Starker on 7/11/2020 at 05:59
Re: most diegetic UI, I think Trespasser is the one that's the ur-example of that. But I guess, given its success, people strove to not learn from it.
Pyrian on 7/11/2020 at 09:43
Wikipedia for Trespasser: "Both the developers of Surgeon Simulator 2013 and the original Octodad have cited the game as a source of inspiration."
Doom 2 really felt like an expansion pack to Doom 1. "New levels! New guns! New enemies! ...Same game!"
Starker on 7/11/2020 at 12:42
Quote Posted by Pyrian
Wikipedia for
Trespasser: "Both the developers of
Surgeon Simulator 2013 and the original
Octodad have cited the game as a source of inspiration."
ROFL!
heywood on 7/11/2020 at 13:37
I was disappointed with Doom 3. I liked the intro, and I liked how it looked, but didn't like playing it for all the reasons already mentioned. The early tension came from design gimmicks: monster closets and ambushes, darkness, forcing you to switch between the flashlight and pistol, and changing the soundtrack when you entered or left a room. But they repeated the same gimmicks over and over, so it didn't take very long before tension turned into tedium.
twisty on 7/11/2020 at 14:24
I must confess that Doom 3 was the first Doom game that I actually played. In fact, I still haven't played D2 at all or more than 20 minutes or so of the first one. I was still a console kid at the time that it was released -- the Sega Megadrive in fact -- and when I eventually did get a PC a short while later, I managed to get the shareware version of Doom, but soon lost interest after getting Hexen, Ultima 7 and UW.
On the other hand, I thought Doom 3 was awesome. There were so many technological innovations, such as screen interfaces that were able to be used ingame without needing to switch to a different screen, per-pixel lighting and an animation system that was much better than most games at that time. It also did a convincing job creating an atmosphere that made you feel like you were actually on a station on Mars.
All that said, I only really enjoyed it up until the first half of the game or so; it became a real drag after that, with endless jumpscares (as previously mentioned) and repetitive enemies (a formula repeated on new Doom as well).
Nameless Voice on 7/11/2020 at 14:49
Quote Posted by Pyrian
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 remember when I first played it, I once walked into a room, spun around, said "BORING!", and blasted the imp I knew would teleport in behind me. It really did get predictable after a while. I still like the game though.
EvaUnit02 on 7/11/2020 at 23:59
Here's my hot take:-
BFG Edition was better, vanilla is only still relevant because of mods. BFG Edition severely dialled back the highly artificial Survival Horror gameplay restrictions and refocused the game towards being an action-based romp that a Doom game should be.
catbarf on 8/11/2020 at 22:30
It always seemed odd to me that Doom 3 was, well, Doom. Without the expectations tied to that franchise I think it'd have been received better. I mean, it still had very obviously linear design and repetitive monster closet gameplay, but it was a better moody shooter than it was a Doom game.
I felt that BFG Edition did a better job of focusing the game on what it was good at, but there are parts of the game that were obviously designed around an inability to simultaneously illuminate and shoot, and those suffered from the changes. That said, the stark dynamic lighting, where anything not directly illuminated is pitch black, has not aged well; giving the player an always-on flashlight is about the best they could do to smooth that over short of reworking the lighting engine. The specular highlighting that makes everything look like it's made of plastic also firmly dates it to the early-00s, but that at least doesn't impact gameplay.
And yeah the interface system was excellent. I remember it being the first interaction system in a game that felt really seamless, without hard cuts between gameplay and 2D UI. Again, great idea, but odd to see in a Doom game of all things.
Pyrian on 9/11/2020 at 07:32
Did any other games ever follow suit?
catbarf on 9/11/2020 at 14:33
Quake IV did, but that's basically a Doom 3 reskin anyways (same engine). Star Citizen does it too for some things; mostly just for random elevator controls and the like last I checked. I seem to remember Hard Reset having that sort of UI, but can't recall for certain.
Unity actually provides native support for that style of interaction now, so the capability is there for anyone who wants to use it. Maybe it just doesn't play nice with console controls.
