Hato Doom: The Dark Ages Review

This to me is the best Doom game yet. Combat feels incredible and satisfying. The shield (i know everyone is saying this) is one of my favorite weapons in any game, and the game really is at its peak when the player masters the synergy between shield, its upgrades, weapon builds, and the different melees. They have made a great system here that is very different from anything they've made before, and it makes this game a very unique FPS in the best sense of the word. The visuals and art direction in general is unlike anything they've made before. The id tech 8 engine is no joke, and it made the id software team be able to put out some incredible visuals. Huge upgrade from the previous games! The new cloth simulation, destructible environments, the water and rain, the rag-dolls, the gore, it all makes this game feel so alive and dynamic, it's just so sick. All of that together with some insane work on the audio design department really makes the game feel very immersive but also satisfying when it comes to combat. The game runs incredibly well. The RT implementation is some of the best, if not the best, of any game yet. When it comes to music, sorry to say this but... it's actually my favorite OST of any Doom game. Finishing Move absolutely cooked. The tracks fit incredibly well with every environment and the combat. It's just such a sick and different style of metal (for the modern Doom games), and I listen to the OST every day. They had some mixing issues on launch but those have been resolved! The mech and dragon segments of the game are where I deduct half a star. Don't get me wrong, those segments for me are still a 8/10 experience, but id software just needed more time to cook on those. That's all really. Needed some extra enemies to have a larger variety. Otherwise those segments are fine, and they have been getting some QoL updates to make them even better, and they said they will continue to do so. So who knows, by the time you read this review, the atlan and the dragon segments may be incredibly improved upon! The price... it's not great. I bought the collectors edition, but I understand that for a normal consumer this game is pretty expensive, hence why so many people have played it on gamepass. When it comes to price proposition, on launch it is not great, however there is a huge update dropping very soon that will bring side content outside of the campaign to the game, and they said they will continue to support the game for at least a year after it's launch. So if you haven't bought the game because of that, there's a good chance that when you are reading this review, the price of the game might be way more justified. Overall, I can't get enough of this game. Side content with master levels and a horde mode will be amazing. Get this game, it's amazing. Don't get influenced by objectively bad reviews!