And so begins Doom 3, one of the finest FPS games ever made. While some have chided Doom 3
for not re-inventing the wheel, I say they are much too spoiled, and need to
appreciate a game this good, especially with all the utter crap that’s available out
there. The only real criticism is that the enemies in Doom 3 just try
to rush and slaughter you, and don’t show and real strategic thinking. First, I’m
an old school gamer, I don’t need an ten-foot tall spider demon to try
to lull me off guard with compliments before serving me a poised glass of port
in order for me to consider him a worthy adversary. Second, were these people playing
the same game I was? Take for example the zombies. (Or deadites, if you
prefer) While reanimated mechanics may blindly lurch at you while swinging a
wrench, possessed marines will duck, roll, and even use cover while shooting at
you! Third, they’re demons from Hell, people! Jumping out and trying to rush you
is their strategy! Your not dealing with Rommel here.
Demons are thinking more on the level of “Kill that pink ape, because it’s made
in God’s own image” not “Maybe if we get the imps and trites into a phalanx
formation, we can flush them out with pain elementals from the southern
parameter“.
Anyway, on to the game itself. The challenge level is rather high. Even beating
the game on its easiest level will feel like an accomplishment. The play
control is tight and responsive, save for when you are taking damage. This might
be a problem, but you have to chock it up to realism. When a walking corpse
is using you as a piñata, it’s a bit hard to draw a bead on them, and when
you’ve just taken a fireball in the kisser, you can’t see clearly enough to
return fire, but why should you expect to? Another pet peeve of the Doom 3
bashers, is that this game is very dark. In order to build atmosphere, the game
forces you to choose between wielding a gun, but being unable to see what’s
lurking in the corner, or using a flashlight to get a better look at what’s
about to kill you. While this may come across as a flaw to lazy gamers, it is
actually an ingenious tension building device that may have you firing blindly
at nothing or caught off guard at your most vulnerable.
The atmosphere in this game is amazing. Dank, grimy passages,
mutilated corpses, demonic graffiti, and sudden ambushes all wait for you in the
horrible halls of Doom 3. And this is before you get to Hell! While video games have
explored the netherworld before, the player’s usual reaction is “Cool, I’m in
Hell!”. My reaction to the underworld presented in this game was “I really need
to go to church more.”. Basically, it dredges up the old
‘holy-crap-get-me-da-fug-otta-here’ reaction many of us had while playing the
old Doom at about 2am in an empty house.
The re-vamped weapons and enemies are a nice lot, but
not without their warts. The shotgun feels rather neutered since the original
games, losing most of its impact unless you're close enough to smell your
opponent’s breath. The game really could have used a updated double-barreled
“super shotgun”. The chainsaw however, is one of the game's best features, as it
has graduated from being a cute but rather useless 'Evil
Dead'
homage in the originals, to being a valuable and devastating
weapon, enabling the bold to get right up in a demon’s face and make
bloody confetti out of them in short order. The monsters are ugly and creepy as
all get out, but they’re a bit too insect-like for my taste. Most seem to based
on spiders and manti (mantises?), when I think we really could have used some goat-legged, ethereal,
and decrepit rotted corpse boogers for variety. As it is, they’re a
bit more Lovecraftian than Judeo-Christian, but that’s not really a bad thing
per se, it’s all a matter of personal taste. I should note that the bosses
are brilliantly designed and truly intimidating.
As you may have heard, the production values on this game are phenomenal. The
graphics are the most gorgeous the world has ever seen, and the sound conveys
all the screams, shrieks and groans of the damned, as well as mood building
ambient background noises with equal perfection.
The only real sore spot with me is the story. I
suppose since the old games put forth their story in a short "Read Me" file and a few
in-game screens of text, I should be grateful, but after reading the complex and
character-heavy Doom Novels, I just can’t help
being disappointed. Reading The Making of Doom
3 can give one an idea
of just how much storyline and character development was cut in order to
get the player around to shooting things before they got bored. Albeit, what little
bit of story remains here, is pretty interesting, and even seems to have been somewhat
inspired by said novels, as well as (slightly) by The Evil Dead series.
(The concept of a chosen one, fortold by ancient prophecy, you'll know it when
you see it.) The characters here, are they only place where the game really
falls down. I can understand making the player’s character a cipher, as it help
us to see this world more through our eyes rather than his. But that’s no excuse
for creating such flat secondary characters. (I swear, I found Campbell and Sgt.
Kelly to be so alike in both appearance and demeanor, I had a hard time keeping
track of who was who, and which one was doing what!) However, the story does a
good job of maintaining suspense, and some of the dictated PDA files concerning
the gate experiments are goose-bump inducing.
All in all, Doom 3 is an amazing game, despite a slight
hollowness