During a playthrough stream earlier this month, Doom Eternal director Hugo Martin was asked if the team had ever considered developing a female Doom Slayer for the game. His answer was surprisingly thorough.
“I’ve actually been thinking about it,” Martin told Bethesda community manager Joshua Boyle after a question from viewers. ‘I think if we did it, I wish it would kill. I think it’s interesting how it would affect the glorious kills, the kind of weapons she would have, the fighting style. All aggression, absolutely, but a different kind of aggression. I would really strive to make it affect gameplay in a meaningful way. I certainly thought about that a lot. “
The people behind 2016 Doom and 2020’s Doom Eternal have called their main character a Ferrari, in that game as the Doom Slayer is fun at any speedMartin said they would like to find out similar types of credentials for every character they develop, including a hypothetical female Doom Slayer.
“How would that affect things?” Martin added. “What analogies could you draw from that and that influence the experience? It would be cool for sure. “
The identity of DoomThe protagonist – previously known as Doomguy before being reinvented as the Doom Slayer alongside the modern, story-oriented reboot – never had much of an impact on the first-person shooter action. He’s just a vessel for the player’s desire to destroy a bunch of demons as brutally as possible. That said, the fact that Martin has put some serious thought into developing a female counterpart is pretty neat, and it should be interesting to see if those ideas make their way into the future. Doom projects.