DOOM fans have plenty to look forward to in March, with a series of hands-on previews estimating that DOOM Eternal will last more than 20 hours.
One interview conducted by TIME pegged the game at 20 to 30 hours long, while creative director Hugo Martin was slightly more specific in an interview with GameSpot, saying “This is a 22-plus hour game.” If true, DOOM Eternal could be more than twice as long for some as its 2016 predecessor, which has an average play length of 14.5 hours, according to howlongtobeat.com.
This time around, the gameplay will be more diverse than in the past, with the developers at id Software doubling down on expanding the range of traversal abilities available to players. Subsequently, level design has been overhauled to include platforming challenges.
Said Martin in an interview with Polygon, “It’s about adding new things to the game to keep Doom Eternal engaging from beginning to end. […] between the arenas, we had to do more. We had to do more than give you great skate parks to murder demons in; we needed to make the areas between the skate parks just as engaging with these little combat puzzles to be solved. […] It’s skill-based platforming.”
According to the previews, the game will also adopt a lighter tone than its predecessor, leaning into the slapstick, cartoon-styled elements of the game to offset the grim violence.
DOOM Eternal is scheduled to launch on March 20.
