Spoilers forDoom: The Dark Agesahead.
The recently launchedDoom: The Dark Agesis packed full of surprising details and fascinating new content for players to explore, both from a narrative and gameplay perspective, with the prequel to 2016’sDoomcovering some of the most important events in the franchise’s lore. With the player exploring the Slayer’s time allied to the Night Sentinels of Argent D’Nur under the watchful eyes of the Maykrs, the setting ofThe Dark Agessets the game up brilliantly to feature some Earth-shattering narrative developments.
While a lot ofDoom: The Dark Ages' narrative themes, such as Argent D’Nur and its fight against Hell, were already fairly known to dedicated fans of the franchise, one aspect of the game opens a massive door for the series to go through in the future. Throughout some of the most consequential events ofThe Dark Ages' story, players will find themselves in the highly mysterious Cosmic Realm, with the unique aesthetic and untold lore value that this new realm holds making it the perfect stepping stone for futureDoomcontent.
The Cosmic Realm May Be Just What Doom Needs Going Forward
One of the best aspects ofthe soft-reboot era of theDoomfranchise, starting with 2016’sDoom, is the way in which the series has embraced and deepened its complex lore, while still largely anchoring itself to the events of the originalDoomentries. The central events of theDoomfranchise are tied to the known realms of its universe, Hell, Urdak, and the Earthly realms, which are likely to contain both Argent D’Nur and Earth itself.
Doom Eternalexplored the realm of Urdak extensively, with this being the home of the technologically advanced yet demon-corrupted alien race known as the Makyrs, who themselves play a large role inThe Dark Agesasthe de-facto Gods of Argent D’Nur and the Argenta people. Throughout the rebooted franchise story, however, there have been hints toward something far beyond these known realms, withThe Dark Agesfinally diving headfirst into the chaos of the Cosmic Realm.
According toThe Dark Ages' Game Director, Hugo Martin, the Cosmic Realm has been a long time coming in terms of a proper portrayal, being a highly mysterious realm of spatial and temporal disruption, filled with grotesque and dangerous beings inspired by Lovecraftian horror.The unending chaos and brutality of the Cosmic Realmmirrors the realm of Hell quite significantly, with the forces of Hell even entering into an uneasy alliance with the Cosmic Realm’s most powerful entities.
The original Gods of Argent D’Nur, the Wraiths, are confirmed to originally hail from the Cosmic Realm, making the location home to some extremely powerful and mysterious beings.
The Implications of the Cosmic Realm Could Push Doom Towards a Multiverse-Style Approach
The alien rules of the Cosmic Realm give way to their own unique enemy designs, technology, and weaponry, informing a lot ofThe Dark Ages' most unique contentwhile just scratching the surface of what the realm could realistically offer. This level of existential threat and danger that exists beyond Hell and Urdak opens up an immense number of narrative avenues forDoomgoing forward, with aDark AgesDLC or even a future project using the realm as its major setting.
The events ofDoom Eternalessentially eliminate Hell as being a major player in a future-setDoomgame, yet the exploration of the Cosmic Realm establishes a precedent that borders a fullDoommulti-verse, with players even noting the similarities between the realm and the themes ofother id Software franchises likeQuake. To avoid theDoomfranchise growing stale through the usual portrayal of Hell’s forces, tapping into the Cosmic Realm and its implications for other similar realms seems like a perfect approach going forward.
