25.6.2011

Extremely impressive from a technical standpoint yet behind the times from a first-person-shooter design standpoint: This is the dichotomy that is Doom 3, the long-awaited sequel from well-known Texas-based developer id Software. Doom 3 is quite possibly one of the best-looking games ever, thanks to the 3D graphics engine used to generate its convincingly lifelike, densely atmospheric, and surprisingly expansive environments. At the same time, when you look past the spectacular appearance, you'll find a conventional, derivative shooter. In fact, if you played the original Doom or its sequel back in the mid '90s (or any popular '90s-era shooter, for that matter),you may be shocked by how similarly Doom 3 plays to those games. The legions of id Software's true believers will celebrate this straightforwardness as being deliberately "old school," especially since Doom 3 is packed with direct references to its classic predecessors. However, the truth of the matter is that Doom 3's gameplay structure and level design are behind the times and very much at odds with the game's cutting-edge, ultrarealistic looks. Yet the quality of the presentation truly is remarkable--enough so that it overwhelms Doom 3's occasional problems.Doom 3 is essentially a remake of the original Doom, though series fans will find reimagined versions of almost every monster from both Doom and Doom II in the new sequel. You play as a nameless, voiceless 22nd-century space marine called by the Union Aerospace Corporation to its Mars research facility beset with mysterious problems - the forces of hell, to be exact. You'll end up single-handedly fighting back legions of hellspawn using weapons like shotguns, machine guns, and rocket launchers. As in the classic Doom games, your foes here are liable to strike at any time - often just as you round a corner, grab a much-needed power-up, or set foot into a new area. So, while your enemies will materialize without notice, and may occasionally startle you as they leap out of the darkness, Doom 3 cannot easily be described as scary or suspenseful. On the contrary, it's very predictable, and more or less it just goes through the same types of paces that you've probably gone through before in any number of other similar games.Over the course of the game, you'll fight your way through a series of linear levels filled with locked doors, and you'll gradually find new weapons and occasionally meet new types of monsters. Early on, your apparent goal is to meet up with your squad, but as you might expect, you'll never actually get to fight alongside any human forces (no thanks to the omission of a co-op mode for multiple players, which was a signature element of past Doom games). Despite the game's cinematic trappings, it follows a formula that generally lacks drama or tension. Occasionally, the game presents to you a shocking or surprising scene - a hallucination or some hellish, otherworldly image. These moments are effective, but are too few and far between in the context of a single-player shooter that's of above average length (somewhere between 15 to 20 hours). Fortunately, the campaign definitely picks up during the last several hours, once you finally reach (and keep going past) the point when you confront the enemy on its own turf. Getting to that point may be your primary motivation for trudging through some of the repetitive middle portions of the game, though.Part of the issue is that Doom 3's storyline and narrative technique are ineffectual. Since the main character has no identity whatsoever (for whatever reason), the game tries to get you interested in everyone else on the base. You'll frequently find voice recordings and email from various characters, but not only is a lot of this stuff bone dry, having to stop and read or stand around and listen to a rambling monologue jarringly disrupts the flow of the action. Unfortunately, if you choose to focus on the action by ignoring the seemingly extraneous story elements, you'll find that some of them aren't optional - you'll need to sift through those emails and listen to some of those voice recordings to get passcodes for locked doors and storage chests.For what it's worth, the game's premise seems very fleshed out, and the game gives an amazing first impression. As you explore the UAC base, eavesdropping on various conversations and observing great, little details here and there, you'll get the impression that Doom 3 takes place in a fully realised world. Of course, all hell quickly breaks loose, and from that point onward you'll encounter scarce few creatures that you won't want to instantly shoot. The premise of the game will continue to unfold through occasional cutscenes and the aforementioned emails and recordings.Doom 3 is pervasively dark; there's rarely a moment when your entire field of vision isn't predominantly shrouded in thick, black shadow. This contributes heavily to Doom 3's creepy, claustrophobic feel and it does indeed give the gameplay a distinctive quality. However, the constant extremely dark settings conspire with the frequently repetitive level design to contribute to gameplay that can often feel monotonous, especially since the action itself is very straightforward. What's more, the game's levels will occasionally require you to back-track through dark hallways without clear markings, so rather than constantly blasting monsters, you may end up spending an undue amount of time just trying to get your bearings. There's a sizable arsenal of weapons to be found here, but none of them are completely satisfying to use. Pretty much all the guns are direct-fire, point-and-shoot weapons with no alternate firing modes and no close-range melee attacks; they do look impressive onscreen, but they all sound surprisingly tinny and subdued, rather than loud and powerful.This also isn't the kind of game in which you should expect to be fighting against ruthlessly intelligent foes. Some of the former human marines you'll face will use rudimentary tactics against you, and other foes at least do a fairly good job of giving chase if you try to flee from them. But, in general, your enemies follow the same sorts of predictable patterns that you may remember from previous Doom games. By the halfway point of the game, you'll have little trouble avoiding your enemies' attacks when directly confronting them, so you'll instead be concentrating on predicting the expected ambushes around every corner. Also, one of the drawbacks of Doom 3's richly detailed graphics is that you'll rarely face more than a few foes at a time, and as you kill them, their bodies instantly disintegrate into ash - which is a nice effect, but also the same effect for just about every foe you kill. It's disappointing that the colorful death animations and seas of monster corpses from past Doom games are nowhere to be found here (though, in exchange, you'll pass through countless corridors chock-full of smeared blood and human remains).Also, the stifling darkness of the game does work to good effect during most of the battles. As you explore with your flashlight in hand, you'll suddenly hear the chilling groans and growls of nearby foes, so you'll switch to your weapon of choice and whirl about trying to find signs of movement. The action unfolds quickly and violently. Enemies will often lurch right at you, giving you a clear shot of (and a clear shot at) their ghastly physiques. That is to say, what Doom 3's battles lack in complexity, they make up for in visceral thrills. Even after you've fought countless imps and other demons, you'll still be impressed by some of your close encounters with them.Doom 3 certainly is a beautiful-looking game, so much so that simply running around in the environments becomes a pleasurable experience in and of itself. The environments offer little interactivity; you can knock over certain boxes and, as mentioned, use certain computers, but you can't damage most objects you see and you can't manipulate them in any way. But they're all really, really pretty. The game's character models look about as outstanding as everything else, though the awesome-looking monsters really outdo the human characters. Impressively enough, the game runs well even on systems closer to the minimum system requirements, as long as you set it to low detail (in which the colours appear more washed out, but the dynamic lighting effects and incredibly crisp textures still manage to shine through, and at a surprisingly brisk frame rate, no less). There actually isn't much genuine creativity to be found in Doom 3's visual design, which resembles any number of other sci-fi, horror-themed games or movies. But the execution of the visuals here is absolutely unmatched, and it truly needs to be seen in action to be fully appreciated.As for Doom 3's audio, it's also quite impressive overall, but not nearly like the graphics. For one thing, Doom 3 has no soundtrack, apart from a heavy metal tune that plays at the title screen and a few rhythmic ambient tracks. This questionable design choice certainly does amplify the game's effective, believable, and often truly creepy ambient sounds, but it also contributes to the game's horror and suspense.Doom 3 is a spectacular game in the purest sense, and it is therefore by all means worth experiencing by those with an interest in witnessing just how far the technology of gaming has come along. While not as remarkable as the technology that fuels it, Doom 3 is put together well enough to make it legitimately great, all things considered.

11.3.2017

Doom 3 still delivers a stellar and horror-filled experience. And like in all the other Doom games, you’ll have to fight off thousands of Hell beings. Despite the fact you can handle endless hordes of them, no one else can kill anything. But how do these demons get in? Of course, it’s a mad scientist. And that’s about as complex as the plot gets. Thankfully, it isn’t drawn out by lengthy cut-scenes and throws you right back into the action.Naturally, the gun fights are the most thrilling and satisfying parts of Doom 3. It has a wide selection of weapons such as the pistol, chainsaw, BFG 9K, and Soul Cube. By far the most interesting weapon is the Soul Cube that recharges using dead bodies.After charging, it targets enemies with the most health and kills them instantly, with the exception of bosses who have extremely large quantities of health. All of the weapons fire realistically, and look visually appealing as their bullets tear foes to shreds. The weapons look fantastic and have a distinct pop to them as you unload a clip. But no matter which tool of destruction you use, it’s thrilling to listen to an enemy howl in pain.Although there a large amount of guns, the level variation isn’t there. Ninety-nine percent of Doom 3 is composed of linear corridors where you move through them, blowing up any demons in your path. However, there’s the occasional large room that glows with red light. Upon entering a voice from hell taunts you, before tons of enemies, spawn at once. These situations stick out in your head, as you’ll be unleashing clip after clip into these foes, and panting afterwards. Yet, these situations are few and far between, causing most of the game to blur together. It doesn’t help that the entire game is extremely dark covering the excellent graphical details, and considering the fifteen to twenty hour length, additional level variation would’ve been nice.As you roam the corridors, separating each level from the next is a bland loading screen and tons of enemies from Imps to Pinky Beasts. They all feature tantalizing detail like red eyes, multi-colored skin, and sharp teeth. But they aren’t very smart and simply charge you. They fail to work as a group, dodge fire, duck for cover, or surround you. They seem incredibly stupid in nature, and are weak. A few bullets or a lick of chainsaw is enough to kill the bulk of the enemies.But this doesn’t prevent Doom 3 from scaring the crap out of you. Every room is filled with demons jumping from nowhere, and excellent use of shadows. After very inch you walk, you get chills down your spine. You’ll hear the vicious growl of enemy, before it walks from the darkness. All this comes on top of light malfunctions and quiet click of your shoes on the hard metal floor. You never know what lies beyond that next door, whether it will be empty or a Hell knight will soon be ripping you apart.Xbox owners had to wait seven months longer, because Vicarious Visions added a satisfying co-operative mode. The co-op is extremely enjoyable and it’s only a partner and yourself blasting through the single-player. It adds more foes and tweaks the dialogue for two marines. Taking down a voracious Hell monster together is a bonding experience. Co-op and the specifications of your PC are the largest differences between the two versions.Unfortunately, the enjoyable single-player is countered by a flat multiplayer. Even though the series is renowned for great multiplayer, all Doom 3 has is basic deathmatch and capture the flag, with no other variants to keep you intrigued. The limited variants, custom options, and character models further water-down the experience. It does feature identical content from the PC version, but it was also a disappointment. Nevertheless, with shooters like Halo 2 and Battlefront II out, don’t expect to find many people playing Doom 3.If you’re one of the many who believe graphics are crucial to a game’s success, then Doom 3 is your best friend. Every inch is detailed by shadow effects, flickering lights, and astounding enemy models. However if you like amazing gameplay and multiplayer you’ll have to look elsewhere. Even the scary atmosphere and satisfying gun fights can make up for the bland A.I. and lack of any level design. Still if you like being terrified and putting Hell in its place, pick up Doom 3.Rating: 8/10Read full review...

22.2.2007

I have only just started to play this game as my old 1.2GHz PC with 4x AGP graphics card just couldn't handle the action (there aren't enough in-game controls for reducing graphics requirements for such an old machine). Now we have an Nvidia 7950 graphics card and AMD-2 5000 PC this game has finally come to life. Game play, monsters and locations are pretty much as the original 1993/4 Doom I & II series, and as before you mostly just keep killing very nasty things until there are none left. However in Doom 3 the graphics quality, AI, and story development are in a different league, and you do have some interaction with other characters and droids.The story is set in the year 2145 at the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC)research centre on Mars. Dr. Malcolm Betruger and his team have discovered many artefacts of an ancient and long gone Martian race. Trying to recreate their transportation technology, the team finds that the transportation isn't as instant as it should be. It turns out that the portals are passing through somewhere very unpleasant, and it's not long before all Hell breaks loose. You, a Marine, arrive on the Mars base just as things start to go awry. It's not long before you are on your own, and soon after you wish you still were. As the power starts to fail you become increasingly dependent on your torch to see what's lurking the shadows, and you have to quickly change over to a weapon if it looks particularly unfriendly, as hitting an attacking demon with the torch doesn't get you very far. Occasionally you have to brave the Martian atmosphere with a respirator, but mostly you are wandering around the decimated base, picking up PDA's and data discs left around by the hapless UAC staff. These provide emails, voice recordings and reports that are essential information for your mission [to kick a lot of Demon b*tt]. The radio transmission of dying comrades, cut scenes of demon attacks and the eerie silence, with occasional loud machine noises from automatically operating plant, add to the creepy game-play, although most of the tension comes from the gloom and darkness. Plus [sadly] there's no stealth mode, so you can't hide in the shadows - as that's where 'they' lurk. The game has many levels: e.g. Mars City Underground, The Alpha & Delta Labs, Communications, Central Processing, The Monorail, and even a brief jaunt into Hell itself, before you have to face.........aargh! There are all the old weapons plus a few new ones: grenades, a machine gun and a mysterious alien artefact.And the game play is very scary, plus you need a fast gaming PC to respond in time when attacked or it's all over. It took me a few weeks to complete the game, as towards the end it gets a bit too hard (I ended up using health and ammo cheats then). It's also easy to get stuck on the odd level looking for the way out - I needed an online walkthrough guide for one. You can save at any time for difficult sequences. So overall it was a very enjoyable, if rather creepy, game - it's not for preteens though. Highly recommended if you have a very fast PC, and now at a bargain price. There's also the expansion pack (Resurrection of Evil) available that's really worth getting now it's also going cheap. If you enjoy Doom 3, do try Thief III: Deadly Shadows - it's the exact opposite of doom 3 in a way as it's based on stealth and stealing and is set in a rather surreal medieval age, but it also has superbly atmospheric and tense game play (if not quite as slick as Doom 3) and it's more suitable for youngsters [rated 12+] as you can play without harming anyone - just don't go into The Cradle alone..

16.5.2005

This game is PROPER creepy, particularly (and bizarrely) the score. It's not what you would call music, it's sort of... a menacing ambient drone, full of razor-on-blackboard noises and jarring chords. It fits the game perfectly, and adds to the cinematic experience. Sound effects, voice talent, cut scenes and the other none-game elements are also excellent.The bits of the game that are not creepy are just plain scary, and the game's programmers expertly underplay the shocks. If there was a huge snarling monster behind EVERY door it wouldn't be scary at all. But just like a good horror film, this game builds up the tension and leaves you dangling, and then lets you go with a huge sigh a relief.

24.11.2012

Since there seem to be several low-rating reviews here where people are blaming the game for not having enough money in their account/not being able to install it/not having a Steam account/any other irrelevant issues, I figured I'd focus purely on the game.The original release of Doom 3 has been spruced up in some minor ways. Full HD (1920x1080) is now a fully supported resolution, gamma in the game is little more forgiving, and a number of mod fixes for the original release are now standard - there's no more of this silly stuff about having to choose between having a flashlight or a gun ready, your torch is now fitted to your armour, Aliens-style. I personally couldn't see any other difference in graphics,

29.10.2013

I had this game given to me off my brother, which both of us love playing games instead of watching mindless television after researching into the geopolitics world. I thought all I had to do was just put in the game type in the serial code and the way you go, wrong. Instead you got to get the person who has had the game before to release the serial key and then you put it on your computer and then the company servers don't accept different ids from different motherboards. As I found out with fifa 13 for the PC, I upgraded my motherboard for a faster computer to do broadcasting from home and now fifa 13 will not work on the new motherboard.

2.10.2013

I have always loved the Doom franchise & the original Doom 3 was one of my favourites. I have read some conflicting reviews about Doom 3 BFG Edition; thought I'd take a chance since the price was reasonable & I wasn't disappointed. Enhanced graphics & an extended story thanks to the Resurrection Of Evil & also my first time playing The Lost Mission expansion packs make it well worth it. Granted it requires an internet connection to activate the game, a Steam account & the Steam bootstrap client to be installed on the user's computer but this is not difficult to set up plus to be fair, there are not many computers these days that are not connected to the internet,

26.5.2013

Having read some of the very conflicting reviews about this game, I thought at just over £7 inc postage it was worth a chance.Item delivered in less than 24hrs (Wow!). My PC set up is on Windows XP with all updates and a good Nvidia graphics card.On the back of the game it doesn't mention XP as a platform - OK, give it a whirl and see what happens. There is a clear, seperate paragraph that tells you that internet and a Steam account is required, so if you don't like Steam, you have been given the warning - send it back unopened.In many years of gaming I have never had any problems with Steam and don't understand the fuss about them .From putting the disc in to having the game on screen and starting to sort out the options took 21 minutes,with no problems at all using XP.

27.7.2006

The Doom games were legendary when they were released and they faded into the background for many a year. The they announced the release of the third in the series. I was worried that this might be a weak remake, but what they created was a delight.Graphically the game is sound and the atmospherics and set out of rooms make for entertaining gameplay as you can see hoards of enemies in the next room through glass windows etc.The game writer (7th Guest Storyline writer) has made a spooky and fairly strange plot but the game flows well and there is lots of differing enviroments to get through and enemies to face along the way.The only real disappointment were the bosses.

30.6.2005

On the PC, the single player was lacklustre in comparison to Half-Life 2, despite the fact that it was - and is - technically the most advanced game on the market. I sold that game within a week of Christmas because I found it clunky and plagued with stop-start gameplay. I was very disppointed.Yesterday I rented this and have spent countless hours since playing the online co-op play over Xbox Live with a friend. It is quite simply one of the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had. Not only has the gameplay been superbly ported to the Xbox (this is a 700MHZ CPU with a GeForce 3, let's not forget - an equivalent PC would struggle) but it's also been significantly adapted. In the online coop,

25.2.2013

Let me just say, i' m happy i ignored all the negative reviews here and purchased this edition of Doom 3.Long story short:- It includes every Doom game in existence for the die-hard fan.- It also includes a new mission for those who have completed even the expansion of Doom 3. New mission called "Lost mission".- Can't blame those people that had so many compatibility issues and more, but the requirements were clear. Having a win 7 64-bit system AND using Steam (which i use for many years now and with no problems actually) it should work out well, so i went for it. Result is, all three Doom games run flawlessly (after a ten minute installation)

19.11.2012

bought this as have brutal memories of it the first time round, delivery was ace, then came to puttin' it on my pc,if ye have a steam account, great, if you don't, then this sets ya up with said steam account, and that was problematic to say the bloody least, but think it was their end that was at fault, anyways, after round an hour and several bite marks left on my keyboard, i was in, straight for the doom 3 bfg first, yet to play the other games, but, havin done this on marine first time round, i went for veteran, i am that hard, it's great,and then i get my arse handed to me on a plate every 5 - 10 mins, and every now and then ye get one of the bastards jump out at ya and give ya a rabbit in headlights scare,

1.1.2014

I bought Doom 3 some 10 years ago and decided to play it again on my new rig with WIn 7 Pro 64 bit.It installed fine but would not run - I tried it with XP compatibility and later learned that it needs to be XP SP 2 as it will not run with XP SP1 or SP3. I don't think this is true as I found some patches (see below) and it is running in compatibility mode XP SP3 on my machine.So the patches that I applied by following this document[...]First Patch Doom 3 to 1.3 from this link:[...]Then you need to find the [base directory] in the installed directory - on mine it was:C:\Program Files (x86)\DOOM 3\baseIn that directory there is a config file that needs editing: DoomConfig.cfgI opened it with the

28.8.2012

Is there anything better than Doom? Aka this game is a remake of the classic of Doom with it's dark levels and most creatures look good as you know them when you see something on your tv they remind you of the classic Doom game itself finding ways to unlock doors, helping other people in the place.Now the game you play as a space marine yet like the other game and you must go and see other people or the boss any-who all of a sudden the whole lights go out and you find that monsters have indeed landed on your place so while you go to the boss (who is dead now by monsters) you're forced to use weapons and kill them in your last days of survive.It has some pretty nice hmm sounds that will freak

26.4.2006

Doom 3 was my very first Doom Game and I have to say it's an Incredible GameThe Graphics are completely Awesome the Music blends in with the AtmosphereThe Horror is cool the Monsters don't really look terrifiying but what scares me sometimes lol is the Whispering you hear and when you look around there is nothing thereThe Gore is quite cool and the Story is cool tooThe story goes like this there is a Team trying to do Experiments but they shouldn't be doing so and soon they are under attack by these CreaturesI highly Reccommened this Game this Game has everything a Game should have I honestly love it and I find it most Fun to play it alone in my Room with the Light offI'd strongly highley

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