Gaming News

The Dark Ages Fans Think The Slayer Is Too Inexperienced To Use Glory Kills

On May 20, 2025 12:25 pm, by NuclearCoffee

Summary

Fans have theorized that the Slayer’s inexperience is the reason for the absence of glory kills in Doom: The Dark Ages.
He’s still a young little Slayer
The real reason is probably that the shield saw and flail have changed up the combat style, along with the open world.

Id Software has a unique way of keeping the Doom series fresh. It does so by changing the fundamental fighting style of the Slayer. Of course, it’s still a first-person shooter, but the procedure to maximize the number of kills is different in every entry. In Doom: The Dark Ages, the shield saw and the flail are your go-tos when it comes to finishing off enemies.

Doom: The Dark Ages Does The Impossible And Gives The Slayer A Heart

This unstoppable killing machine is more than meets the eye in Doom: The Dark Ages.

One of the biggest differences between the last two games and this one is the absence of Glory Kills, at least for low-level enemies. These few seconds of cinematic gore gave players a breather and some health. The devs probably felt that it wouldn’t suit the gameplay loop of the latest entry. However, it seems some fans have an in-universe explanation too.

He’s Just A Baby

Given when Doom: The Dark Ages is set, the Slayer is still relatively young when compared to himself in the 2016 entry and Eternal. Even his face looks much younger than most fans expected. So, while the devs removed glory kills for most enemies for gameplay reasons, one Redditor has decided to theorise an in-game reason as well.

“My theory and reason is a bit simple, but it occurred to me that the reason why the Slayer doesn’t do so many Glory Kills is because he is still getting used to the absurd strength he possesses and has not yet developed the appropriate “technique” to do glory kills effectively,” explained Rodolphus. “So what he does mostly is launch attacks with pure brute force and kill his enemies with only the power of his punches.

“Remember that the Slayer in 2016 onwards must have infinitely more experience killing Demons than in The Dark Ages, because the time difference could be hundreds or most likely thousands of years before he was locked in the sarcophagus.” While that does make sense in theory, the reason is probably just that the shield made it easier rip and tear enemies apart in The Dark Ages.

Many of the comments continued giving gameplay reasons, with one saying, “Keeping the glory kill system from 2016 or Eternal would have been awful for The Dark Ages. Imagine getting a line of shield soldiers in a glory kill state. It’d take 20 seconds of likely repeated glory kill animations just to continue the fight.”

Glory kill or not, the Slayer is still adept at slaughtering demons.