Doom³

Moby ID: 14320
Windows Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/27 9:00 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)

A disappointment

The Good
The engine and graphics are great. Except maybe for the upcoming Half-Life 2, no other game out there can match the graphics this game puts out.

The Bad
The whole game had a "been there, done that" type feel to it. 2/3rds of the so called revolutionary game play elements were previously utilized in System Shock 2. PDAs? Used in System Shock 2. Emails from dead staff members? Shock 2 had audio of the emails, which added a whole new element to the game. Anyone whose played System Shock 2 will tell you that Doom 3 more or less ripped off these game play elements. The sad thing is, System Shock 2 did it better. The lack of music in the game was a disappointment.

The Bottom Line
For all the hype this game got, Doom 3 failed to deliver. Sure it has a great graphics engine, but who cares. The gameplay itself felt lacking, due to Carmack and company ripping off System Shock 2. Hopefully in the future, Carmack will put more thought into building revolutionary game play from scratch, instead of ripping it off from a 5 year old game.

Windows · by Adam Wolfson (5) · 2004

Adrenaline. Horror. Doom.

The Good
The graphics are simply awesome. Yes, if you stick your nose on the wall you will notice some low-res textures. Indeed. However, the models are several levels above anything currently on the market. I don't mean to rain on your Far Cry, but the models in Far Cry and Painkiller look funny in comparison. And the engine is comparatively lighter than both Far Cry and Painkiller. I'm using a Radeon 9100 card and both games gave me much grief (especially Painkiller which simply refused to go on after a particular level). Sound is simply the best I've heard in a game

As for the AI, frankly I don't see what the problem is. It is simple and straightforward, but effective. The marines are especially good: they execute rolls, make slight sidesteps, take cover behind obstacles and it is VERY hard to hit them without being hit yourself. And they are not inhumanly accurate either. There were several occasions in Far Cry where the "revolutionary" AI just sat and stared at nothing while you shot them to pieces. That never happens in Doom 3.

In a few words, Doom 3 is atmospheric, scary and offers simple, yet enjoyable shooter gameplay.

The Bad
There isn't much interaction with all the items, but I suspect that the engine would become too heavy if there was. Plot and characters are relatively simple, but this is a Doom game, after all. I suppose it had all the story it needed.

The Bottom Line
It is a worthy sequel to Doom I and II and it is good. This is NOT Half-Life 2 or Far Cry and it shouldn't be. It is a straightforward horror FPS game with excellent production values. Not perfect or groundbreaking as its predecessors, but an excellent game nonetheless.

Windows · by Silverblade (1382) · 2004

Nice graphics and atmosphere but in long term rather boring.

The Good
Doom is a legend and this fact is well known to everybody. The long awaited third part should be a legend too. And well in some cases it is. Doom 1 and 2 can be today considered as an ordinary shoot'em up game with little or no story at all. To some extend Doom 3 is also similar. Of course game without ANY story would openly express that the story itself is useless (what we all know after playing single player in Quake and many other games) and it's just a waste of money and time to develop it, so indeed from time to time player sees a monitor or hears a radio transmission saying what to do and what's the current situation. But I guess if someone wants great, complicated story, he should rather get Deus Ex, instead of Doom. I enjoyed the simplicity of this game having in mind those great times of Doom 1 and 2.

Some people complain on brightness in this game (or actually on lack of it). Indeed saying that the game is dark surely wouldn't be enough. Situations which in other games would be only temporal (like malfunction of lights or lack of electricity) here are permanent. Sometimes irritating but most of the time it is the darkness which makes Doom so nice. iD Software dispatched monsters in good places, added (or actually removed) lights to make it look really scary. And scary it is! Turn off your lights, sleep during the day and play during the night to get full view on it. Get nice surround speakers and just feel this game. A flashlight on machine gun (Quake 4 style) would be a good way to reduce the lack of light though.

Few months after the release of Doom 3 it's biggest competitor arrived - Half-life 2. However with its stunning graphics it simply couldn't match Doom 3. Not only models are more detailed and lights are better but in my humble opinion the movement of characters is simply better and more realistic. The drawback is that to enjoy this marvelous views one has to have a marvelous computer.

But coming back to the atmosphere, the game offers some really interesting levels. Fear is what level designers wanted to achieve in user. Screams, bloody signs on walls, some neat cut scenes (such as the one in bathroom in the early moments of the game when player looks at the mirror and hears strange voices etc) all make is rather scary. Actually to me, the game can be divided into three parts. The first one (about 1/2 of the game) is monsters-lurking-behind-every-dark-corner style. Next one (1/4 or less) is the battle in hell. Brings back memories from Painkiller. This part of game scares players with its hellish pits of lava, skulls and signs of evil everywhere (well actually this part isn't that scary). The third one, perhaps the most interesting (1/4 as well) is the end. With rooms covered in blood, decapitated bodies, corridors suddenly changing from lab style to hell style level really is creepy. Exactly the way Doom should look like.

The Bad
The game has more or less the same number of pros and cons. For beautiful graphics we have to pay with performance. Comparing to Half-life 2, the speed looks pathetic. In 640x480 with low details Doom 3 is not nice at all and still when encountering even two or three monsters, frame rate drops significantly. Comparing Doom 3 to Painkiller is even more pointless. I am able to play the latter in 1024x768 in high details with about 40-50 fps and Doom 3 in 640x480 in low details with about 30 fps which falls to 10-20 during fight. Of course in this situation Painkiller looks far better than Doom 3. So the cost of nice lights, bump mapping and other fancy things is very high.

Simple story can also be a disadvantage, rarely player can be surprised with something, yet the plot of counselor being seen first evil and then as good seems nice.

Another large problem is that Doom 3 offers no real fun after some time. With almost no multiplayer mode, people can only play single player and that will at some moment simply get boring.

The Bottom Line
Doom 3 is good. Continues the saga in proper way. But it is definitely not a perfect way. Nice atmosphere, great graphics and good models is what makes this game great. But remember - no entry with <2MHz processor.

Windows · by Ajan (262) · 2006

[ 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.