Doom: The Dark Ages Ultra-Violence Review Based on a Full 20-Hour Playthrough

I completed Doom: The Dark Ages on Ultra-Violence difficulty with no accessibility assists, playing on Xbox Series X with a standard controller layout. My campaign time came in at just over 20 hours, with a completion percentage of 94%. I unlocked all weapons, found the majority of secrets, completed the full story, and engaged with every major mechanic the game offers. This review is based entirely on firsthand gameplay experience and direct observations throughout every mission, mechanic, enemy encounter, and feature.

Immediately, the difference in pace was obvious. The Doom Slayer moves with more weight than in Doom Eternal. There's no double jump, air dash, or meat hook traversal. You could say this version of the Slayer has a grounded, tank-like presence. His steps are heavy, and his jump height is strictly limited. Movement relies on flat traversal, jump pads, vertical lifts, and ladders. There are no acrobatics. You can enable auto-sprint in the settings, but even then, the emphasis is clearly on raw power, not agility.

The new core mechanic is the Shield, and it changes everything about combat flow. You block red projectiles and parry green ones. A successful parry reflects damage and stuns most enemies for a short window. Timing the parry isn't overly tight; by default, the window sits around 500 milliseconds, but it can be adjusted up to one full second in the accessibility settings.

The Shield Bash is a critical feature that lets you close distances instantly. Locking onto an enemy or destructible object and hitting the bash button launches the Slayer forward about 12 meters. It feels as fast as Eternal’s meat hook, but it’s tied to a universal cooldown rather than a weapon. It works against enemies and breakable environment elements and becomes necessary for traversing puzzle areas and accessing secret zones.

Later in the game, you gain access to the Shield Throw during Mission 6, Desecrated Bastion. When activated, the shield spins out like a disc, damaging anything it touches and returning automatically. The key to its full use lies in targeting enemies with overheated armor. Once you’ve damaged an armored target enough, its metal glows with a coral-orange hue. Throwing the Shield at this moment causes a massive explosion, sending surrounding enemies flying. The effect isn’t cosmetic—it’s a real combat tactic. In larger fights, lining up a group of superheated enemies and detonating them with a single Shield Throw often results in instant arena control. The visual and sound cues for these states are clear and consistent.

There’s no chainsaw in The Dark Ages; you rather begin with Power Gauntlets, which are used to kill staggered enemies and regain ammo. The Flail of Judgment is unlocked later and deals sweeping area damage. In Mission 12, you receive a slower but more powerful weapon (commonly referred to as the "Doomcleaver"), capable of cleaving through multiple enemies. Each melee weapon can be upgraded to reduce cooldowns or increase health, ammo, or armor returns. Melee is essential. Without it, ammo runs out quickly, especially in higher-difficulty settings.

The arsenal includes eight core weapons, and each has a sister weapon that uses the same ammo type. The Combat Shotgun works with a mod that ignites enemies, forcing armor drops. The Super Shotgun includes a revised version of the meat hook, but it can only be used on stunned enemies.

The Impaler functions as a long-range, high-damage rifle, while its sister weapon, the Chainshot, provides lock-on burst damage. The Plasma Carbine fires rapid pulses and gains a scatter grenade mod. The Rocket Launcher is direct fire, while the Grenade Lobber fires arcing explosives that bounce and then detonate.

The Pulverizer acts like a chaingun with a widespread, and its sister, the Ravager, is used for focused single-target damage. The Skullcrusher, unlocked around Mission 10, functions similarly to a heavy-spread weapon. The final weapon, the BFC (Big F*ing Crossbow)**, becomes available in Mission 14. It consumes a rare ammo type and clears entire hordes with one shot.

Enemies are varied and designed around specific mechanics. Cultist Archers fire green bolts that must be parried. Pink Riders are mounted enemies whose beasts need to be shield-bashed before the rider becomes exposed. The Marauder uses aggressive melee attacks and shield-based defenses. Once his armor glows coral, you can break him open with a Shield Throw.

Tentacle Swarms in Mission 8, Sepulcher Roots, erupt from the ground without warning and can only be cleared with area damage. Cosmic Cacodemons from the Cosmic Realm teleport unpredictably and require fast aiming. The mini-boss Vagary reappears from Doom 3 in Mission 9, bringing back spider-limb grapples and area control tactics.

Level design has moved away from corridor-style layouts. Most missions are open-ended, with objectives spread across large zones. Mission 1, Breachfall Keep, introduces Shield mechanics and basic enemies in a fortress setting. Mission 3, Black Bastion Shipyards, takes place in a lava-forged factory. Mission 5, Whispering Fen, is set in a murky swamp filled with ambushes. Mission 9, Blasphemer’s Hall, is a vertical cathedral with trap-riddled staircases. Mission 13, Cosmic Sanctum, is built around a non-Euclidean puzzle system and spatial shifting.

The game spans 22 missions, each lasting 40 to 70 minutes on Ultra-Violence. Waypoint tracking is available by pressing R3, and there’s a gold trail system in some missions that guides you subtly toward secrets and collectibles.

Not to mention, the game contains 20+ distinct enemy types. You will encounter them in waves, through teleport beacons or scripted ambushes. Most arenas require complete extermination to unlock progression doors. Failing to identify enemy priorities—especially shield bearers, summoners, or long-range types—results in fast deaths. Positioning is critical. Environmental hazards, like lava, spiked walls, or enemy mortars, are frequent.

Slayer Challenges appear in 11 locations. These include combat puzzles, speed trials, and survival waves. Completing all unlocks a unique Legendary Armor Set. The game contains plush collectibles, codex pages, upgraded currency, and weapon skins. Most are hidden behind breakable walls, platforming puzzles, or shield-triggered switches.

There are multiple mech battles where you pilot a massive robot using melee strikes and a ground slam. Controls are simplified—one button to punch, one to dodge. Each mech section lasts around five minutes. Dragon-riding segments also appear more than once. These involve flying a winged beast through turret-dense zones in on-rail shooting sequences. Though shallow, both elements offer fun diversions and visual spectacle.

Boss fights are large-scale and multi-phase. The final boss combines wave summoning, shield countering, and environmental hazards. The last phase shifts to a melee-only duel with timed parries, ambient traps, and rotating flame rings. 

The soundtrack is guitar-heavy metal with electronic undercurrents, adapting to combat and slowing during exploration. In the second half of the campaign, several tracks shift toward industrial tones. The mix was balanced, though music occasionally got buried under combat SFX. Audio levels for music, SFX, and dialogue are independently adjustable.

Accessibility features are deep. There are sliders for incoming and outgoing damage. Parry timing is fully adjustable. You can toggle camera shake, weapon bob, HUD size, and even turn off chromatic aberration. Enemy outlines and UI elements can be color-adjusted, including for colorblind accessibility. Remapping is fully supported. You can switch between hold and toggle options for sprinting, aiming, and weapons. There’s a high contrast mode that outlines enemies in neon glow, ideal for visually impaired players.

Performance was excellent: no crashes, no quest blockers, no broken AI. Load times never exceeded 15 seconds between missions. Secret areas functioned as intended, and collectibles were tracked correctly on the pause screen.