I had a good time with Doom: The Dark Ages this year. Maybe it even peaked at “great” a few times. I can’t say I remember much of the story, which was a major focus of this new Doom, but I did have a solid 20 or so hours blasting demons and cranking up the difficulty as high as it could go. And now a new update has arrived that amps things up even further with The Dark Ages’ take on the Ripatorium.
Read More: Doom: The Dark Ages: The Kotaku Review
The Ripatorium showed up in 2020’s Doom Eternal, though then it was a part of the game’s campaign and you’d have to reload a specific checkpoint if you wanted to grind it for fun or practice. The Dark Ages, however, reintroduces the concept as a test of your wits and fortitude that you can play as many times as you want—there’s even an endless mode if you really just want to dig in and refuse to let go. You can select up to 60 enemies from The Dark Ages to do battle with and it’s a ton of fun—but don’t be surprised if you end up in over your head at first.
On my first run through the Ripatorium, I maxed out all 60 enemy slots, half of which were fodder to keep my ammo reserves up. The rest were chosen at random from whatever looked the most intimidating. That was a bad idea, as I’d soon discover, since it turns out my Dark Ages skills are quite rusty. That said, having several of Dark Ages’ biggest baddies all rush you at once is not only hilarious, it’s the kind of challenge that will call me to my ruin before I show them who’s really in charge here (me, the answer is me…eventually).
The Dark Ages offers up a nice set of modular options that let you fine-tune the game’s difficulty, and the update introduces some new ones, such as limits to how many Max Life Sigils you can have at any time, and a slider for Parry & Melee Slow Motion. You can read the full update notes here.
The Ripatorium may have shut my cocky ass down at first, but it’s nice to have a reason to jump back into The Dark Ages’ neat guns-and-shield gameplay. And currently it says “Ripatorium 1.0” in the main menu, so hopefully we’ll see some nice additions to this endless mode of carnage in the future.
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