I was already extremely fond of Doom: The Dark Ages, even more than its predecessor. Due to this, I was already completely sold on this DLC before even stepping in. With five new levels, a hub, a spear replacing the shield, while adding a ton of new utility, there’s a good amount here to sink one’s teeth into, even if being unable to replay all of Revelations‘ levels normally is a very big missed opportunity.
Taking place after the base game’s campaign ends, the Doom Slayer finds himself trapped in a trial that he needs to best. Revelations kicks off with an introductory level that sets the stage (one that sadly can’t be revisited in any capacity beyond starting a new campaign). You’ll use the shield once again here, but it immediately gets broken after this level, which leads to you receiving a spear in its place.
The spear massively changes up Doom: The Dark Ages‘ gameplay. It has swipe combos (which are also now how you’ll parry demon hell surges), but it also grants dash charges, the ability to hook onto enemies and fling yourself around, plus three abilities that use empowerment. There’s also a special charge that you’ll build up by dodging hell surges, among other ways.
All of that makes Revelations feel much faster than it did before, as you’ll now be dashing and meathooking your way through the levels. The gameplay is honestly better than ever, although I still do love the shield (which you can freely switch to once it gets repaired). This is obviously a marked change from hunkering behind a shield, which really rounds out the way the game plays.
After the intro level, you’ll find yourself in a hub that has portals to the other four levels. The hub has its own secrets to find and is well worth exploring. Beating each of the four levels grants you a piece of the Master Key. Once they’re all done, you’ll be able to use the completed key to return to the four levels and access new areas.
These areas have a new kind of currency to find, but they’re mostly just for three new things that you can reach. These include a classic level from Doom II that you’ll play with the 93 Shotgun (the shotgun from the original games) and what amounts to two trials. These trials allow you to fight a new super boss that is undoubtedly the toughest boss in the game by a wide margin.
Defeating this boss took me a surprising amount of practice, as it really requires you to master the gameplay, in addition to memorising how best to fight it. Once you beat this boss, you’ll finally unlock four Master Arenas, which are meant to be the ultimate challenge in the game. Despite this, I found the super boss itself to be significantly more challenging, even if the DLCs most threatening new (but old) enemy, the Archvile shows up in multiple arenas (and wearing armour to boot).
Once you’re done with those, you’ll have fully completed Revelations and unlocked its new monsters, two arenas, and the spear for The Ripatorium. All in all, there’s a pretty substantial amount of content here, even though not being able to actually replay full levels with their progression and encounters is still very disappointing. This DLC having a hub obviously leads to a different manner of accessing levels, but it still could have been included in the main menu somewhere.
The new levels, bosses (of which there are three), and the spear all make Revelations a must-play for Doom fans, even if having to go through parts of the levels again just to do a few trials seems more than a bit like it exists just to make things take longer.
I still had a terrific time here. If only the spear was freely accessible in the base game campaign’s levels, but at least there’s an easy mod for that.
Doom: The Dark Ages – Revelations: Revelations pads out its runtime a bit, but features an even better version of The Dark Ages' gameplay loop with tougher enemies and a great new weapon – Andrew Farrell
Check out our previous review:
