Summary
What’s the coolest weapon you’ve ever used in a video game? Not the best, not the most powerful, thecoolest. It’s a difficult question. My mind immediately flies to the Master Sword like theZeldastan I am, but that is immediately usurped by Halo’s vastly superior Energy Sword. While Abby’s golf club is pretty iconic, you can’t just think about hitting and slashing.
Half-Life 2’sGravity Gun earns a mention, as does Turok’s Cerebral Bore for thatnoisealone. I’m not sure the Dubstep-Gun from Saints Row 4 is up to par with the rest of these eccentric firearms, but it deserves a place in this paragraph just because it makes your enemies dance to death. A special shoutout to Hitman’s iconic briefcase, too, andPerfect Dark’sbriefcasegun, which I hope makes a return in the reboot.
My editor tells me I have to mentionGears of War’sChainsaw Bayonet, “because bayonets are cooler than swords”. Happy now?
But all of these have been usurped. Your favourite – probably Sephiroth’s Masamune or Kratos’ Leviathan axe, yawn – has been usurped, too. BecauseDoom: The Dark Ageshas a shield saw.
Everything about Doom: The Dark Ages is cool. The Doomslayer pilots a mech, rides a dragon, and has a little pelt now. What’s not to love? And that’s before you get to his weapons.
I’ll get to the Shield Saw in due course, but first I must highlight a couple of others. There’s one that fires some kind of stakes, pinning enemies to terrain ready for a follow-up with a chainsaw or shotgun. Then you’ve got the gun that grinds up the skulls of your enemies and rapidly fires out the sharpened shrapnel to clear a horde. Who comes up with this stuff? Because they need a raise.
The Shield Saw is, ideologically at least, more simple than the skullgrinder shooter. It’s a shield, with a chainsaw whirring around its circular edge. Therefore it can block attacks, but also rip and tear through some armour and flesh in return. A shield bash is already a satisfying rebuttal in a close-quarters fight, but attaching deadly teeth spinning at an impossible RPM? Suddenly there’s more blood, more viscera, and more fun.
You can throw it, too. Naturally. When you lob it, the Shield Saw decapitates dozens of medieval demonfolk before returning to your hand. It’s a boomerang – it’s Thor’s hammer and Captain America’s shield in one. But it’s cooler than all of those things put together.
My favourite part of the Shield Saw might be the preparation. The Doomslayer pulls on a ripcord, revving the shield’s engines before the tiny, terrible teeth rev up to full velocity. There’s an excitable tension as it gets up to speed, as you prepare for the violence you’re about to enact. But it also sells you on this world, like loading a skull into a handheld meat grinder. You understand how these weapons work, and those little animations have the details to take the Doom experience to the next level.
Modern Doom has been epitomised by fast movement and brutal takedowns accompanied by the best soundtrack in the past decade. This prequel promises more of the same. While the levels look a little more open and the departure from hell makes for a big change to the aesthetic, the vibes of Doom are the same as ever.
The weapons play a big part in this. Whether you prefer a super shotgun or precision pistol, this is fundamentally a series about splatting demons. The Shield Saw looks to be the most satisfying way to splat demons yet.
