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As a big fan of the Doom series since the shareware era, I was more than excited for Doom 3. Not only was one of my favourite series getting a long overdue sequel, but that sequel looked strikingly good. As it turned out that strikingly good look also meant my PC at the time couldn't handle rendering this in framerates higher than those of a slideshow. I remember that I still managed to play the first sequence or two, before just giving up in disappointment and frustration. I would return, I promised myself. At some point after beefing up my hardware a bit, I would play this again. Well, here I am fulfilling that promise. It only took 20 years. Let's see how well that went.
For a Doom game, it certainly starts slow. It has this somewhat corny storyline going, about some Mars facility and some evil scientist who wants to unleash the powers of Hell upon humanity for reasons that make little sense. So we have to go through this whole sequence where the protagonist, a marine newly assigned to this facility, goes from place A to B, chatting folks up and enjoying the scenery. All that until all Hell literally breaks loose. Pretty much a copy of what Half-Life did with its opening, only less fitting. What's more, this game doesn't even offer subtitles. Why do we need a long-winded excuse to just shoot everything that moves? Isn't this supposed to be Doom? Additionally, the game ostensibly introduces survival horror elements. But this largely translates to the occasional jumpscare which after a point loses its novelty. Yes there are enemies behind every door or constantly materialising right behind you. So? They still die just as easily as all the rest of them. So what is this? Is it Doom or some schlocky house of horrors in a two-bit carnival? Then, we have the occasional platforming segments. Very unforgiving, difficult to judge and largely unfair. So I ask again, is this Doom, or some ridiculously stupid goth take on Super Mario?
It all sounds somewhat disappointing, no? Well, not exactly. You see, the game's core loop is for the most part engaging. Yes, the enemies may be a bit spongy, yes combat is generally slower, yes the shotgun is somewhat lucklustre, but the action is still fun. From the moment that enemies appear, after the drawn-out prologue, the game improves significantly. Going down the levels of the base game and the included expansion, it keeps on improving. The world has some very interesting designs, the game can often be moody and atmospheric, while the hell levels in particular are weird and enjoyable. The levels also contain a number of passwords to be discovered in order to unlock lockers and safes containing extras. Those are generally well placed and fun to look for. There are a number of interesting interpretations of classic enemies present, while this game boasts what's arguably the scariest imps in the series. Seriously those guys are no joke. The graphics of the game, though obviously not as striking as they were 20 years back, have aged relatively well and remain perfectly serviceable. That said, there are some technical issues that this remastered edition ought to have fixed like various bugs with resolution changes and some instability.
Largely because of all the changes to the classic Doom formula that it attempts, with limited success overall, this games lacks the frenetic pace and singular focus of the others in the series. However, there are signs of brilliance hidden somewhere in all those often perplexing alterations and the experience is overall compelling. The action remains fun, the atmosphere is decent and the feeling familiar. Going back to the question that was repeatedly asked throughout the review. Yes, whatever its numerous flaws, this is still Doom. It's certainly the weird sheep of the family, the odd one out, but one all Doom fans should at least try to engage with anyway.