Doom: The Dark Ages | Revelations review – the best DLC of the year

The developers were laid off the same week the expansion was released, but this new DLC for Doom: The Dark Ages is exceptional.

Reviews can sometimes be a sombre affair, if it’s a game that was hotly anticipated but didn’t turn out well, or it’s obvious the developer put in a lot of work, that didn’t reach its full potential in the final product. But we don’t think we’ve ever been quite so depressed as when writing this review for Doom: The Dark Ages | Revelations – one of the best DLC expansions we’ve ever played.

The reason, as you’ve probably already guessed, is that developer id Software was badly affected by the latest round of Microsoft layoffs. There’s been some attempt to downplay the effects, to make it seems as if they can continue to make new games and game engines, but the fact is over 130 people were laid off, with reports suggesting that includes the ‘majority’ of those who worked on Revelations.

We can only imagine how that feels, especially as the DLC is being released with almost no fanfare and, ironically, we would’ve forgot it was even coming out if it wasn’t for the layoffs themselves. Unfortunately, that means this may be the last Doom for a very long time, but at least the developers can be satisfied it’s going out on a high.

The modern trilogy of Doom games, starting with the 2016 reboot, has been a highly frustrating affair, because if it wasn’t for a couple of glaring issues they’d be cast iron classics of the first person shooter genre. Even with their problems they’re still the best pure action, arena style shooters of the modern era, with a cadence and tactility to the combat that is unlike anything else being made today… while still being reminiscent of the original Doom titles from the 90s.

Repetition has been a problem, and staggeringly bad storytelling, but we’ve previously considered 2020’s Doom Eternal to be the best of the trio. Although Eternal’s frustrating platform sections were a chore, its combat was the most complex and tactical. And while last year’s Doom: The Dark Ages largely removed the platforming it simplified the action – not to the point of ruination but it was a shallower experience overall.

The perfect modern Doom would be a game that removed all the negatives and elevated the positives and, rather surprisingly, that game is Revelations. Which is a bit of a relief given the future prospects for the series.

Things start off fairly ordinarily, for an expansion pack, and while we’d love to tell you what is going on in terms of the story, we haven’t understood a word of it since at least Eternal. Whereas the plot of the original games was no more complicated than fight demons with a shotgun the new trilogy is a bewildering mess of intensely uninteresting lore, that turns Doomguy into a chosen one and introduces evil interdimensional angels and space Vikings.

We wouldn’t mind but the whole thing is taken incredibly seriously, despite the absurdity of what’s going on and the outrageously over-the-top nature of the action. Thankfully, the latter is all that matters and the plot remains nothing but a background irritation. Although, in the first of a series of things it does better than the parent game, at least it’s more obviously a prequel this time.

The basics of Revelations are, naturally, the same as The Dark Ages, but while we’d forgotten a lot of the controls, when we first started the expansion up, they came back surprisingly quickly, given how unusual they are – as you collect different resources from defeated enemy, including health, armour, and ammo.

As well as being notably easier on the default difficulty, The Dark Ages made the main character slower and less agile than before, with a big focus on using a Captain America style shield to deflect projectiles and fling as a weapon. The big new idea for Revelations is the Chain Spear weapon, which is even more fun to play with.

The spear doesn’t become a ranged weapon until you upgrade it and at first its main purpose is to increase your mobility, id apparently having decided they went a bit too far in turning you into a walking tank. Not only can you now dash again but the spear can be thrown at enemies or nodes and as you’re dragged towards them – relatively slowly – you can yank yourself around to take pot shots at the enemy or use a melee attack.

An early upgrade allows you to automatically orbit around an opponent, while you can also unlock key moves including a javelin attack, a stab, and a ground pound. Each of these is best suited to certain types of enemies, such as flying or armoured types, thereby bringing back some element of Eternal’s more complex weapon choices.

Just like the shield, the spear can also be used to deflect projectiles, making it almost the only weapon you need, although once you learn to use it in conjunction with the rest of your armoury (when you first get the spear your shield is broken) you see the variety of your options actually begin to exceed Eternal.

That means a proportional decrease in accessibility but that seems perfectly reasonable considering this is an expansion – and an entirely separate option from the main menu that repeatedly warns you to play the parent game first.

The level design is also subtly different in Revelations, moving away from The Dark Ages’ giant open world areas into something that is, again, closer to Eternal. They’ve also made it so that secrets no longer appear on your map, so you have to search for them the old-fashioned way.

There’re proper puzzles too, and while it’s not exactly Portal it is more involved than just collecting coloured keys. The central hub area, that you unlock after a couple of hours, is especially interesting, with a Metroidvania element where unlocking new abilities gives you access to additional areas. The post-game rewards are especially good, including some redesigned maps from the original Doom.

One of the most consistent complaints aimed at expansions in general, is that they’re never used as an opportunity to react to flaws in the original and in the rare instances where new ideas are introduced, they’re usually just shallow gimmicks. That is not the case with Revelations at all and while a lot of the changes are based around moving the gameplay closer to Eternal it’s by no means copying that game directly, with the superbly versatile Chain Spear being completely unique.

The whole experience lasts at least six or seven hours, and we suspect most will spend twice that due to both the difficulty and trying to find all the secrets. It’s by far the best time we’ve had with the modern Doom games and if Microsoft had any sense they would release it as a standalone title. But then, if they had any sense, they wouldn’t have laid off all the developers in the first place.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £17.99 – requires Doom: The Dark Ages
Publisher: Bethesda
Developer: id Software
Release Date: 7th July 2026
Age Rating: 18

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