Everyone hitting refresh on Bethesda's YouTube channel waiting for an Oblivion Remastered trailer got a surprise when a new trailer for Doom: The Dark Ages arrived auspiciously over the Easter weekend.
It opens with a strong dose of story. A guy who looks like he stepped right out of Hellraiser is here to attack a divided humanity with a skyship that looks like it was designed by Warhammer 40,000's Imperium of Man and an army of demons. (I have not kept up with the fluff of the Doom series.) The humans, who have foolishly leashed the Doom Slayer, deploy him like a goshdanged nuke and the heavy metal kicks in.
The rest of the trailer is interspersed with first-person footage showing off the various weapons, like the tossable shield and what is basically a BFG crossbow. The whole thing ends with the appearance of cybernetic Cthulhu. Yes, it is incredibly badass.
The trailer release coincided with wrestler Drew McIntyre making a Doom-themed entrance at Wrestlemania, which seems slightly less badass in comparison.
Joshua Wolens went hands-on with Doom: The Dark Ages, and came away impressed by its surprisingly parry-focused combat, though he did have some concerns. "For all its newfound emphasis on whacking demons with your hands," he wrote, "glory kills have taken a backseat. Enemies will still enter vulnerable stun states when you do enough damage, but your execution moves will more often than not be a plain-Jane canned kick or punch, rather than the brilliantly creative animations of old. It's such a strange misstep that I wondered if my build of the game was bugged, but it looks like true glory kills are now reserved for bigger boss demons rather than every hellish Tom, Dick and Harry. I miss them already."
Still, it lets you pilot a mech and ride a dragon, so it's got that going for it. Doom: The Dark Ages will be out on May 15 and you can wishlist it on Steam.
