Doom: The Dark Ages' 'iron tank' gameplay takes things back to the very beginning: 'It feels more like classic Doom than any game we've made up to this point'

Doom: The Dark Ages with original Doomguy's head Photoshopped on top.

In a press Q&A ahead of today's Xbox developer direct, id Software creative director Hugo Martin and executive producer Marty Stratton expanded on some of the gameplay changes coming to Doom: The Dark Ages. In particular, they outlined how some of the criticisms of 2020's Doom Eternal led the team to look for inspiration in the '90s originals.

"I like to harp on the negative [comments] and see what people didn't like," said Martin. "Some people said [Doom Eternal] was too hard. I actually think it's too complex. I think that the complexity of the control scheme led to unnecessary difficulties. You really want to be fighting the demons, the bad guys, not your controls."