The Doom Eternal multiplayer, a two-on-one mode called Battlemode, has been quite a secret. It was revealed back at E3 2019 with a full unveiling slated for DoomCon QuakeCon, which started earlier this morning. As promised, the game’s executive producer and creative director, Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin, showed off Doom Eternal multiplayer gameplay as well some of its mechanics, demons, and its incoming post-launch content.
Battlemode will launch with five demons and six maps and more will be coming for free at unknown points after the game’s launch on November 22, 2019. These launch demons include the jetpack-enabled Revenant, dual cannon-shooting meat tank Mancubus, the flying, shielded Pain Elemental, the teleporting Arch-Vile, and the axe-wielding Marauder. Stratton described each demon is “simple to understand, totally unique, and allows for different playstyles and strategies.”
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Demons can even see the player even through walls and the player will be outlined. But if the player breaks line of sight for long enough, the game becomes a bit of a cat and mouse sort of game where the Slayer can ambush both human-controlled demons. The Slayer can do this more easily with all the monkeybars, parkour, and Slayer-only portals they can use. That will make them harder to hit but demons can coordinate when the Slayer has to touch the ground to kill fodder demons for ammo and health.
When a demon dies, a 20-second timer starts. If the Slayer can kill the other demon in this time frame, they win the round. If not, the other demon player spawns with half health. The round ends when the Slayer dies or if both demons die within that 20-second window. Players also choose abilities and upgrades in later rounds. Winning rounds can grant the players the abilities to use power items like summoning the Baron of Hell or the BFG for the demons and Slayer, respectively.