Doom: The Dark Ages launched in May, but last week I had the chance to play it for several hours on a high-end PC. \ud83d\udd25 What I can share is limited, but the latest modern Doom installment and its idTech 8 foundation already look impressive \ud83d\ude2e. There's a lot to praise here, as well as some aspects worth noting. \ud83c\udfae\u2728<\/p>\n
First, the engine. Machine Games' Indiana Jones demonstrated just how capable modern versions of idTech have become, and The Dark Ages shares the same extremely realistic visuals\u2014albeit in a completely different setting. Everything feels alive, with an impressive amount of secondary animations: waving trees and flags, falling rain, and storm clouds.<\/p>\n
While I didn\u2019t get a chance to check out the game at max settings\u2014or in its upcoming ray-tracing mode\u2014the game was running with standard RT enabled, including both RT reflections (like in Doom Eternal) and RTGI (like in Indiana Jones). This looks great, with aquatic levels displaying RT reflections complete with atmospheres overlaid using SSR. There are plenty of reflective surfaces despite the transition to more naturalistic environments, but it\u2019s precisely that shift in tone that allows the RTGI to shine. This allows for much more accurate and dramatic lighting across a vast space, which is almost entirely lit by natural sources like flames and the sun.<\/p>\n