Doom: The Dark Ages just came out a couple of weeks ago, and by and large, the game has really delivered. Not only is The Dark Ages an evolution of the revived Doom trilogy rather than just more of the same, but it also manages to stand on its own two feet as a separate single-player experience.

Overall, the 23-odd hours I spent playing the game were rather impressive, and you can read about them in my review of the game. Regardless, in its bid to stand apart and deliver something new, Doom: The Dark Ages does end up swinging and missing in a few places. Sure, we didn’t want Doom Eternal 2, but there are features and aspects of the game that could certainly divide the fanbase.

5 No double-jump or double-dash like Eternal

Doom: The Dark Ages removes two core traversal features present in Doom: Eternal

Doom Eternal, arguably the best Doom game to ever grace the medium, had the Slayer running around, jumping all over the map, taking names and kicking demon posteriors. According to the developers, they didn’t want to make The Dark Ages more of the same. As such, where Eternal was more about jumping and shooting, the new Doom is about standing your ground and fighting. The Slayer, clad in his medieval fur cape and armed with a flail and a shield, is definitely different from the 2016 and 2020 variants.

However, we must remember that Eternal essentially became the blueprint because of just how good it was. As such, if you enter The Dark Ages expecting more of it, you’d be surprised to know that Doom: The Dark Ages has no double-jumping or double-dashing. In fact, there’s even a dedicated sprint button and mechanic, which neither Doom 2016 nor Eternal had. If you were thinking about double-jumping over a Mancubus or double-dashing to get away from a Revenant like you did in Eternal, you’d be sorely disappointed.

In order to give weight to the Slayer on the battleground, both of these core mechanics from Eternal have been removed, being replaced by sprinting, sprint-jumping, and a Shield Charge that does sort of remind you of a dash, albeit only a single one.

4 Atlan mechs and dragon mounts are definitely dividing the fanbase

Both the atlan mech and dragon mount segments are glorified QTEs

When id Software revealed that The Dark Ages will feature playable segments where the Slayer pilots an Atlan Mech and rides atop a dragon, I remember being the very personification of hype. Sure, neither of these things are quintessentially “Doom”, but they are pretty damn cool, and that “cool” tag right there can be argued to be synonymous with the franchise. However, once the gameplay previews dropped, doubts began to grow about both the Atlan and the Dragon Mount sequences. Then, the game came out, and our doubts turned out to be true — both these segments had very little to offer.

The first Atlan Mech segment in the game comes about in level 3, and in it, players do little else than just press the dodge button at the right time and then just mash the left and right mouse buttons. There is simply no depth to these segments, but boy does it look fantastic. With the dragon mount, introduced in level 5, it’s just flying around and dodging at the right time to take down ships or monsters. Again, zero depth, which makes these segments feel tacked on.

Regardless, the coolness factor for both these segments is definitely unreal, and there are a few good moments around both these features. It’s just a shame that they are limited to cutscenes, and not the gameplay itself.

3 The Slayer’s shield — There’s a parry fatigue going around

I love the shield, but the game is over-reliant on it

It’s strange to think about, but the very core, central feature of the new Doom game, the shield itself, could be a divisive feature of the game. Did I love going around arenas, using my shield to block, parry, traverse, dash, and solve puzzles? Yes. Do I also realize that it’s been shoehorned into almost every mechanic in the game to make it as useful as possible, à la the Batmobile in Arkham Knight? Also yes.

Let’s face it — there are a lot of games based on parrying mechanics out there, and their number has only been growing. The last game anyone could’ve thought about adapting this mechanic would’ve been a Doom game, which is pretty much royalty in the first-person-shooter genre. Regardless, it’s there, and boy does the game make sure you have to use it, no matter what.

The over-reliance on the Slayer’s shield as a must-use in the battlefield, with even some weapons taking a backseat to the shield, and then ensuring that every single puzzle and platforming section in the game also uses the shield, could very well turn off anyone who doesn’t immediately love it. The only thing left to do in that situation would be to go back to Eternal or 2016’s Doom, instead of playing The Dark Ages.

2 No glory kill animations

Who would’ve been hurt if you just kept them, id?

I’m not going to lie about this one — this one hurts me, too. The violent, over-the-top, almost artistic ways in which the Slayer took down different types of demons in Eternal and Doom 2016 were the very heart of the franchise for many players, myself included. An unbreakable animation where the Slayer takes a couple of seconds to slice, dice, and blow enemies up in the most satisfying ways? Sign me right up and make it recurring. Sadly, glory kills have been removed from Doom: The Dark Ages, which definitely dampened my excitement for the game.

Instead, this time around, when certain demons enter a dazed state, the Slayer simply punches them, kicks them, or hits them with a flail, without breaking the flow of combat or entering any animations. Glory Kills aren’t completely gone from the game, however. If you’re up in the air after jumping while going for the finishing blow, you do get the same effect — special kill animation with an invulnerable state — but there’s only one per enemy type, not all enemies get one, and they all have the shield involved. They are also hit-or-miss, depending on what melee weapon you have equipped.

Having actually played the game for over eighty hours now, I can’t, for one second, imagine the game would be worse if glory kills had remained in the game. I can definitely imagine it being way cooler, however.

1 Doom: The Dark Ages is a hardware-hungry game

The new Doom game isn’t going to be the bastion of optimization that its predecessor was

Over the past few years, DOOM Eternal has cemented itself in gaming’s hall of fame for two things. First, it’s one of the most fantastic first-person-shooter experiences available even today. Secondly, it’s the gold standard for optimized games — the game looks fantastic, from its textures and effects to its characters and cutscenes. Despite all of that, it’s also one of the best-optimized games we’ve ever seen — something devs are increasingly forgetting about.

Sadly, the minimum requirements for Doom: The Dark Ages, according to the official release, include an RTX 2060 Super. That’s because the game uses ray-traced global illumination for its lighting on higher presets. Sadly, that’s the only graphic-heavy feature here that really warrants the higher-spec hardware requirement, because overall, the textures of the game barely look any different from the previous installments, and are limited to a 4K resolution. Running on a 1440p display with an RTX 4070 Ti, I couldn’t get more than 70fps out of the game at DLSS Quality, and my entire playthrough saw frame-generation turned on to get a decent 120fps experience — something that the recent Doom games absolutely demand and have become synonymous with.

In fact, these high hardware demands are actually becoming a major reason for a lot of gamers not purchasing the game, among other reasons.

The Dark Ages is still a great Doom game

Doom: The Dark Ages is still a phenomenal game — don’t get me wrong. It’s brutal, beautiful, and boldly experimental, and that alone deserves respect. After all, the last three games have inarguably become one of the best gaming trilogies in recent history.

However, in chasing innovation, it trims some of the very things that made this franchise so cathartic to play. That doesn’t make it bad — it just makes it different. And while some fans will ride with that change, it’s evident that Doom is still evolving. Let’s just hope it doesn’t lose itself in the process.