Doom³

Moby ID: 14320
Windows Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/28 9:01 PM )
Add-on (official) Included in Special Edition This Compilation Includes See Also

Description official descriptions

The third game of the DOOM series (now in full 3D) takes gamers through the depths of Hell, where technology and demons meet. But this time round, the game is more focused on horror elements than previous games in series.

Doom 3 is set in the year 2145, on Mars. You start as an unnamed marine soldier sent to the Red Planet, where a corporation named The Union Aerospace Corporation makes secret experiments based on ancient aliens' technology. People around the base are on the edge, & something is not right. You receive your first simple mission and when you depart, the game really kicks off.

This third major release of the Doom series is especially based on single player experience. As in most First Person Shooter games, you aim, you shoot, & you run... Enemies are zombified humans from the base or daemons straight from Hell. Doom 3 is much darker visually than previous games - you can use a flashlight in dark corridors, but you must choose between various weapons and the flashlight (the marine can't use them both in same time.)

The game has multiplayer with four game modes for four players.

Spellings

  • Doom 3 - Alternative spelling
  • 毁灭战士3 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 둠 3 - Korean spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Windows version)

141 People (135 developers, 6 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 107 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 301 ratings with 28 reviews)

The only possibly good thing about this game are the graphics, gameplay suffers a lot due to its boring exactly same level design.

The Good
Of course this game owned the best graphics for its time, and the fact that the engine didn't eat a lot of energy, which meant that we could play the game on high settings even on a not so powerful computer for that time, it ran very good. Audio is well done, atmospheric hellish sounds really creep sometimes, though the game isn't scary, and the monsters sound aggressive and brutal. The single player campaign though is mostly boring, it does have a few good moments in it and easter eggs in it make it sometimes funny.

The Bad
The games major flaw was that it didn't keep the atmosphere of the original games - monsters did look cool, but most changed dramatically by design, and didn't look so cool as they were in the original games. Another thing is the audio - when first playing the game, we hear a cool game theme song in the menu, which gives us a hope that we might hear some cool soundtracks in the background of the levels, but hell no! There are no soundtracks, which was one of the main things which made this game boring. But the biggest flaw of the game was probably the level design - about 96 % of the game is absolutely the f@#$ing same! And this also leaves a question - how do some people even consider this game scary? I mean - you always know where the monster comes out from, what can be so creepy then? Multiplayer was probably the last thing the developers came out with to put in it, or maybe they just tried to keep the feel of the original games in multiplayer? The thing is, we only got up to 4 player deathmatch modes, though it is fun for at least some time. Again another unexplainable thing in the game - is there no duck tape on mars? Why cant we attach flashlights to weapons and instead we have to walk only in a flashlight in one hand, just to get our asses owned by a monster when we couldn't swicth to a weapon in the right time. It doesn't make any sense!

The Bottom Line
For those who liked the original games - i wouldn't recommend this boring sequel, but if you are a fan of FPS games with a lot of hellish monsters and zombies in it, and if you love some good old old-school multiplayer, than this might be your game.

Windows · by Medicine Man (328) · 2009

A great first person shooter!

The Good
The atmosphere, graphics, enemies, almost everything!

The Bad
It's way too short.

The Bottom Line
DOOM 3 is the first FPS that I played using a gamepad. And one of the first games that I played using a gamepad, be it a Xbox one or another. In the end, I managed to handle it quite well if bragging is allowed. :)

Before playing on Xbox I've already tried the game on the PC but after 15 minutes of gameplay everything seemed so boring. Switching from a 17" LCD monitor to a TV with a 94 cm plasma display had a great impact on the overall game feeling for me. Even though PC graphics are way better, the game was still looking damn awesome. I immediately liked just about everything regarding graphics and the atmosphere induced by visual themes and effects.

The game is dark and the sound effects keep you under pressure, especially Betruger's continuous taunting. Enemies look and sound horrifying enough, especially if you're taken by surprise and some are really hard to kill while others seem to be too easy. Anyway, they usually show up in multiple waves or just one with a large amount of targets for you to shoot so you shouldn't think lightly about any of the demons around the UAC buildings.

I have played the game on medium difficulty (the first sentence in this review states as to why I did this) and it was fun enough. Not too easy and not too frustrating, just right. Being a DooM game, its action is pretty straightforward. Go there, kill that, open that door, kill some more enemies etc. The game also features some puzzles, none too difficult. I found one a bit frustrating, it involved a lift and some jumping over a fence of some sort. The puzzles seemed enjoyable to me in the end, a nice pause from the killing.

The main title (also, credits) theme is really great. I'm still listening to it and will surely listen to it occasionally from now on. Unfortunately, there's no other notable music in the game. That's a big minus for it. I'm pretty much a soundtrack maniac and a bit disappointed because of the lack of music in DooM 3.

The weapons available are really interesting and vary from the classic pistol to the DooM Exclusive BFG. The BFG is really easy to find towards the end of the game. More exactly, you pick it up from a dead boos. My favorite weapons are the Shotgun and Plasma Rifle. The shotgun is great for close quarter combat (you get those like, a lot) and the plasma rifle can explode enemy launched projectiles in mid-air while causing serious damage to most enemies making it my favorite long-range weapon.

I've complained a bit earlier about the game being too short. I spent around 8 hours before hitting the end. I really liked the game. I wish there were another 8 hours to play after the final boss (a Cyberdemon, which was really nicely modelled/drawn; something like a space Balrog (Tolkien)). I guess getting the expansion pack won't hurt at all. Maybe it will be just as fun. :)

Xbox · by Hypercake (1310) · 2010

Doom all over again

The Good
How can you describe Doom 3 and not talk about the engine, the light effects are as realistic as it gets and the overall graphics are incredible.

The dark atmosphere suits the endless hordes of demons that lurk in every corner hiding in the shadows, something that makes the game if not scary at least less predictable.

The PDA is a nice, yet not new, addition to the game since it makes the plot more deep and engaging.



The Bad
I have to admit I was disappointed with the lack of new ideas : You fight the same monsters (imps, demons, hell knights, etc) and you have the same weapons (the only two additions are the machine gun and soul-cube).

I know you are supposed to be in Mars and inside a base, but I really hope you are not claustrophobic because in Doom 3 all rooms are small. For a top 3D engine you would hope they'll make rooms larger. But the base looks like a maze, and when they allow you to see the martian sky you lack oxygen and you have to move back inside.

The Bottom Line
I loved Doom and Doom 2 back in the day, this new game was a remake for a new generation and a tech demo to keep Id as one of the benchmarks in 3D engines.

It's Doom all over again, just for that reason you should get a copy.

Windows · by Shin_Akuma (15) · 2005

[ View all 28 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

DOOM³ appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Board Game

This game was loosely adapted into 2004's DOOM: The Boardgame.

Budget

The budget for this game was US$15 million.

Cut Content

Original concepts for the game included: * Longer outdoor excursions that got scrapped mostly due to engine considerations. Their removal being quoted as the final nail in the coffin for the inclusion of a railgun (the weapon from Quake was originally going to be in the game as the long-range/sniper weapon). * More female personnel in Phobos, including a never confirmed female receptionist and an apparently complete topless dead female modeled by Kenneth Scott that was to be found on an autopsy table later in the game. * A flamethrower was at one point considered, and the PDA was going to include a map feature like in the original DOOM games. * Finally, (and most infamously) the game's initial concept called for a use key like in the original, but this feature was removed by head honcho John Carmack who called the feature "just a gimmick".

German Release

In Germany, the game was released unlocalized and uncut, both which are very unusual.

Language

The name of the doctor responsible for the disaster is Dr. Malcolm Betruger. "Betrug" is the German word for fraud or deceit, which is exactly what the doctor does.

Narrative

The Doomguy speaks only one word in the entire game. That word is "God..." as he sees the Cyberdemon. Incidentally, this is the first time the main character in a DOOM game talks.

Novels

As of 2009, two novels based on the game have been released, Doom³: Worlds on Fire, and Doom³: Maelstrom. Both were written by author Matthew J. Costello, who helped writing the story and dialog on DOOM³ and its expansion pack, DOOM³: Resurrection of Evil.

References: General

  • In a certain section of the Delta Complex, the player comes across a whole area of employee offices. The names on the door are names of actual id Software employees.
  • On Site 3 and the Excavation Dig Site, there are four stone tables which the archaeologists had found. One of these is showing the ancient hero in a battle against the forces of hell. This ancient hero is actually the Marine from the original DOOM, and the stone tablet looks almost exactly like the front cover of the original US DOS DOOM box. Other examples of hidden images in the pentagram are the UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) logo and a Moon symbol (probably referring to the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, but it is not sure whether this really is a reference)
  • At one point in the game, the player comes across a nearly-dead soldier named E. Webb. This is most likely a reference to id Software monkey Eric Webb.
  • At certain points within the game, magazines with various covers can be discovered. One of them, called Booty actually sports a picture of Hunter's (a female character from Quake III: Arena) lovely backside.
  • The game's intro (text and voice-over) and story bare an uncanny resemblance to Resident Evil: The Movie.
  • Among the many names the game uses for owners of the PDF pads are Seamus Blake and Ben Wolfe. Besides being laborers who have turned into the undead, these people are also renowned contemporary jazz musicians.
  • The logo of the Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3 mini-game is a parody on the Street Fighter Alpha 3 logo.

References: Internet

  • id Software registered www.ua-corp.com, making it look like the homepage of the Union Aerospace Corporation.
  • The player will receive e-mails on their PDA that advertise for Martianbuddy (the greatest company ever conceived!). It is a jab at the annoying Bonzibuddy. When visiting martianbuddy.com, the player will receive the cabinet code 0508, which can be used prior to the end of Alpha Labs to unlock the chaingun and at the end of Delta Labs 2 to unlock the BFG9000.
  • The player will get a message on their PDA that refers to the famous 419 Nigerian scams. The sender, John Okonkwo, is not a random name, just read this.

Secrets

  • Near the end of the game, there is a clickable brick on the wall bearing the id Software logo. Click it and a wall opens. Inside, a secret PDA can be found, with messages from the id employees thanking everyone for playing the game.
  • The character who supplies the protagonist with the PDA turns back to typing after doing so. If the player takes a look on the man's screen, they can see him typing an e-mail about the main character being rude for watching over his shoulder.
  • In the very first levels you can see UAC employees that can not be reached normally. When using the noclip cheat code and going through the walls to reach the unreachable areas, it can be seen that all of these employees share the name Joe.
  • Try one of the old cheat codes from the other DOOM games; in addition to the obvious "unknown command" reply, the message "your memory serves you well" will also be shown.

Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3

After arriving in Mars City, go to the kitchen. There the arcade game Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3 can be played. The game looks like a previous DOOM game, except for the turkey of course. And so it plays (playing the Marine while he is in Berserk mode). After having punched enough turkeys and reaching a score of 25,000, the player receives an e-mail via their PDA saying: "Your parents can rest easier knowing they have raised another shining example of humanity. Due to the incredible amount of time you wasted punching poor defenseless turkeys, your vacation time has been docked two days."

Technology

  • The game refuses to run not only if CD/DVD emulation software is installed on your computer (CloneCD, Alcohol), but certain burning software as well (Nero).
  • According to the promotional video G4 History of Doom when DOOM³ was first demonstrated at the E3 Expo in 2002 the E3 Judges had to offer people to play a part of the game or to play the game themselves in order to show that the game being demonstrated on the screen was in fact real. People were that impressed by the graphics.

User Created Content

  • While most new FPS games have outrageous minimum system requirements, especially for video cards (at least 128MB, Texture & Lightning required), the Doom III engine is, despite the hefty overall requirements, quite scalable. Some users have developed a small patch that makes the game compatible with the Voodoo 2 card, among others in the Voodoo line. These are some of the very first 3D cards and they often do not carry more than 12MB. The game does not look better than Quake II with such setup, but it still is a fine piece of programming.
  • Within approximately 1 day of release, there was already a game modification which added a light to the pistol. In the game itself, players must swap between the flashlight and a gun.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 2005 (Issue #249) – Best Sound of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2004 – Special Achievement in Graphics Award (together with Far Cry)
    • 2005 – #5 Xbox Game of the Year
    • 2012 – #7 Top PC Gaming Intro
  • Interfaith Center of Corporate Responsibility
    • 2004 - one of the Top 10 Worst Violent Video Games of 2004
  • Golden Joystick Awards
    • 2004 - PC Game of the Year
    • 2004 - Ultimate Game of the Year
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 03/2005 - #4 Biggest Disappointment

Information also contributed by AHO, bobthewookiee, Hamish Wilson, Karthik KANE, lasttoblame, lvnvgmb, M4R14N0 Maw, piltdown man, Pseudo_Intellectual, Sciere, Silverblade, Steve ., Tiago Jacques, Xoleras, Zack Green and Zovni.

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Doom³: Resurrection of Evil
Released 2005 on Windows, Linux, Xbox
Doom
Released 1993 on DOS, Linux, 1995 on Windows...
Final Doom
Released 1996 on DOS, Windows, Macintosh
Doom II
Released 1994 on DOS, 1995 on Windows, 2002 on Game Boy Advance...
Doom³: BFG Edition
Released 2012 on Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Doom³: VR Edition
Released 2021 on PlayStation 4
Eraser: Turnabout
Released 1997 on Windows
Breath of Fire III
Released 1997 on PlayStation, 2005 on PSP, 2016 on PS Vita

Related Sites +

  • A Guide for Beginners
    IMG's introduction to playing Doom 3.
  • Doom 3
    Official website
  • Doom 3
    Official game page on id Software's website
  • Doom 3 HQ
    A well-rounded Doom 3 fansite, with custom levels, game info and a forum.
  • Doom 3 Portal
    Comprehensive fansite for all things Doom 3 from fan art and fiction to a mod index.
  • Doom 3 on Win98
    A quick and easy to follow tutorial on running Doom 3 on Windows 98
  • Doom Wiki
    A Wiki site for the Doom series.
  • Doomworld
    Website with classic Doom and Doom 3 news and forums.
  • Hints for Doom 3
    Question and answer type solution guide gives you nudges in the right direction before revealing the final solutions.
  • Lord FlatHead's Homepage
    Hasn't been updated since Doom 3's release, but contains a lot of interesting articles about the technology behind Doom 3 and some speculation.
  • Once More into the Inferno
    An Apple Games article about the Mac version of DOOM³ (February, 2005).
  • PlanetDoom
    GameSpy's Doom Website

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 14320
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Lexicon Dominus.

Macintosh added by Corn Popper. Xbox added by Sciere. Linux added by Iggi.

Additional contributors: James1, Unicorn Lynx, Lord FlatHead, Jeanne, Michael Dionne, Guy Chapman, Sciere, Jack Lightbeard, Silverblade, Maw, xy xy, Zeppin, Cantillon, lee jun ho, Patrick Bregger, Titan10, FatherJack.

Game added August 9, 2004. Last modified March 6, 2024.