Doom: The Dark Ages will draw inspiration from classic 1993 Doom game and feature a ‘darker, more sinister tool kit,’ dev says

It’s been over 30 years since the OG Doom was released for the PC back in 1993 but the trailblazing, first-person shooter is still finding ways to inspire and influence contemporary games; that’s especially true for the latest entry in the franchise, the upcoming Doom: The Dark Ages.

“It’s like a classic piece of art,” Dark Ages director Hugo Martin says in the latest issue of Edge Magazine. “It’s like a painter going to a museum and studying the Norman Rockwell painting he’s already studied 50 times. Every time you look at it, you learn something new.”

One aspect of the original Doom that Martin wants to rejuvenate in The Dark Ages is the nature of projectiles — more specifically, the speed of enemy projectiles and the way the player has to circumnavigate or avoid them.

Doom: The Dark Ages gameplay/id Software

“The projectiles start to collect in the world, and they create this maze that the player has to weave through,” Martin says.

Whereas Doom Eternal featured the Doomslayer dodging high-velocity attacks, The Dark Ages will feature more slow-moving but hard-hitting ones that will add another puzzle-like component for players to solve as they master the ever-evolving art of circle-strafing and proper positioning that has become an integral component of the Doom games.

“In Eternal, there’s a lot of activity along the [vertical] Y-axis,” Martin added, “but [here] it felt better to focus the threats and the targets along the horizon line,” in another callback to the classic that started it all. “It’s a movement shooter still, but the movement is more about what’s happening along the X-axis.”

Martin also divulged that the setting of Doom: The Dark Ages would be even darker and “more sinister” than we’ve seen in previous Doom games (which weren’t exactly known for being bright and cheery themselves) thanks to the medieval/fantasy influenced ambiance.

“Part of the reason we chose the fantasy genre is that we could get more dark and sinister with the tool kit,” Martin continued. “When you think medieval, dark fantasy, you think torture device, ropes, and chains, and spikes.” New weapons in Doom: The Dark Ages include something similar to a medieval flail, with a metal ball attached to a chain “to break bones with,” and another weapon he referred to as the rail spike, which is “literally a hammer and a giant spike.”

Doom: The Dark Ages is set to release on the Xbox Series X|S, PC and Playstation 5 formats on May 5th, 2025.