Doom³

The Good
2004 was, at first glance, a fantastic year for the first-person shooter genre. Spring gave us the unlooked-for treat of Far Cry, summer brought the release of the long-anticipated DOOM³, and Valve finally completed their work on Half-Life 2 by the winter. While all these titles made significant advances in graphical rendering, they represented more of a technological advancement than an evolution in gameplay. But first, let's look at what's right about DOOM³.

The first thing that stands out is the atmosphere. It is dark, but the lighting is dynamic and very realistic. In fact, superior lighting is the biggest advantage that DOOM³ has over its main rival, Half-Life 2. Now, John Carmack, the brains behind id's game engines, has said that in order for DOOM³ to run properly, the basic color scheme of the gameworld needed to be black, black, and more black. And this is the dominant feature of DOOM³ -- the levels are dark, claustrophobic, and poorly-lit. After trapezing around on bright sunlit tropical islands in Far Cry, the dark, tight corridors of DOOM³ are more than a little disturbing. But the DOOM series is all about fear, dread, and horror, so all this gloom is both appropriate and immersive. But, if you like things bright and cheery, this is not the game for you.

Moving on: the gameplay is solid, though it lacks any innovation. The run-and-gun philosophy behind the prior DOOM games has been tempered somewhat. Instead of blasting your way through a dozen demons, DOOM³ requires a more cerebral approach. You'll need to move forward slowly, patiently, listening for every sound, checking in every corner, creating a mental schematic in your head in case you need to turn heel and run away from some horrific cybernetic demon-dog.

The bosses are impressive but for some reason lack the personality of their counterparts in DOOM. I really hated that Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind in classic DOOM, but the bosses here are just too menacing and overwhelming to give me a chance to loathe them. I just frantically pumped round after round into them, loaded time after time after getting wasted, and eventually polished them off. Still, they are quite memorable. Regrettably, though, the final boss is more of an RPG encounter than a real challenge. You can only hurt it with one weapon, the SoulCube, which is homing. So you just strafe around in circles, keeping your distance from various yard trash enemies, and the boss (a different incarnation of the Cyberdemon) will never hit you with his rockets. Your homing SoulCube takes four or five deployments to kill the big meanie, and that's it, game over.

The Bad
The plot of DOOM³ is a bit muddled and uninspired. I get the feeling that id was far more concerned with creating a graphical masterpiece than a dramatic one. Still, three years after Bungie released the compelling and story-driven Halo, it would have been nice if id had aspired to create a more coherent and sensible storyline. Perhaps they did aspire to this: but the bottom-line is that they failed. The demons of Hell don't appear to have any reason or purpose to their existence: they are just mean and ferocious and aren't driven by an intelligent force like the Spider Mastermind in the original DOOM.

Furthermore, the chief antagonist of DOOM³, Dr. Betruger, appears to be such a wicked and hateful human being that he'll sacrifice the entire human race in his quest for power. I find that a bit unrealistic -- nobody is that evil.

The Bottom Line
DOOM³ is a graphical triumph, but it offers little in the way of gameplay innovation. Still, if it ain't broke don't fix it, right? DOOM and its sequel were big hits, so I don't blame id for keeping it simple and just focusing on their technology.

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. :)

The Good
Even in 2009, Doom 3 still is visually impressive. There are a lot of great shadow and texture effects that make for a great and often scary atmosphere. The game does a good job of making metal surfaces and fleshy surfaces look quite real. There is a good variety of weapons to blow demons back to hell with. Doom 3 will provide you with some new types of monsters to kill as the game progresses so you never get bored and will have to develop new strategies to fight. Often something would jump out of the shadows and scare me and I would be swearing out loud. That might sound like a bad thing but it was fun in the end. There is much more health and ammo in this game than you will likely need, giving it an almost arcade like feel.

The Bad
There were a few things that I did not find so hot about Doom 3:

• Eventually you get tired of the enemies popping out from hidden rooms that make no sense to be realistically.

• Your character moves very slowly and you have a limited amount of stamina for running.

• There was no native widescreen support. I had to edit the games system files manually.

• You can not wield a flashlight and weapon at the same time... And some rooms have you in complete darkness.
  
  The Bottom Line
  Having purchased Doom 3 as part of the ID software Super Pack on Steam, I would say it was worth every penny. ( The package also includes the expansion to Doom 3, all the older Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein 3D Games, and a lot of other games). 5 Years later this game still looks great and was a blast to play. At times it might have been a little TOO scary, but i took my courage pills and finished it. I would have liked some Co-op multiplayer but I hear that it is only in the Xbox version. Overall, its a great shooter and lots of fun.