Doom³

Moby ID: 14320
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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

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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)

More like a tech demo than an actual game

The Good
When id software released the original Doom, it soon caught the attention of gamers for its frenetic gameplay and great graphics. Rumour has it that some people bought computers just to play it. Call me crazy, but Doom struck me as being way overhyped, its immense popularity more due to a clever marketing plan by id than merit on the game’s part. Its brain-dead, million-kills-a-minute gameplay and a “story” that you could write on the back of a postage stamp might not have impressed me, but Doom’s still-large fanbase must have convinced id that doing a third game in the series would be worthwhile. So, after four years in development, we find ourselves looking at Doom 3.

The game is a remake of the original Doom. Just as a recap, you’re a crack space marine in the 22nd century, who has been sent to Mars with a rapid response unit to help protect a research station there. The research station is tampering with the very fabric of space and time, and a rift between our world and somewhere else has opened. Soon, monsters are pouring through the portal, and and the station is utterly decimated. All of your buddies are killed (and turned into zombies…we must not forget that), and it’s up to you to stop the tide of hellspawn before it spreads to earth.

On all levels, the game is graphically stunning. Surpassing even Far Cry in this department, Doom 3’s unfalteringly dark, claustrophobic enviroments are a treat to look at. Blood-splattered walls and eery dripping pipes crank the mood up considerably. Both humans and monsters (you’ll see far, far more of the latter category) are rendered well and look almost real. The game also has a good physics engine, you’re able to push stuff and throw it around the room. And don’t let anyone tell you that you need a top-of-the-line graphics card to play. I was able to play quite satisfactorily with a Rosewill Radeon 256MB card on the highest resolution.

The level of player interaction is superb, especially for a shooter as generic as Doom 3. You have a thing called a PDA on which you can receive voice mail and instructions. The PDAs of slain personnel can also be viewed for more information on the backdrop story. There’s a good deal of black humour in many of the PDAs, which have messages from employers pompously asserting how “immune to attack” the research station is, and how they are ignoring the deaths of workers near the portal to hell. Some PDA messages are irrelevant but funny, such as spam advertising for online RPGs and sexual adventures. Talk about satire.

The Bad
Doom’s graphics might be cutting-edge, but its gameplay is at least eight years out of date. Doom is reminiscent of the early days of the FPS genre, where no game passed its beta testing stage without the required quota of blood and gore, gameplay consisted of running around shooting heaps of enemies, and the “story” was a paragraph somewhere in the manual. Doom fans would probably say that id is trying to recreate the feel of classic Doom. Doom haters would probably say that the game’s simplicity can be chalked up to laziness on the part of id. Actually, I think that it’s a bit of both.

On one hand, it’s refreshing just to play a run and gun shooter without having stuff like a story impede you. On the other hand, it stands at variance with the whole atmosphere id has tried to weave into the game. It is hard maintain a scary claustrophobic aura and a chillingly realistic setting when the player spends most of his/her time shooting at tomato-headed monsters.

Doom 3’s story is IMMENSELY unsatisfying. Not that id has ever placed much priority on a game’s plot, but this time around it’s different. Id has obviously tried to create an interesting story, tried but failed miserably. At least the original Doom had no pretensions about the experience it meant to deliver, but Doom 3 starts off with cleverly-plotted cutscenes, an ominous atmosphere, and a number of interesting developments that leave the player wanting more. But as the game progresses, the game turns into a generic kill-‘em-all shooter and the plot is left largely undeveloped. It’s as if id intended to do a story-based game, but halfway through they lost interest in the idea and just turned Doom 3 into a mindless monster fest.

Critics are hailing Doom 3 as “a masterpiece of horror” and “one of the scariest games ever.” Humbug.

Doom 3 relies heavily upon the “BOO! Scared ya!” kind of thrill tactics that have been done to death is countless Resident Evil clones. Sure, you might be shocked the first two or three times a pink, jelly-like monster lunges at you from out of the shadows, but shocked is all you’ll be. The trouble is, there are so many monsters in Doom 3 that you spend most of your time pumping iron into them and hoping you don’t run out of ammo. It becomes extremely easy to predict where monsters will next strike. “Okay, see that extra clip lying over there? I bet that if I go to pick it up the door over there will burst open and a zillion monsters will attack me.” The monsters themselves look so downright absurd that they elicit laughter more than fear.

It’s things like this that spoil the atmosphere id has so painstaking added to the game. And for a game so bent upon realism, id apparently hasn’t done their homework. Come on! You’re a crack soldier in the 22nd century for Heaven’s sake! How come you’ve got such primitive armour? Shouldn’t you at least have a helmet? How come the marines have brought chainsaws to Mars? Why can’t you hold a flashlight and a gun at the same time?

Multiplayer mode was clearly added only as an afterthought. It supports four players (by comparison, it is fast becoming industry standard for 26 and even 32 player support in mid-range FPS titles), and while several fan-made mods hope to fix this, the game out of the box definitely is definitely not going to please Quake III fans.

The Bottom Line
Dare I say it, but Doom 3 is but another continuation of id’s trend of placing visuals ahead of playability. Once the wow factor wears off, it is actually a pretty mindless and generic shooter with not a lot of content.

Windows · by Maw (832) · 2005

Doom 3 is competent, but simply not up to par

The Good
What can I say about Doom? Its easily one of the best shooters ever and revolutionized the industry. Every PC gamer worth his or her salt has played Doom, so I don't think I need say anymore.

When Doom 3 first came out, our eyes popped out of our sockets. Then again, that is what ID has always been good it. Each new engine they pop out looks incredible and has some new graphical feature never featured in a game before. In Doom 3's case, its new technical marvel was "Unified lighting," essentially a trick that means every square inch will have a realistic shadow with constant real time alteration and realistic flow. The game looked great, and even now despite the age the lighting is incredible.

Gameplay, for better of for worse, isn't changed much from the old Doom games. Its pretty straight forward stuff: You have a gun. Satan just haphazardly dumped a bunch of demons from his evil bucket o' monsters and with your trusty gun you are going to put those demons back in the bucket, but when they go home they'll be twisted flesh and full of holes. The game does use a more directed level design to make the UAC complex seem like a real place and it does work out, while there are majour problems (more on that later) with this world there are various things strewn about them that will catch your attention assuming you are into science and as a nerdy science geek I was pleased to stop occasionally and stare at some cool scientific doohickey and listen to some surprisingly logical and believable machines.

While I can't say much about the monsters as they are mostly run of the mill, I can say this: The new PinkyDemon design kicks ass. Y'know, those pink dudes with the giant head that liked to bite your ass off? Well, they're a bit different in Doom 3 and their design is creative and cool. I really enjoyed it, because their design really fits the whole "Demonic flesh mingling with future tech" theme that has always permeated the Doom universe. Plus, their mechanical legs justify why they were so friggen' fast despite their physically strange bodies in the old games. The Pinky's in Doom 3 have become one of my all time favourite game monsters.

Betruger is damn creepy and is a good villain, even though it would've been nice to see his motif for opening the gates of hell and how he got so many demonic powers.

Although it doesn't last long, the games trip to hell is memorable and a majour mind f**k, and really breaks up the monotony for a little bit because of how trippy, sinister, and scary it is.

The plasma rifle is still awesome, same with the BFG ^^



The Bad
The problem with Doom 3, is that while it is a competent shooter and it does have the simplistic style of its elder games, the game tries too hard to be scary. If a game is truly scary, a slow pace and building atmosphere will be forgiven because you will be so deep in the game your heart will palpitate and you will dread the time that a monster finally comes. While there are a few good creep out moments in Doom 3 and when the atmosphere does thicken, it is done well, but all in all the game simply isn't scary which means that the slow pace isn't justified and ends up making the game sometimes dreadfully boring.

The game tries to mix two types of horror: Haunted house horror and System Shock horror. Both fail. The haunted house effect works once or twice with something jumping out of the shadows, but then you'll find it happening every second and you'll often stare at a wall with your finger on the trigger and the second the monster jumps you'll have already fed it a healthy dose of shell pellets because you knew where it was going to jump from.

The System Shock horror doesn't work because the audio logs/emails are often stupid and cliche thanks to bad writing and bad voice acting. It bogs the game down, and unless you like taking naps when playing video games, you'll grow tired of it and the worst part is that sometimes you can't progress unless you listen or read all of the logs.

The sound design is awful. Imps make sounds ripped directly from "Aliens," and various monsters make silly or strange sounds that aren't scary. The worst of them all though are the guns. The pistol sounds like a wet fart. The shotgun makes this wimpy little "Poof" noise which is quickly drowned out by a tinny "Thunk" sound effect as the shells hit the wall. They all sound weak, and save for the chainsaw, bfg, and plasma rifle all the weapons are extremely passe and not very interesting nor fun to use. There's no music, and save for a few creepy ghost sound effects the game sounds lame.

The graphics may be great technically, but the artistic department is lacking. Doom 3 suffers from a severe case of Browninitis. Maybe its because its related to Quake, and Quake has always had the illness, but this is one of the worst cases of Browninitis ever seen and after this games release Browninitis became much more common and is practically a plague.

The multiplayer is dull. Out of the box only four players can play. Are you bloody serious? 4 players? ID, if you did that just to try and be nostalgic and make an exact remake of the original Doom's multiplayer.. congratulations! You are extremely thick. I mean, OUCH. Doom only supported 4 players because it was the first shooter to support multiplayer, so of course it was limited, but almost every game after it has supported more than 4! Quake alone had 16 players which was revolutionary, and 4 is pathetic! Maps are small and cramped, and save for Edge 2, none are really worth playing.

There's only one Hell level, and its short :( Also, congrats on making the cyberdemon, one of the most feared and twisted monster badasses to appear in a video game a complete and total wimp. Hes big, he looks scary, but throw a cube at him 4 times and he explodes. If you tried to throw a stupid cube at the original cyberdemon, he'd shove that rocket launcher so far up your ass you'd split in half!

No Co-op. Co-op would've really livened the game up. Co-op in Doom was always chaotic, stupid fun. Hopping around shooting bullets and trying to out do each other in demon slaughtering was always good, mindless fun that really brought more reason to replay Doom's single player. Co-op could've helped Doom 3; big time.

The Bottom Line
So yeah, Doom 3. A disappointing reboot of the franchise. That's not to say its awful, it is competent and at times fun, but it has no replay value and if you've played through it once you've seen everything it has to offer. It focuses on horror, something its not particularly good at, instead of action and this makes it often dull, boring, and repetitive. It has its moments and is fun in short bursts, but simply cannot live up to the legendary Doom name.

Windows · by Kaddy B. (777) · 2009

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.

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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

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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.