Doom: The Dark Ages Release In May With Giant Mech And Cybernetic Dragon Vehicles

Doom: The Dark Ages releases on May 15, Bethesda announced during a segment in today’s Xbox Developer Direct showcase. The lengthy look at the upcoming prequel to Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal also showed much more detail about the weaponry, mission structure, and the story.

Calling this entry a “return to form,” Bethesda said that it aimed to shift the feeling of Doom again. Whereas Doom Eternal wanted to make you fight like a fighter jet, Dark Ages makes you an iron tank who can stand your ground. That’s thanks largely to the versatility of the new Shield Saw. This piece of equipment lets you block, parry, and attack, with each function complementing your array of firearms. And, Bethesda noted, this means strafing is a viable strategy again. There’s also a revised Glory Kill that’s more contextual and varied based on your weapons and the angle you’re facing the enemy demons.

Though you’ll be spending most of your time killing demons on foot as the Slayer, you’ll also pilot both a giant mech and a cybernetic dragon. The studio noted that each has its own suite of abilities and minibosses to fight. In a deep dive into a mission, we saw the Slayer confronting a large battle taking place outside a medieval castle, with an open sandbox to discover secrets and resources. After breaking through the enemy lines, you can go back to the main castle gates to trigger what appears to be a giant boss battle.

Story is said to be more front and center in this Doom game, with loads of cutscenes building the story of the Slayer–a living weapon who has been captured by the forces of hell–and his confrontation with the game’s antagonist. That means you won’t have to read through the codex to understand the game’s lore. In a Q&A, Bethesda’s Marty Stratton said the story was inspired by Batman: Year One. To that end this is also a campaign-only game, the studio confirmed, without a multiplayer mode.

The soundtrack will be composed by Finishing Move. Both Doom and Doom Eternal were composed by Mick Gordon, but after a public falling out it seemed unlikely he would return for this next installment.

The studio also suggested this will be more approachable than previous Doom entries, with a wide array of difficulty sliders that let you customize different aspects of the combat to your liking. But those sliders go both ways, so if you want to dial up the difficulty, you can always make the action even faster and more brutal. Slider options included a regular difficulty level option, along with finer controls: damage to player, damage to demons, enemy projectile speed, enemy aggression, parry window, daze duration, game speed, and resource values.

Just after the stream, pre-orders went live, including a collector’s bundle for $200. That includes a steelbook with key card replica, 12″ Doom Slayer statue, campaign DLC, Divinity skin pack, digital soundtrack and art book, and 2-days early access.