Doom: The Dark Ages Skips Multiplayer, Focuses on Single-Player Campaign

In a move that has upset some but perhaps not the most seasoned Doom veterans, the developers of the new Doom: The Dark Ages revealed that the game will be based on an exclusive single-player campaign. The reason for doing this, explained by Creative Director Hugo Martin in a recent interview with Games Radar, was concluded early in the development process in order to enable the developers to pour all their resources into creating the best single-player experience.

Although the Doom franchise is founded on revolutionary multiplayer deathmatch, the series in recent times has gained even more fame due to its heart-stopping single-player campaigns. Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal both included multiplayer modes, but these were usually dwarfed by the critically successful single-player games. Doom Eternal’s Battlemode, while revolutionary, never managed to reach as high a level of popularity as its campaign.

Martin explained that modern multiplayer development is a challenging task, much of the time being a live-service model and a route the Doom: The Dark Ages team consciously did not take. By not focusing on multiplayer, the developers have been better able to allocate more resources towards ambitious single-player features. These have included things such as dragon riding and piloting a massive mech, concepts the team came up with for past Doom games but were unable to fully implement due to the restrictions involved in designing a multiplayer feature.

By focusing on the single-player component, developers of the game have been able to plan what is said to be the biggest and longest campaign in the history of Doom. The game will also feature new combat mechanics such as the Atlan Mech and the Shield Saw, adding to the single-player depth. Some gamers might be dismayed at the loss of the multiplayer but the removal of the single-player campaign appears to be a calculated move, to make a more surgical, more aggressive experience as close to what makes Doom work as is feasible.