icemann on 6/11/2020 at 16:19
[video=youtube;6vV1nYjNnRE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vV1nYjNnRE[/video]
LGR tonight put out a 16 years later retrospective look at Doom 3. Very interesting stuff.
I've only played through the game and it's expansion once, many years ago and I certainly found it to be an excellent game. It's just wasn't "Doom". More System Shock 2 in some respects (the audio logs, interface etc), and generally more survival horror compared to Doom's 1 & 2 which were complete fast paced action style affairs. Viewed completely on it's own, with the name taken away, it's a fine game imo. Just wasn't Doom.
Say what you will of Doom 2016 and Eternal, but Doom 3 was it's own beast. Definitely worth playing.
Briareos H on 6/11/2020 at 16:35
Ready to get my gamer card revoked: Doom 3 is my favourite in the series. I was first gaming on Amiga and we only got a PC at the end of '95 so by the time I could sit by myself and play the original, other more memorable FPSes like Dark Forces were available and Quake was around the corner. Doom is a good game but I think I missed the train and coming back to it never yielded much fun (still better than Doom 2 and the reboots); on the other hand I played Doom 3 on release and while it has many flaws, it pleased both the tech nerd and horror fan in me. I enjoy replaying it and RoE once in a while.
demagogue on 6/11/2020 at 16:41
The game was pretty cool for what it was, more cramped, dark, moody, intense.
I'm not such an old-school partisan of Doom, so the fact it was different didn't really diminish it for me; although it's still not my kind of game. I'm still the immersive sim type in the end. My favorite recent shooter is Prey. But it was a nicely paced game and I had fun with it. It is a kind of immersive lite shooter, so it's still in that neighborhood.
I still work with its engine every week because Darkmod is built on it, plus a few extensions to get it a little more up to date. Its engine is really in a sweet spot where it's right at the capacity of a single person to make really great levels. A few years later, and the demands for a single person were starting to get too great. But what still strikes me is that great looking levels can still be made in that engine. And it has some nice features. The scripting system is pretty simple and powerful. It has a unified lighting system which is good for cramped, dark, and moody settings. Of course it's great that it was even open sourced. It doesn't get as much respect as I think it deserves.
Nameless Voice on 7/11/2020 at 00:13
I'm also a fan of Doom 3.
I was a bit iffy on it at first, but now I think it's great.
Doom is a strange series, there's no clear "best" game - all of them are good for different reasons.
froghawk on 7/11/2020 at 00:37
I was a kid when it came out, and so I loved it at the time. I recently revisited it by playing 'The Lost Mission', and I can't say my memory of it corresponded with reality. It was a bit more drab and linear than I recalled. Perhaps that impression had more to do with the fact that those levels were originally cut for a reason and the BFG editions lighting changes robbed it of a lot of the mood. This video certainly insinuates that. The original games have aged a bit better in my book, but that's not saying much given that they're among the most timeless games ever.
Pyrian on 7/11/2020 at 03:00
I love love love the way Doom 3 seamlessly transitions from crosshair to mouse pointer. Why didn't more games do that? Sure, it means the screens have to be large. The way the PDA animated was cool, too. It was the most diegetic UI (thank you Starker) game before Far Cry 2.
...The game was meh, though. Linear as hell (lol), predictable monster closets, and I got to the point where I'd see a demon ahead and immediately turn around and shoot the demons spawning in behind me because they did that like almost every time.
I actually liked the parts where you have to use the flashlight. Livened things up a bit. People complained bitterly but if you put a flashlight on the gun, the dark sections just aren't challenging anymore.
Starker on 7/11/2020 at 03:54
Diegetic UI is the word. And I always thought it was a response to Half-Life specifically, complete with the linearity and all. Especially with the opening bit where you arrive at work.
Pyrian on 7/11/2020 at 04:44
Thanks. Huh. Yeah, Doom 3 is very Half-Life 1-esque, now that you mention it, especially in its level design and the way enemies pop in. But released around Half-Life 2, which it doesn't resemble as strongly, IMO.
froghawk on 7/11/2020 at 04:45
Absolutely re: the Half Life opening.
I think people forget that Doom 2 was also monster closet city. It just didn't seem anywhere near as annoying in the bigger, more open levels.
demagogue on 7/11/2020 at 05:00
I liked the atmosphere. I liked the gameplay. I decidedly didn't like the linearity. It was a corridor shooter in the worst sense.
Half Life 1 & 2 are interesting comparisons. I loved HL1, clunky movement aside, because of the storytelling, so the linearity was forgiveable because it was telling a story and each scene was a set piece, maybe with some gameplay puzzle at its center. HL2 I had really mixed feelings about because it wasn't just storytelling set pieces, but now they were gameplay set pieces, and the story telling wasn't even all that good (although the worldbuilding was still great). I mean it was fun, but it was almost too slick, too manufactured in the fun. And I think I realized right off that this was a paradigm shift, and now every shooter is going to have this set piece approach, and Doom3 was one of the first big examples. And I was not happy with that part.
Well, Doom3 was more like atmospheric and gameplay rush set pieces instead of gimmick or gameplay-style set pieces of HL2, cf. "game plots are like porn plots, you need just enough to get to the action", but it was at least better than what HL2 was doing.
