2024’s Xbox Games Showcase certainly happened this year, and many of the games revealed brought some hype with them, but probably proud and tallest among them is the prodigal son of id Software and Bethesda Softworks’ sequel to their reboot of the ever classic Doom franchise Doom Eternal, Doom: The Dark Ages.
In a move that’s rare for a game showcase, Doom: The Dark Ages actually shows off gameplay, which is a good thing as gameplay is what the players of Doom care about the most by far. As shown in the trailer, it looks like Doomguy, the main character, is going to be dropped onto a Hell infested planet and use a combination of medieval and modern weaponry Army of Darkness style.
We see Doomguy mow through the armies of Hell using the classic shotgun as well as what appears to be a new shotgun that’s powered by chewing up consecrated skulls and using the bits as shrapnel. Probably the biggest standout of the trailer is the shield, which can block enemy fire as well as function like a boomerang as well as a melee weapon.
There’s also what appears to be a giant Doomguy mech that’ll get into a massive fistfight with a giant demon inside a Hell adorned coliseum, so that’s definitely something new to the franchise, and hopefully not just a setpiece.
Overall it looks like another pulse pounding high octane entry into the Doom saga. No doubt Bethesda and id Software are going to be chasing the high that Doom 2016 provided, as while many players were pleased with 2020’s Doom Eternal those same many agree that it didn’t quite hit the highs that Doom 2016 hit. So fingers crossed that this adventure becomes another all time classic we’ll be talking about for decades to come. Doom: The Dark Ages is set to come out sometime in 2025.