QuakeCon 2019 is in full swing and Bethesda is out there teasing everyone about Doom Eternal. Looking to be the premiere shooter of 2019, the under-wraps multiplayer features of id Software’s latest creation have finally gotten announced, and they sound great. Not content to repeat the mistakes of Doom (2016), Eternal’s “Battlemode” seems to be an exciting way of adapting this particular game’s fast-paced action into multiplayer mayhem.
Rip and tear your friends
First things first, Battlemode will be a two-vs-one mode where players team up as demons to take down the Doom Slayer. Doom Eternal‘s launch will include five demons and six maps for use in multiplayer. Players will have the choice of commanding the Pain Elemental (returning from Doom II), the Revenant, the Mancubus, the Archvile (another Doom II veteran), and the Marauder. Additional maps and demons will be made available as free updates to Doom Eternal at some point in 2020.
On the demon side, players will be able to spawn enemy AI to distract the Doom Slayer and place a plethora of traps in their quest to destroy him. As the Slayer, you’ll be given the full range of gadgets and weapons from the single-player campaign, meaning you’re constantly in a state of frenzy with maxed out equipment. Games will be played in a best-of-five style where players alternate rounds as the Slayer or the demons. How the maps factor into that is yet to be seen, but they will likely include all kinds of verticality and interactive environments to freshen up the proceedings.
While I’m not sure I’ll play a lot of Battlemode, this certainly seems more appealing than the generic offerings of the previous Doom. I get what Bethesda was trying to do last time, but making a more unique multiplayer experience is better than half-assing something to add checkmarks on the back of the box. If these new options can offer even half of the intensity of the single-player campaign, then Doom Eternal is going to be a hell of a time.
