How Doom: The Dark Ages Compares to Other Medieval FPS Games

Few shooters dare to don knightly armor while still firing up a first-person kill-a-thon. Titles that lean on castles and spells usually slide into action RPG or detailed simulation territory. A handful of respected outliers, however, earned the right to be called The Dark Ages ancestors:

Hexen and Heretic (id Software/Raven Software)

Well, begin with the family tree. Hexen and Heretic are DOOM's blood relatives-engine and sprite-sharing siblings draped in brooding fantasy. They swapped bullets for mana and miniguns for spikes and maces, yet the essentials never changed: labyrinthine key hunts, arena skirmishes, and that satisfying map-clearing rhythm. The new game seems to nod back to that heritage (DOOM 2016, DOOM: Eternal,...etc.), bringing in modern verticality and splatter while honoring the retro DNA.

Hexen draped its magic over weaponry you could feel, but Doom: The Dark Ages keeps that bravado under a heavier plate. It doesn't push the fantasy as hard. Behind the knightly helmets and eldritch iconography, still pounds a military engine. Shotguns, cannons, and even Gauss guns cast as iron curios are sci-fi laid under a bardic skin. It's Doom at a costume party, not a rebirth.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 or Chivalry 2 vs Mordhau

Neither Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, nor Chivalry 2 vs Mordhau are pure first-person shooters like Doom-they lean more toward immersive sims or PVP brawlerhood-yet they sit at the head table for first-person medieval action. Their bloodlines feel almost foreign. They count stamina, watch angles, and force you to read the other players' movements. Fighting in those worlds is close, careful, and almost surgical.

Doom: The Dark Ages skips that dance entirely. It lacks the heavy parry, the measured cut. Its sword carries momentum first and tactics a distant second. You slash out of anger, not discipline. Where Chivalry is a lesson in patience, The Dark Ages is a bar fight under flaming rafters, spikes, and all.

What Makes Doom: The Dark Ages Worth Playing Amidst Medieval Shooters?

That's where it earns the scars it wears with pride.

It Feels Like Doom-In Every Frame That Matters

Yes, you wear heavy armor. Yes, your battles erupt inside citadels and vine-choked tombs. Yet the instant combat kicks off, it feels like Doom. Your movement vocabulary stays the same: speedy, airborne, twitchy. Glory Kills show up again. So does resource management through slaughter. You never hit reload because reloading is doubt, and doubt opens the door to death.

If you've played Doom 2016 or Eternal, the skeleton will feel familiar. DOOM: The Dark Ages sports a fresh look, yet it clings to its ancestors' speed and ferocity.

It Takes Risks-Flawed, But Bold

This isn't a coat of paint. It is a live experiment. Even when it trips (tone, world-building), it trips while lunging for something bigger. A lack of polish never means laziness, just ambition that sometimes outruns clarity.

You might bristle at the push toward story-focused scenes. You might long for the simple thunder of a wordless Slayer. Yet nobody can honestly call the Dark Ages another rehash. It wants to count. It wants to grow.

That ambition speaks volumes for a series already thirty-plus years old.

The Combat Improvements Are Real and Tangible

Everything from the slick new button that swaps between ammo types to the overhauled melee and chainsaw systems shakes out as simpler yet never feels dumbed down. If you use a controller, every flick and jab runs like butter. Your hands talk directly to the game, and once again, you feel like the weapon yourself.

But Is This a Departure from Doom's Excellence?

The answer is yes and no. It really hinges on what you call excellence.

If you define Doom's excellence by purity...

By the bare-knuckle, savage momentum of Doom 2016, where the plot served only to hang the next arena on, then The Dark Ages is definitely stepping sideways. You might even call it a small betrayal. It breathes too much, dressing a silent, god-like slayer in lore that once thrived on mystery. It never halts the action but drags your thoughts that, in its own way, still slows you down.

If you define excellence by bold iteration...

Then no, this game is id reaching for something larger, even if its swing grazes the ball. It's the wildest turn since Doom 3, yet unlike that title, it keeps the core combat intact. It piles on fresh, sometimes awkwardly, never without a clear idea of what it wants to be.

DOOM: The Dark Ages - A Grim Crown, Still Worth Bearing

For anyone who still wears a DOOM tattoo on their arm, DOOM: The Dark Ages feels like a kick to the gut. It isn't the fist-pumping, fire-and-metal cover that rocked the 2016 reboot. It isn't the arena-opera bloodbath of Eternal, either; instead, it drags you into shadowed fortresses where moldering halls echo with whispers older than Hell itself. Your jacket still crackles with Slayer energy, yet you trudge forward as a king who lost his throne. Weathered. Tested. Unyielding.

Maybe that sense of betrayal suits the story that's trying to tell.

Because, like every bold DOOM entry before it, this game still asks - "What if?" - and that single question secures its room atop the legend.