Doom: The Dark Ages is on Xbox and PS5 and it looks incredibly metal

Although news of a new Doom game first leaked out years ago, under the name Doom: Year Zero, you didn’t really need any inside sources to know a third game was on the way, given the popularity of Doom Eternal and the fact that developer id Software hasn’t announced anything new for ages.

The official announcement finally came as part of the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday evening. In fact, it was the first thing to be shown off (even if it seemed at first that Phil Spencer was going to reveal Hexen), with a very impressive gameplay trailer that looks like it will be a clear step forward from the last two games.

However, although the info at the end, during the showcase, implied it was an Xbox console exclusive, it’s now been confirmed that it will be released for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC – while also being day one on Game Pass.

That is also as previous rumoured, so technically none of that’s a surprise, but despite all the leaks nothing has really be known about the game itself, just the fact that it might be set during medieval times.

There’s still a lot of spaceships and sci-fi weirdness in the game but according to the official blurb, The Dark Ages will tell the ‘epic cinematic original story of the Doom Slayer’s rage’ and feature a ‘dark and sinister medieval war against Hell.’

Although the reboot trilogy does have quite a complex lore, we’re not sure anyone is really paying that much attention to it. Not as long as it keeps delivering cool looking first person shooter set pieces, where it looks like you’re playing through a heavy metal album cover.

That’s definitely what The Dark Ages looks like, with some wonderfully over-the-top action and lots of excitingly impractical weapons to use. Although this time the demons seem to have armoured up as well and look a lot more sci-fi than before – although that’s perfectly in keeping with Doom tradition.

At one point Doomguy (sorry, Doom Slayer) is clearly piloting some sort of giant horned mech, in order to take on the bigger demons mano a mano, but there’s also a ‘jet-fuelled, cybernetic war dragon’ for you to ride, that looks especially neat.

The dragon seems to be in it quite a bit, with what look like proper flying sections, to the point where you can’t help but draw comparisons with Panzer Dragoon.