While DOOM: The Dark Ages is slowly creeping up on its May 13 release date, director Hugo Martin has revealed that the development team at id Software went all the way back to the original DOOM from 1993 for inspiration.
Speaking to Edge Magazine (via GamesRadar), Martin compared revisiting the original DOOM to a painter going to a museum to study a Norman Rockwell painting. “It’s like a classic piece of art,” said Martin. “It’s like a painter going to a museum and studying the Norman Rockwell painting he’s already studied 50 times.
Every time you look at it, you learn something new.” Martin compares the combat difficulty in DOOM: The Dark Ages with that of the original DOOM.
For context, in the classic shooter, difficulty revolved more around players being able to skilfully dodge enemy projectiles. “The projectiles start to collect in the world, and they create this maze that the player has to weave through,” said Martin.
According to him, DOOM: The Dark Ages will place more of an emphasis on a horizontal battlefield when compared to DOOM Eternal‘s verticality.