And the Marauder seen in Doom Eternal will be replaced by another dangerous demon, so id Software is going all out with the changes.

These are the weapons that have appeared in the Doom: The Dark Ages video so far: The shotgun looks very similar to the one in Doom Eternal. The Super Shotgun’s “meat cleaver” grip has been replaced with the Doom Slayer’s new shield loadout. The Skullcrusher is like a machine gun, but at a much closer range (discussed yesterday). The rail spike pins enemies to the wall like the crossbow did in Half-Life. The rocket launcher is very similar to the one used in Doom Eternal, but it’s a question of how id Software changed things here. The Accelerator is basically a plasma core rifle, or short range with a high rate of fire. PCGamer interviewed Hugo Martin, the game’s director, and he told us more about the changes:

“I think only the shotguns are the same. The plasma is so different, so the rest is brand new. That was by design, really making sure that we gave you new tools to master. You have to have your classics, it’s a Doom game. You have to have a plasma rifle. You have to have the shotguns. But what else can we do? So we started from scratch on every weapon. Putting the heavy cannon back in the hands of the player at the beginning of Dark Ages, I mean, it’s going to feel like a DLC because they’ve already mastered that tool. I think giving players a whole new set of tools to discover and learn and master will make sure that we have a real balanced experience and we don’t have to start ramping up the difficulty right away because we’re giving you a tool that you’ve already mastered in the previous game,” Martin said.

Among the vehicles will be a flying dragon, whose tracks Martin compared to Halo: “Sometimes it will jump off the Doom Slayer, then return to it after a shooting session. But what will replace the Marauder? This miniboss divided the Doom Eternal community: many were happy to see it take on a big challenge, while others saw its appearance as a huge leap in difficulty. The Agaon Hunter takes its place with a double-edged sword that has combo attacks. These must be dodged properly with the Doom Slayer’s new shield. You have to hold it up to defend, and if you time it in the first few frames of the animation, you can weaken your opponent with your counter move.

“The Agadon Hunter is the new Marauder, but it’s not based on the Marauder. It’s not like ‘Big Marauder’, it’s Dark Ages, so it’s very different, but it’s similar in that a lot of the bosses will challenge you in different ways. It’s all about pushing: parrying, dodging and weaving between projectiles. We take everything you’ve done in the game up to that point. It’s like a test, everything else is a quiz. When you get to the boss, it’s the final exam. I watch a lot of people play, and I think pretty consistently it’s people who didn’t understand what to do that got frustrated. People who got it didn’t mind as much. They appreciated the challenge. When I think about the Marauder, a lot of what he was asking you to do, the core of what he was asking you to do, in terms of shooting him and stalling him during those windows, you hadn’t really done a lot of that in the game up to that point. So when the Agadon Hunter comes up, or a lot of the bosses, everything he asks you to do. You’re doing the whole game,” Martin added.

Doom: The Dark Ages will be released on May 15th for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC.

Source: PCGamer