Doom: The Dark Ages features "the largest spaces we've ever made,” but id Software knows you don't want to spend 2 hours in a single level

Doom: The Dark Ages will let you rip and tear through some of the series’ largest spaces “ever made,” but worry not – id Software knows you don’t want to spend “two hours” on a single level.

Talking to Edge Magazine – latest issue on sale now – game director Hugo Martin says recreating the greatest moments in classic Doom requires a certain amount of space – if we’re talking about “circle-strafing around huge spaces as you’re delivering gunfire to demons,” specifically. As such, Doom: The Dark Ages features “the largest spaces we’ve ever made.”

Martin goes on to explain that levels will be “sandbox”-like in design. Think of open areas ripe for exploration and stuffed with grand battles that invite exploration rather than something linear. The benefit being that you can spend time hunting secrets and resources if you’d like, or you can move things along.

“I don’t know that you want to play a single Doom level for two hours,” Martin says. “You want them to be nice, contained experiences, so around an hour is about the sweet spot. But if you’re a completionist, you could certainly extend that.”

Edge also reckons you can expect Doom: The Dark Ages’ levels to avoid Eternal’s verticality and platforming challenges, and Martin assures them you won’t be left with mostly flat spaces. Rather, expect something with variety and broken into acts.

“You might start in a dungeon-like space, then open up in the second half of the level into a more open-ended portion,” Martin explains. “We’re trying to make sure the player feels there’s a good amount of variety.”

Doom: The Dark Ages releases on May 13.

Doom: The Dark Ages devs looked to everything from Star Wars to Batman Year One to shape the iconic shooter’s next game.

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