Doom Eternal Is Over 20 Hours, but it took Crunch to Make That Happen

Doom Eternal is still a few months away – recently delayed to March of this year – but already the trailers and first impressions paint an impressive (and gory) picture of just how heckin’ good this game is going to be. But it’s not just looking to improve the graphics and the gameplay of the still highly lauded Doom 2016 – it’s also going to be a lot longer. In an interview with GameSpot, creative director Hugo Martin said that it will be twice as long as the first game, clocking in at around 22 hours.

"The sequel gives you those basic tools in the first five minutes, and then it keeps layering on more for the first three hours (and likely beyond). Honestly, it's overwhelming, but Eternal's goal here is to essentially give you access to superpowers and then force you to learn how to use them instinctively, or you die. It's definitely following the Crank: High Voltage playbook on how to make a sequel."

That’s pretty cool! But it does come at a cost: in another interview on the same day with VG247, executive producer Marty Stratton (I guess they’re doing the publicity rounds) admitted that despite the delay and the company’s best efforts, crunch was involved.

"We were crunching pretty hard most of last year. It goes in phases. We’ll have one group of people crunching so the next group of people are teed up properly. As they get done, they may need to crunch a little bit. We really truly do try and be very respectful of peoples’ time and lives. We have very dedicated people that just choose to work a lot in many cases. It was nice because we want the game to be perfect. We want it to live up to our expectations and consumer expectations."

While it’s disappointing that crunch was involved, what’s encouraging is the tone that Mr. Stratton is taking: in years past, producers and executives would brag about how hard their teams are working and the hours they clock in. Now, recognizing that it’s not good publicity anymore to work your employees to death, it’s less a boast as it is a sad admission.

But Stratton did end on a high note, saying that the extra time allowed them to make the best game ID software has ever created.

We’re only a few months from seeing for ourselves, and I, for one, am hyped.