Jeremy Anderson
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Nov 23, 1999
- Messages
- 1,049
Been playing Doom 3 for about 3 hours. I hate to be the naysayer here, but... YAWN! I mean, the graphics are outstanding, the surround sound is very cool; I won't dispute these things. But the gameplay is woefully lacking in depth and the scares are all cheap. And annoyingly, most of the "scares" take the form of a wall (or what you THOUGHT was a wall) opening up right next to you with a monster behind it so that you can't do a thing to stop it from hitting you at least once.
And for the love of all that's holy, couldn't they have centered the flashlight on the targeting reticule instead of putting the beam in the bottom right corner of the screen? Also, your opponents in the game exhibit no A.I. whatsoever, instead just running straight toward you. The few times you see them hide behind stuff, it's a scripted event - something that will happen every time you play the game. That pretty much kills the replay value, in my opinion.
The website references in the game are another thing that bother me. Okay, you give me martianbuddy.com to find the code to the security locker. But can I access that site while in the game? NOPE! I have to save my game, exit Doom 3, wait 2 minutes for Doom 3 to release my system's memory, load my browser, type in the address, get the locker code, reload Doom 3, wait 2 minutes for my game to load, then I can open the locker and get some health. That's just STUPID. Then, they give you UA-corp.com as a reference, so naturally I exited the game to see if it gave you a code or anything. Did it? NOPE! Just some stupid animation. I wasted a good 5 minutes exiting and re-entering Doom 3 for nothing. Had they built in browsers that you could access in-game, I would have loved that feature, but having to exit sucks and completely draws you out of the game.
Honestly, this is one that I will play through once and then discard, so I'm kind of disappointed in the purchase. I hope Half-Life 2 gives us something deeper than this, because all the cool technology in the world can't save weak repetitive gameplay. If you want a scary game with a good story, check out Clive Barker's UNDYING. Id could learn a few things from that game.
In short: Doom 3 is a great graphics and sound showcase. It just isn't much of a gaming experience, which is what I was expecting. With other great games out there like Splinter Cell or Undying that have stories, keep you involved, suck you in until you forget how long you've been playing, build the tension slowly, etc., Doom 3 is just a disappointment. It's the same old crap in a shinier package. And after 4+ years of development, that's just not good enough.
And for the love of all that's holy, couldn't they have centered the flashlight on the targeting reticule instead of putting the beam in the bottom right corner of the screen? Also, your opponents in the game exhibit no A.I. whatsoever, instead just running straight toward you. The few times you see them hide behind stuff, it's a scripted event - something that will happen every time you play the game. That pretty much kills the replay value, in my opinion.
The website references in the game are another thing that bother me. Okay, you give me martianbuddy.com to find the code to the security locker. But can I access that site while in the game? NOPE! I have to save my game, exit Doom 3, wait 2 minutes for Doom 3 to release my system's memory, load my browser, type in the address, get the locker code, reload Doom 3, wait 2 minutes for my game to load, then I can open the locker and get some health. That's just STUPID. Then, they give you UA-corp.com as a reference, so naturally I exited the game to see if it gave you a code or anything. Did it? NOPE! Just some stupid animation. I wasted a good 5 minutes exiting and re-entering Doom 3 for nothing. Had they built in browsers that you could access in-game, I would have loved that feature, but having to exit sucks and completely draws you out of the game.
Honestly, this is one that I will play through once and then discard, so I'm kind of disappointed in the purchase. I hope Half-Life 2 gives us something deeper than this, because all the cool technology in the world can't save weak repetitive gameplay. If you want a scary game with a good story, check out Clive Barker's UNDYING. Id could learn a few things from that game.
In short: Doom 3 is a great graphics and sound showcase. It just isn't much of a gaming experience, which is what I was expecting. With other great games out there like Splinter Cell or Undying that have stories, keep you involved, suck you in until you forget how long you've been playing, build the tension slowly, etc., Doom 3 is just a disappointment. It's the same old crap in a shinier package. And after 4+ years of development, that's just not good enough.
rogram FilesDoom 3base). Open DoomConfig.cfg in Notepad.
