Does Doom 3 get any better?

[BrunoPuntzJones]

I got this when it first came out and put a couple of hours into it. I'm replaying it with some graphics tweaks but the game still feels pretty ho-hum. Been doing the headphones in the dark thing but something about it just feels...off.

I think I'm in the second part of the Alpha Labs, so not very far in.

Does it change much later in the game or pretty much the same the whole way through?

 

[Jaydip]

Are you using any mods, specifically the duct tape or whatever it is called?

 

[Zenoth]

In my opinion, it becomes interesting (and fun enough) only near the end.

The very intro is decent too (arrival at the base, seeing people at work, knowing that some things seem to start going wrong, until "it" happens). But for me most of the game (that is, until near the end) wasn't much fun, it felt very slow paced and predictable, and certainly not spooky as much as some people made it out to be at the time. There are some places where the atmosphere gets heavier on the shoulders, helping to build up some suspense before something happens at the end of a corridor (just a generic example), but other than that it's "meh" material. At the time, however, the graphics were pretty amazing.

If anything, just play it to the end anyway, for the sake of going through the game entirely to have a better final judgment of it once you're done.

 

[DigDog]

no, it doesn't.

i remember asking myself the same question, and unfortunately the answer is no.

doom & doom ii were all about tons of mobs and you dodging them, while blasting them with absurdly OP guns.

doom 3 is about beng stuck in a corridor with a couple mobs at the time, which will spawn in "cinematic" triggers, and the guns are pathetic.

gameplay could not be more different, and not for the better.

 

[JSt0rm]

you have to want to get into the atmosphere. If you enjoy reading all the things that come along and all the scare moments then its fun.

 

[Artorias]

I'm playing this game for the first time now myself and so far enjoying it, I'm at the Alpha labs like your self, and I do agree that it does get predicable at some points.

Though I did get a few genuine scares thinking the room was clear only for those silent critters come lurking in behind me.

Also just to point out I've had a graphic bug where setting it to Ultra settings didn't display uncompressed textures, instead it would use the high setting, I knew it was an older game but something felt off about it. The config file for some reason didn't turn off compression, the important settings should look something like this;

This isn't for the BFG edition, but the older original.

seta image_downSizeBump "0"
seta image_downSizeSpecular "0"
seta image_useCache "0"
seta image_usePrecompressedTextures "0"
seta image_useNormalCompression "0"
seta image_useCompression "0"
seta image_forceDownSize "0"
seta image_downSize "0"
seta image_lodbias "0"

After that I noticed my memory usage went from about 400MB to 750+. You really needed a beast of a GPU back in the day to run this at max settings.

 

[DigDog]

yeah, the jump scares do get predictable. i can plainly see the closed cupboard and locked door and tight corridor that will inevitably trigger a spawn.

that's not my kind of game, but in itself, is not particularly bad.

what really annoys me is how tiny the maps are. (long maybe, but very cramped)

in the two previous games, plus tons of wads, you'd just race madly in HUUGE ass maps, shooting rockets to mobs so far away they were barely a pixel, all the while dodging the fireballs some mancubus was throwing at you.

it might be in the same milieu, but as far as gameplay, doom 3 is not a doom game.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Jaydip, wasn't using mods, just some graphics tweaks.

I tried to put another hour into it, just can't get into it. Thanks all!

I think it's the guns. I can't explain it...The interface is nifty, using computer screens and all, but to me it's just not fun.

Zenoth, I used to be that way. Kind of like a bad movie, have to finish it just to get to the end. Some games I still will, but have too many good ones I need to get to to punish myself with this one.

Artorios, I tried those settings but it seemed to actually decrease on mine

Only running a 660 though.

 

[futurefields]

no, it doesn't.

i remember asking myself the same question, and unfortunately the answer is no.

doom & doom ii were all about tons of mobs and you dodging them, while blasting them with absurdly OP guns.

doom 3 is about beng stuck in a corridor with a couple mobs at the time, which will spawn in "cinematic" triggers, and the guns are pathetic.

gameplay could not be more different, and not for the better.

perhaps you like shooting huge mindless hordes of brainless monsters versus cinematic encounters in dark spooky space station corridors

 

[mmntech]

The first time I played Doom 3 to the finish, all I can remember is thinking how awfully long the game felt, and not in a good way.

It was a pretty important game from a technical standpoint. It's style definitely influenced a lot of later games. I do agree though that the gameplay does get old pretty quickly. I like the spooky atmosphere but it tends to overuse jump scares. Plus there's not a lot of story to really hold everything together. Especially if you don't bother reading all the data pads.

 

[DigDog]

perhaps you like shooting huge mindless hordes of brainless monsters versus cinematic encounters in dark spooky space station corridors

you know what, i do.

i've never been that much of a badass at doom, but i was good enough that i could mentally time & keep track of the shots mobs were firing an me .. behind me. i'd dodge out of the way of mancubus and imp fireballs that i wasn't even seeing.

ok ok, so thats not particularly hard, they always fire at your position, so just keep a mental image of where the shot comes from, and dodge every so many seconds.

but to me, that's gameplay.

doom 3 is more of an interactive film. as i said, i don't have anything against that, if not that i'm not into those sort of games. i'm ok if people like them.

but i resent this being branded as a doom game, because it isn't.

i understand this might come as a closed minded attitude, but i believe that it's reasonable for me to expect doom 3 to play similar to doom 1+2, just like i expect tekken 8 to play reasonably similar to tekken 1~7.

i got it from a Game shop and i paid like £5 for it, so i'm not really pissed off; but i was very disappointed with the experience as a whole.

 

[Sulaco]

perhaps you like shooting huge mindless hordes of brainless monsters versus cinematic encounters in dark spooky space station corridors

Except they're not "cinematic". At all.

Walking into a room, hearing the predictable SCREEEECH of an Imp as it, of course spawns directly behind you , and another spawns in front, is not scary. It's not cinematic. And even less so after the, oh, 79th time.

Walk into a room, hearing the screech of the two imps spawning in front and behind you, take a fireball in the back, roll your eyes, kill it, move onto the next spawn point.

That's really the frustrating thing about DOOM 3, it has SUPERB atmosphere and art direction, stellar graphics (for the time, it was the benchmark of benchmarks), wrapped up with mediocre-to-downright-subpar gameplay for much of the game.

The great art direction just wasn't great enough to offset the annoyingly predictable enemy spawning nonsense.

 

[alcoholbob]

Doom 3 isn't that fun until you use the flashlight mod.

 

[DigDog]

roll your eyes, kill it, move onto the next spawn point.

you are my long lost brother. i have always known.

 

[escrow4]

They should have made Doom 3 like Serious Sam not CoD. Doom 4 though hmmm.

 

[Artorias]

Doom 3 isn't that fun until you use the flashlight mod.

I making it a point to not try this mod, I think it ruins the atmosphere because a lot of the game was designed for you to juggle between weapons and a light source. Yes its a bit absurd to not have tape but it is what it is.

 

[shortylickens]

No, its boring from beginning to end. I was very disappointed. I recommend you use god mode and rush thru it to see the story. Then go play Quake 4.


Quake 4 is much better.

 

[2is]

I enjoyed the game but no, it doesn't really change from beginning to end so if you're not enjoying it now, you probably won't ever start to enjoy it.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

In my opinion Doom 3 after going back to play it several times over the years is actually one of the most solid singleplayer FPS experiences out there, it comes from an old line of much "dumber" FPS which is just shooting your way through everything with brute force and an array of hard hitting and fun weapons.

The formula for the game remains mostly the same throughout but the fun is in the escalation, you start fighting basic demons in human form and later end up battling with much bigger and stronger opponents. The steady introduction of guns and harder enemies at a good pace is what make these games good.

Despite being big dumb fun, it plays best with the lights off and headphones on as they really spin an atmosphere and drop you into some scary moments where they build tension and scare you with jump scares, and later on some more creepy stuff, so I recommend playing like that.

I think it's unfair to say if you find it boring now you'll find it boring later, the game doesn't change much but it's definitely more fun mowing down demons with a minigun and rocket launcher than a handgun.

 

[futurefields]

Except they're not "cinematic". At all.

Walking into a room, hearing the predictable SCREEEECH of an Imp as it, of course spawns directly behind you , and another spawns in front, is not scary. It's not cinematic. And even less so after the, oh, 79th time.

Walk into a room, hearing the screech of the two imps spawning in front and behind you, take a fireball in the back, roll your eyes, kill it, move onto the next spawn point.

That's really the frustrating thing about DOOM 3, it has SUPERB atmosphere and art direction, stellar graphics (for the time, it was the benchmark of benchmarks), wrapped up with mediocre-to-downright-subpar gameplay for much of the game.

The great art direction just wasn't great enough to offset the annoyingly predictable enemy spawning nonsense.

Doom 1 and 2 are the same thing everytime you walk into a room as well.

These games are all repetitive.

 

[BFG10K]

Doom 3 is one of my favorite games of all time, and I like the BFG edition even better.

 

[DeadFred]

The first time I played Doom 3 to the finish, all I can remember is thinking how awfully long the game felt, and not in a good way.

It was a pretty important game from a technical standpoint. It's style definitely influenced a lot of later games. I do agree though that the gameplay does get old pretty quickly. I like the spooky atmosphere but it tends to overuse jump scares. Plus there's not a lot of story to really hold everything together. Especially if you don't bother reading all the data pads.

I felt the same. I got so bored about half way through that I used an all weapons/infinite ammo cheat to blast my way through as quickly as possible just to see how it ended.

 

[Maximilian]

No it dosent get any better.

 

[CZroe]

I was excited and built a system just to be ready for its launch way back then. I even drove more than half-way across the country to play it early at QuakeCon 2003.

It launched. I bought it. It sucked bad enough that I never bothered to finish.

I gave up early because its seemed like such a blatantly uninspired Half-Life/Resident Evil rip-off. I wanted the badass run & gun gameplay of classic Doom but this was all about a Half-Life "experiment gone wrong!" cinematic with a haunted house "OMG! It moved!" atmosphere. Lame.

These were supposed to be reanimated demon-possessed corpses, not "Urg! Urg! Braaaaains!" zombies. The leaked beta actually had them moaning "braaaaaaains."

 

[futurefields]

but this was all about a Half-Life "experiment gone wrong!" cinematic with a haunted house "OMG! It moved!" atmosphere.

That's why I like it! :thumbsup: