The DOOM reboot series (starting with DOOM (2016)) is all about disposing of Hell’s demons in the most satisfying of ways. Id Software has changed the way how you can do that and how difficult that is for the upcoming sequel DOOM Eternal.
DOOM Eternal redefines diffidently settings
Speaking with DOOM Eternal creative director Hugo Martin, GameSpot reveals that the sequel to DOOM (2016) will approach difficulty and challenges a little differently. Martin describes enemies in DOOM (2016): “The way enemies behaved changed kind of dramatically from difficulty to difficulty. They actually got more accurate.”
Although that is a fairly straight forward way game developers might tackle difficulty, it may not always feel fair for the player to mauled by even the most unimposing enemies in the game.He describes the difficulty progression as being a bit “frustrating”, saying that the rules of a fight changed, corresponding with what difficulty you were playing on.
No unfair disadvantage
In Eternal, that weird difficulty spike will be ironed out a bit, giving the player a change to become better while not treating them ‘unfairly’ by giving the enemies new abilities on higher difficulties. Martin explains the new difficulty curve with a boxing analogy:
On easy, they’re going to throw a lot of jabs and take turns like, ‘throw your jab, then I’ll throw mine. Now one of us gets to throw a haymaker. On Nightmare, everybody’s throwing haymakers nonstop. The question is not knowing what to do, it’s just mastering how to do it. As we scale down… the two guiding principles were the number of decisions we ask players to make per minute, and then the number of mistakes they’re allowed to make per minute.
So whether you’re playing on Easy, Hurt Me Plenty, Ultra-violence or Nightmare mode, the enemies mostly display the same behavior throughout. It’s just a matter of learning what they do and – on higher difficulty levels – how often and fiercely they do it.
DOOM Eternal is set to launch on March 20 for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
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