The wait for Doom: The Dark Ages is drawing to a close, with the game still holding strong on its May 15 release date. The reboot of the Doom franchise has undoubtedly been successful, with the franchise doing well to translate the core themes of its iconic earliest titles over to a more modern context, with The Dark Ages having some freedom to move beyond the gameplay of 2016’s Doom and the more recent Doom Eternal.

The medieval-inspired premise of Doom: The Dark Ages plus its existence as a prequel to most of the modern Doom storyline is shaping up to foster quite a unique feel for the project, though it will still generally follow the popular framework of its predecessors like Doom Eternal. In fact, there are some interesting under-explored elements of Doom Eternal that The Dark Ages seems to be directly expanding upon, with the Wintherin dragons of Doom Eternal likely inspiring an extremely important element of the upcoming game.

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Eternal’s Wintherin Dragons Have Fueled One Exciting Mechanic For Doom: The Dark Ages

The story of 2020’s Doom Eternal was quite complex by the standards of its 2016 predecessor, with the game shining light on other realms like Argent D’Nur as well as ancient races of advanced beings that have fueled the franchise’s conflict for millennia. This smartly allowed Doom Eternal to take big creative liberties in terms of adding new hazards, locations, enemies, and fighting styles to the IP, with the upcoming Dark Ages applying this concept to an archaic prequel story of Medieval iconography and expanded melee combat.

Alongside the more primal weaponry and enemies of Doom: The Dark Ages, the title is already drawing attention for how it is utilizing a bold sandbox approach to its uncharacteristically large-spanning mission worlds, with parts of the game being so expansive that it necessitates vehicle piloting to navigate. This has given way to one of the most talked-about and already-iconic elements of Doom: The Dark Ages, with the player being able to pilot a semi-mechanical dragon while also using it in combat.

While not a lot is currently known about the origins of this tamed cybernetic dragon, the Ancient Gods expansion for Doom Eternal introduced the Wintherin species to the franchise’s lore, with these creatures being ancient and powerful dragons that can ally themselves to and serve certain factions. Doom Eternal‘s DLC showcased Wintherin who are allied directly to the Night Sentinels of Argent D’Nur, as well as the corrupted Demonic Wintherin who serve the armies of Hell.

Doom: The Dark Ages Will Make the Most of Wintherin From a Gameplay Perspective

It is not exactly confirmed that The Dark Ages‘ mech-dragon is a Wintherin, but it is known that the game will tell the story of the Doom Slayer’s rapid rise through the hierarchy of the Night Sentinels following his transportation to the world of Argent D’Nur. With the Night Sentinels being confirmed to work alongside certain species of aligned Wintherin, it seems that The Dark Ages will smartly expand the establishment of Wintherin in Doom Eternal in quite a needed way through the Doom Slayer’s new companion.

The inclusion of the mech-dragon in Doom: The Dark Ages is a perfect way to further solidify one of the most interesting aspects of Doom Eternal‘s DLC, paying respect to the rebooted story of the franchise while adding a deeply exciting new layer of gameplay opportunities for fans of the IP. The flight and combat mechanics of The Dark Ages‘ dragon mount will seemingly set the project apart from its predecessors in a huge way, with the lore and narrative presence of the Wintherin hopefully rising in tandem as a result.

Game

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Released

May 15, 2025

ESRB

m

Publisher(s)

Bethesda Softworks