17 Things You Need To Know About Doom's Big Prequel Before It Comes Out

As explained by id Software during the recent Xbox Developer Direct, the Doom Slayer starts the game captured and is under someone else’s control. I doubt this will last long. It’d be a garbage game if you weren’t in control of him. It’d be like playing a Call of Duty single-player campaign.

id Software also confirmed that new characters will be introduced in Dark Ages and its cutscenes. I expect the Doom Slayer will end up killing half of the new characters we’ll meet, because he has quite a temper.

If you remember in Doom 2016, you could find pieces of lore detailing big events and legendary moments from the Doom Slayer’s past. In Dark Ages, we’ll get to see those allusions play out as they happened! It’s like they planned it.

Don’t worry, this ain’t suddenly a story-focused narrative-driven game. It’s still Doom and that means blood, guts, demons, and lots of guns. Gibbage! GIBBAGE!

A big change this time around is the ability to trigger “Glory Kills” without having to watched a pre-canned animation. This will help in some of the bigger group fights in Dark Ages, as you’ll be able to flow through dozens of enemies without stopping.

Speaking of big hordes of enemies, expect more enemies on screen than ever seen before in a modern Doom game. It ain’t nuts.wad yet, but getting closer.

Thanks to big open levels and slow moving enemy projectiles, you’ll be strafing and shooting a lot more in Dark Ages, similar to old school Doom and how you often moved left or right to change your aim. Although it still has a jump. I bet you forgot OG Doom didn’t have a jump.

After two games of teasing them, id Software is finally letting you control a giant demon-killing mech. And it looks like this thing will have its own abilities, weapons, and levels. All games are 27 percent improved by the inclusion of mechs.

And to make up for making us wait nearly 10 years to use giant mechs, id also tossed in cyborg dragons you can fly. These are also fully-featured and will be used in multiple levels, also proving useful for exploration.

Speaking of exploration, that’s a big part of Doom The Dark Ages. But you’ll need places to explore, because otherwise it would be a game about standing still. id Software has thought of that, and is promising a lot of levels and variety in this next installment.

And some of these maps will be the biggest areas ever seen in a Doom game, featuring large battlegrounds filled with hundreds of enemies to kill. To think, Doom Guy was once confined to his humble corridors.

Between large battles, you can also find secrets and upgrades that let you improve the Doom Slayer. That’s going to involve exploration, and exploration more involved than pressing E against every wall tile.

Thankfully, id Software has simplified the upgrade and progression system in Dark Ages so its not as complicated as it was in Eternal.

Oh and yes, there will be new enemies to kill. Imagine if there weren’t. But then, after that, start trying to explain to yourself why those enemies aren’t in 2016's Doom. Maybe you kill them all?

If you’ve wanted to play Doom but find the games too fast, id Software has good news for you. In Dark Ages you’ll be able to tweak the game’s difficulty using various sliders to make it your perfect demon-killing experience.

id Software has confirmed that Dark Ages has no multiplayer modes and instead is a massive single-player online shooter. The studio says its the biggest game they have ever made. You can read more about that here.

I’m very excited to jump into this massive prequel and kill thousands of demons. Doom: The Dark Ages launches on May 15 for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.