It looks like the fiery road to DOOM Eternal wasn’t quite as smooth as expected for its developers, at first.

During a new interview with Shacknews, the game’s director Hugo Martin revealed that the game’s first year of development had somehow become a slog for the team – such that no one was actually excited to playtest the game. In his own words, Martin felt that something was off about the initial build of DOOM Eternal:

“You couldn’t put your finger on it, but the game got really boring because nothing could touch you. You could dash away from projectiles and enemies so easily that you could blast through the whole game like it was nothing. That wasn’t good.”

Consequently, Martin states that he reflected on the success of DOOM (2016) for possible solutions. Ironically enough, this just made him realize that the original had many lacking areas as well – a revelation that steered DOOM Eternal into the sequel it is today:

“Doom 2016 was a one-trick pony. Our combat was world-class, but everything else about the game wasn’t necessarily up to the level of the combat… Every aspect of the game had to get better.”

Have you been playing DOOM Eternal on other platforms? Is it an improvement over DOOM (2016)? Feel free to discuss with us below!

DOOM Eternal is now available for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The game will launch on Nintendo Switch in the future.