The worst part of Doom may be getting better

Doom’s multiplayer has problems. Beyond being a muddled, me-too affair saddled with pointless load-outs and an uninspiring XP grind, there’s rampant cheating and it’s missing features players have come to expect in big-budget releases. The single player game is exquisite, but what to do about that multiplayer? Eurogamer interviewed id Software’s Marty Stratton, and he has answers. While Certain Affinity was hired to work on the multiplayer portion of the game, ongoing support is now an internal function which will allow the developers to address issues more flexibly. First, Stratton assures players that they are working on the cheaters and that they “understand the frustration” players feel. Second, the team will be adjusting the servers to allow private match browsing, hopefully making it easier to connect to friends. Third, free DLC will be coming with the paid bits of season pass content to bolster player engagement. Finally, bots are coming. Bots! The creator of the Fritz Bot from Return to Castle Wolfenstein, currently employed by id as the programmer for SnapMap, worked on bots for Doom that were used for internal testing. These will be made available in standard multiplayer and SnapMap once they’re polished up for public consumption.

“We know that talk will only go so far with players and hope that our actions this year continue to give players across every component of the game – multiplayer, singleplayer and SnapMap – more and more reasons to continue playing and enjoying the game in whatever way they choose.”

Read the Doom review here.