izigame.me

MY RATING:
✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✘ ✘ ✘
7 / 10


Doom 3 – The saga continues… no wait, that was something completely different, so again…
Doom 3 – such an important game and so extremely unimportant at the same time
The graphics engine, the id Tech 4, was simply amazing at the time and this technology is what ultimately remains in the memory.
A big point of criticism, especially among fans, was that id Software told a completely different story in the game than in the original from 1993. But that didn't matter to many people because, as is well known, in Doom the story is the least important thing about the whole game.
What id Software had created was more than just another shooting game. The dark Mars scenario with the much higher number of polygons and the light and shadow effects calculated in real time set new standards. The dynamic shadows and flickering lights simply gave you goosebumps. The game so often lured you into a trap and you were frightened by the zombies emerging from the darkness. And so the game pushed you from one moment of shock to the next.
A new job on Mars…
... immediately after arriving, without unpacking, we go to the boss who tells you that a scientist has disappeared and we now urgently need to look for him. After a short walk across the Martian soil and a bit of looking around, we find the supposedly lost scientist, who just babbles nonsense about experiments and dangers to us until suddenly the whole ground shakes, the lights go crazy, devil symbols light up everywhere and skulls fly around. Soon the scientist goes completely crazy and attacks us and we pull out our pistols and promptly take care of the problem.
Shortly afterwards, we see on a video monitor how creatures from hell pour out of a dimensional gate, the guards transform into monsters and unbelievable chaos breaks out...
Welcome to the dark ghost train of horror
On the way back and around every corner we are surprised by creatures that attack us. So we sneak from room to room until suddenly the light goes out and a horrible moan comes closer and closer. Quickly turn on the flashlight and check the situation, but this small light source doesn't provide much of an overview. And suddenly, there, an outline of something in the darkness. So quickly put away your flashlight, get your gun out and start shooting.
Pure horror reigns in every room of the 27 levels. Dark and sterile scenarios, weak and mostly flickering light, bloody traces and severed body parts lying around everywhere and constant cruel noises that you don't really want to know where they come from.
And although it's already hard enough to move through these dark rooms and track down enemies, the developers have also incorporated rich scripted events into the game. For example, a door is pushed open and a hand appears that tries to grab us, or an opponent tears open a thick metal door with a loud noise. Often these events are accompanied by real-time cutscenes, at the end of which you have to deal with the problems just shown.
You are all alone in this desolate world full of dangers and at the beginning your only friend apart from the pistol is your flashlight.
However, you can never hold the flashlight and your weapon at the same time and even back then you asked yourself “Man, isn’t there any adhesive tape on Mars?”
With innovation, that's it and the gameplay is low-risk and the focus here is on the well-known strengths of the previous titles. The action-packed shootouts.
The “puzzles” are mostly limited to pressing switches and the rest of the playing time is spent running, shooting, running, being scared, shooting, shooting, briefly frightened, running, shooting and, of course, not to be neglected, shooting. But no matter how intense this mix is, the game quickly devolves into shooting insignificance.
Id Software has really made an effort with a really long single-player campaign for a first-person shooter and the cleverly placed horror elements and keeps the tension at a fairly high level. However, the game quickly falls flat in the second half thanks to the unnecessarily complicated levels, always similar rooms and shootouts.
Due to these requirements, you mainly move in indoor levels that exude a claustrophobic charm. Shiny metallic and dark laboratories, lounges, very sterile corridors and other technical facilities. Every now and then you can leave it for a short moment and look at Mars, but there isn't really much to see there and the oxygen is only enough for about 60 seconds.
The weapon design here is more like “Back to the Roots”. In addition to the usual short and medium-range weapons, there is the tried and tested chainsaw, the shotgun and later also a machine gun, the rocket launcher and, in addition to the plasma cannon, also the well-known BFG 9000. And how in contrast to, for example, System Shock 2 or other games you will find always enough ammunition and health packs so you never really have to be economical.
In addition to the flashlight and weapons, the PDA is the most important utensil. You can use this to load the access codes, read e-mails, listen to audio diaries or watch a video. In the emails, film and voice files there are always clues or even number combinations to, for example, open storage rooms where there is ammunition or medi packs. However, this is sometimes quite annoying because the important information often only comes at the end and you are neither allowed to fast forward nor read along.
Although there are many well-known enemies in the game, id Software was much more imaginative when generating monsters than in the previous parts. However, to list them all here would go beyond the scope. It's best to see for yourself. In terms of intelligence, the monsters are quite solid, but they never display any really complex behavioral patterns and there is nothing more than a bit of hiding or a pike roll involved.
But despite this visual power, Doom 3 didn't set much new ground in terms of gameplay. The story was always secondary anyway, the gunplay was just solid and the level design from today's perspective would probably be described as monotonous, boring and uninspired.
The game mainly consists of corridors and small rooms and in the Alpha Labs you just run through corridors for around 6 hours to get access codes for locked doors. The delta labs that follow the hell levels aren't any better, even if the look there has been slightly changed.
Only in the hell levels has id Software opened the color box and bathed them in juicy red colors and the opponents also went one step further graphically.
Even though Doom 3 was a sales success and received consistently positive reviews from the press, the game's influence on the shooter series and the genre itself is quite manageable. And as groundbreaking as the technology was, the actual gameplay was ultimately average.
Doom 3 thrives on straightforward action, shock effects and an oppressive “lonely against all” atmosphere and if you are looking for a complex story, sophisticated characters or something to keep your brain busy, then as always, Doom is totally out of place.

MY PROS AND CONS:
✔ good scary atmosphere
✔ gripping shock effects
✔ oppressive and dark levels
✔ quite long playing time
✔ diverse opponents
✔ very good sound and subtle music
✔ Mod support
✔ impressive intermediate opponents
✔ no-frills shooting spectacle
✘ hardly any innovations
✘ little variety
✘ Levels too linear
✘ Sterile-looking environment
✘ Hardly any outside levels
✘ Just about solid AI
Revised and reposted: December 9, 2023
PLAYED WITH: ⌨️ 🖱 🎧

⮩ VISIT ME IN MY LITTLE WORLD

https://store.steampowered.com/app/208200/DOOM_3/