“DOOM: The Dark Ages” on the Calendar for 2025?

Written by Carmine Medeiros

Edited by Austin Maloney

Is Bethesda's next entry in the DOOM franchise coming sooner than we realize?

“DOOM: The Dark Ages” Snapshot from the first trailer

History Recap

Doom is a very popular franchise, being credited with defining the entire first person shooter genre with its release by ID software all the way back in 1993. Back then it was a simple 2D shooter that gave the illusion of being a 3D game. It had a very similar predecessor, Wolfenstein, which contained the same gameplay elements, but was overshadowed by Doom’s use of Claymation-like animation for its sprites.

The Franchise has since then had several new entries, with Doom 2 coming out just a year after the first one because of it being more of an expansion of the first game rather than a new game completely. But the newer games are what have kept the franchise alive and well.

Doom 3, which was released in 2004, was the last big development in the franchise. But the game was not well received. Most people forgot about Doom for more than a decade before the game's revival in 2016. 

In 2009 Bethesda acquired the Doom franchise and released their first game in 2016, which is almost a direct recreation of the first games plot, except they are both in the same timeline, which created confusion for a lot of people on its release, but aside from that, the game was an amazing piece of work that took the aspects from the first three games and gave it a faster gameplay loop.

Doom Eternal came soon after, which was a continuation of the story of Doom 2016, which is, aside from the original, regarded as the best Doom game to date, it made the gameplay even faster and gave amazing elements of replay-ability and secrets for people to find. The DLC for Doom Eternal, sought to almost wrap up the main character, The Doom Slayers, Story.

Official Art released from Bethesda upon the launch of the second part of the Ancient Gods DLC

After the end of the DLC, fans were wondering how they would further the universe of Doom without disrupting the end of the Doom Slayer's story. And there was only one direction for Bethesda to go from there.

The Thunderous Prequel

The next game to come to the franchise is a promising look into the Doom Slayer's past, Which seeks to take place after the events of Doom 64 (Which was a less notable release for the Nintendo 64) and before the events of Doom 2016. The timeline of the Doom Universe is a very expansive and long one so the vibes from the next game give off more of a medieval vibe, shifting from the futuristic and sci-fi setting from Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal.

This game has people almost as excited as when Doom Eternal was announced, myself included, which is probably because all of the amazing looking snippets of gameplay we got from the first trailer of the game which also showed us what the Doom Slayer's Medieval looking armor will look like, which to say the least, people dig.

A snippet from the trailer of “DOOM: The Dark Ages”

Hugo Martin, Director of both Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal, and now Doom the Dark Ages, Said in an a Developer interview:

“You’re trying to make sure that people get a really good first impression, which I think they do, we have a dragon we have a giant mech, and we got the Doom Slayer with a shield”

these things definitely give people a lot to be excited about while waiting for Doom the Dark Ages in 2025.