DOOM Eternal’s Difficulty Ensures It Feels “Exciting, Exhilarating, But Not Frustrating”

DOOM Eternal is looking like it’s going to be one of the biggest games of the year in every way possible, and developers id Software have certainly been talking up the shooter a great deal for the last couple of weeks. And all that we’ve seen of it so far certainly gives the impression that the game is going to be a big improvement over its already-excellent predecessor.

One of the many areas where id Software have tried to make improvements is the difficulty and how it’s balanced, with the developers wanting to ensure that the game maintains its intensity and core style regardless of what difficulty players choose to play it on. Speaking recently to PC Gamer, creative director Hugo Martin spoke about this a little bit more, discussing how DOOM Eternal’s difficulty curve and how it educates the player to become the unstoppable demon killers that the Doom Slayer is supposed to be.

“What was difficult in the first hour becomes second nature in the second hour,” Martin explained. “By the fourth hour, that’s just one of many things that you know how to do. And really, by the eighth hour, you are going to be a black belt.”

“Just finding the pacing and nailing that, figuring that out early enough in development to be able to polish it was critical to making the game feel like it was exciting, exhilarating, but not frustrating,” he continued. “It’s okay to be frustrated so long as I know what I did wrong and don’t feel like the game is screwing me. That’s very important.”

DOOM Eternal is out for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia on March 20, followed by a Switch launch not long afterwards. There’s a good chance that PS5 and Xbox Series X ports might end up happening as well, though according to id, the current-gen console versions of the shooter won’t be slouches either.

Thanks to a deluge of new info in recent days, there’s plenty more about DOOM Eternal to read up on. Make sure to read about its story, its multiplayer, its new hub, and how long the game will be through the links.