Doom: The Dark Ages - Time to get Medieval on their A***

By Sam Coles: 

It has been nearly 10 years since the Doom series got the reboot treatment, all the way back in 2016 we got aptly titled Doom as it was a fresh start for the series. Doom (2016) had a very troublesome development cycle, as originally it started its cycle in 2008 and was resembling something akin to Call of Duty as that was the popular flavour in the gaming kitchen at the time. However, they scrapped it and went back to the drawing board and decided to go back to what made Doom..... well Doom! We got the first instalment in 2016 in the reboot franchise, then the brutally insane experience that was Doom Eternal 2020 where we finally land with Doom: The Dark Ages here in 2025.   

Doom: The Dark Ages takes place in the titular era, where everything takes on a medieval aesthetic. You once again play as the Doom Slayer, where this time he is controlled by higher powers and is used as a nuclear bomb option for the human race, when the demon problem gets out of control. The Doom Slayer starts to become sentient and breaks away from their control, to then help the humans in the form of the Sentinels. The story holds you with some genuinely intriguing moments that fill us in more about the Slayer, where he becomes more human in this game but still talks in one-word responses, but he is more aware of the situation.   

The gameplay is where most players go for, and id Software have once again shaken up the Doom formula. As the title suggests, this game takes place during the Dark Ages so there is more emphasis on melee combat in this game. However, that doesn’t mean that gunplay is absent far from it as it still takes centre stage, but the melee combat is there to complement the gunplay. You still have your usual assortments of shotguns and machine guns, but they have been given a medieval aesthetic to fit the game’s overall tone and atmosphere. The super shotgun still kicks like a mule and is great for crowd control, but then you have the Skull Crusher which is about as metal as it sounds where a human skull is used as ammunition and fires out in a buckshot style spread.  

The combination of the gunplay and melee system works so well, where you charge straight in with your shield, bounce it off enemies like Captain America as you tear enemies apart with the super shotgun. You get into a rhythm, where it turns into a ballet of violence where you are waltzing with the enemies where you turn them inside out when you spin them around.

Not only that, there is a parry system where you can defend yourself against enemy projectiles. How this works is that you have a shield and you can only block normal attacks for so long until it breaks for a temporary period, however if the the attacks are green you can get a parry in send it back to the enemy. This is a great addition as you are not left completely defenceless in an open field and you can block attacks instead just tanking damage.

This game is great if you want to tailor make your own experience in terms of difficulty, so if you are finding it too difficult you can turn down the difficulty, but it doesn’t stop there you can adjust sliders of each gameplay mechanic making the experience your own. The same goes for those who are finding the game too easy, you can change the sliders in the other direction if you are feeling particularly sadistic and want turn everything up to eleven if Nightmare difficulty isn’t scratching that itch. It is great to have settings like these as it pleases both those who want to play the game for fun, and those who love a challenge in an FPS game it just shows how balanced the game is.  

Visually the game looks amazing, this is the first game using id Tech 8 engine and it is a massive step up from Doom Eternal. It looks dark and brooding compared to the last game with its more colourful aesthetic, but it has lots of detail with medieval inspired demons with chains hanging off them, to them wielding the appropriate weapons from that period with a science fiction twist. Framerate wise it ran great, I played this on the Xbox Series S and it was buttery smooth with performance. I know the Series S gets a lot of ire from the community, but it is a beefy machine when you have a developer who know what they are doing with the hardware.  

Overall Doom The Dark Ages is another fantastic instalment in the Doom reboot series of games, the change of the setting and combat mechanics is enough to keep players invested for the 10-12 hours it took me to finish it! A great game and a must play, especially if you have Xbox Game Pass!  

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered - Breathing life into a role playing classic.

By Sam Coles:  

The Elder Scrolls series (at the time of writing) has been in a somewhat dormant state for nearly 15 years, as Skyrim came out in 2011. This dormancy has led most to believe that Skyrim is a standalone game and not associated with a bigger franchise, that mostly stems to younger gamers. However, Bethesda decided to inconspicuously (well outside of leaks) release a remaster of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on current platforms, and for older gamers myself included were overjoyed to see a 20-year-old favourite to get a nice new coat paint. I just want to go over its beauty and how it made me fall in love with it again.  

The story is not the most complex in the series, but what helps is that is sets up a strong core to get the player invested. Once again you are prisoner in jail for an unspecified reason, but you are let out due to being in the right place at the wrong time. The emperor of Tamriel sees something in you and is unfortunately assassinated by cultists. The story is engaging throughout, as the world reacts to your actions where certain NPCs will comment on certain exploits from your adventures. It is little details like this that help build Oblivion’s world and is somewhat lacking from Skyrim.  

Speaking of the world, Oblivion is extremely open ended once you finish the tutorial area, you get that initial Elder Scrolls moment where you see the world unfold in front of you with its beauty. With the visual enhancements with this remaster, I felt like a teenager again, it is the remaster that gives you the visuals that you thought how they looked back in the day rather than what they looked like. It is truly breathtaking the new visual overhaul in Unreal Engine 5, it has the skeleton of the old engine but clears up the visuals to a modern standard with some gameplay tweaks. Everything feels denser, foliage has been ramped up in forests with lushly textured trees, more detail to flowers and meadows that really make me feel like a child exploring the woodland that I grew up in all those years ago.  

The game itself is left the same, you can see the original skeleton of the old engine in the game, but they uplifted it visually with Unreal Engine 5 where it keeps all the quirks. So, you will have all the same glitches, the uncanny conversations as well as unusual moments that you can only be described as “Oblivion Moments”. Any other game would be lynched with these elements, but it just works with Oblivion and fits its fantasy realm. Speaking of the unusual conversations, they have expanded the pool of voice actors in the game where they have enlisted the skills of voice actors from Skyrim, it just adds variety to the characters you interact with in the world instead of talking to the same five people throughout the game.  

The music has been untouched too in this remaster, I think the soundtrack in Oblivion is more memorable and iconic than Skyrim. Now I know that may sound sacrilege, but I feel Skyrim’s music is mostly ambient whereas Oblivion’s has a warm welcoming feeling as you explore each town or city to the more isolated tones when you are out in the wilderness. It is a soundtrack that I find myself listening to often nearly 20 years on, I just stick it on the background as I read or write it just relaxes me, I just imagine myself on the streets of Imperial City or docks of Anvil.  

Oblivion is a classic RPG; it makes me so happy that this game has been given the face lift it deserves while preserving its gameplay and quirks. Yes, it has its technical issues but that is part of this game’s charm, as it is ultimately a comforting experience where I can fall in love with it all over again.  

Dead Space (2023) - How to do a video game remake.

By Sam Coles:  

Remakes and remasters have become ubiquitous in recent years in the video game industry, so much so that they have gained a hyperbolic reputation of them outnumbering new releases. While yes, they are numerous and abundant, there are certainly more new game releases than remasters and remakes. Anyway, tangent aside I am here to talk about the beauty (if you can call it that with this game) of the Dead Space remake.  

Originally released in 2008 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Dead Space felt like one of the last good horror games we got for a long time, where the genre fell out of favour during that era for more over the top first and third person shooters. However, even in a sea of generic third person action games, Dead Space really stood out to me and scared the living daylights out of my 15-year-old mind back in the day. Fast forward to 2023, we get a remake of the 2008 title and to be honest when they first announced it, I felt that it didn’t really need a remake. The game still held up in my mind, and honestly it still does but what Motive did with this remake is excellent and nothing short of amazing. They took a game that has already aged well and made it look better, with a more tense atmosphere and fine-tuned the gameplay to make it the definitive experience, so let’s get into it!  

Dead Space follows the plot of the original release frame by frame with some changes, for one Isaac Clark can now speak in this game whereas in the original he was a silent protagonist. This did ruffle a few feathers, but honestly, I think it was a good change as a lot of characters talk to him directly, and him standing there silently with no response is a bit awkward in the 2008 release.  

He is sent to a space station to perform normal maintenance, where his partner Nicole happens to be stationed. However, once they arrive something is amiss as the reception area is abandoned and they soon find out why. They are quickly attacked by grotesque monsters that were once the crew, and Isaac has to investigate what happened to everyone and his partner. The story in this game, is Alien meets Event Horizon but that is not a bad thing as it adds its own spin on the formula of those stories. It is great to piece things together as there are not many cutscenes, a lot of the narrative is presented through text and audio logs as well as environmental storytelling.  

Gameplay wise they have kept the foundation of the original, it is somewhat of a survival horror, but I don’t agree with that completely as ammo was always plentiful in the older titles. However, in this remake they have tweaked that aspect of the game, ammo seems to be far and few between fights although if you stomp corpses, you will find resources more but I did notice ammo pickups in general are more scarce. This tweak to the pickups makes you more careful with your shots, and has added more to the difficulty of the game which is not a bad thing.  

The combat in general feels much better compared to the 2008 release, the shooting feels tight and responsive, coupled with the more visceral curb stomping which is fantastic and is more tense in the scenario with Isaac’s added profane dialogue as he performs said action. All the weapons and abilities are here in the remake, you have the iconic plasma cutter although toned down as it was overpowered in the original, the savage buzz saw as well as the flamethrower among others. Not only that, but you also still have stasis abilities which will help you in combat, as well as solving the simple yet fun puzzles in the game. It never gets old dismembering enemies with a plasma cutter, to then impale them against a wall with their own arm.  

Visually the game is a huge step up from the original, an obvious statement at face value but the original had an art style that has aged well for a 2008 game. Everything is improved visually, shadows are darker emphasising the darker atmosphere coupled with steam coming out of the various vents in the environment with the haunting sound design. I played this on PlayStation 5, and a little on Xbox Series S via Game Pass and it ran at 60 fps on PS5 but only at 30 on Series S. Framerates are not usually a deal breaker for me, but when a game requires a degree of quick reflexes 60 fps is objectively better in that regard and it feels much better. It managed to stick to its respective framerates on both platforms, so if you are worried about stutter in any aspect it is not an issue.  

Dead Space’s remake is an example of tweaking a classic in all the right areas, while maintaining what made the original a classic. It improves graphics (obviously), while improving the gameplay and adding to the narrative with the addition of voice over work for Isaac. It is a fantastic game for returning fans, or those who never got a chance to play it back in the day. A must play!