Finishing Doom 3 is a big deal for me, because it's the last Doom I still hadn't played, and Doom is the video game franchise I feel most attached to. When I was a kid I spent countless hours making wads and dehacked mods. Compared to what people are making now these were crude and paltry things but I didn't know any of that; I was just having fun building things. I was starting to outgrow my Legos but this scratched the same itch.
By the time Doom 3 came out, I was grown, working dead end jobs and broke as a joke. Whatever clunky old computer I was running definitely couldn't run it. I heard some negative buzz so I decided it wasn't for me and didn't really think much about Doom again for like 15 years. Until I got pulled back in by Doom Eternal, with its revolutionary gameplay shot through with indulgent nostalgia. Ever since I've been working my way backwards through the series which, let me tell you, is a very bad way to experience this franchise.
The narrative plot of these games is basically a non-factor; the real story of Doom is how its mechanics and gameplay have evolved throughout the series. Going backwards can be jarring, and I found both 2016 and 3 initially off-putting until I stepped back a bit to re-contextualize them and adjust my expectations. I'm glad I did, though, because what I first dismissed as a failed experiment I've come around to see as a critical waypoint in the evolution of the series.
Everything looks good when you can't see anything
I'm revisiting Doom 2016 now, and in that review I'll be going into a lot more depth about what I see as the core Doom experiences and the broader arc of the franchise. What sets Doom 3 apart from the other entries is the degree to which it leans into horror, even "survival horror" territory at some points. That means small, often downright cramped, game spaces and deep ominous shadows and "creepier" monster designs (will someone please let all game designers and movie directors know that human infants aren't scary? Not even if they're like half bugs or whatever. There's just nothing scary about babies. While you're taking notes, could you also let them know that children singing nursery rhymes are also not scary? Yes, even in a house with the lights off. Yes, even if they're British. Thank you).
The shadows are pretty much the star here; I believe at the time Doom 3 had the most realistic (certainly the most "dramatic") lighting of any FPS, and boy were a lot of sacrifices made to get there. It's wild to compare this side-by-side with Half-Life 2, which came out only 3 months later. While both are high-budget followups to beloved FPSes, the difference in design goals could not be starker. HL2 is bright, open and expansive, while D3 is dark and cramped. HL2 is a romp, a wild adventure through incredibly diverse levels; D3 is a harrowing gauntlet of repetitive beats, narrow hallways opening up only slightly into medium-sized rooms before constricting down into even more claustrophobic air ducts and crawlspaces.
Despite the limitations of the engine, these spaces are masterworks of environmental storytelling. When I finished 2008's Dead Space my main takeaway was how detailed and fleshed-out the world felt. Doom 3 felt like it was pulling nearly the same level of detail but years earlier. I totally dig a highly detailed environment; even simple stuff like bathrooms help get me more immersed in a space that feels like it has a bigger life than just this one moment of game.
These are supplemented with audio logs (not yet played out; remember it's still 3 years until Bioshock) featuring some surprisingly fantastic voice acting that, "Illusive Man"-style, elevates the sometimes clunky and utilitarian writing. The sound design in general is actually fantastic; from the ear-piercing screech of the chainsaw against metal to the truly disturbing soundscapes of Hell, my hat is off to the whole audio department. The creation of plausible, atmospheric spaces I think is this game's biggest strength.
How long was he in there?
Unfortunately these gorgeous environments are pretty seriously undermined by the basic, repetitive encounter design. Enter a new space, the lights go out, something spawns in front of you, something spawns behind you. I think this pattern may actually repeat over a hundred times throughout this game; it's basically Doom 3's only move. It's a major bummer to have these incredible, immersive, otherwise naturalistic levels with these wild diegetic panels everywhere and then just fill it with blatant monster closets.
Not that there's anything wrong with monster closets; Doom and Doom II used them all over the place. But there's ways to be classy about it. Doom II might have an entire wall of a hallway raise, so that the next time you come through you're like "Hey, wasn't this hallway 50% narrower, and 100% less full of demons, last time I came through?" But it doesn't completely pull you out of the experience. Doom 3 banks so much on immersion and scares; to see an imp step out of a literal 3ft x 3ft closet, a tiny space with no credible purpose, that the creature could have no conceivable reason for standing around in... it just ruins it. Not only that, but the rote repetitiveness of the encounters completely robs them of any tension.
How do you Doom?
I played Doom 3 on Veteran difficulty with the BFG Edition that's available on modern consoles. Looking into the differences, I'm really disappointed I wasn't able to play the original version. To try to capture the original artistic intent, I manually turned off the flashlight every time I fired or reloaded my guns, but of course there were times I forgot. The most frustrating element I missed out on, though, is the dynamic lighting. This is a game where lighting and shadows and mood are everything and not having muzzle flashes and enemy projectiles be light sources makes a huge difference on the presentation.
It's deeply silly that the Lost Soul, an enemy that is perpetually engulfed in flames, needs to be illuminated with a flashlight in order to see it. With the flashlight off, much of the game is literally blindly firing into pitch blackness, waiting for the reticle to turn from red to blue, because even a monster directly in front of you chewing your face off won't be illuminated by the muzzle flash. A baffling and irritating step backward, especially since the original Xbox version was apparently fully intact in this regard. I would love it if this title were re-released with the dynamic lighting restored, a weapon wheel added (cycling through weapons linearly is just too slow for a game like this) and an option to use the original flashlight.
What does Doom 3 bring to the series?
The meat of these games is the mechanics, and Doom 3 introduces more mechanical changes than any other mainline entry. Most, like the flashlight, ammo reloading and extreme camera shake when a demon smacks you are good additions for a survival horror entry. Outside of a specifically horror-themed Doom, they really don't make a lot of sense. Ducking is a particularly toxic addition; I could never really work it into combat making it an exclusively traversal-focused tool. It's certainly atmospheric to duck down to crawl through a vent, and adds to that feeling of claustrophobic terror, but I strongly prefer Eternal's vision of a Doomguy who is never scared, and never ducks.
It also introduced headshots, jumping and stamina to the franchise. I think these are all great additions. Jumping is an obvious one; the double jump + mantle combo introduced in 2016 adds enormous potential for verticality in the level design (although it really wasn't exploited in 3 outside some minor platforming). Headshots reward calmness and precision which then elevates combat beats of relative calm and gives them more contrast against chaotic moments. Stamina-fueled running makes perfect sense for a series where movement is the primary verb; of course you want more tactical choices related to how you get around. Eternal cleverly remixed this as a dash ability on a cooldown, probably because it feels good to be given something, but feels crappy to run out of something.
A Doom to grow on
These days I try to judge a game by how well it communicates and then fulfills its own ambitions; in the past I've had problems letting my own preconceived notions blind me to a game's actual strengths and I end up disliking it for what it's not, instead of appreciating it for what it is. Already feeling so possessive of the series due to moments of childhood joy, I really wanted to meet this game on its own terms and "find the good in it" as the Video Game Podtimism guys like to say. At the end of the day, even with all its faults, I'm a fan of Doom 3.
I never get scared by anything that happens on my TV, and there was this one spot where I checked the corner, empty, checked the other corner, empty, room's clear; I turn around and a DOOR SLAMS OPEN and dude jumps out and smacks the shit outta me and oh man I jumped about a foot in the air. It was a cascade effect with the lapcats spazzing out and then the dog had to chase them out of the room; the whole family was impacted.
The foray into horror looks kind of incongruous when you look at the series as a whole; but I think it's actually a logical evolution of the Doom formula. Doom and Doom II both had a lot of scary, dark, resource-starved moments. I call this the "haunted house" part of Doom. If you don't remember this, maybe go back and play e2m6 on the next highest difficulty, with a pistol start. This is the Doom that Doom 3 is building on, and I think it does an excellent job at that.
Personally I could have done without all the cutscenes and extra world-building, but in a post-Half Life world it probably felt compulsory and I think they pulled it off admirably. Put together with the incredible level design, it's a deeply immersive experience with some genuine moments of very Doom-y horror. A lot of mechanics were rightly refined or culled later in the series, but I think this entry is a solid length of the trunk of the Doom tree, and not some peripheral branch.
The BFG edition seems like a major misstep but maybe a Nightdive remaster or something is in the cards one day. In the meantime, after finally finishing the series 29 years after starting it, I think this is still a fantastic Doom that left an unforgettable mark on the franchise.
By the time Doom 3 came out, I was grown, working dead end jobs and broke as a joke. Whatever clunky old computer I was running definitely couldn't run it. I heard some negative buzz so I decided it wasn't for me and didn't really think much about Doom again for like 15 years. Until I got pulled back in by Doom Eternal, with its revolutionary gameplay shot through with indulgent nostalgia. Ever since I've been working my way backwards through the series which, let me tell you, is a very bad way to experience this franchise.
The narrative plot of these games is basically a non-factor; the real story of Doom is how its mechanics and gameplay have evolved throughout the series. Going backwards can be jarring, and I found both 2016 and 3 initially off-putting until I stepped back a bit to re-contextualize them and adjust my expectations. I'm glad I did, though, because what I first dismissed as a failed experiment I've come around to see as a critical waypoint in the evolution of the series.
Everything looks good when you can't see anything
I'm revisiting Doom 2016 now, and in that review I'll be going into a lot more depth about what I see as the core Doom experiences and the broader arc of the franchise. What sets Doom 3 apart from the other entries is the degree to which it leans into horror, even "survival horror" territory at some points. That means small, often downright cramped, game spaces and deep ominous shadows and "creepier" monster designs (will someone please let all game designers and movie directors know that human infants aren't scary? Not even if they're like half bugs or whatever. There's just nothing scary about babies. While you're taking notes, could you also let them know that children singing nursery rhymes are also not scary? Yes, even in a house with the lights off. Yes, even if they're British. Thank you).
The shadows are pretty much the star here; I believe at the time Doom 3 had the most realistic (certainly the most "dramatic") lighting of any FPS, and boy were a lot of sacrifices made to get there. It's wild to compare this side-by-side with Half-Life 2, which came out only 3 months later. While both are high-budget followups to beloved FPSes, the difference in design goals could not be starker. HL2 is bright, open and expansive, while D3 is dark and cramped. HL2 is a romp, a wild adventure through incredibly diverse levels; D3 is a harrowing gauntlet of repetitive beats, narrow hallways opening up only slightly into medium-sized rooms before constricting down into even more claustrophobic air ducts and crawlspaces.
Despite the limitations of the engine, these spaces are masterworks of environmental storytelling. When I finished 2008's Dead Space my main takeaway was how detailed and fleshed-out the world felt. Doom 3 felt like it was pulling nearly the same level of detail but years earlier. I totally dig a highly detailed environment; even simple stuff like bathrooms help get me more immersed in a space that feels like it has a bigger life than just this one moment of game.
These are supplemented with audio logs (not yet played out; remember it's still 3 years until Bioshock) featuring some surprisingly fantastic voice acting that, "Illusive Man"-style, elevates the sometimes clunky and utilitarian writing. The sound design in general is actually fantastic; from the ear-piercing screech of the chainsaw against metal to the truly disturbing soundscapes of Hell, my hat is off to the whole audio department. The creation of plausible, atmospheric spaces I think is this game's biggest strength.
How long was he in there?
Unfortunately these gorgeous environments are pretty seriously undermined by the basic, repetitive encounter design. Enter a new space, the lights go out, something spawns in front of you, something spawns behind you. I think this pattern may actually repeat over a hundred times throughout this game; it's basically Doom 3's only move. It's a major bummer to have these incredible, immersive, otherwise naturalistic levels with these wild diegetic panels everywhere and then just fill it with blatant monster closets.
Not that there's anything wrong with monster closets; Doom and Doom II used them all over the place. But there's ways to be classy about it. Doom II might have an entire wall of a hallway raise, so that the next time you come through you're like "Hey, wasn't this hallway 50% narrower, and 100% less full of demons, last time I came through?" But it doesn't completely pull you out of the experience. Doom 3 banks so much on immersion and scares; to see an imp step out of a literal 3ft x 3ft closet, a tiny space with no credible purpose, that the creature could have no conceivable reason for standing around in... it just ruins it. Not only that, but the rote repetitiveness of the encounters completely robs them of any tension.
How do you Doom?
I played Doom 3 on Veteran difficulty with the BFG Edition that's available on modern consoles. Looking into the differences, I'm really disappointed I wasn't able to play the original version. To try to capture the original artistic intent, I manually turned off the flashlight every time I fired or reloaded my guns, but of course there were times I forgot. The most frustrating element I missed out on, though, is the dynamic lighting. This is a game where lighting and shadows and mood are everything and not having muzzle flashes and enemy projectiles be light sources makes a huge difference on the presentation.
It's deeply silly that the Lost Soul, an enemy that is perpetually engulfed in flames, needs to be illuminated with a flashlight in order to see it. With the flashlight off, much of the game is literally blindly firing into pitch blackness, waiting for the reticle to turn from red to blue, because even a monster directly in front of you chewing your face off won't be illuminated by the muzzle flash. A baffling and irritating step backward, especially since the original Xbox version was apparently fully intact in this regard. I would love it if this title were re-released with the dynamic lighting restored, a weapon wheel added (cycling through weapons linearly is just too slow for a game like this) and an option to use the original flashlight.
What does Doom 3 bring to the series?
The meat of these games is the mechanics, and Doom 3 introduces more mechanical changes than any other mainline entry. Most, like the flashlight, ammo reloading and extreme camera shake when a demon smacks you are good additions for a survival horror entry. Outside of a specifically horror-themed Doom, they really don't make a lot of sense. Ducking is a particularly toxic addition; I could never really work it into combat making it an exclusively traversal-focused tool. It's certainly atmospheric to duck down to crawl through a vent, and adds to that feeling of claustrophobic terror, but I strongly prefer Eternal's vision of a Doomguy who is never scared, and never ducks.
It also introduced headshots, jumping and stamina to the franchise. I think these are all great additions. Jumping is an obvious one; the double jump + mantle combo introduced in 2016 adds enormous potential for verticality in the level design (although it really wasn't exploited in 3 outside some minor platforming). Headshots reward calmness and precision which then elevates combat beats of relative calm and gives them more contrast against chaotic moments. Stamina-fueled running makes perfect sense for a series where movement is the primary verb; of course you want more tactical choices related to how you get around. Eternal cleverly remixed this as a dash ability on a cooldown, probably because it feels good to be given something, but feels crappy to run out of something.
A Doom to grow on
These days I try to judge a game by how well it communicates and then fulfills its own ambitions; in the past I've had problems letting my own preconceived notions blind me to a game's actual strengths and I end up disliking it for what it's not, instead of appreciating it for what it is. Already feeling so possessive of the series due to moments of childhood joy, I really wanted to meet this game on its own terms and "find the good in it" as the Video Game Podtimism guys like to say. At the end of the day, even with all its faults, I'm a fan of Doom 3.
I never get scared by anything that happens on my TV, and there was this one spot where I checked the corner, empty, checked the other corner, empty, room's clear; I turn around and a DOOR SLAMS OPEN and dude jumps out and smacks the shit outta me and oh man I jumped about a foot in the air. It was a cascade effect with the lapcats spazzing out and then the dog had to chase them out of the room; the whole family was impacted.
The foray into horror looks kind of incongruous when you look at the series as a whole; but I think it's actually a logical evolution of the Doom formula. Doom and Doom II both had a lot of scary, dark, resource-starved moments. I call this the "haunted house" part of Doom. If you don't remember this, maybe go back and play e2m6 on the next highest difficulty, with a pistol start. This is the Doom that Doom 3 is building on, and I think it does an excellent job at that.
Personally I could have done without all the cutscenes and extra world-building, but in a post-Half Life world it probably felt compulsory and I think they pulled it off admirably. Put together with the incredible level design, it's a deeply immersive experience with some genuine moments of very Doom-y horror. A lot of mechanics were rightly refined or culled later in the series, but I think this entry is a solid length of the trunk of the Doom tree, and not some peripheral branch.
The BFG edition seems like a major misstep but maybe a Nightdive remaster or something is in the cards one day. In the meantime, after finally finishing the series 29 years after starting it, I think this is still a fantastic Doom that left an unforgettable mark on the franchise.