The top dog has never been so back. Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal were both great games that I always had complicated feelings about. They borrowed elements from boomer shooters without fully being boomer shooters themselves.

And then Dark Ages drops — and... well, here it is: hands down, the best boomer shooter right now. Oh, the irony.

As someone on Steam smartly put it: for decades, every shooter was compared to Doom. Now it's time to return a favor—Dark Ages feels like "the child of Serious Sam and Quake 1, with Hexen as the godfather."

Also: it’s the first shooter I’ve ever played that feels completely natural on a gamepad — and for me, that's usually pure agony. At first, I was surprised by how smoothly I was ripping demons apart — until I checked the settings and saw aim assist cranked to 100%. Mystery solved?

For the hell of it, I turned aim assist off completely — and still finished the entire game on gamepad without issue. The level of gamepad polish here is just insane. Never experienced anything like it.

For comparison: a few months ago I tried replaying Doom 2016 on gamepad. It was fucking torture. I bailed after 20 minutes.

Technically, Dark Ages is flawless. I played it on release day on Game Pass, and I only encountered one tiny bug: cultists didn’t load around a hell altar. Didn’t affect gameplay, fixed instantly after reloading the checkpoint. The game runs butter-smooth on an Xbox Series X (hardware that's 5 years old at this point), with levels loading for 3-4 seconds, in-level loads even faster, it’s fully optimized even on the latest (and most demanding) IdTech8 engine.

Gameplay-wise: it's fierce but not as exhausting as Eternal. Some arenas are still intense and challenging. The impact is unmatched — you feel like a goddamn tank bulldozing enemies. One of the new mechanics lets you pull yourself toward enemies while raising a shield, turning nearby mobs into puree.

That shield system is a game-changer: it’s your defense (first time in Doom), your parry tool, your movement mechanic, your puzzle key—it does it all.

Speaking of parries: I usually hate that shit. But here? It's great. The parry windows are forgiving, and if you want, you can mostly ignore the mechanic. That freedom defines Dark Ages — unlike Eternal, which forced you into specific weapons for specific enemies, here you can blast whatever the hell you want, even if it's suboptimal.

And that’s not all. For the first time in Doom, you get to... pilot a giant mech. First-person. Smashing hell titans with your massive fists, stomping tanks like bugs. Full-on Pacific Rim and Attack on Titan vibes — completely surreal.

We’ve only seen something similar in one Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem level — but here you get multiple mech sections. Oh, and there are levels where you ride a fucking dragon. Yes, a dragon. With a machine gun. And a laser cannon. You dive, you chase, you blast — it’s wild.

Surprisingly, there’s a lot of story. Still your typical power technofantasy written like a 15-year-old’s fever dream, but damn if it isn’t entertaining. You’re not just a lone marine this time — you constantly interact with allies on the battlefield and over comms. The game’s set in the medieval era of the Doom universe — a full prequel to Doom 2016. Betrayals, resurrections, kidnappings, rescue missions, fate, even a John Wick-style moment — all wrapped into a blood-soaked, fanservice-heavy, popcorn blockbuster dressed up in dark fantasy.

For the record: I respected Doom 2016 and Eternal for their contributions to the genre, but I never truly loved them. I played them, appreciated them, but never got attached.

Dark Ages? Love at first sight. From the opening second to the very last. The best Doom we've had since 1993. Period.