The cat is out of the bag. Doom: The Darkish Ages will launch on Might 15, 2025, and it’ll be the third ‘nu-Doom’ sport from esteemed developer id Software program. However this sport, which is confusingly a prequel to the moment traditional Doom (2016), will eschew a pattern established each by the primary sport within the rebooted sequence, and 2020’s Doom Everlasting: it gained’t have multiplayer.
In a roundtable interview chaired by id Software program’s Marty Stratton (studio director) and Hugo Martin (inventive director), the 2 Doom veterans confirmed that there shall be no multiplayer mode, in any respect, for Doom: The Darkish Ages.
“We needed to go all in on the marketing campaign,” defined Martin, when requested why this sport would ship with out a multiplayer factor, when each Doom (2016) and Doom Everlasting received one. “We’ve been capable of degree up the single-player factor [of Dark Ages] as a result of it’s been our total focus.”
The sport gained’t simply have you ever standing and holding your floor because the nigh-immortal Doom Slayer this time, both. As a direct results of committing extra sources to the single-player growth, we’re going to have set-pieces involving “a 30-story Atlan mech” and “a fire-breathing, gatling-gun toting cyber dragon”. Sure, actually.
“That’s one thing we’ve needed to do for ages, for the final two video games, actually,” explains Stratton, particularly referring to the inclusion of the Atlan. In case you’re not utterly updated in your Doom lore (who can blame you), Atlans have been monumental bipedal battle machines utilized by the Night time Sentinels of their battle towards the forces of Hell – you’ve in all probability appear inanimate husks of them in your playthroughs of previous Doom video games.
Each Stratton and Martin appeared very excited on the reveal – and inclusion – of the mech in Doom: The Darkish Ages, and counsel that lastly getting the Slayer to pilot one among these Evangelion-sized beasts is a direct results of permitting extra dev time on the single-player parts of the sport.
Relatedly, the duo additionally boast that that is the “largest play house ever in a Doom sport”, and confirmed off quite a lot of bonus dungeons, caves, and fights which you could interact in if you happen to deviate from the crushed path. “You management the tempo of the sport,” grinned Martin. “You management The place you go, who you struggle, and the targets your pursue.” As soon as once more, the builders cite with the ability to focus wholly on the single-player side of the sport as the explanation id may pump this a lot content material into the story and world.
I’m not complaining; in a world the place we’re seeing multiplayer video games flop at a charge of knots, and live-service slop take up increasingly house on the digital storefront, it’s one thing of a breath of contemporary air to see single-player sport modes in video games take a lot focus from a prolific developer. Maybe it’s one thing that each Sony and Blizzard can be taught from within the coming months and years.
Doom: The Darkish Ages launches on Might 15, and it’ll launch on Xbox Recreation Cross for PC and Xbox Sequence – but it surely’ll additionally come to PlayStation 5.
