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DOOM Eternal director explains why the 2016 game's mechanics weren't working for this sequel

DOOMed from the start
by rawmeatcowboy
21 January 2020
GN Version 5.0

DOOM Eternal might be the follow-up to DOOM 2016, but this isn't a paint-by-numbers sequel. As a matter of fact, the same approach to development just didn't work for the dev team. In an interview with Gamasutra, director Hugo Martin explains why things were broken right from the start of DOOM Eternal's development.

It was the player's [new] abilities that we gave them, like "meathook" and "dash," that made the racecar super fast. Immediately you notice that you were so quick that nothing could touch you. So you were never really under any kind of duress.

...In the early part of development, because of the abilities we gave the player and the imbalance that it created, there was nothing to master. It was basically a very simple, child-like puzzle, that really wasn't engaging anybody at all and I don't think anyone would have wanted to play more than two hours of it.

[link]