DOOM 2016 was an incredible game, but it had two game modes that felt a bit surplus. These game modes were Snap Map, a map creator mode for making new challenging levels in the game, and multiplayer. Snap Map slowly became a place where people came to pick up the relevant trophies or achievements, and then leave. There were some truly creative maps in there, but they just got buried underneath the maps that allows players to rack up points. Multiplayer, on the other hand, was never really alive.
Not Very DOOM
Speaking with ShackNews, Pete Hines of Bethesda explained that DOOM 2016 was a great experience, but multiplayer wasn’t part of it. What that game gave players was a core DOOM experience that still feels great to play today. The multiplayer gave you deathmatch, a game mode that has been done to death by almost every game on the market. It’s the mode that most developers force into their game late in the day because they’re told that every game needs multiplayer.
Unsurprisingly, deathmatch didn’t hit home with players, but the core campaign did. This is why DOOM Eternal moves so far away from deathmatch that you can’t even recall what you do in that game mode. Instead, DOOM Eternal has brand new multiplayer modes that are specific to the DOOM universe, and they look like they’re really fun to play. Where deathmatch didn’t utilise all of the movement strategies that you build up from playing the campaign, Battlemode, the first multiplayer mode in DOOM Eternal, does.
There have been a number of videos that showcase this game mode, but essentially it is a campaign level, just with larger demons being controlled by enemy players. The Doom Slayer has his arsenal of weaponry, can double jump, and move as swiftly as they can in the main game, but demons are also very powerful. Battlemode gives players in control of demons the ability to summon smaller enemies, and strike with big attacks that will take out an unsuspecting Doom Slayer when they’re not paying attention.
More game modes are planned for the multiplayer, with one being called Invasion, but it’s how these game modes have been built around DOOM Eternal that makes them good. These aren’t necessarily going to be game modes that every gamer will enjoy, and they probably can’t be used in any other game. What these game modes will do is give the DOOM Eternal community something to master after the campaign. It’s a reason to come back and play a game that you thoroughly enjoyed, and it’s a really fun way to progress the totally free season pass.
