Think of Doom, and UI design is unlikely to be the first thing that comes to mind. These are, after all, games of primal pleasures and adolescent excess, where showers of gore spurt in time to a metal soundtrack. But in order for any of that to land, you first need a harmonious link between player and game, able to communicate targets, threats and the current status of your avatar with sufficient clarity to be parsed in even the most frantic moments.

This is one reason the charms of the 1993 original have endured so long: whether it’s running on a tiny VGA monitor, the screen of an air fryer or inside Microsoft Word, any given frame of Doom immediately gives you everything you need to start ripping and tearing. It helps that it’s delivered with such panache. While the essential data – health, armour, ammo – is given through red numeric readouts, they share space on its thick granite slab of HUD with the face of the Doomguy, providing a touch of colour commentary with his pixellated bleeding and devilish grin.

Now, in The Dark Ages, Id Software finally gives in to an urge it must have been fighting back throughout this reboot trilogy and pilfers that element wholesale. It’s a fascinating callback in a game that otherwise seems intent on pushing farther away from its roots. The setting and weapons might have taken a turn for the medieval, but here’s that familiar face once again, placed front and centre in your HUD. Alas, for all its eyebrow-waggling, this holographic CG rendering lacks the character of the original (no wonder the settings let you toggle to the pixel version), but not to worry. After the initial chuckle of recognition, you’ll never notice it’s there anyway.