Doom Annihilation
A still from 2019's direct-to-video Doom: Annihilation, which is the closest we've gotten to a female Slayer so far — Image: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Demon-slaying in DOOM has always been something of a man's game, but id Software’s Hugo Martin has revealed that the team behind the series has been discussing bringing a female Slayer to the franchise.

Speaking via an official Twitch stream this month (thanks, VGC), Martin explained:

I’ve thought about it. 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!

He adds that he wouldn't want this to be a simple model swap, but something that impacted how the game plays:

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.

The video games may not have had female leads yet, but 2019's Doom: Annihilation – a straight-to-video follow-up to the much-maligned 2005 Doom movie – featured lieutenant Joan Dark as the main protagonist (no relation to the lead of Perfect Dark, we should note).

DOOM Eternal is the latest instalment in the long-running series, and it launched on Switch at the end of 2020. We awarded it 8/10.

[source videogameschronicle.com]