Doom: The Dark Ages set to be hardest entry yet thanks to all-new settings

Doom: The Dark Ages is set to include a raft of new difficulty settings that when dialed up, make this entry the most “challenging experience” in franchise history.

2016 marked a monumental moment for the legendary FPS series as Doom’s reboot violently ripped and tore its way into our hearts. Millions of copies sold and a sequel later, there’s now a third entry just weeks away as The Dark Ages comes into focus.

While this prequel aims to be the most accessible jumping-on-point yet, allowing newcomers to come to grips with the Doom Slayer’s origins, developers at id Software certainly aren’t forgetting about the hardcore player base.

Dexerto attended an exclusive Q&A session with Game Director Hugo Martin and Executive Producer Marty Stratton. Together, the veteran duo explained how Doom: The Dark Ages can be tweaked to become the most difficult entry the franchise has ever seen.

New difficulty settings in Doom: The Dark Ages

While the usual difficulty levels – ranging from ‘I’m Too Young to Die’ all the way through to ‘Ultra Nightmare’ are still in tact, The Dark Ages brings far more nuance to how difficulty works this time around.

Beyond the baseline difficulty level option, there are now a number of modifiers players can tweak to really hone in their optimal experience. For instance, if you want to increase the Parry Window to make it a touch easier, there’s a slider for that. If you’d rather have projectiles move a little slower, allowing more time to react, you can fine-tune that one as well.

There’s a wide assortment of options that simply haven’t been available before. “We’ve never given access to these kinds of things,” as Stratton put it in our Q&A.

One particular aspect he sought to highlight is how players can now manipulate game speed. On the whole, this means every single part of the game moves faster or slower, depending on your preference.

As you can guess, the faster it plays, the more challenging it is to nail your shots, dodge incoming fire, and the like.

“When you can dial up the game speed and the difficulty, shortening the parry window, then changing the damage, you can really create a very challenging experience,” Stratton explained.

Given how much of a penchant for punishment Doom fans already have, there’s no doubt these options will just raise the stakes that much more. We’re sure to see plenty of next-to-impossible challenge runs once players really master the new gunplay and melee systems in the prequel. I personally can’t wait for the inevitable 200% speed Ultra Nightmare run.