat. The game focuses on melee (again) this time around but even more so, and they took away the type of melee where he rips people's faces off in exchange for a dumb shield. The shield feels like it has no place in doom but they added it because they wanted to keep melee in the game sooooo bad, they figured hey, we want to keep melee but how can we make it a "different kind of melee"? And like all doom games as tradition which I think is always a homage, you get the shotgun right away. The shotgun well feels boring, it has no attributes to make it actually fun. It's just point and click. You can't make the shotgun do anything different, no alt mode no different type of ammos, no melee with it and certainly, no upgrading it. That felt boring to me.. it was neat to have about 13 guns in the game but in all reality why need them? The shield could do everything and that is all you needed. The shield should have been an option and shield and ball and mace or guns.

4. Game under performed and had mixed views for a reason... The game felt rushed. The only thing they really got right was the soundtrack because they got metal core band white chapel on it and the sound track was great. Now before people cry and say. Wahhhh it's different without Mick Gordon. Well tell ya screw Mick Gordon, he definitely was good in doom 2016 but apparently the guy was so toxic and hard to work with, it made eternal almost miss it's definitely debut because he didn't mix any of the music before it was due, so they had to get a random team with limited experience in metal to mix the tracks and it came out like shit. This was Mick's fault.

5.boring and push over boss in an otherwise semi professional story with good cut scenes. The boss fight was wack and boring. This guy talked so much shit, in the entire game, killed my dragon and continued to talk shit only to get slapped around like he was a level 1 boss.

1. No upgrading, no skins, no leveling up nothing new or fresh and appealing. Just go in beat stuff up get a few weapons leave.

2. No real abilities like the shoulder mounted flame blefu thrower. You had a spear chain and a throwing shield okay cool with the chain but is that really all we get? Where are all the abilties ?

Look don't get me wrong 2016 had its issues. Eternal had FAR too many issues. The platforming and air dashing was some of the worst shit I've ever seen in a video game. I beat it though, it was challenging at the end for certain jumps but I get why they did it. They wanted to change it up.

Also too much emphasis on melee but the enimies where funner the gun play was funner the level design was better and a lot of classic doom emimes came back and got renewed.

1. Lack of enemies and of course enemy mob densy... It felt tiring and repetitive and felt like no real challenge.

2. The engine just doesn't "feel right". There is something that just feels like they slapped it togehrer and over layed their skins on on a copy cat unreal 5 engine but we know it's tech engine 8. Unreal would play and feel like glitchy shit on high and that just wouldn't be too fun..

3. Too high of a price for what we got. This is a 30 dollar game at best. They decided to make it 70 right off the get and I feel like that is laughable. I understand the dlc just came out but that's it for 300 people that foked in this game for 3 to 4 to years.

Been a doom fan for 33 years. I'm hoping to see this game return to its faithful glory. If they can't they need to get race software's help again because they made quake 4,

Heretic, X-Men and Jedi games amazing.

the door i entered this area from doesnt open anymore & the videos ive seen on youtube show a cube in the area of the third photo but there is no cube there in my game. the door to the nearest hollowshrine also doesnt open. im in already at endgame so idk if that changed anything

Was he called the Doom slayer in tda or just The Slayer because in the slayers testaments it states "those who tasted the bite of his sword named him the doom slayer" so was the "doom" part put on to slayer while in hell bcus the testaments make it sound like the demons called him the doom slayer, but the makyrs call him the slayer in tda?

nightmare at 130% speed. shit was so hard once i saw the Komodo i knew it was so over

sorry about the quality