Doom 3 holds up surprisingly well (and is underrated)

I have been playing Doom 3 and I think it is very underrated. The monster design is very respectful to the original Doom, the game feels like what Doom would have been if it were realistic. The engine supporting no more than 3-4 enemies on the screen somehow works in favour of the game, as it forced id Software to make the monsters stronger and more challenging. I really like their interpretation of the Pinky monster, making it almost like a micro boss fight.

I also love the Doom 3 interpretation of the Chaingun and how it is introduced, allowing you to plow through hordes of enemies.
The Imp design is superb, it is more complex than the original, as it has both melee and ranged attacks, can sustain two shotguns shots and facing three imps at the same time is a challenge.

All in all, I love how each monster of the original Doom was interpreted to make it stronger, more individually challenging, with more varied attacks and complex behavior, and being both respectful to the original visual design while still being creative with it. Just look at the comparison of all Doom monsters. Doom 3 did much better in this regard than Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal, even if Eternal is in theory closest to the original designs. The monsters and their attacks are varied and with no hitscan attacks except for zombie marines.

I also like the design philosophy of Doom 3. There is no handholding in any shape or form. After the first levels, you are often starved for ammo and health, forcing you explore the levels. There are always hidden medpacs and ammo, and finding them is always satisfying. Last but not least, finding the passwords of lockers is tremendously satisfying, forcing you to listen to audio logs, read through emails and to search for PDFs. There was one level on which the password on all lockers was 123 because the employees were morons and could not remember a more complex password.

This leads me to he story and atmosphere. The story is intriguing without getting in the way and never forces you to sit through exposition. While my laptop cannot run Doom 2016, I have watched the intro of the Doom guy ripping a monitor the moment it starts showing exposition, which I found rather cringy. Doom 3 managed to have a straightforward story with enough mystique to keep you entertained, and also has enough cool audio logs that tell the story of the Mars base.

The base itself has a very believable design. It does feel like just a few moments ago, people were living and working there. I love that the game does not use music and only uses environmental sounds, which are very realistic.

All in all, Doom 3 is probably the best successor Doom 1 and 2 could have had in 2004. The game could have been so much worse and complete decline, but instead it dared to try something new and be as respectful as possible to the source material. And while Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal seem fun from what I've seen from them, they were not as revolutionary as Doom 3 was at the time, let alone the original Doom. And they do seem a little generic and playing it probably a little too safe, too edgy, too modern AAA, but feel free to correct me since I won't be able to play them anytime soon due to personal hardware limitations.

 

A good game, not a good Doom game.

 

I replayed it a year ago and thought it wasn't so bad. It's essentially HL on Mars, but I enjoyed it. Obviously it's a horror shooter / story shooter, which is a whole different approach from Doom I-II. The worst part was fighting imps the whole game, the best part was the art direction and Hell levels. The final boss fight is just stupid though. EDIT: I'd avoid the BFG edition, it's inferior.

 

Would you say Doom 2016/Eternal are good Doom games?

 

The last true Doom games to me were Final Doom and Doom 64. So no, 2016/Eternal are definitely not.

 

They're okay Serious Sam games.

 

I think comparing Doom 3 to the original Doom games is very unfair. The series needed to break new ground, as even Final Doom and Doom 64 just rehashed the original formula.

 

Serious Sam is more Doom-like than Doom 3 and Doom 2016/Eternal.

 

I've instantly had an interest in playing that new Terminator game, and went thru probably 75% of it, and I also instantly dropped both of these NU DOOM games after starting them, did not last 30 minutes.

Because they're horrible shit, and anyone who praises them is a braindead cretin. These games are the Windows 10 of Doom franchise.

I actually lasted longer in Doom 3, though it was basically an engine demo with overdone emo darkness and cheap jump scares. It was no Doom, either.

 

Well they completely dropped the ball on the Hell Knight design in 3-Eternal, it's not respectful or faithful all. If you had never seen Doom 3 and someone presented the design to you without mentioning where they were from, you wouldn't make the connection. I generally find the Doom 4/Eternal monsters to be over-designed compared to the just-right originals, so the sense that this is what 'realistic' Doom would look like is not there for me. They look like what they are, video game monsters.

But as a game I enjoyed 3. I was fairly obsessed with it before it came out. I had read and seen so much that I knew not to expect the same kind of game as the old games. Biggest disappointment was some of the weak ass weapon feedback. And also I didn't like that every weapon was a future weapon. The pistol and shotgun in the old games grounded the games a bit by having something relatable to our real world.

 

It's pretty terrible and doesn't feel like doom at all

 

Even if you don't judge it for its name (being a not-true successor of the doom franchise) :
1/ it's a shooter with weapons that sound like peashooters. How did id, the company that made the most legendary shotgun of all times, mess this up?
2/ level and encounter design relied on a very very repeated and tired gimmick after a while. The infamous 'monster closet' just never stops. Much of the game is claustrophobic which limits what can be presented mechanically. There just isn't enough variety of encounter and set ups of groups of monsters to last this game's length.
3/ environments are 50 shades of dull. You can make something with a more realistic bent without being that dull. (nudoom went the other extreme and looks comically retarded) If I lived in such a space station (rather, than, say, something that looks like the spaceship interior of 2001) I too would want to consort with the forces of Hell. Now it's possible to make dull work or somewhat atmospheric but this isn't it. It does get better when hell starts "leaking" into the station.
4/ gameplay / atmosphere conflict. It plays like a straight shooter but it's filled with so many jumpscares it's pretty clear they want to be an horror game but it doesn't feel like it.
5/ excessive contrast. Even when there are lights, the dark areas are really too dark. Light doesn't work that way. It bounces. It's fine to have truly dark moments in which -everything- is dark but it's pretty clear they were more enamored with the tech and obsessed with applying it to everything than trying to make interesting environments.

The schizophrenia between being a traditional shooter or an horror game can be seen in some of the things they did in the leaked alpha of the game that didn't end up in the final release, like zombies not always dying straight away and being able to get up again in the alpha, but all enemies have bodies that disappear after dying in final release. Much of the horror elements they planned for the game were cut.
What remains is a ultimately repetitive, boring shooter. It's not the worst FPS in existence but it's not what I wanted from id software back in 2004. The company that made games like the original Doom and Quake 3, the ultimate multiplayer arena shooter.

To add salt to the wound, they handed off the Quake license to another developer during that time period which led to a forgettable and forgotten Quake 4. Because it wasn't enough to tarnish one id franchise.

As for the nudoom stuff, it's not even worth talking about. It's not the id software we used to know anymore. Carmack was its last vestige but it was obvious from Doom 3 and Rage that the company needed more than an engine builder. Now he's busy working on VR stuff rather than making games and the current id is just a bunch of has been riding on a name.

 

What?

 

It does feel like a horror of game design though

 

Doom 3 is a fine game with great visuals and artwork, I don't think thats ever been disputed, but the chief complaint has always been that it doesnt play anything like doom and plays more like a survival horror. I don't think its underrated at all, if anything, its a little overrated.

 

Doom 3 is kind of amusing as a "what if Doom was made in 2004?" thought experiment. For about ten minutes.

It's not a terrible game by any means, but it doesn't excel in any area either. As a shooter its not very good due to mostly unsatisfying weapons and generally repetitive combat. It's not much of a horror game either due to its reliance on lame jump scares, monster closets and the same gimmicks over and over again. I don't remember it being particularly atmospheric or having much in the way of exploration. You could say it's "Half-Life in Mars" or something, but HL was original and innovative, whereas Doom 3 feels awfully derivative and representative of its time in all the wrong ways, aside from lacking the variety and the memorable moments that HL had. It's a game you finish once and forget about.

 

I wouldn't say it's underrated or overrated. The average user-score is around 7.5 the last time I checked. I think that's about right.

Personally, I think it's good but not great. Nice atmosphere but not very challenging.

 

7/10. It's alright I guess. It's a product of the push hard for realistic graphics era, and the start of the decline.

 

Yet it's still better than most single player shooters that came out since. It's not a great game but I have a soft spot for cheesy horror/sci-fi mashups so I still replay this every few years. Dead Space too.

It was my first Doom game in fact, it came out a year after I got my first PC. Only started playing classic Dooms few years ago.

 

When every game out there is rated 9 or 10, people just say "7 is alright".

 

I can see why they went with horror with Doom 3. I was extremely scared of Doom 1 when I was 8 years old and played it fir the first time. For some reason, the version I played had no music and only a constant chewing-like sound. I never felt like a badass back then, I felt like a normal guy trying to escape Mars, but being doomed to die there (which I thought was the idea behind the tittle Doom). I also did not know how to safe, meaning each death was a perma death. I didn't know English, so I always played on the default difficulty.


It is easy to say now that Doom is a fast-paced fun shooter, but back in the day, I was certainly scared and playing it at a slower pace.


When I first saw screenshots of the Alpha in a magazine, I was about 9 years old and completely blown away. The gaming experience at 9 and at 26 couldn't be more different. But 2004-2005 was the biggest push in graphics ever, nothing has since compared to the excitement of seeing the Doom alpha and the Half-life Beta gameplay.

 

The 00's were generally terrible and console raped, but Doom 3 made the best of the demands of the time. It's a bright game from a dark age, ironically.

 

Since when is every game out there rated 9 or 10?

 

No, they're not even good games.

 

I remember all of the enemies being fairly slow and nonthreatening except the hitscanners and tentacle arm man, who raped the shit out of me every time they appeared.

There was definitely way too much ammo, your shotgun could hold like 500 shells and you will hit that ammo cap a few maps in.

Most of the weapons do feel weak and lame, but the Plasma Gun is the best of the Doom games IMO.

Low enemy variety, low enemy numbers, and cramped areas for most of the game work to make encounters boring and unmemorable. There's only so many times Bertruger can do his evil laugh, the lights can dim, and 3 imps can spawn around you. The game does this all the way to the 2nd to last level.