Aesthetically, the game aims at having a closer resemblance to the original Doom games, with the enemies' designs having been modified from those in the 2016 game to match the designs of the original games. Additionally, the developers included the option to have a centered weapon view, which was traditional in the first two Doom games and was added as a post-release update to Doom 2016. Games cited as influences on the gameplay include arcade-style action games such as Devil May Cry and Bayonetta as well as chess. According to Martin, one facet they improved on was based on the controversy that arose from a video posted by Polygon of gameplay from the 2016 game. In that video, the person behind the gameplay did not appear to grasp some of the basic mechanics of Doom or even FPS gameplay, which led to some in the player community ridiculing the site. Martin said their team studied that video and believed that the person controlling the game was struggling against the design of the game, and for Doom Eternal wanted to make sure it was playable by everyone and not just skilled players and took some of those design factors into account. On August 6, 2020, Bethesda Softworks announced that next-gen versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X were also in development, with owners of the existing PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game being able to upgrade to the next-gen versions of the game at no additional cost.
