I’ve just wrapped up Doom: The Dark Ages on Nightmare difficulty. Over 40 hours of relentless combat, and what a ride it’s been. This game is pure joy — a masterclass in FPS design. The lore is handled brilliantly, and I’m already hyped for the upcoming DLC.
The gameplay? Absolutely addictive. Combined with the setting, it feels like the culmination of nearly three decades of FPS love — from my very first match in Hexen on a humble Pentium 100, through the Quake series, and now to this beast of a game. It’s a perfect blend of strategy, kinetic combat, reflexes, melee brutality, and glorious firepower.
Honestly, it stands a few notches above Doom Eternal, which I adored with every fibre of my being. I can’t understand what some reviewers were thinking when they called this entry “underwhelming” or “easy.” Did they actually play it? Did they pick the right difficulty? Or did they just boot it up, play a couple of levels, and then go back to drooling over GTA VI trailers while writing alarmist pieces about rising game prices — all while this gem quietly dropped on Game Pass, day one, practically for free?
This is Doom at its finest. A blueprint for how I want FPS games to be made. A flawless experience and my undisputed Game of the Year for 2025.
I played it on PC with ultra settings and path tracing maxed out. The engine didn’t drop a single frame. Smooth, fluid, and perfectly tuned to serve the gameplay — the magic formula of next-gen FPS, building on the legacy of Doom 2016.
To celebrate this milestone in my gaming journey, I’ve decided to break down the tangled timeline of the Doom universe — at least as I’ve experienced it. Starting with an axiom that makes a lot of sense to me (and aligns with what Hugo Martin, creative director of the latest Doom trilogy, has always emphasised): all the main numbered Doom entries are canon.
Here’s my take on the linear timeline of events:
1. Jekkad creation – Eons ago
Davoth, a primordial being of immense power, creates Jekkad, a once-thriving dimension inhabited by mortal beings. Their inevitable death causes Davoth great sorrow.
2. Urdak creation and betrayal – Eons ago
Davoth then creates Urdak, home of the Maykr, and teaches them to help him unlock the secrets of immortality. The Maykr develop a consciousness-transfer and regeneration process to achieve pseudo-immortality. Eventually, seeing Davoth’s growing despair, they isolate Jekkad and Davoth, led by a Maykr who calls himself The Father.
3. Hiding the Father – Eons ago
The Father’s close ally, a Seraph named Samur, carries out critical tasks — including transferring The Father’s consciousness into a Life Sphere, a device capable of containing powerful beings, and hiding it.
4. Maykr crisis – Eons ago
This leads to a crisis among the Maykr, as The Father’s presence was essential to their immortality process. Without him, they begin to degrade. It’s implied that Davoth, still raging in Jekkad, influences minds across dimensions, including Samur’s.
5. Argent D’Nur – Eons ago
Seeking alternatives, the Maykr discover Argent D’Nur, a human civilisation with ties to divine beings called Wraiths. They present themselves as gods, offering life after death and advanced tech. They use the Argenta to extract Argent energy from Jekkad — a fusion of tortured souls and Wraith power — to sustain themselves. The Argenta are unaware that this energy is born of hellish torment.
6. Classic Doom events – Early 2000s
Fast forward to the early 2000s — the events of Doom 1, Doom 2, and Doom 64. The Doom Marine chooses to stay in Hell and fight forever.
7. Doom Marine arrival after Doom 64 events – Early 2000s and then Eons ago again
Eventually, the Doom Marine ends up on Argent D’Nur. My theory? He travels through an interdimensional breach, arriving in a parallel timeline set eons before Earth’s current era. This isn’t time travel — it’s dimensional traversal. Both timelines continue independently, without rewinding or pausing.
8. The Birth of the Doom Slayer
We now reach the flashback events from Doom Eternal. Under the guidance of The Father — and with Davoth’s lingering influence — Samur places the Doom Marine into the Divinity Machine, transforming him into the Doom Slayer.
Soon after, the demons invade Argent D’Nur, bringing destruction to its cities and outposts — including Hebeth, the name the Argenta gave to the planet Mars eons before Earth’s timeline. Hebeth was a strategic outpost due to a powerful interdimensional barrier that prevented Jekkad from fully spilling into the earthly dimension. It also enabled the Argenta to build a complex network of intergalactic portals.
Here’s another theory of mine: a breach in this barrier may have allowed the Doom Marine to arrive on Argent D’Nur during its first infernal invasion.
9. The War Begins — and Doom: The Dark Ages Unfolds
The war with Hell erupts. It becomes clear that the Maykr are secretly conspiring with Jekkad’s ministers — particularly Azhrak — to trade Argent energy for the sacrifice of the Argenta, all without the Argenta’s knowledge.
This is the backdrop for the events of Doom: The Dark Ages.
10. Samur’s Mission on Earth
Time skips forward by eons — but from Samur’s perspective, only a few decades have passed since the fall of Argent D’Nur. Still following The Father’s instructions, Samur reaches modern-day Earth via the same breach on Hebeth that the Doom Marine once used in reverse.
He adopts a false identity and takes control of the remnants of the UAC, rewriting history and continuing his mission to synthesize Argent energy without relying on Jekkad’s tortured souls. To do this, he must conduct extensive research.
Samur even recovers the Doom Slayer’s sarcophagus, which — from the Slayer’s point of view — remained trapped on Jekkad for eons, accessible only through the Hebeth/Mars breach.
11. Echoes of the Past — Doom 3
The events of Doom 3 unfold. Ancient tablets are discovered on Mars/Hebeth, depicting the Doom Slayer’s deeds and referencing the Soul Cube — though the cube itself isn’t mentioned in Dark Ages.
These relics are clear evidence of what transpired eons ago on Mars. Samur and others who crossed the portal didn’t wait eons — but the tablets and ruins did.
12. The Events of Doom (2016) — Year 2149 A.D.
The events of Doom (2016) take place in the year 2149 A.D.. The Doom Slayer, dormant for eons, awakens to find the UAC once again overrun by demons. Samur, now fully hidden behind the identity of Samuel Hayden, explains to the Slayer that the invasion is the fault of Olivia Pierce.
After completing his mission and recovering the Crucible — a key artifact used primarily for Samuel’s experiments — the Slayer is betrayed and imprisoned once again by the UAC.
13. Doom Eternal — Year 2163 A.D.
By 2163 A.D., Samuel Hayden’s experiments — disguised as efforts to provide humanity with unlimited energy — lead to a full-scale demonic invasion of Earth.
The ARC project is established to resist the invasion. Samuel uses all his knowledge and technology to fight back, but ultimately falls. An automated protocol activates, releasing the Doom Slayer and providing him with a Maykr ship to return to Earth and “fix the problem.”
On Earth, the Slayer encounters the Hell Priests — former Argenta religious leaders now fully corrupted by demonic forces. The Maykr’s goal is to sacrifice all of humanity to harvest more Argent energy, delaying their inevitable degradation and death.
The Maykr arrive on Earth through the same breach on Mars (Hebeth), now fully collapsed. Like Samur, they experience a temporal shift, arriving in Earth’s timeline after eons have passed elsewhere.
To complete his mission, the Slayer must eliminate all Hell Priests. The last of them resides on Argent D’Nur, beyond the space-time breach, still present in the fallen city of Hebeth, which was devastated during the events of Doom: The Dark Ages.
A key detail: while we clearly see the Doom Slayer fighting on Hebeth in Dark Ages, Samuel Hayden states during the Slayer’s landing in Doom Eternal that the city fell before his time with the Argenta. He likely means before he joined the Night Sentinels — during Dark Ages, the Slayer is still a pawn of the Maykr and not yet a formal Sentinel.
14. The Betrayer and the Icon of Sin
In Doom Eternal, the Slayer also encounters Valen, the Betrayer — a former commander of the Argenta. Like Samur, Valen has only experienced decades, not eons, due to his self-imposed exile in Jekkad (Hell), where time flows differently.
Valen’s story is one of tragedy: he betrayed the Argenta to resurrect his son, who died in battle. But the resurrection was twisted — his son returned as the first Icon of Sin, a monstrous abomination.
The Slayer defeats the Icon of Sin and confronts the Khan Maykr, leader of the Maykr, killing her and ending Davoth’s long, subtle revenge.
15. The Final Revelation — Vega, Samur, and Davoth
The story doesn’t end there. The threat of Davoth remains, and the Slayer receives final revelations before their ultimate confrontation.
It’s revealed that The Father is none other than VEGA, the advanced AI that has supported the Slayer throughout his journey. Samur finally reveals his true identity and form.
Samur explains that Davoth must be destroyed in his physical form, as he too was confined to a Life Sphere. The Slayer defeats Samur, keeps Vega aboard his Maykr ship, and forces Davoth to regain physical form — revealing a shocking truth:
Davoth and the Doom Slayer are the same essence, two sides of the same coin. It’s implied that the Slayer is a chosen one, a reincarnation of Davoth, born to fulfill the infernal king’s final revenge against those who betrayed him.
This explains why the Slayer survived the Divinity Machine, where others perished during the transformation.
The final battle begins. The remaining Argenta arrive from the space-time of Argent D’Nur to join the fight. In a climactic 1v1 duel, the Slayer defeats Davoth.
But the victory comes at a cost. As they share the same essence, Davoth’s defeat affects the Slayer. The Maykr drones seal the Slayer back into his sarcophagus, visibly weakened — awaiting unknown future events… and perhaps, a new awakening.
