The Dark Ages Fixes Eternal's Melee Problem & I Couldn't Be Happier

DOOM Eternal‘s melee attack was somewhat controversial among players when the game first came out. It was a lot less effective than the melee attack in DOOM 2016, and in general it felt strange that such a strong character like the Doom Slayer would be delivering such ineffective blows. Thankfully, the id Software team seems to have been paying attention to this criticism because DOOM: The Dark Ages has completely reworked melee into something that feels much more fitting for the series’ protagonist.

One major difference is that DOOM: The Dark Ages adds three new melee weapons, each of which has distinct abilities and strategic applications. Another difference is in just how affective melee attacks actually feel when you perform them. Anyone who felt short-changed by the Doom Slayer’s strength in DOOM Eternal will likely be very happy to see how melee works now. Although it will definitely take some adjusting to, especially if players were expecting something closer to DOOM 2016, I have no doubt that most fans who were displeased with DOOM Eternal will feel much happier about the new mechanics.

The Major Complaints With DOOM Eternal’s Melee Explained

DOOM Eternal’s Melee Attacks Were Weak And Ineffective

In DOOM Eternal, the melee attack isn’t too dissimilar from a typical first-person shooter. You can do it at-will, and you don’t have to switch off your primary weapon to do it like you did in old school DOOM games. However, unlike Call of Duty or Halo, the melee attack in DOOM Eternal is largely ineffective. The most it does is cause an enemy to falter the first time you hit them with it, and it does very little damage. This makes melee a much less effective option in DOOM Eternal than it is in other FPS games.

DOOM The Dark Ages doom slayer with Hebeth

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To make matters worse, DOOM 2016 had a much more effective melee attack than DOOM Eternal. Not only did it falter enemies each time you hit them with it, but it also did more damage. Weaker enemies were ready to be glory-killed after just a few melee hits. Now, I think this was an intentional choice on the part of the designers. I think the idea was to incentivize players not rely too heavily on melee, and explore the many options DOOM Eternal gives you for dispatching demons.

That said, players who based their expectations for the melee in DOOM Eternal on the previous game were consequently let down that it felt far less impactful. Although DOOM Eternal is by no means ruined by its weaker melee attack, the hope was that DOOM: The Dark Ages could fix its melee issue. Luckily, the latest entry in the DOOM franchise did just that.

How DOOM: The Dark Ages Fixed DOOM Eternal’s Melee Problem

DOOM: The Dark Ages Introduces Powerful New Melee Weapons

It seems clear that, when designing DOOM: The Dark Ages, id Software wanted to address the concerns about melee from DOOM Eternal without simply reverting to the DOOM 2016 style. The designers found an elegant solution to keep melee strong while also stopping it from taking over too much of your strategy. They did this by significantly increasing the power of melee attacks, making them stronger than both previous games, while also limiting the number of times you can use a melee attack in short succession.

Key art for the Premium Upgrade for Doom: The Dark Ages.

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Two of the melee weapons, the Power Gauntlet and the Flail, can only be used three times in a row before you have to either find a melee refill on the map or wait for your uses to charge back up. The most powerful melee weapon, the Dreadmace, unleashes a devastating blow and with splash damage, but only gets one charge. This successfully makes melee more powerful while also preventing it from overshadowing your other weapons.

In another clever bit of design, you can also get upgrades that help recharge your melee weapons more quickly when you parry attacks with your shield saw. This incentivizes you to use the DOOM: The Dark Ages‘ new shield mechanics, which will help you realize just how effective they can be. The game does also occasionally treat players who love to dispatch large numbers of enemies with melee by creating areas where there are a lot of melee refills. These areas are a lot of fun because you can tear through enemies with melee attacks in ways you normally can’t.

DOOM: The Dark Ages’ Approach To Melee Is The Best In The Series

Melee Is Typically Weak In DOOM

The Flail scorching an enemy's shield in Doom: The Dark Ages

Melee has historically been one of the worst options for taking out enemies in the DOOM franchise. In the older games, to perform a melee attack you would have to switch off your guns to your fists. Melee was so weak, that you would only really resort to it when you had no other options left. This often results in your death if you hadn’t already significantly weakened the enemies in the room before running out of ammo.

Doom The Dark Ages Slayer in front of a world map

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Although DOOM 2016’s melee was stronger than anything that came before it, and it could be used with your gun equipped, it was still not terribly effective against anything but smaller enemies. You couldn’t cause larger demons to falter in the same way as the smaller ones, and it took far too many hits to defeat them with just melee. And, as discussed before, DOOM Eternal‘s melee was far too weak to be effective in most situations. It wasn’t necessarily unusable, and its falter could buy you a few extra seconds, but it wasn’t deadly by any means.

DOOM: The Dark Ages has completely redefined what melee means for DOOM, and I am really happy with the results. Melee feels like a viable option against every enemy, and having different weapons that allow you to change the style of your melee attacks is a big improvement. Now, you can match your melee style to your preferred strategy, or swap between them as regularly as you do your other weapons in DOOM: The Dark Ages. Just be aware that melee charges don’t transfer when you switch weapons.

DOOM: The Dark Ages Hits Impressive Metacritic Score, But Doesn’t Beat Eternal

Reviews for DOOM: The Dark Ages have been released, and while the game does have an impressive 84 score on Metacritic, it doesn’t beat Eternal.

Whether you’re delivering devastating combos with the Power Gauntlet, bashing through enemy armor with the Flail, or just disintegrating enemies on contact with the Dreadmace, DOOM: The Dark Ages offers a lot of fun options for including melee in your rotation of attacks. I hope that this is a new trend for the series, as I would love to see what future melee weapons id Software can come up with. I’m also eager to see if the planned campaign DLC for DOOM: The Dark Ages adds any more weapons to its arsenal.