[Gort]

Well if you don't know much about the long awaited Doom 3, then come on out from underneath that rock, brush off the snails and read my informal review. I'm going to save the usual intros of story and such, as I'm sure most of you are familiar with the whole "lab on Mars, experimentss go awry and a gate to hell is opened up" thing.

I've been playing for several nights now and in my office with almost no lights on. The game flawlessly lives up to it's over the top creep factor; I know it's a game, but in palm sweating moments of immersion, I find myself getting chills and having the hair raise up the back of my neck. This game is definitely creepy; the environments with their dark, shadowy nooks and crannies with extraordinary lighting, the occassional sounds of skittering, breaking glass and what not lend to a bonafide freakfest of . . .creepiness.

Sorry . . . I'll try to quit using that word.

Overall the game has a combined Quake/Quake 2 feel to it. Like Quake there's visual references to the demonic underworld through symbology and the baddies. Ah yes . . . the baddies. We have all sorts of demonic freaks jumping out from sudden dimensional portals and hidden walls, and let's not forget the zombified lab staff; yeah, they eat flesh.

Like Quake 2 the environments are massively industrial and remind me a lot of Stroggos (uh - you do remember Stroggos - right?). Some of the sound effects from Quake 2 have even been reused. But unlike Quake 2, the industrial settings in Doom 3 are much more detailed; the level of attention is amazing and well done.

The verdict:
Folks, it's just another shooter but with a new look.
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- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[RDThomas]

Another really creepy games if you wanna try them are Half-Life. I personally love that game. And also Return to Castle Wolfenstein. THey are both awesome games but at some points really creepy.
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[Gort]

I've played both RTCW and HL extensively, and although I agree they were creepy, Doom 3 is continously creepy; it's as if it never lets up. Always creepy. Uber creepy.
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- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[Impaler]

The satin smooth in-game computer interface system, combined with (of course) the amazing lighting effects and surface processing make all the other games I own look primitive and cartoonish.

Seriously.

Play through doom 3 and go back through Splinter Cell or Halo or even Farcry and UT2k4. They look silly now.
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QED, sort of.

[Jimmyjimjim]

I have a P4/2Ghz, 512 RAM, Gforce 2. Anyone know how well it will play it?

I hate to even install the demo if it will look like shit.

[oDD]

this game is incredible, and who would have thought id can make a good single player game (don't get me wrong i wasted my youth playing games like doom and doom2). They took best things from other games (for egzample many influences from half-life,) added few amazing innovations (like the flashlight, the sounds) and presented it with stunning graphics. It's the first game that actually made me scared few times. The plot is easy to follow but not dumb. The e-mails in the pda, the characters, the enviroment create together a bulivable reality.

i don't agree that "it's just another shooter but with a new look." it's more. It's a shooter above others. Don't want to sound like a fan boy , i know there are few things that could have been done better, i don't know how it will look against HL2 but it's not just another shooter. If youre into this kind of games , you have to and you will play it.

sorry for the spelling.
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[B0b]

played it - uninstalled it - waiting for HL2

[Chruser]

Great game. I thought of some various ways to reduce the creepy feeling, especially if on a high-end system:

Run fast and jump like crazy through the game, and encountering a monster will definitely be less frightening.

Turn off the sound. 80% of the creepiness suddenly goes away, and the game gets ruined.

Play in daylight, with friends.

Read a walkthrough, and make sure you write down wherever all the shocking scenes are, so you can have a giant bag of popcorn, laughing at those monsters who try to ambush you and scare you.

Have a radio or television in the background play MTV songs that you sing along with.


Now, if you want to be REALLY scared, do the exact opposite of my suggestions. Sneak around very slowly, while you're all alone, isolated in the darkness. I URGE you to use a good heatset as it beats most speakers. Monsters will really feel a lot closer to you. But then again, I've only compared my headset to a cheap 5.1 surround setup. And definitely boost up the graphics if you can, but it's still frightening on the lowest of possible settings, much thanks to the sound.
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[Matthew]

Anyone have any screenshots? I have seen those on the doom3 site but there is no sight and menus in those so it would be cool to see some from interior-game.
Snif I can't afford to upgrade to try this game out.

thanks for the feedback regarding the game Gort

[Awetopsy]

Doom 3 wasnt that good.

before you kill me, I do think it had the best graphics of all games Ive ever seen.

<rant>
...but the story and the gameplay were nothing special.

Hidden panels in the wall exploding and revealing amonster that was somehow stuck back there waiting for the opportune time to come after you gets a little old after a while.

and the game had spiders.... I mean who has spiders anymore?!?

what about having to switch from the flashlight to weapon to flashlight again.. apparently 200 years from now we have lost the ability to hold a gun and a flashlight at the same time...
</rant>

on the plus side, The computer interfaces were a really cool idea and sometimes when all the lights would go out only to reveal a apir of glowing eytes coming toward you it certainly made your heart pound. I did jump a couple times.

I especially thought those baby monsters were disturbing.

my rating..

6 out of 10.


ok maybe 6.5.

[henrik]

Ok so having read a lot of reviews where people state its "creepiness", how much is left for the running around and shooting part? I was hoping to get another doom here, not a first person resident evil.
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[Gort]

I'm going to stand by my views; I really believe it's just another shooter but with a new look. Granted it's probably the most beautiful game I've played to date; the levels are amazing, and combined with the lighting and sounds, I'd be hard pressed to admit it wasn't beautiful and well executed.

But come on - zombies, demons and ogres with chainsaws popping out of hidden wall panels - how Quake is that? Nothing new! OK so interacting with the PDA isn't bad; I don't mind that, but it's still the same thing - find the key to open the door, go way down to wherever to turn this thing on so you can open that door so you can . . .

Just another shooter.

But that doesn't mean I don't like it, because I do. I think the game is gorgeous and fun.

And Noel, yes - you'd think that 144 years in the future a gun would have a flashlight on it. That whole switching back and forth between gun and flashlight thing is a pain in the rumpus.
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- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[Gort]

I believe that this pretty much sums up my views.
_________________
- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[Awetopsy]

I was actually thinking the other day.. (imagine that) that Ive never seen a game from id that doesnt deal with the paranormal. I think its getting a bit old for them.. Id love to see a pure Sci Fi game from them sometime..

Id love to see them produce a game where there are no skull-wall textures at all ever. maybe even drop the pentagrams. You almost get the feeling there are a bunch of satanists working there.

[Gort]

Actually Quake 2 was free from the paranormal; I actually loved it - invading Stroggos with a mission of destroying the Big Gun. Sure - it wasn't a new concept in story, but it was a welcomed change to zombies, wraiths, deathknights and so on.

The drawback was that a lot of poepl thought the weapons for multiplayer had been dumbed down somewhat; these cries usually came from those getting their *ss kicked.
_________________
- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[Awetopsy]

Im pretty sure quake2 still had skull textured walls tho...

either way.. I still think id should expand out of their subject matter box.

[Gort]

Actually, Noel, I believe some of the Deathmatch levels in Q2 had skulls, but the singleplayer game was all very "scifi-centric". The baddies were very cool - Tank, Berserkers, etc.

As for Doom 3 I do like that the cut scenes utilize the game environment and player models (like Shogo - remember Shogo? Very nice)

Matthew - you're welcome! I'll try to remember to get some screens of the PDA panels and such for you.
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- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[Matthew]

u guys are talking about me all-time favourite games, Quake 2 and Shogo were really good games both in the graphics and storytelling.
That Shogo story was pure genious and so was the strogg environment when u could follow the map in Quake 2.

Quake 2 had more realism then even the Quake 3 arena I believe.

Gort, screens would be awesome, thank you.

see you guys

[Giant Hamster]

This is the great thing about games: ID Software is NOT the only game developer on the planet. ID Software are the Hell on Earth, violent demonic outbreak guys. That's their thing.

There are umpteen other game developers out there out there, all with their own style and absurdly different and original games to offer.

All these companies have a specialty.

Path 1: Long going series like Star Wars, Star Trek, Kirby and Final Fantasy, which never change story/gameplay but change look and technologically.

Path 2: Some companies like Lucas Arts with Sam&Max, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island and Full Throttle. Different series, same cartoony style and adventure gameplay.

Capcom. Their specialty is fighting games. Not to mention for a while there exact same game over and over with a different name. Street Fighter Super Ultra Alpha EX 3 Turbo Tag-Team Mega and the Capcom VS. Everyone-and-their-mother series.

They're just one company though. That's what they do and that's what I expect from them. No complaints here. They do it best.

About Doom 3, The engine won't go to waste, in a few months every game developer on the planet will announce a new game based on the Doom 3 engine and you'll get your Intergalactic colony-building game, another world war 2 story and a few sneaky ninja/assassin gigs.

[Lunatique]

I finished the game in about 2 days, and although it was graphically the most advanced game I've ever played, it was. . ..

1) It was really just a mixture of System Shock 2 and Half-Life.

2) What little bit of uniqueness it has with the whole ancient civilization bit felt totally tacked on, as it had no bearing on the outcome of the story.

3) id has always been a technology driven company--not design driven or story driven. I had hoped they'd change that, but what can you expect from someone like Carmack running the show? He's programmer, not some writer/director.

4) They did hire a writer, but they might as well not have, because they let the game end in a really crappy and typical fashion. Why hire a writer if you don't give a shit about your game's storytelling foundamentals?

5) id has never, and will never understand that games can be more than just something that makes your adrenalin flow. Games can make you feel emotions, contain intellectual ideas, and maybe even profound reflections--but nope, id doesn't see it that way and they don't care.

[Giant Hamster]

...They don't care because that's the OTHER guy's job...as I've already pointed out.

There are a thousand game companies, leave ID alone. :P

[Lunatique]

If they don't care, then they shouldn't have bothered to hire a real writer, or given the game any kind of plot, with painstakingly written personal logs, audio logs, emails..etc. Why bother doing all that just to have it end up half-assed? id should just stick to making multiplayer frag-fests then--since those don't require any story. Oh wait, the UT franchise and the Tribes franchise are both better at it. :p

[Awetopsy]

Shogo was great!

Doom 3 was mediocre. As I sid before it really didnt do anything to reinvent the genre..

Every time those spiders came out I felt like "oh great, not these things again."

[spooge demon]

some doom3 concept work from 2000. Not much to write home about. I think I will get the game, though, eventually.

[Matthew]

Spooge, I have been meaning to ask you but I keep forget all the time. When you do concepts like these above what kind of instructions are you given? or are you given free-hand to develop some scenes with a given theme? Thanks for posting these, already back in 2000, cool.
maybe u have answered this above elsewhere so I hope it is ok with me newbie questions here.

ok later

[Lunatique]

Oooh Spooge. I suspect there's more where those came from. Are you holding out on us? Allow me to bribe you with a nice backrub. . ..

[ceenda]

I think even John Carmack would've had his work cut out trying to render THAT in realtime.

I agree with Luna, more please! *ding ding*

[oDD]

nice
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[RDThomas]

Going back to emotions in gameplay, I feel that the ending of Zelda Ocarina of Time had a great ending. I love that game, it was so linear and yet you couldn't stray too much off course. THe ending made you feel good like you actually beat something, not like oh great so I just saved the world for nothing.
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[Gort]

Wow Craig - many thanks for the post!!
_________________
- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield