DOOM: The Dark Ages gets a customizable endless arena mode called 'The Ripatorium'

ID Software had a new content update for Doom: The Dark Ages to unveil during the QuakeCon 2025 showcase event today. While the newly released update is carrying a large number of gameplay changes and balance tweaks, its biggest addition is 'The Ripatorium'. This is a new arena mode with highly customizable waves. Catch the trailer above.

The Ripatorium has a new encounter manager built into it, letting players change up exactly which enemies can spawn in and wreak havoc inside the arena. Players can bring in everything from dozens of imps and soldiers to Pinky Riders and Hell Knights to populate the fighting space. There is an arena capacity cap to keep players in check though.

The arena can be further customized to be endless or have a specific time limit to survive. A respawn count for the Slayer, the respawn timer for enemy waves, fodder enemy types, and even the soundtrack can all be selected. At launch there are three arenas available: City of Ry'uul, Village of Khalim, and Harbor of Souls.

Outside of The Ripatorium, id Software has also added a benchmark mode to Doom: The Dark Ages for quickly looping through multiple levels of the game. The update also carries a new difficulty modifier menu, a slider to adjust Parry and Melee slow-motion effects, and audio enhancements to optimize music for combat situations better.

Players will also be happy to know that the update has increased weapon swap animations, and this can even be interrupted to use the shield for quick blocks and parries.

Doom: The Dark Ages Update 2 is now available across PC and consoles. Find the complete patch notes over here. At the same time, Doom Eternal also received an update on PC today, finally bringing the built-in mod manager out of beta. Find more details about that here.

Don't forget to check out the new Heretic and Hexen re-release that just happened at QuakeCon 2025 too, which touts enhanced graphics, cross-platform online support, brand-new episodes, and more goodies.

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Posted Friday 8 August 2025 at 1:21 pm AEST (my time).

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