Doom Eternal, is an even more ambitious and ridiculous take on the formula Id Software established in the rebooted Doom. Once again, the studio will be sticking to its old-school sensibilities and leaving microtransactions out of the game
Creative director Hugo Martin revealed, by answering a question in a private Doom Facebook group, Doom Eternal will not have an online store for extra content when it comes out in March. Cosmetic items will be acquirable through players’ experience, and nothing that affects gameplay will be earned this way. This means new players will be able to face off against enemies in the new “Battlemode” — which pits one Doomslayer against multiple player-controlled demons — without being at a disadvantage.
The round-based mode is a replacement for the competitive multiplayer in Doom, which was a more common mode similar to other shooters. While the rest of the game received praise, this portion was criticized, and Id Software chose to develop Battlemode in-house in response to the reception.
Doom Eternal will still come with downloadable content but in the form of two single-player expansions. These are both planned to arrive within a year of the game’s initial release and will come in the game’s deluxe edition by default. Expansions are nothing new for the series, which including Master Levels for Doom II, an official set of additional stages released in 1995. This is on top of Doom Eternal‘s initial campaign, which will be about twice as long as the previous game. Doom is 10 or so hours from start to finish, which would put Doom Eternal at around 20.
Id Software’s last game, 2019’s Rage 2, did feature microtransactions that expedited the ability to get certain items still otherwise attainable through normal gameplay. Still, the choice felt out of place in a story-focused first-person shooter.
Doom Eternal will release on March 20 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Google Stadia. A Nintendo Switch version is also in development, but it will not release later than the other versions. Panic Button is developing the port, and Id Software will give it extra time once the other versions are complete to optimize it.
