Doom: The Dark Ages is already looking like a Game of the Year contender for me. I’ve loved Doom since I first played the shareware version in 199-don’t-think-about-it. I bought it on SNES. I bought it on GBA. If you made a keychain with Doom on it, I’d buy that too. Except I already have one because I can emulate the aforementioned SNES and GBA versions. I’m one of those freaks that lives for seeing Doom installed on smaller and smaller devices. And now, we’ve learned that said new Doom game isn’t going to have multiplayer. Hell yes. Thank you. Thank you, weirdos who make these games.
The developers have said the decision comes from the desire to focus the game to have the best single-player experience possible. Apparently this includes riding a 30-storey mech and a cybernetic dragon with a gun. So, instead of a single-player and multiplayer experience, the game is going all out on just one mode. And, Lord almighty, I am excited to see this new version of Hell where I’m the only one playing. I’m especially excited to see this new version of Hell where the entire development process has focused on the thing I’m excited about. It’s selfish, but here we are.
Multiplayer Is Just Not For Me
Look, I wish I was more into multiplayer games than I am. I’ve got friends and family who play them all the time. Oh, they do invite me. Oh, I don’t end up playing with them. That’s not to say I don’t understand why people play multiplayer games. I do. I know people love the competition. I know people love the ability to hangout with their friends and play a game at the same time.
I know people love growing their skills and going on adventures with one another and everything. It’s just not really always something that excites me. I’ll usually play a couple rounds of a game’s multiplayer mode and bounce right back to solo-ing everything.
The ironic thing is that I do enjoy the base games beneath multiplayer games. I’ll usually play an RTS skirmish against bots before I search for a game online. Same goes for shooters. It’s easier and faster for me to quickly throw together a pot of bots for a quick round than to wait and wait and wait for a game to load, only to have to deal with strangers who seem to be angry that I’m there before I even start anything.
I used to play Overwatch a lot, and eventually I burnt out on feeling like every team was just people screaming at each other to do their job while they themselves were not doing their job. And, not for nothing, I never hear a bot say a racial slur in a pre-pubescent voice, which I consider a plus.
Doom Is Stronger As A Single-Player Gem
So Doom: The Dark Ages is exactly what I want. And not just because it’s a single-player experience. Because it’s a Doom single-player experience. Obviously, I know that most Doom games have had great solo campaigns. I can remember most of the maps of Knee-Deep In the Dead by heart. Doom has a long tradition of great solo campaigns.
But I always felt like I was kinda missing out on half of the experience. I feel kinda bad owning a game and ignoring an entire mode. I feel like I’m doing it wrong by not diving into everything, despite the fact that there’s probably no correct way to play a shooter where you and your opponent, all of Hell, shoot grenades at each other.
I’m not trying to say I’m glad there’s no multiplayer campaign simply because I don’t want to play one. I can just ignore it, even with the guilt. I’ve been ignoring multiplayer modes for decades. I was skipping the multiplayer in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes before some of you were born.
But a lot of solo campaigns in shooters feel like they’re just training ground for the multiplayer. And, that’s because, yeah, they often are. People love multiplayer. And for some series, the real nickel and diming comes from selling skins and fancy upgrades to help you defeat other theoretically real humans. Knowing that won’t be there makes me happy.
It’s All Doom All The Time
Instead, Doom: The Dark Ages is entirely a triple-A big badda boom shooter that’s going to be only about the campaign. I’m not learning any tricks that are more useful for fighting friends than fighting enemies. There’s nothing shoveled in there to make me play multiplayer matches to unlock something. Updates to the game won’t solely focus on something I’ve got little interest in.
Instead, this will be a massive, incredibly violent crusade against Hell by myself. When they add content, it’ll be for the solo campaign. When they tweak it and make it better, it’ll be for the solo campaign. id Software hasn’t been lazy about this, but it fills me with joy to know the entire game is about the spectacle.
Maybe that’s what I’m circling. The spectacle. I know this is just my opinion – and not one shared by a whole lot of people – but multiplayer matches never quite have the spectacle of a solo campaign for me. In a solo campaign, everything happening is designed and molded together to be an immersive, captivating experience (when done well). Multiplayer is similar, but – I dunno – sometimes it’s like when you’re a kid playing laser tag at a birthday party: Cyberpunk gear and futuristic weapons feel less cool when you know they’re being wielded by your friend’s stepdad.
Again, I’ve got no moral problem or stance against multiplayer. And, honestly, if Doom: The Dark Ages included it or added it later, it wouldn’t really matter to me. But I am excited that they’ve made this choice to focus on the part of the game they want to shine. I’m thrilled that a triple-A developer of a major series knows exactly what they want out of the game. They aren’t tacking on multiplayer and asking ‘is this okay?’, they aren’t splitting their resources between different modes to see what sticks. It sounds like they’re creating the exact game they want to make. And in an artform that seems to be consistently screwed over by corporate executives demanding useless additions and live-service slop, this is a great thing.
- Released
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May 15, 2025
- Publisher(s)
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Bethesda Softworks