Doom 3 - best scary sci-fi FPS?

[thejunglegod]

Doom 3 is the best "jump scare" game out there, not scary. Fear, now that's a scary FPS. Then there's Amnesia, which is the SCARIEST game i've played to date .Not an FPS though.

 

[FalseChristian]

I really enjoyed it and it was the 1st game to require a 512MB GPU for the best graphical experience. The flashlight thingy turned me off a bit. The graphics were way ahead of their time and still look good compared to today's games.

I like id software for using OpenGL which I think is superior to Direct 3D and keeps Microshaft on their toes.

 

[Sulaco]

Doom 3 is the best "jump scare" game out there, not scary. Fear, now that's a scary FPS. Then there's Amnesia, which is the SCARIEST game i've played to date .Not an FPS though.

See, this is what I don't get.

FEAR was the very definition of a jump scare game! How people were honestly scared by FEAR just baffles me.

First off, you learn VERY quickly that nothing but paramilitary guys with guns, save one scene at the very end of the game, can hurt you. When Alma appears for a second when you turn around, or you hear a noise, or see her walk behind a wall (all JUMP scares, btw), you soon realize; Oh, she can't/doesn't hurt me. I think that's very important. When you quickly understand that you're not in any real danger, the scare pretty much ends. And the only real danger you're ever in in FEAR is from guys with machine guns...that's not scary or disturbing in the slightest.

I loved FEAR. One of the best shooters of its time. But it was the very definition of a jump scare game. That's all it relied on. I"m climbing down this ladder, turn around, OH MY GOD ALMA!!!! ....oh she disappeared. Ok, carry on.

That's a jump scare, and it got old.

 

[raasco]

Granted it's 3rd person, but the first time meeting the regenerating necromorph in Dead Space 1 freaked me out.

 

[JEDIYoda]

The majority of what I said was not opinion.

still your opinion...unless you want to support what you said with links....

 

[mizzou]

doom 3 was love it or hate it

I often felt the massive criticism of having to switch from flashlight to gun was unfounded because a gun light would make the game entirely less creepy or haunting.

There were several times I was thrilled because I was afraid to turn off my light and lose sight of the enemies, yet I had to switch to a weapon to take them out.

Great experience, but valued by a few.

 

[Scooby Doo]

See, this is what I don't get.

FEAR was the very definition of a jump scare game! How people were honestly scared by FEAR just baffles me.

First off, you learn VERY quickly that nothing but paramilitary guys with guns, save one scene at the very end of the game, can hurt you. When Alma appears for a second when you turn around, or you hear a noise, or see her walk behind a wall (all JUMP scares, btw), you soon realize; Oh, she can't/doesn't hurt me. I think that's very important. When you quickly understand that you're not in any real danger, the scare pretty much ends. And the only real danger you're ever in in FEAR is from guys with machine guns...that's not scary or disturbing in the slightest.

I loved FEAR. One of the best shooters of its time. But it was the very definition of a jump scare game. That's all it relied on. I"m climbing down this ladder, turn around, OH MY GOD ALMA!!!! ....oh she disappeared. Ok, carry on.

That's a jump scare, and it got old.

This pretty much... Also all those "mood setting" phone recordings were so quiet I barely heard any of them, ended up just skipping them anyways.
And once you got enough power for slo-mo the paramilitary wasn't that huge of a threat.

 

[Artista]

I wasn't really impressed with Doom 3. They didn't allow enough freedom of movement and choices. A few times it was scary but not that much. FEAR was scary...up late playing it with surround sound system...with no warning have that scary creepy kid run laughing behind you...made me jump more than a few times.

 

[EDUSAN]

I"m climbing down this ladder, turn around, OH MY GOD ALMA!!!!

i remember jumping off my fucking seat when that happened. one of those moments that i still remember after allllllll those games i played later on over the years

:''''''(

 

[EDUSAN]

Granted it's 3rd person, but the first time meeting the regenerating necromorph in Dead Space 1 freaked me out.

this too... the 1st "dead" body rising to kill you in the game was like a shock... i screamed in fear as i clicked frantically to shoot forward with my eyes closed

in the 2nd dead body rising i jumped a little less

in the 3rd dead body rising i felt like an idiot for falling over that again

=> new room? is there a dead necromorph? shoot from a distance, its probably alive

 

[Martimus]

There are so many better scary FPSs it's not even funny. Constantly spawning enemies behind you and making seeing/shooting anything extremely unwieldy with clunky game mechanics is neither good game design nor particularly scary beyond the "jump" factor to it. Deadspace for instance had some jump scares (fairly rarely), but that wasn't the core part of what made the game scary.

System Shock did everything you first saw in Doom 3 but 10 years earlier.

Don't tell me you never played the original Doom. None of the scares in Doom 3 was new to the game, because they were all in the original Doom. It was the reason I liked the game so much, because it reminded me of my teenage years playing the original Doom. It was a nostalgic game to me. I never played the original System Shock, since it came out later, but if it had all those jump scares it definitely wasn't the first.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Lol, so you don't care about facts. Clunky is clunky. You can't deny that the flipping flashlight mechanic was clunky. That it relied on jump scares is fact. That you find them acceptable as scary/me not is opinion, but as I said the majority of what was said was fact and just saying "hey man opinion" as a response isn't really a response at all.

Is this confuse fact with opinion day?

You're basically saying your opinions are fact because they are obvious opinions.

Just because "most" people thought Human Centipede was a gross movie doesn't make it 'factually' gross. It just means that most people held the opinion that it was a gross movie.

 

[TechBoyJK]

I actually played through the first 3 acts of Doom I on BFG edition yesterday. Going to try and play the final one tonight.

Hadn't played through it like that in nearly 15 years I think.

 

[JoetheLion]

Silent Hill 2 was good scary game, Penumbra overture too, but I didn't like Amnesia so much. Amnesia was bit more predictable and filled with jump scare thingies.

My most atmospheric experience with fear in a computer game was a hotel quest from Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines called Ghost Haunts at Midnight. Basically you went to a haunted burned down hotel on the LA shore, ambient music is humming and screaming at you, making a tons of atmosphere (here's the track if you're interested in listening http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgHylFxMef0 ) and the best thing is that there is grandfather's clock ringing, crackling light bulbs, vases flying at you and you don't know how to fight against it. Most of the time action scenes like, yeah you have to kill this evil spirit/creature/whatever kind of kills the mood of such atmosphere, maybe that's why it worked so well in the Bloodlines. Anyway I recommend the game to everybody who didn't play it. A great game, just a little buggy.

 

[Stringjam]

What I loved about F.E.A.R. was the interesting story and characters. It created a rather haunting atmosphere.

It's not that you were ever supposed to be scared of Alma or Paxton, but more interested in just who (and what) they were.

F.E.A.R. is the kind of "scary" game (I hate to use that term, because it's a bit of a cheap oversimplification of an artistic direction that requires so much to pull off successfully) that I actually like.

I would put Metro 2033 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ShoC into the same category. Neither game is "horror," but to me, they are so much better at creating real feelings of anxiety than a lot of straight up horror games (like Doom).

 

[BFG10K]

I really liked Doom 3 and I’ve replayed it several times.

 

[mikeymikec]

I preferred the 'flashlight' method in AvP2, a (presumably) shoulder-mounted lamp so that you could still be armed while having a bit of light on the subject. The lamp's battery steadily ran out then charged back up while not in use.

AvP2 is showing its age a bit now, but I've played it a heck of a lot more than Doom 3 (I think I've completed Doom 3 about 2-3 times, AvP2 probably 6).

I like Doom 3, but RoE has been really getting on my nerves lately, perhaps lack of ammo and increased reliance on the gravity gun makes me think of a bug screaming towards you and you're busy switching between guns thinking, "hmm, which one shall I kill it with?".

I enjoyed Q4 and AvP2 more than D3 I think.

 

[you2]

The original doom was great; but to be honest when I first played Doom 3 I was under-whelmed. Sure it had nice graphics but by that age I found the game play very limited. After all the FPS that allowed for toggling of switches and every nifty stuff I found ID's engine (quake 4 had the same issue) very liimited and for lack of a better way to explain it single-dimension.
-

 

[werepossum]

Doom 3 wasn't that scary to me.

I'd put FEAR, System Shock 2, AvP2, and Deadspace 1 ahead of it. I didn't list any others as those are the only ones I have played.

Exactly what I'd say, except I never played Dead Space. Doom was incredible graphically and did have great art direction, but its mechanics suck the big one. F.E.A.R. was incredible in how it managed to put things in the edge of your vision, System Shock 2 had at least equal staging and atmosphere, and Aliens versus Predator 2 (perhaps the best video game I've ever played) was incredible at making the player feel threatened from more directions than he can cover as well as overall staging, art direction and atmosphere. And none of those felt the compulsive need to periodically wrench away control and throw me into a cut scene. Make a movie or make a game, but for G-d's sake pick a lane.

Plus Doom 3 never explained the flashlight thing. Am I a one-armed Marine, am I holding up my baggy pants, am I sucking my thumb - what gives? Why can't I hold a pistol AND a flashlight at the same time?

 

[marmasatt]

What I loved about F.E.A.R. was the interesting story and characters. It created a rather haunting atmosphere.

It's not that you were ever supposed to be scared of Alma or Paxton, but more interested in just who (and what) they were.

F.E.A.R. is the kind of "scary" game (I hate to use that term, because it's a bit of a cheap oversimplification of an artistic direction that requires so much to pull off successfully) that I actually like.

I would put Metro 2033 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ShoC into the same category. Neither game is "horror," but to me, they are so much better at creating real feelings of anxiety than a lot of straight up horror games (like Doom).

QFT. I enjoyed DIII alot. But in general, I prefer something immersive. Something that makes you feel a sense of desolation and complete dread. That's why I like the Stalker series so much. It's the "break" in things and pacing that causes the anxiety and dread of the next situation or encounter.

 

[Grey!matter]

Silent hill 1 and 2 were fantastic games. I still remember the first time I played SH1, 5 minutes in the game and I know this game was going to be a haunting experience I'd remember for a long time. Sh2 capitalized on what made SH1 creepy and it still my favorite game I've ever played. The music in the first 3 added so much to the experience, I've just not found current games to be like this. I remember when maria first "dies" in SH2 I felt genuine sorrow and then the music kicks in, was intense.

Jump scares get extremely boring. personally, I think the disturbing, grotesque and what push the boundaries of "is this real or what is happening to me" are scarier; What you don't see out there or whats luring behind the scenes just fuck me up real good.

Fear was a fantastic game, the multilayer in that game is still the most fun and time spent playing an fps.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Doom 3 was a decent game and I played through and beat it once, but it really was very monotonous. Doom 1 and 2 mixed up the monster in a closet routine with some fairly absurd action sequences with dozens of enemies attacking from all angles. The first two dooms not only had the jumps from time to time, they also did a fantastic job of building tension and even driving frenzy (Oh hey that rocket launcher on a pedestal over there in that empty room seems totally legit and not a tra... OH HOLY CRAP!). Level design was also unparalleled as the designers weren't constrained by attempting to "keep it real".

The gameplay mechanic of having demons attack each other was simply brilliant and it bemuses me to no end why it isn't leveraged AT ALL in modern gaming.

Doom 3 was all corridor, all monster in a closet, no more than a handful of enemies at a time. It was a gorgeous game, with an amazing lighting engine, it just wasn't doom and after the 3rd monster in a closet, it got kinda dull.

 

[JoetheLion]

I would put Metro 2033 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ShoC into the same category. Neither game is "horror," but to me, they are so much better at creating real feelings of anxiety than a lot of straight up horror games (like Doom).

I agree! They worked with the lore and developed rich atmosphere through the backstory and overall tone of the environment.

 

[ArizonaSteve]

Whatever happened to Doom 4?

 

[SpunkyJones]

i remember jumping off my fucking seat when that happened. one of those moments that i still remember after allllllll those games i played later on over the years

:''''''(

This x10! I still remember this scene vividly. It helped that I was down in my office in the dark basement of my home, it was late at night and I JUMPED! I liked Doom 3, but FEAR was much scarier to me.