One of the most unfortunately Mid games of all time. Every vertical slice of this game LOOKS amazing, FEELS really compelling, and seems as if it is amazing, but it does NOT stretch across an entire game's length. It's one of the most bizarre feats of game design ever, to make 30 seconds of fun but not one whole minute of it.
I adore the game's commitment to darkness, utilizing beautiful 2004 stencil shadows to create a true sense of claustrophobic darkness that only the Thief games can match, and the willingness to surround you in that darkness. But I absolutely fucking despise the BFG Edition for capitulating to morons who thought the darkness was a NEGATIVE and not something Doom 3 should have doubled down on.
What really kills Doom 3 is a few things: the terrible spread on the shotgun that renders a weapon you are going to use a lot really bad. The terrible damage indicator that shakes and flashes your screen, which makes getting ganked more annoying than it is frightening. But most importantly: this game is boring.
It starts off so promising, an effectively tension driven survival horror game, and as you get more powerful weapons you start to feel more in control of the situation, but there are so many grey corridors you can go through before you are just like, "I don't really care anymore." Unfortunately, Doom 3 ends up here when you still have like, 9 hours left of game to play. It's a genuine chore to beat this game, it isn't able to sustain pressure like System Shock 2, which it clearly was paying attention to. But it also isn't paced like Half Life, where you are never doing the same thing for too long. Hell, its gameplay loop isn't as perfect as FEAR, ensuring you wouldn't want to do anything else. It's just a kind of annoying gameplay loop that gets old real fast.
Like I said, a huge shame. As the way the game looks, the panicky way the guns swing around as you are getting swarmed in the dark, the animations on the guns are just superb, there is so much here that makes me wish I was a diehard Doom 3 defender, but unfortunately the bigger picture proves everyone right: this shit is Mid.
I adore the game's commitment to darkness, utilizing beautiful 2004 stencil shadows to create a true sense of claustrophobic darkness that only the Thief games can match, and the willingness to surround you in that darkness. But I absolutely fucking despise the BFG Edition for capitulating to morons who thought the darkness was a NEGATIVE and not something Doom 3 should have doubled down on.
What really kills Doom 3 is a few things: the terrible spread on the shotgun that renders a weapon you are going to use a lot really bad. The terrible damage indicator that shakes and flashes your screen, which makes getting ganked more annoying than it is frightening. But most importantly: this game is boring.
It starts off so promising, an effectively tension driven survival horror game, and as you get more powerful weapons you start to feel more in control of the situation, but there are so many grey corridors you can go through before you are just like, "I don't really care anymore." Unfortunately, Doom 3 ends up here when you still have like, 9 hours left of game to play. It's a genuine chore to beat this game, it isn't able to sustain pressure like System Shock 2, which it clearly was paying attention to. But it also isn't paced like Half Life, where you are never doing the same thing for too long. Hell, its gameplay loop isn't as perfect as FEAR, ensuring you wouldn't want to do anything else. It's just a kind of annoying gameplay loop that gets old real fast.
Like I said, a huge shame. As the way the game looks, the panicky way the guns swing around as you are getting swarmed in the dark, the animations on the guns are just superb, there is so much here that makes me wish I was a diehard Doom 3 defender, but unfortunately the bigger picture proves everyone right: this shit is Mid.
10 Comments
Doom 3 would be amazing if it didn't insist on putting monster closets every few steps or imps every second door and actually let you take in the atmosphere
at least idtech4 gave us human head's prey and prey 2
i'm happy to be back, I missed reading everyone's reviews while I was gone! I may never top that review but I'm glad it lives on in the hearts of others
i'm happy to be back, I missed reading everyone's reviews while I was gone! I may never top that review but I'm glad it lives on in the hearts of others
looks like I'm gonna have to play quake 4 then
will never get over the irony that a second-hand studio making an entry for the N64 was able to make a more fulfilling "Doom but fully horrified" title than the one by the studio - keyword: studio, not people - that created the IP in the first place
doom 64 might as well be doom 3, it's so good
also i forgot to mention, but the Doom 3 theme song is the best music in a Doom game and absolutely eclipses the shitty ass Doom 2016 and Eternal osts.
curse
9 months ago