id Software is updating DOOM: The Dark Ages’ difficulty because you said itwastooeasy

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The Dark Ages, part of the DOOM series, introduces significant changes to the game’s challenge level, making it more difficult to play.

As a passionate tech enthusiast, I’ve learned that, based on updates from DOOM’s official Slayer’s Club, the game’s balance is being fine-tuned to ramp up the difficulty. Seems like players have been vocal about finding it too breezy, even on Nightmare Mode!

Consequently, opponents deal more damage, health and defensive gear appear less frequently when picked up, and specific enemies penalize you more harshly if you miss the timing on the parry feature.

The full notes for these balance adjustments (as taken from the Slayer’s Club) are as follows:

Update from 5/23/25

  • Adjustments to make the Hell Knight’s arms tougher to sever when using the Pulverizer.
  • Lowered Skullcrusher Ravager damage against Bosses and Komodo.
  • Reduced how long certain health and armor drops linger in the world in the [spoiler] boss fight.
  • Reduced how long health drops linger in the world when in the Atlan
  • Rebalanced the Atlan final [spoiler] boss fight.

Update from 5/22/25

Based on seven days of watching you play and taking in your comments, we realized that the game might need an increased level of challenge. This is particularly true for the Nightmare difficulty setting. As a result, some adjustments were implemented yesterday, making the game more challenging overall, specifically on Nightmare mode. To be more precise, here’s what we did:

  • Buffed damage to certain attacks for the following enemy AI: Agaddon Hunter, Cosmic Baron, Hellknight, Komodo, and Pinky Rider.
    • “We wanted the threat of these enemies to be increased and have higher impact when on the field, especially on certain damage scalers/difficulty settings.”
    • “As an example, on 250% damage (Nightmare default), missing a parry on the Agaddon Hunter’s overhead slash will now break your shield instead of simply doing a lot of damage to it.”
  • Adjusted certain player forgiveness systems to be less generous across most of the ‘Damage to Player’ sliders (100% – 500%)
    • “There are systems under the hood that are designed to give players a better chance to survive when near death, and those systems were being too generous.”
    • “Players were able to brute force their way through situations that should’ve resulted in costing a Life Sigil or death, and we want to make sure we are keeping the player in check and asking for better tactical decisions.”
    • “These changes will have an impact on player survivability and will be more noticeable the higher up the Damage Scale slider you go.”

Ripping and tearing just got a whole lot more challenging

Even though DOOM: The Dark Ages had an unsuccessful debut on PC, it swiftly turned out to be one of the most thriving games within the series, amassing more than three million players within a mere five-day period following its launch on May 15, 2025.

I’ve been noticing an overwhelmingly positive response to this game, with critics showering it with praise and impressive Metacritic scores. My colleague Samuel Tolbert even gave it a perfect 5/5, remarking that “id Software has demonstrated its ability to reinvent the wheel once more, revamping multiple gameplay elements, swapping intricate platforming for intense ground combat, and offering the thrilling options of flying on a dragon or lumbering around in a colossal mech.

In this newest release, gamers yearning for a tougher experience in DOOM: The Dark Ages will at last encounter the intense challenge they’ve been seeking, making it one of the most gripping Xbox titles of 2025.

The game “DOOM: The Dark Ages” is now accessible on the following platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (via Battle.net, Steam, and the Xbox PC app), Xbox Game Pass, and PlayStation 5.

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2025-05-24 15:09