Doom: The Dark Ages serves as a prequel to 2016’s Doom and its sequel Doom Eternal, and tells the “epic cinematic origin story of the Doom Slayer’s rage”. But, even though it’s a prequel, don’t expect The Dark Ages to end with the Slayer being popped in a coffin.
As a reminder, 2016’s Doom opens with the Slayer lying in a coffin, before he swiftly breaks free from the chains binding him so he can shoot the faces off advancing baddies. It is quite the way to kick things off.
So, if The Dark Ages is going to set us up for Doom 2016, surely we already know how the upcoming game is going to end, right? Wrong!
“I mean, that would end the Dark Ages, the medieval chapter of the Doom saga. This is kind of like the Chronicles of the Slayer,” Doom: The Dark Ages game director Hugo Martin told PC Gamer, when asked about potentially seeing the Slayer getting locked away.
“So if we took it all the way to that point, then that would mean that we couldn’t tell any more medieval stories. And I’m not announcing projects or anything other than to just say it’s better to leave it open.”
The game director added that the Doom: The Dark Ages team has some DLC planned for the prequel, so again putting the Slayer in a coffin during the main story wouldn’t make sense.
“We do have a DLC and things like that, so it won’t – I’m not giving away spoilers – but it doesn’t end with him [in the coffin],” the developer continued.
“The story is that they collapsed a building on top of him and then put him inside of that sarcophagus that we find him in at the beginning of 2016,” said Martin.
“And this game doesn’t end that way.”
Doom: The Dark Ages is set to release on 15th May across PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass. It will be a “strictly campaign” affair, the developer previously confirmed.
For more on the upcoming prequel, be sure to check out our in depth Doom: The Dark Ages coverage here.