id Software’s next DOOM title could feature a female Doom Slayer. The possibility was teased by game director Hugo Martin, who revealed during an official Twitch stream this month that the team had actually been actively discussing the idea behind the scenes. Martin pointed out that the introduction of a female Doom Slayer has to be “meaningful,” however, which suggests that her debut, should it happen, would tie in greatly with the story.
“I’ve thought about it,” Martin said in regard to a female Doom Slayer to the franchise. “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. 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.”
As VGC noted in its coverage, id Software had already toyed around with the idea of a female Doom Marine in Quake 3 Arena, which featured a character (or, more specifically, a tutorial bot) named Crash. As if her skin didn’t make the analogy clear enough, other bots referred to her in chat as “Doom Girl,” “Doom Lady,” and “Doomette.”
