DOOM The Dark Ages Glory Strikes and Executions explained – Glory Kill replacement

In DOOM The Dark Ages, fixed animation Glory Kills are gone, replaced instead by Executions and Glory Strikes. These play the same role as their predecessor, acting as more of an overhaul than a straight replacement. You can still target weak enemies and swoop in for a devastating finisher but in a much smoother, faster-paced, player-led fashion that won’t pull you out of the momentum of the fight. 

As game director Hugo Martin explained earlier this year, the idea was to ‘avoid repetition’ and allow for several finishers on multiple staggered enemies in quick succession. Think fluid multi-Glory Kills with shorter, punchier animations and you’re not far off what id Software are trying to do with the new system.

Glory Strikes and Executions explained

To trigger a Glory Strike or Execution, you’ll need to inflict enough damage on a large enemy to Daze them, or in other words stagger them. At this point, they’ll turn purple and a button prompt will appear on screen (E on PC). When you tap the prompt, the DOOM Slayer will dive in with a powerful melee attack that will either kill them with an Execution if their health is low enough, or weaken them and disable some of their attacks with a Glory Strike.

In action, both Glory Strikes and Executions animations complete much faster than the old Glory Kills, letting you pull off finishers on multiple Dazed enemies before any of them leave the staggered state. The finisher animations are still canned but there’s more variety based on the weapon you’re using, the angle of attack, and the enemy type.

Much like Glory Kills dropped health, Executions and Glory Strikes both drop health, giving you an impactful option for a quick health boost.

Glory Strikes and Executions vs. Glory Kills

Overall, the new system feels like a clever adjustment for the larger enemy counts and rangier environments in DOOM The Dark Ages. Though Glory Strikes and Executions animations don’t last as long as those for Glory Kills – no more than a second or two – they are just as satisfying and decisive. Their shorter lengths ensure the action doesn’t stop dead and continues to flow without ever slowing in a jarring, almost unnatural way as it did with Glory Kills. You can be gunning down enemies and blocking projectiles with your shield, then dive for an Execution and get back to shooting seamlessly with the new system.

The ability to chain Executions and Glory Strikes is a welcome change as well. You’ll no longer feel the frustration of missing out on finishing off two side-by-side staggered enemies because the locked Glory Kill animation took too long to run its course. DOOM is all about constant movement and fluidity; the new system is better suited to maintaining that sense of flow in the moment-to-moment gameplay.