Doom: The Dark Ages – Revelations DLC review: a flawed but fitting finale

Doom: The Dark Ages' first major expansion, Revelations, is out now — and it lands at a loaded moment. Id Software released it shortly after a wave of layoffs that hit the studio and the broader Xbox organisation, meaning this DLC was built in part by people who no longer work there. That context hangs over the whole thing.

Revelations picks up with the Doom Slayer going after the High Council of Hell, the ruling body behind all demonkind. The plan falls apart fast: the Council smashes his chainsaw shield and dumps him in purgatory. A mysterious demon bails him out, hands him a new chain spear, and sets him on a quest to collect magic stones, open a portal, and get back to finish the job. The story is straightforward on paper, but id keeps piling on cutscenes and lore — factions, realms, characters — and the reviewer found most of it a slog despite solid production values and good voice acting. The opening hour or two in particular didn't land, largely because the chain spear feels finicky and out of step with the heavier, more grounded combat that defined The Dark Ages base game.

Things turn around once the repaired shield comes back. Combining the spear and shield opens up the combat nicely — the shield handles blocking while the spear's dash and grapple abilities add mobility in bigger arenas. Some of the environmental puzzles that use both tools are genuinely inventive, reportedly edging toward Portal-style complexity at points. The middle section of the expansion, where the story steps back and massive fights against waves of enemies take over, is where Revelations earns its keep. The expansion also introduces a new skill tree, which the reviewer flags as one of modern Doom's more exhausting habits — more systems stacked on top of systems.

Revelations is described as a bittersweet, bombastic finale for this era of the franchise — one that brings the story closer to where the 2016 reboot began, closing a loop that id Software started a decade ago. Whether the studio gets to open another one, given the recent layoffs, is an open question the DLC can't answer.