DOOM: The Dark Ages Won’t Have A Multiplayer Mode, id Software Wanted To “Go All-In On The Campaign”
DOOM: The Dark Ages had a huge showcase of gameplay yesterday during Xbox’s Developer Direct event, and while we got a lot of answers regarding how the game will play this time around, and what’s different about it from previous titles, there were some questions that presentation left unanswered.
Like whether or not The Dark Ages will include a multiplayer mode alongside the single-player offering, like the previous two DOOM games. The answer, is that it will not have multiplayer, a choice that developer id Software made so it could put everything into making the campaign as good as possible.
Reported by Game File, who attended a press preview for DOOM: The Dark Ages in the lead up to Xbox’s Developer Direct event, creative director Hugo Martin said The Dark Ages will be a “strictly campaign” based game.
“We made that decision early so that we could really just go all-in on the campaign,” Martin said. “It’s our largest, most expansive, most epic campaign ever. And we’re just really happy with the decision. And I think it’s been awesome to have the team focused just on polishing and finishing the campaign.”
Executive producer on The Dark Ages Marty Stratton further talked about how, ultimately, there were things the team at id Software wanted to evolve and expand on in The Dark Ages, and needing to put resources behind a multiplayer mode was a roadblock to that.
They also wanted to have a flying dragon players could ride around, and let them pilot the massive mech that players have been ogling in the Slayer’s hideout from DOOM: Eternal.
“These were 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.”
On the one hand, it’s exciting to know that id Software has put so much behind DOOM: The Dark Ages and its single player campaign. On the other, DOOM’s multiplayer history is part of the history of multiplayer games in general.
A DOOM game without a multiplayer mode can’t help but feel a little odd, but perhaps all we need to shake that feeling is to ride on the back of a dragon.
Source – [Game File]
