Doom: The Dark Ages Difficulty Sliders Bring Back Classic Doom Thrills!

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Summary

  • Doom: The Dark Ages will feature difficulty sliders for gameplay customization, affecting speed, damage, and enemy aggression.
  • Those wanting the feel of classic Doom in The Dark Ages can emulate an experience similar to predecessor titles’ bullet hell days through the sliders.
  • Director Hugo Martin defends the difficulty sliders against claims they make combat easier.

Hugo Martin, the game director for the upcoming “Doom: The Dark Ages,” has been extensively talking about the game’s new difficulty settings due to some debate within the community. The difficulty options in “Doom: The Dark Ages” will enable players to adjust the pace of gameplay, modify projectile speed and damage, alter enemy hostility, and make both the player’s slayer and enemies sustain more or less damage per strike.

As a dedicated gamer, I’m excitedly looking forward to diving into the heart of darkness with “Doom: The Dark Ages,” the latest installment in the legendary Doom franchise. I’ve always been fascinated by the enigmatic Doom Slayer, our series’ recurring hero, and this game seems to delve even deeper into his origins.

Rumors have been swirling at the start of the year that “Doom: The Dark Ages” might run on the much-anticipated Nintendo Switch 2. The cat will be out of the bag on April 2, when Nintendo hosts a Switch 2 showcase. Perhaps we’ll find out that “The Dark Ages” is slated to launch alongside this new console or could potentially become part of its impressive library down the line.

On Doom’s official Twitter account, Martin shared a brief video discussing the adjustable difficulty levels in The Dark Ages. He highlighted that players have the option to make the game either incredibly challenging or very easy, based on their playing style. This flexibility, he added, is a longstanding policy of id Software, stating, “If we’re going to let you slow down the game, we need to allow you to speed it up too. And that was a great policy for everything.” This year, classic Doom games have been updated with enhancements, bug fixes, and multiplayer mod support for both Doom 1 and Doom 2 across multiple platforms. For those seeking the original Doom experience in The Dark Ages, the adjustable difficulty levels can also mimic the intense bullet-heavy gameplay of its predecessors.

Doom: The Dark Ages Director Reveals Difficulty Sliders Can Channel a Classic Doom Experience

Martin demonstrated the traditional feel of the game ‘Doom’ by talking about projectiles, pointing out that slower projectiles could inflict more damage and mimic the “shoot ’em up” or “bullet hell” style of old-school ‘Doom’ titles. “It significantly enhances that three-dimensional shoot ’em up, you know, that intense shooting experience that classic Doom offers,” Martin stated. Since the upcoming game is a prequel, and Martin hinted at more prequels possibly being released such as ‘Doom: The Dark Ages’, it’s a clever touch to incorporate references to earlier games (or later ones in chronological order) from id Software’s collection through the difficulty settings.

Despite the adjustable difficulty level being intended to offer a personalized gaming experience according to each player’s preferred style, Martin has found it necessary to counter criticisms about the ease of Doom: The Dark Ages’ difficulty settings. Certain Doom enthusiasts argue that these settings will simplify combat, stripping away some of the franchise’s iconic challenges. However, Martin disagreed with such opinions and reassured players that although the settings can indeed make runs simpler, they can also significantly increase the gameplay challenge.

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2025-03-20 19:14