Doom Dev Responds to Hack Module Concerns, Teases Single-Player Content

Doom has been pretty well-received since launch in May, but one piece of criticism is about the shooter's hack modules. These allow players to spawn with better abilities than their opponents; not everyone thinks they are the best idea.

In an interview with GameSpot today, executive producer Marty Stratton said he is "pretty satisfied" with the state of the game as it relates to balance. However, he also mentioned that the developer is looking at further improvements down the road.

"People say, 'I would like to play without hack modules.' I think the game is really fun, and I think hack modules play a good part in that." However, Stratton also acknowledged that "there's obviously tuning we can do."

In addition to tuning, Stratton said Bethesda is considering adding an "experimental" playlist--not unlike Rocket League's Rocket Labs--whereby new modes and features can be tested before they are rolled out publicly. This might include modes with no demons and no Hack Modules, among other things.

"We don't want to do that across the entire game and throw off people who are having a great time with it," Stratton said. Instead, the idea is to "give ourselves a testbed to test things like that and we'll continue to balance that stuff," he explained.

Also in our interview, we asked Stratton about the possibility of single-player DLC coming to Doom someday. He teased that Bethesda has "a couple things" in the pipeline that will be announced "shortly," though he declined to share any further specifics.

"Right now we're focused on getting the game that we have into more and more people's hands. I can't go too far beyond what we've talked about there," he explained. "We do have a couple things on the horizon that I think will give players new ways to play with the current Doom game and some stuff that I think will be exciting for people."

On the more immediate horizon is Doom's just-announced Unto Evil multiplayer DLC. This expansion adds three new multiplayer maps, a new demon, new armor, taunts, and more. The expansion comes out "in a couple of months."

In addition to the Unto Evil expansion, Bethesda is adding new multiplayer modes, including a capture-the-flag mode called Exodus, and a new multizone capture mode named Sector. These will be free for all players in the coming months. There will also be new free-for-all modes, including classic deathmatch, while Snapmap is being updated, too.