Let’s not pretend that Doom 3 doesn’t come with a reputation. For years it’s had the stigma of being the ‘bad’ Doom game; a failure compared to its ground breaking brothers.
In some ways this seems unfair. Doom 3 frequently gets called a terrible game which it isn’t. It also feels unfair to constantly compare it to Doom 1 and 2, games that built the foundations on which every FPS released since has stood.
However it’s also impossible to pretend that Doom 3 exists outside of that context, not just because it’s an official Doom game but because looking back, Doom 3 does have some serious problems.
As a quick note, I’m cheating slightly by using the 2012 BFG edition, which includes the duct tape mod that allows for the torch to be used at the same time as weapons, whereas the PC original would give you a binary choice between using your torch, or using a weapon.
You might think that this choice would improve the gameplay, but in an odd twist I found that it actually shines a brighter light on the other problems with Doom 3.
First of all, how does it look?
As tradition dictated with an ID Software launch, Doom 3 launched with a new engine that was several technological leaps ahead of the last one.
The various advances in geometry, effects and lighting meant that this was the first time a Doom game had been able to properly resemble a vaguely realistic space, and one thing I particularly liked were the small details that made the UAC facility on Mars seem like an actual place where people worked and lived, as opposed to a convenient space for marines and monsters to throw down.
It was a world of dark, spooky, bloodstained corridors, but also of desks, kitchens and vending machines.
The use of employee audio diaries also did a great job of filling in these spaces that the engine created, filling the air with passive aggressive office politics, incompetent employees and sleazy bosses amongst the fireballs and ghostly voices.
Of particular note at the time of Doom 3’s release was the new Doom engine’s capabilities with dynamic light, and these advances when compared to say Quake 3 have only just started to really show their age in the modern era of raytracing.
However these advances wouldn’t be half as impressive without ID’s smart implementation of the technology in its level design. In fact a lot of ways, the first implementation of the Doom 3 engine was its best. Compared to games like Quake 4 or Prey, Doom 3 feels just a bit more solidly put together.
Enough about its looks, how does it play?
Doom 3 is not Doom, and it’s not Doom 2.
This seems like an obvious thing to say, but when you’re following in the footsteps of two titans it feels impossible to overstate that Doom 3 is an entirely different beast.
Rather than racing about at the speed of light, mowing down endless hoards of the undead and hellspawned while music that’s legally distinct from Metallica’s Master of Puppets propels you along, Doom 3’s gameplay is a quieter, slower, more considered affair.
If Doom and Doom 2 are rollercoasters, Doom 3 is a ghost train
Your marine doesn’t run. He carefully edges his way through tight and winding corridors, waiting for something to jump out from the shadows.
He’s not staring down a whole mob of zombies, chaingun in one hand, cigar in the other with a shit-eating grin on his face. He’s taking them on one or two at a time, before taking a breath and setting off for the next encounter.
This is probably for the best, as the combat is where Doom 3’s problems start to show.
One major problem that lasts throughout the whole game, is that the camera shake upon taking even the slightest bit of damage is almost intolerable.
Take damage from one enemy, and your viewpoint violent whips from side to side, making it difficult to regain your bearings. Take consistent damage from multiple enemies, such as when you get cornered by multiple imps, and you’re re-enacting Willow Smith’s video for ‘Whip My Hair’.
At this point Doom 3 goes from difficult, to hard to play
Another major problem is with the weapons, or to be more specific, the way in which enemies react to them, or don’t.
The weapons in Doom 3 all suffer from a complete lack of stopping power, a stark contrast to Doom and Doom 2 where a shotgun blast would usually interrupt an enemy, possibly pushing them back a little and allowing you a split second of breathing space to react and plan your next move.
In Doom 3, enemies mostly just shrug off bullets, shells, plasma, and even rockets as a mild irritant until a certain quota gets reached and they drop dead, turning every enemy in Doom 3 into Zombie Gregor Clegane at the end of Game of Thrones. (What, too soon?)
This is a particular problem in regards to the zombie soldiers that you frequently face in the earlier parts of the game.
Rather than lobbing a slow moving fireball, the zombie soldiers’ bullets hit you instantly, rarely missing. Combined with the fact that it’s impossible to interrupt their flow with a well-timed shot, and for the most part you’re relegated to soaking up what they’ve got to give you, until you can put enough bullets into them.
It robs you of the ability to react, strategise and prioritise that drives the gunplay, skill development and sense of achievement at the core of Doom and Doom 2, a feeling which Doom 2016 did a stellar job of recreating.
I’m also puzzled by some of the design choices
A small but intensely irritating problem is the inclusion of puzzles throughout the game, particularly physics based puzzles.
Don’t get me wrong though, I understand why they were included.
Having objects interact with the world in a realistic way was one of the holy grails gaming was chasing at the time, so if your engine supported such a thing then you’d best believe it was getting shoehorned into the game.
Looking back however, the puzzles simply don’t fit, instead bringing things to a crashing halt for no real reason or benefit. The section where you slowly drive a wee train about is a particular low point. Who the fuck plays Doom to ride a wee train?
Ironically, things become much more fun in Hell
Not only are the Hell levels visually much more varied and interesting than the dim corridors of Mars, but rather than the zombie gun turrets of the earlier game you’re now dealing with nothing but demons, who are much more fun to fight.
Free from the claustrophobic confines of the previous sci-fi setting, it feels like the Hell levels were a chance for the team at ID to not only really show was their new engine could do, but also gave them more creative freedom in regards to how the game plays.
Even after you return from Hell, the merging of the sci-fi and hellish settings makes both the environment and the gameplay more interesting. Rather than relying on jump scares, Doom 3 starts to get properly spooky and the game starts to resemble what it was aiming for. It’s just a shame it happens so late in the game.
This still leaves our original question: does Doom 3 play well?
Yes … eventually.
So, Doom 3. Is it still good?
Doom 3 is not a bad game, but it’s not a great game.
Every other Doom game, from 1993 to 2016, made you feel like a God of death by the end, and a large part of that was enabled by being able to interrupt or stumble an enemy with a well-placed shot.
By contrast, in Doom 3 bullets and shells are simply shrugged off by enemies until they eventually fall over. The skill, movement, and sense of achievement is fundamentally lacking in Doom 3’s gunplay.
Despite all that, Doom 3 is still fun and at times it’s still genuinely spooky. The trouble is the context in which it finds itself in.
It’s not just that Doom 3 isn’t as good as the other Doom games that surround it. Doom 3 had the misfortune to be released in 2004, meaning that it’s always going to be compared to legendary games like Half Life 2, Unreal Tournament 2004, Far Cry, and Halo 2.
Doom 3 was good, but it was born in a year of greats, all of which are more worthy of your time.
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GameSkelp 