This is my little DOOM 3 review... To be fair I'm not a big fan of the single player 'Kill-The-Magical-Space-Monsters-From-Hell' genera; it was an original and funky twist for id Software's breakthrough game "DooM" -- but the plethora of clones, and lack of any real solid thematic ideas behind KTMSMFH makes it about the most un-immersive game concept I've encountered in id's latest re-gurge which doesn't take the idea any further. In fact as id has had the ground work for the game concept and nearly five years to hone it, it's shocking 'DOOM 3' (title formatting is all id's) is so completely lacking in any new game concept work.
Because DOOM 3 is supposed to be a technological 'Tour De Force' I played with with all the games render settings MAXED on several state-of-the-art systems to experience everything at its immersive best, and, as many argue that id games are little more then expansive 'Tech Demos' I wanted to give DOOM 3 'the engine' a fair shake to impress me.
Spoiler: I wasn't impressed.
In DOOM 3 all the spaces are EXTREMELY small, Mars outdoors is SMALLER then even a typical Q3A INDOOR space... The effect might be cool, thematically justifiable, or, atmospheric and claustrophobic if there was some contrast of large or open spaces but there are none; the game just just looks busy and monotonous. All the Mars station spaces and game assets are aesthetically interesting but after traversing 120 virtual meters of DOOM 3 you've seen 99% of what's new to see.
EVERYTHING is DARK, all the few functioning light sources are CONSTANTLY flashing. On the pure story level You'd think that if mankind was advanced enough to build a spaces station on Mars, have compact plasma weapons and construct portals to hell we we'd have lights that work -- but even in the beginning of the game on a peaceful Mars station everyone is working in the dark or under flicking malfing light sources -- DOOM 3 will give even the most robust 'Club Kid' a strobe light headache in a manner of minuets.
DOOM 3 game-play is so below the bar it would be funny if DOOM 3 were developed by a 'Value' game studio, but it's all rudimentary 'find the keys & shoot the monsters' game-play -- oh and you get an 90's PDA if finding keys and shooting monsters is too complicated for you. Uhm does anyone else see the the irony? id Software fans: there are better $5 bargain bin games from Eastern Europe on original and unique engines then DOOM 3 for actual game-play design...
Suspense and horror? Well perhaps if you have an anxiety disorder, or get sick when your sister's Hello Kitty doll falls off the shelf... But from over here it looks like anyone that finds DOOM 3 'suspenseful' or 'scary' is an extra from the game and only functioning from the neck down...
Sadder still the DOOM 3 game is really not that cool or great looking; sure the per-pixel light it NICE but not 'Great'. The effects are dynamic (in rather simplistic ways) etc. etc. but you're still getting the lighting style and a similar level of detail we've seen and had in static light in games for a number of years now -- the game still looks a lot like Q3A as far as geometry, aesthetics and style... Moreover DOOM 3's SOTA technologies and render effects just aren't that spectacular; whether this is a limitation of the engine, the art assets limitations the engine is using, or sacrafices made to hardware or 'all the above' is up for discussion -- the results just aren't that 'WoWoW' or fantastic.
DOOM 3 lifts a shocking number of game design ideas, and even some game content are virtually direct rips of Alien vs. Predator 2 -- and it's amazing that game on its older (pre Jupiter) version of the Lith engine actually looks better in many regards, has a lot more atmosphere, suspense, drama, horror, and is light years past DOOM 3 in game-play. Similarly the games sound assets are not only lacking in originality and quality, but there are rather shocking lifts of others work...
And DOOM 3's sound is HORRIBLE, truly awful! The game's deplorable sound design would be the bottom of the barrel if the engine's sound rendering didn't make it there first. What a crushing disappointment! All John Carmack's bluster about the sound render capabilities of DOOM 3 were either bullshit or are broken. DOOM 3 still has massive audio DR compression, distortion, and less positional and scale spacial effect then plain old 'Stereo'. I could go on, but it would get REALLY ugly.
DOOM 3 is not a horrible game, it does look nice, have decent art assets, and a solid implementation of some new render technologies. But it's not worth $55, and definitely not worth the price of a system upgrade for anyone contemplating one. The game is monotonous both aesthetically, and in it's game-play; there aren't the endless hours of fun to be found in DOOM 3 that there were in other id Software games...
I'm sorry id game fans, sorry id Software, I really wanted to like this game, love it's engine, drool over the next three generations of hardware that would offer me the promise to run it flat out in every setting at 1310720 + pixels resolutions with triple digit frame rates -- DOOM 3 is none of those things for me...
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