Bethesda’s Pete Hines on the Absence of Deathmatch in DOOM Eternal: ‘That Mode Is Eons Old’

Mar 18, 2020 at 06:15am EDT
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DOOM Eternal is coming in just two days, and according to the review-in-progress published yesterday by Chris, it's damn good. At least the single player campaign, that is.

Doom Eternal is a brilliant game, one that is a worthy successor to the previous release. While the game does stumble here and there, trying to be something that it really shouldn't be, the outstanding gameplay more than makes up for any issues. Going by the campaign alone, Doom Eternal is well worth your time and money, particularly so if you liked Doom (2016).

What about the multiplayer? Well, in case you were wondering, there is no regular Deathmatch mode in DOOM Eternal and Bethesda's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communication Pete Hines explained exactly why in an interview with Shacknews.

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No. That mode is eons old. We don't want to do something just for the sake of doing it, or because something has always been a certain way.

The biggest problem we thought we had with Doom 2016 was that [multiplayer] wasn't done at id, and felt really disconnected from the base game that everybody loved. Whether you're playing by yourself or with others, we want it to feel like you're all playing the same game. That's as opposed to, ‘I'm a badass demon slayer in single-player, but when I go over to multiplayer, there are no demons, and it's just Deathmatch.’ I don't know what that has to do with [Doom] other than that, well, a couple of decades ago we had that, so we should just have that again.

That said, DOOM Eternal will feature a brand new 'BATTLEMODE' designed by id Software, where one Slayer will face two player-controlled demons in intense matches to the best of five rounds. You can check out a deep dive with the developers on this mode in the video below, captured during the Bethesda Game Days 2020 at this year's PAX East.

About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.

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