DOOM: The Dark Ages proves games can still be optimized properly

It’s apparent that Doom: The Dark Ages is awell-designed game for PC and consoles. Many who have stuck with the series have praised the game for how good it feels to control and how exciting it can be to rip and tear up hordes of demons. But what makes Doom: The Dark Ages stand far apart from other games is how well-optimized it is on all platforms. Between the highly detailed visuals and the large scope of the environments, not forgetting the crazy characters you encounter, Doom is a technical marvel of a game. And one that is succeeding, whereas many other games seem to fail continuously.

Regardless of what engine a video game is built on, being optimized for many different kinds of PC builds is still entirely possible. The goal is to make sure a game looks fantastic and runs smoothly for the most optimal experience possible, even if a person doesn’t have the greatest setup to do so. And over the years, not every game released on PC and consoles has been able to achieve that. Many end up falling victim to choppy gameplay and a myriad of other problems. But this goes to show you just how good Doom: The Dark Ages is at its core.

That smooth frame rate for everyone

Things flow very well here

One of the best aspects of Doom: The Dark Ages is its performance. The animations of characters and overall gameplay are displayed at a smooth frame rate that hardly ever gets choppy. Luckily for everyone, the game hardly ever suffers from any sort of traversal hiccups or stuttering when things get chaotic. Even with numerous enemies appearing on the screen and played on a PC with a low-end GPU, you can count on Doom: The Dark Ages to run smoothly and keep the momentum. Compared to many other games of recent memory, most fall prey to dips in frame rate and even texture issues, making it difficult to play. Although some games find a workaround for this by requiring them to run on higher-end PCs, it can still be an issue for some.

In most cases, getting a 60 FPS experience is pretty easy with Doom, which is something that cannot be said for most other titles that come out. In a game like this, keeping a consistent frame rate is important, especially in sections where the difficulty will spike up due to a large volume of enemies or tougher demons showing up for a fight. A video breakdown of the game from Digital Foundry points out that much of this is due to the game not having any shader compilation hitches, so everything you see in the game looks consistent throughout. Objects or characters you see while moving around aren’t just popping into view when you get close enough, and they remain detailed no matter how you view them, and the game doesn’t slow down because of it.

Dev issues with game engines

And it’s not the engine’s fault

Source: id Software

Many of the issues that games run into when it comes to optimization start with development. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the engine a game is built with is faulty or has irredeemable problems. Games that end up releasing with problems at launch usually come with the burden of developers using an engine they are not fully experienced with. Unreal Engine 5 is constantly used for new releases on PC and consoles, especially with larger AAA games. However, a growing trend among new releases seems to be botched or problematic launches, with games stumbling right out of the gate. Some of the funnier examples are games like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, where glitches and texture hiccups popped up often at launch on PC.

Stuff like that never really happened with Doom: The Dark Ages for any platform it was on. The engine that Id Software utilized to build the game was already solid and implemented in smart ways, addressing problems and preventing new ones that might pop up by the time the game came out. Other developers, on the other hand, may not have had such luck when developing their games. Often, some studios will use Unreal Engine 5 for their projects, and developers might hope that the engine will take care of any issues that show up, but that clearly isn’t the case, causing debate among many about its effects on the industry. It’s not the engine that’s the root cause of problems, but the lack of diligence from those using it. Had this not been the case, then maybe Doom: The Dark Ages would also have had a botched launch like so many other games before it.

Is that why Doom: The Dark Ages is so good?

There’s more to it all

While Doom: The Dark Ages is arguably the most optimized new AAA release of late, that’s not the sole reason why the game has received praise. As a continuation of one of the biggest series in the FPS genre, Doom: The Dark Ages manages to put together an experience that appeals to nearly everyone with its straightforward concept. Blow everything up and destroy all enemies in your path, and then shoot at them some more. The new story and locations are just added icing on top of an already solid video game cake. Luckily, the game manages to have this kind of experience presented in the best way possible, and consistently across multiple platforms. You won’t find one version of Doom: The Dark Ages in one place performing any less stellar than the others.

But as other game releases have shown, none of the nuts and bolts of how deep an experience can be will matter if it’s not presented to the player in a good way. Having a smooth frame rate, with detailed environments and characters presented consistently, is the mark of great optimization. Doom: The Dark Ages is showing everyone, not just developers, that this standard of quality is still entirely possible. However, some studios are going to need to work a little harder to achieve this.

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