‘Doom: The Dark Ages’ Takes A Dark Toll On Your Wallet and Hardware
Doom: The Dark Ages may have a medieval setting, but it’s poised to push the gaming world into the future with its high price and hardware demands. The upcoming game in one of the most important FPS franchises ever comes with an 80€ asking price in Europe for its base edition, making it one of the rare titles to match that level.
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That said, the 80€ price tag becomes an even bigger toll when you realize there is no multiplayer component in Doom: The Dark Ages. As executive producer, Marty Stratton stated, “We made that decision early, so we could really just go all in on the campaign. It’s our largest, most expansive, most epic campaign ever.”
Hugo Martin, game director, supported these words by adding, “That’s why we were able to put the dragon and the Atlan [mech] in. I mean, these are things we wanted to do in the game for, like, multiple games now, but couldn’t, because we had a multiplayer component — which we loved — but really, it was meant to just focus on the single-player campaign and just level up that experience for players.”
While all this sounds impressive, it is important to note that Doom has long been a game that revolutionized the FPS genre, not just in gameplay, but by leading the way in multiplayer gaming. The last two Doom games had competitive multiplayer. Doom Eternal was even set to include an Invasion mode, where other players could take control of enemies in the campaign, but this was eventually canceled. Although the multiplayer part wasn’t well received, especially in Doom Eternal, instead of eliminating the entire multiplayer mode, Stratton and Martin could have focused on improving all the wrong by listening to the community. After all, multiplayer gaming wouldn’t be as popular as today if it wasn’t a part of the first Doom game.
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At least they could have tried it for the asking price. For instance, Call of Duty: Black Ops is also 80€ with a competitive multiplayer. Sure, it fails in many aspects, including an atrocious spawn system, with maps being too small or too big that even Nuketown couldn’t help, but it still provides hours and hours of playtime.
Furthermore, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Edition comes at the same price, but these two titles are incomparable in terms of “how long to beat.” On another note, Doom: The Dark Ages is a day one Game Pass title, and anyone who is subscribed to Xbox’s subscription service will have access to it without breaking the bank.
And when you think that’s about it, Doom Slayer goes a step further and makes technology made prior to 2018 obsolete with a rather futuristic take on system specifications. Anyone who wants to shoot down demons will need a ray-tracing-capable graphics card, such as the Nvidia RTX 2060 Super or AMD RX 6600. Furthermore, the bare minimum of RAM is 16 GB, and there is a need for AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, Intel Core i7 10700K, or a better CPU. Not to confuse anyone, this is for 1080p at 60 fps.
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The specs for 1440p at 60 fps and high settings suggest players will need GPUs like the Nvidia RTX 3080 or AMD RX 6800 and AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, Intel Core I7 12700K, or better with 32 GB RAM.
For a full-blown experience at 4K ultra settings, there is a need for a Ryzen 7 5700X or Intel Core i7 12700K, paired with either an Nvidia RTX 4080 or AMD RX 7900 XT and 32 GB RAM.
While these demands aren’t much of a surprise (look at Indiana Jones and the Full Circle system requirements), the biggest problem is the fact that players need a 512 GB or higher NVMe SSD. Doom: The Dark Ages is id Software’s most ambitious title yet and is built on the latest in-house engine, id Tech 8, ushering into a “new era of gameplay performance and visual fidelity.” However, that takes a great toll on older hardware, rendering it useless. Doom: The Dark Ages is set to release across all modern platforms on May 15th, 2025.
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