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From: Mr Rob <noemailformethx@jsjsaiiowppw.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: DOOM: The Dark Ages
Date: Thu, 15 May 2025 11:07:57 +0100
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Early impressions:

It's DOOM and it looks very, very nice. It runs smoothly at high
settings on my system (i5 12600k, RX7800XT Nitro, 32Gb DDR4) at 1440p.

It's frenetic, just like DOOM should be. 

I really like the Shield  Bash. It's extremely powerful, but that is
balanced by pulling you towards the target which is normally bunched
up with other targets. The bash is on a cool down so you can't just
spam it. Being right in the midst of a bunch of demons is obviously
risky and you have to melee or use your gun to survive as the demons
hit surprisingly hard,

Melee is through the use of a power glove that you find very early on.
Weapons in the early game come via weapons drops which seem to occur
each time you enter a new map. I'm not far enough in yet to know if
that is how weapons collection is always handled. 

Ammunition comes from slain demons providing that you use the Glory
Kill. There is also ammunition, armour and health scattered around the
map.


Minor gripes:

In some encounters the game really REALY wants you to use melee to
kill an enemy via a 3 hit combo. Failure to do so means that the demon
will respawn right where it fell after you 'killed' it with a gun.

Likewise with the Glory Kill. Some encounters require the player to
use it to finally dispense with an enemy. I'm not 100% sure on that
yet, but it does seem to be a deliberate mechanic.

I accidentally set fire to myself. A lot. There are flames all over
the place. Kiting during combat results in multiple episodes of
accidental combustion which eats away at your health.

So far, the game seems more engaging than the last two modern
installments of DOOM. There are limited saves in the form of
checkpoints. That could potentially put me off. I had to just quit in
the middle of an arena. I have a feeling that I may need to replay
several minutes of the game just to get back to where I left off.

Time will tell.

-- 
Rob