The team at id Software wants a lot for Doom: The Dark Ages.
It should be accessible and approachable; easy enough for newcomers to learn, but challenging enough for long-time Doom players; innovative enough to justify its existence after Doom Eternal, but still recognizably a modern Doom game from id Software; a proper sequel to Eternal, but an entry point for people who've never seen the Doomslayer before. After attending a Doom: The Dark Ages preview ahead of Thursday's Xbox's Developer Direct, with game director Hugo Martin and studio director Marty Stratton, what stands out most is how approachable the studio made the latest entry in an action series with a reputation for demanding play.
It started with a little help from Batman.
"The biggest thing for us was figuring out how to do something new, since we literally couldn't go higher than Doom Eternal," Martin says.
Martin looked to Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight and the film "300" for the solution. He says he always enjoyed the stalwartness of that Batman iteration and 300's Leonidas and wanted to build that into the newest version of the Doom Slayer, the series' nameless, faceless protagonist. He's a weapon of gods and kings in The Dark Ages, and Martin says he has a slow, tank-like battle style that encourages "stand-and-fight" scenarios over what Martin calls the "acrobatics" of Doom Eternal.
That meant long-range combat options were out in favor of mid-range -- mostly with the Doom Slayer's new, throwable shield weapon -- and melee fighting. Getting close to an enemy is the first challenge, though. Martin says the team adapted enemy and projectile placements common in arcade-style shoot-'em-up games, a genre where several opponents surround the player and fill the screen with arrows, bullets, balls of energy, or other harmful objects.
That degree of hectic action might sound antithetical to the studio's goal of making Doom: The Dark Ages approachable for all players, but Martin and Stratton say they designed one of the game's new features to address that: speed sliders. At any point, players can toggle a speed slider to slow enemies and their projectiles down, making it easier to learn their patterns and deal with difficult scenarios -- or speed them up to create new challenges.
id Software also changed button inputs, so combat involves just two buttons and is easier to customize with adaptable controllers. The Doom Slayer has his shield weapon and can choose between an electric gauntlet, a mace and a flail. Players choose one of those secondary weapons before beginning a mission and stick with it throughout, though Martin and Stratton emphasized that even with simplified inputs, Doom: The Dark Ages' weapons have high potential for creating unique combo moves and even have uses outside of combat.
The studio worked to make The Dark Ages more approachable in other, smaller ways as well. Its story unfolds in cutscenes, instead of in the game's codex as it did in Doom Eternal. Martin says it lends an air of "big summer blockbuster" to the game. From a practical perspective, it also makes keeping up with characters and developments easier for everyone, since players no longer have to scour dozens of encyclopedia entries just to piece together what's happening.
Martin and Stratton also say they've considered the player experience more carefully when designing The Dark Age's levels. Some of the stages in Doom Eternal's DLC take an hour or longer to clear. Martin says that even if it gives the team a chance to fill levels with everything they want, they realize it's just not fun for the player and promises Doom: The Dark Ages' levels are shorter -- but no less full of worthwhile secrets to discover. Collectibles and other hidden items play a role in powering up the Doom Slayer's weapons and abilities, so tracking them down is rewarding for more than those who just have to find everything.
Doom: The Dark Ages launches on May 15, 2025, for PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.