Doom: The Dark Ages will let players change game speed and other difficulty sliders

The developer of Doom: The Dark Ages has revealed that it will have game speed and difficulty sliders for the first time in an id Software game.

While previous id Software first-person shooters have offered a choice of difficulty options – such as Doom’s iconic “I’m Too Young to Die”, “Hurt Me Plenty” and “Nightmare” settings – Doom: The Dark Ages will feature a greater degree of customisation.

“Under the hood, for the first time in an id game, we’ve made our combat more approachable and flexible than ever before,” executive producer Marty Stratton said in a video shown during the latest Xbox Developer Direct presentation.

Stratton then showed a new options screen featuring the standard difficulty setting (set to Hurt Me Plenty in the example), along with a series of other modifier sliders which can be adjusted by the player.

These include the ability make the player and enemies take more or less damage with each hit, and make enemy projectiles faster or slower.

It also includes enemy aggression, the length of the parry window, the length of time enemies are dazed and resource values.

Perhaps most notable is the ability to adjust the entire game speed, meaning players who can’t cope with the game’s fast-paced gameplay can slow it down to something more manageable (and, of course, those looking for a challenge can make it even faster).

“A new difficult system and sliders will allow players to tune the speed and challenge of ther game to whatever fits them best,” Stratton explained. “You can slow things down or speed them up – it’s a Doom for all Slayers.”

Elsewhere in the video, Stratton also noted that The Dark Ages’ storyline is also a good introduction for those who have never played a Doom game before.

“It’s a new story and the perfect entry point for new players,” he said. “It’s easier to access now, as we’ve taken the narrative out of the Codex and into the cutscenes, featuring new characters, old allies and powerful new villains. And for returening players, it leads directly into the Doom 2016 Slayer’s testaments.”