5+ years in the making, Doom 3 is easily one of the most highly-anticipated games in recent memory. For the last 3 years, its area at E3 was a dark area of secrets and vague hints about this truly awesome creation that was about to be bestowed on us, the undeserving gaming public. Even the cost at release was about 10 bucks over other games, just because it was Doom 3 and it was THAT GOOD. When my copy finally arrived, i installed it immediately and booted it up with baited breath, waiting for my brain to be blown right out of my ears by its amazing amazingness. Instead i discovered that i'd just blown 55 bucks of valuable drinking money on a game that's the interactive equivalent of a graphics demo you get for free with a new video card. I always like to start with the positive aspects, 'cause it makes me sound less jaded than i am, so here it is (notice the singular "it"): Doom 3 looks pretty spiffy when the lights are on. End of the positives. For the sake of brevity and to maintain what's left of my sanity, i'll only point out the major flaws and leave all the minor ones to your imagination. Ready? One: the game is completely uninspired and patently ridiculous. Remember all the basic guns that every first person shooter you've ever played has? Doom 3's guns are exactly the same as those, except with really cheezy, awful sound effects and an effective range of about 15 feet. And you're only allowed to shoot them in the dark. Why? Because apparently the main character has only one arm and can't point a pistol with one hand and hold a flashlight with the other. No, I'm not kidding. Why not mount the light on the gun? Apparently in the future they've lost the amazing technology of light mounts on guns (which are standard for all special ops weapons. Seriously. Ask any member of a SWAT team or other CQB specialist.) and there is absolutely NO duct tape or similar adhesive material on Mars. DON'T QUESTION IT! Haven't you ever heard of suspension of disbelief? And this is a futuristic base on MARS! Adequate room lighting is a strict no-no on mars! Two: The enemy A.I. is based on angry sheep (or possibly cabbages). All they do is charge you, with no thought for... well, anything really. These demons don't have enough intelligence to effectively combat a kindergartner, let alone a one-armed marine with crappy guns. The battles are usually one on one anyway. Apparently the scheduled invasion of mars by the hordes of hell couldn't quite muster up the horde to do it. Looks like they could only get a couple of dozen, so they're spread out pretty thin to strike as much terror as is possible for enraged moron demons. Oh, and don't get me started on the zombies. Shambling zombies of overweight office employees somehow fail to strike fear into the hearts of men. Even if they are MARS zombies. From hell! Really! ...Sigh. Three: The storyline. I'd like to be less vague, but everything about it is just so awful. Most of it is told through text, video and recorded audio that the player finds in various PDAs lying all over the base (PDAs are very, very popular in the future. Well, at least the future on MARS!). By hitting Tab, you bring up your PDA and you can read all the various spooky messages and listen to the harrowing tales of inter-office bickering and beaurocratic stupidity, with the occasional hint of storyline thrown in just for kicks. Yes, it is as awkward and boring as it sounds. You do occasionally get codes to open locked cabinets all over the base, but there's rarely any need to open said cabinets, so... Look! Its everybody's favorite gameplay mechanic: Pointless! All this aside, the storyline is obvious and a completely throw-away part of the game. Which is not that surprising for a FPS, but for some reason Doom 3 decided to focus more on atmosphere and story rather than fun gameplay (i.e. blowing stuff up)so if you throw away the story all you're left with is the... Four: Atmosphere. Imagine developers, artists, modelers and designers scrabbling away madly in their toy covered cubicles ('cause that's what i'd have in my cube if i was them) trying to create a realistic, detailed and above all awesome looking environment. They spend years working, building, lovingly molding their creation into a work of art. Finally, it's done, and it looks great. They place it in the game, get everything working great, enjoy one last look at it, and then turn the lights out. Welcome to Doom 3! Dark does not equal scary, nor does it make for "atmosphere". It does make for crappy gameplay and feverish nights lying awake imagining how much time was wasted on the texturing and modeling of the levels. So much for brevity, but i have to stop before the sheer irritation gives me a stroke. And that's not even half of the MAJOR issues with Doom 3. I didn't even get to the incredibly short playtime (10 hours is a generous estimate), poor level design or the obnoxious NPCs and load times. Doom 3 is simply not worth wasting your time or money on. Wait for a good developer to license the engine and get that instead. ID has once again proven that they can make a killer engine, but can't design a game that lives up to what the engine promises.
I think this game is indeed the best game I've ever played. I like it because it scares me, though I've played it before. The gameplay is really rapid, you should always load your weapons, otherwise you would be torn apa... Read Full Review
This game is not for the faint of heart, the paranoid or the weak stomached. Playing this game alone in the dark with headphones at full blast is one of the most enjoyable if un-nerving experiances you can have with a ga... Read Full Review
