Stand And Fight as the super weapon of gods and kings, shred enemies with devastating favorites like the Super Shotgun while also wielding a variety of new bone-chewing weapons, including the versatile Shield Saw. Players will stand and fight on the demon-infested battlefields in the vicious, grounded combat the original DOOM is famous for. Take flight atop the new fierce Mecha Dragon, stand tall in a massive Atlan mech, and beat demons to a pulp with the newly enhanced glory kill system. Only the Slayer has the power to wield these devastating tools of mayhem.

Hell's forces are almost at the gates! Meet them at the ready when DOOM: The Dark Ages launches May 15 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox PC, Steam, and PlayStation 5. Lead the charge in id Software's biggest DOOM game yet with our Pre-Launch Checklist (see below). Prepare to unleash your inner Slayer with details on preloading, Early Access timing, PC specifications and more.

As the third part of what you might call a trilogy, I went into my first hands-on for DOOM: The Dark Ages with some expectations. While they have their differences, DOOM (2016) and DOOM: Eternal had lain the groundwork - I felt like I knew what id Software had in store for me, even if this prequel story and its new medieval sci-fi aesthetic might put it in a different context. Three hours later, my expectations had been blasted to pieces like so much Arachnotron meat. DOOM: The Dark Ages retains the core hallmarks of id's recent games—pulse-pounding combat, gloriously Grand Guignol aesthetics, and music as ear-rattling as its guns—but it pushes the structure of DOOM far beyond what we've known before. I was able to play slices of four distinct sections of The Dark Ages, each designed to show me a different facet of the game, and each revealing quite how wild this will get. Let me walk you through each one.

Story Mission
"Before he became a hero, he was the super weapon of gods and kings." So reads the text slate that opens DOOM: The Dark Ages. It's an absurdly badass mission statement for the game that follows. But, playing just the opening stretch of the game, it pays off multiple times. This section showed off the most familiar form of DOOM. A cutscene (yes, there are cutscenes for the story now, not just codex entries) introduces the demon-beleaguered planet of Argent D'Nur, the questionably benevolent god-race known as the Makyrs, and our familiar lead character kept captive to be unleashed on hellish threats. And from there, I'm handed a shotgun and a shield, and told to do what a DOOM Slayer does best.