Doom: The Dark Ages won’t have multiplayer, but we think you’ll agree that the payoff for that is just about right.
As reported by Eurogamer, id’s executive producer Marty Stratton and game director Hugo Martin revealed this in a recent Q&A. Stratton said this:
“We made that decision early so we could really just go all in on the campaign. It’s our largest, most expansive, most epic campaign ever, and we’re just really happy with the decision. It’s been awesome to have the team focused just on polishing and finishing the campaign.”
Now, we could understand why you could have been disappointed with Stratton’s statement. While what we saw in the Xbox Developer Direct looked fun, a lot of fans were definitely hoping that id would take advantage of being under Microsoft to get some proper online.
But then, Martin interjected with this:
“That’s why we were able to put the dragon and the Atlan in. I mean, these are things we wanted to do in the game for, like, multiple games now, but couldn’t, because we had a multiplayer component – which we loved – but really, it was meant to just focus on the single player campaign and just level up that experience for players.”
For those who missed it, id gave longer previews of the cybernetic dragon mount that your Doomslayer is riding in the air. That dragon is armed with a gatling gun of its own and it offers the promise of some Doom-themed aerial dogfighting.
Subsequently, we also got a better look at Atlan, the giant mech that Doomslayer will also get to ride in and use, Pacific Rim style. Unfortunately, Atlan isn’t getting any spiffy Power Ranger weapons like a giant sword or spinning tops. Instead, in the same way that karate fighter Kazuya Ryūzaki fights with his Super Robot War 1970s era mech, Daimos, Doomslayer will use his bare fists to fight other towering demons.
And id assured fans that the cyber dragon and mecha aren’t going to be in small gameplay segments, but you’ll get to use them a lot throughout the game. With that reassurance comes some worry if id was able to make these satisfying experiences, like in Ace Combat or Titanfall.
But of course, id are known as the masters of polished gameplay. Any debates about the best or worst Doom really revolve around a very high tier of well-regarded games. The modern id team has given fans great thrills with Doom and Doom Eternal, so we’re looking forward to take all of Doom: The Dark Ages in and decide for ourselves.
