Doom: The Dark Ages executive producer explains how the sandbox levels work

While the general consensus surrounding id Software's upcoming Doom: The Dark Ages is very positive, especially after the recent round of extensive preview coverage, the main concern about the game has and remains the sandbox-like open-levels that break up the more traditional linear Doom style. With this unique and unorthodox idea in mind, we recently sat down with executive producer Marty Stratton to learn more about these sandbox levels, and how they're incorporated into Doom: The Dark Ages.

To begin with, Stratton explains what we can expect from these levels.

"I think a lot of what people will experience as they kind of make their way through the journey of this game is... is kind of pace breakers, and I think, you know, the more sandbox levels allow for... again, it's all things that are inherent to Doom, they're part of the DNA. And Doom was, I mean, you know, exploring levels and finding secrets was always part of Doom. So, this is again the kind of modern expansive version of that."

Shortly afterwards, Stratton provides a few examples of what the side objectives and tasks will look like in the open-levels.

"You can, you know, kind of venture off and find a cave that allows you to find a secret, do a puzzle, and get gold to upgrade your weapons and even further increase your power, and you can kind of complete those objectives in any order. It's still part of a linear experience, so it's not like we're, you know, we're kind of sending you off into an open-world."

To round off on the matter, Stratton talks about what you have to complete in the open-levels in order to continue progressing the story, for those who want to treat The Dark Ages as a more linear and traditional Doom experience.

"I mean it's still kind of a linear experience from that perspective. So, you'll have those levels that they come up and there's specific objectives that you have to complete in many of them, and you can complete them in any order, and then there's like a bunch of kind of like... I wouldn't call them side quests that's a little bit more open-worldy, but, you know, side missions or dungeons to explore or kind of secret caves, that kind of thing. Just mostly like treasures and upgrades and, you know, all kinds of things that you can find that again feed into your ability to upgrade your weapons, your shield, and your melee. So, it's definitely worth doing that stuff, but not all required. But there are elements, like any good campaign, things you have to complete to advance through the game and through the story."

You can see our full interview with Stratton below for more on the blockbuster story, the lack of multiplayer, and what the future holds for Doom.