
Doom Eternal is an absolute thrill ride of a game that is filled with gut-tearing violence and punchy gunplay, and the game’s director has recently shared his idea on if the protagonist was female and how it would affect said gameplay.
As discovered and quoted by Video Games Chronicle, the game’s director, Hugo Martin, spoke in a recent Twitch stream about what he would do differently if the Doom Slayer was female and how he would ensure it was used to compliment the gameplay in a meaningful way.
“I think if we did it, I’d want it to be lethal. I think it’s interesting how it would impact the Glory Kills and the weapons that she would have. The fighting style [would] certainly [be] all aggression, absolutely, but a different type of aggression. I would really strive to have it impact the gameplay in a way that was meaningful. I’ve definitely put a lot of thought into that, actually!”
“Tonally, when it comes to designing the action, you think about, ‘if The Slayer is a Ferrari, then what would a female Slayer be? What would a Medieval slayer be?’ How would that effect things and what sort of analogies would you draw from that to allow it to influence the experience? It definitely would be cool.”
While Doom Eternal allowed players to earn skins and customise their character, it never allowed the option to completely change gender. What’s interesting about Martin’s thoughts is how, if it was the case, he’d use it as a means to change up the gameplay. Maybe it’s something we will see in another Doom game down the line?
What do you think about the idea of a female Doom Slayer? Let us know in the comments below.
[source videogameschronicle.com, via m.twitch.tv]
Comments 12
Isn't Doom Slayer a mute? Don't see what difference it would make, but why not. A Doomette then?
A medieval slayer. QUAKE 5 CONFIRMED!!!1
I like that they'd want to make a separate character with separate gameplay rather than a model swap of same character, female shape. That's something that isn't done a lot in games where M/F choice is more than just the model dropped in the game. Makes me think of Dishonored 2, where it's almost 2 different games depending on who you choose to play.
I hope, I hope, I hope! Doom is my favourite franchise and a female Doom Slayer would be so cool!
As long as it isn't DOOM Annihilation
Never forget
On the subject of a Medieval Doom slayer, it seems fitting for Doom (2016) 3 to model Army of Darkness, considering Hugo Martin already compared Doom (2016) to Evil Dead and Doom Eternal to Evil Dead 2.
As much as I ultimately prefer Doom (2016) to Eternal, I really praise Martin and the Eternal team for not being afraid to take Doom and make it their own. Eternal is still a fantastic game with perhaps some of the tightest game design I've ever seen, and I'm excited to see where they take the franchise in the future.
@Thaliard Out of curiosity, what is it you prefer about 2016 to Eternal. They're both very different games, of course, I'm just curious what drives the preference.
@NEStalgia The way the story is told and the atmosphere. The cast was smaller and allowed for more character development. Sticking largely to two different locations (the UAC and Hell) bred more cohesion. Slower parts of the game felt more suspenseful and atmospheric, and the levels being grounded in "reality" allowed for more environmental storytelling and encouraged exploration.
It's almost as though Doom (2016) was trying to suspend your disbelief as far as it could and DE is trying to break it at every turn. The levels in DE feel like video game levels, which dampened 2016's subtle comedy of a ridiculous video game plot made real. Exploration/hunting for items in DE feels more like a chore because you don't feel like you're exploring a real place, therefore the hiding of items feels arbitrary. Item collecting also feels more like a hold-over from 2016's design and doesn't mesh well with DE's pacing. It also takes longer for DE to hit its stride, which is around Super Gore Nest/Arc Complex.
That being said, the encounter balance, combat design, and mechanical level design are masterful on a level I've never seen before, and I think The Ancient Gods - Part One is quite possibly the greatest piece of DLC ever made. Starting with a fully loaded Slayer and going nuts in the wildest and toughest combat encounters they've yet created made DE click for me. No hunting for items allows the momentum to not lose pace and focuses the player on the real star of the show: the mechanical depth of the combat encounters.
I totally get why the narrative and atmospheric changes had to happen for the kind of game they wanted to make, but I can't help but miss them. And while 2016's combat encounters pale in comparison to DE's insanity at their peak, 2016's combat is still rock solid, frenetic, and stands above its peers (DE excluded).
Also, the menus and fonts in DE suck by comparison. I'm just not into that more "comic book-y/heavy metal" aesthetic. A small grievance, but worth mentioning.
Both are fantastic games and among my favorite ever made, but I have a little more fondness for 2016's overall experience over DE's unflinching focus on game mechanics and lack of subtlety.
That's just my opinion, of course. I believe anyone who prefers DE over 2016 still has fantastic taste in games. Which did you prefer?
EDIT: Whoa, that was a little overlong. Sorry!
@Thaliard That's a good breakdown. Much more succinct than I've seen before. On the whole I agree with much of it. I do appreciate that sort real-environmental exploration from 2016.
I like them both, and really seem them as different entities entirely, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick Eternal, for sure. Part of that is preference. The videogamey-ness speaks to me. It's DOOM after all, and nothing about Doom 1 and 2 was particularly realistic. And I was always more of a Quake 1 fan than Doom or Quake 2 (which always seemed more popular.) To me, Eternal feels like the real Quake 2 we never got back in the day. That incredibly tight combat and the environments tailor made for it are just id at their very best since back in the old Romero/McGee/Carmack days.
The tonal shift feels a little weird, like an anothology of id ideas. A foundation of Doom, but built over with a pretty thick layer of Quake 2, and topped with a lot of Quake 2 all rolled into one atmosphere. But, again, that disjointed anthology of ideas is exactly what made Quake 1 unique, as well (Romero, Carmack, and McGee couldn't agree on whether to make a medieval, sci-fi, or occult game, so it ended up being all 3...)
If I had one complaint about Eternal, odd environment aside, it would be that the combat is so intense, I can't play it for long periods. It's exhausting and I tend to lose my endurance to play much too quickly. And it really begs for an Elite controller.....clicking the sticks that much is painful otherwise.
@NEStalgia I really like what you've said, particularly regarding Quake. I remember making the comparison to Quake with 2016 because of the way they handled 3D movement, but I honestly hadn't made it in regards to Eternal. I guess it was just too tempting to compare it to 2016. The comparison definitely makes the tonal shift feel better. It fits nicely in the id canon this way. Thank you for fixing that part of my brain.
As for atmosphere in the older id properties, particularly in regards to Doom, I think they're extraordinarily atmospheric. You can hear the different demons chattering and groaning in parts of the map you haven't been too yet, the lights flicker and change to set more of a mood, and the art design in the maps have a quality that feels like stuff was happening there before the demon outbreak occured. Facilities feel like facilities. Storerooms are littered with boxes. Even in Hell, there are demons being tortured on the walls, and certain areas look either constructed by someone (or something) or look natural. They have this reputation of being videogamey, but that's because they set the bar for what a video game should be. Quake and Quake II are also dripping in atmosphere. It's not until Half-Life that these games look weak by comparison.
Exploration and quietness was also a huge part of OG Doom. I remember countless hours exploring the maps of Doom, knowing where I'd been because of the corpses littering the floor, and trying to find the next place I was supposed to go. This would've been terribly boring if it weren't for the sense of place established, the landmarks, and overall atmosphere. It's also great when you're wandering around a map and find a way that it's connected to a part you've already been to (unrelated: Dark Souls is a master of this, speaking of atmosphere and building a sense of place). It's also part of why I don't like Doom II that much. There's no picture of the overworld to establish where you are in relation to everything, and there's nothing that makes you feel like you're on Earth in particular. The player just has to take the developer's word for it.
As for the intensity of Doom Eternal, I feel you. There were definitely a few times that I had to walk away, if only because my frazzled nerves were making me worse at the game and creating a negative performance loop. This is to the game's credit, though, because the game makes you feel exactly as it wants you to feel. And the feeling of beating a new encounter on your first try (or one you've been stuck on for forever) due to your mastery of the mechanics is unrivaled by anything.
If the doom slayer was a Ferrari??? The Doomslayer is a damned Mac truck!
What a curious thing to say or even bring up.
Does he not know there has been a female Doom Slayer since Quake 3? Her name was Crash. She was apparently the instructor to the original Doom Slayer, and served as the first character you run into who runs you through the tutorials in Q3A as soon as you start up the game.
Just put her in as a skin. Done. Bring back Crash, y'all.
I guess he's arguing that a female Doom Slayer in THIS gameplay style, focused on Glory Kills, would require differences in the actual playstyle? Make her a little faster, give her different animations for killing people because... y'know, Doom Slayer is a monster. Unless any new female Doom Slayer would be built like Nicole from Dead or Alive 4 (The female Halo Spartan), she'd probably have glory kills that were more acrobatic or something, rather than just ripping and tearing through dudes like a goddamn bear made of chainsaws. Kinda like how female pro-wrestlers rarely spear people compared to dudes, but do more moves like flying head scissors or something. If they're talking about stuff like that, that would require some thought... especially since a fighting style too crazy like that might be more disorienting in first person.
I would expect even faster and more agile gameplay, if maybe less armor and big heavy guns. Could be even more difficult, but more rewarding gameplay.
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