2016’s DOOM was a return to form for the demon-slaying franchise and one of the biggest surprises of that year, if not this current generation. But now that DOOM has exceeded expectations, there is a lot more riding on developer id Software’s follow-up, DOOM Eternal.
Luckily, according to Executive Producer Marty Stratton, DOOM Eternal will offer plays a sizeable campaign to complete. Specifically, Stratton says that the sequel should take players between 18 and 22 hours to finish the main story mode.
That deviation in the completion time is likely influenced by how much exploring and collectible hunting that DOOM Eternal players want to do. In the 2016 game, id packed each level with a ton of hidden areas and items to find, and smartly gave players a way to find them without overtly pointing anything out. Once the chaos of contending with a swarm of demons was over, it was a nice change of pace to then try some platforming and puzzle-solving.
For comparison, DOOM took the average player about 10+ hours to complete, so it sounds as though DOOM Eternal will be more substantial than its predecessor. By no means did DOOM feel like it was short or light on content; this speaks more to the type of package that id Software is putting together for players this year.
There is still plenty of time to promote the game, but thus far id Software has shown new movement options for the Doom Slayer that include a dash and a double jump as well as some nasty new enemies for him to contend with. Recently, id Software gave fans a look at the new Doom Hunter enemy in DOOM Eternal that looks to feature series’ signature brand of meshing demonic creatures with machinery.
There is also a new asymmetrical multiplayer mode called Battlemode, where two players take control of demons and try to defeat a single, player-controlled Doom Slayer. And this is in addition to the standard selection of multiplayer modes that DOOM 2016 offered and DOOM Eternal will presumably build on.
Coupled all together, it sounds as though DOOM Eternal will have a lot to offer players of a variety of tastes. But most exciting is the fact that the campaign is nearly double in length giving players more time to slay demonic hordes on Earth, Mars, and who knows where else.
DOOM Eternal releases November 22, 2019 for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
Source: QconForums (via Escapist)