Doom 3 - best scary sci-fi FPS?

[Munky]

I give credit to games like FEAR, Metro 2033, and Stalker which managed to have a horror/creepiness scare factor without resorting to crippling your ability to see and shoot at the same time.

 

[CrystalBay]

Doom 3 still has superior lighting ,shadows and animation of any thing 10 years after IMO. It may be the Euro devs with Stalker and Crysis that have comparables in lighting/shadows . Doom 3 animation is so cinematic in real time.

Yes FEAR was good also .Very good job Monolith while you were still alive...

 

[Zenoth]

Doom 3 still has superior lighting ,shadows and animation of any thing 10 years after IMO. It may be the Euro devs with Stalker and Crysis that have comparables in lighting/shadows . Doom 3 animation is so cinematic in real time.

Yes FEAR was good also .Very good job Monolith while you were still alive...

I put animation in bold since I would like to point at RAGE's animation, most of them are pretty well made, fluid, "plausible" (believable) and just plain look good. Also, animations in Kingdoms of Amalur are amongst the best I've seen (and not specifically pointing at the realism of them, or lack thereof, just mentioning the fluidity and how not awkward or dated they look). Another game with great animations (in my opinion, anyway) is TERA.

Well that is, except for its lack of transitional lateral and diagonal animations for player characters (specifically them, along with mounts, because most mobs and bosses actually have those animations), but that in itself doesn't say anything about animations since they actually lack, it's not like they'd look bad, there's just none (but the ones that do exist in the game are great, for the most part... except maybe for throwing bombs, that one looks dated and isn't believable but then again no one uses bombs anyway so it doesn't matter much).

Another one I've played recently at my cousin's place (on his 360) is God of War: Ascension, pretty nice looking (fluid, smooth) animations in that one, I was kinda surprised actually. Also, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has great animations overall (I know, that ain't related to PC gaming). Anyway, point being that in terms of animations, since DOOM 3, we've definitely had some nice jewels here and there. But don't get me wrong, having good animations in games is about as rare as having good A.I., so we're not out of the woods with bad animations in gaming.

I'm not sure why though, perhaps because animation in general is a difficult work and is difficult to master, or animators never have enough work time and need to cut corners to animate hundreds of different mobs rather than concentrating on a few specific characters in a game with a smaller cast. Maybe sometimes it's related to the engine's own animation system (or lack thereof, such as the older GameBryo versions running Oblivion and Fallout 3... oh God the third-person animations... just thinking about it... ugh).

But, as you pointed out (and I agree to that part), DOOM 3's lightning and shadowing system still holds its ground extremely well to this day. I'd also add that similarly so STALKER SoC's lightning and shadows (particularly the shadowing effects) still look great today.

 

[Stringjam]

I'd also add that similarly so STALKER SoC's lightning and shadows (particularly the shadowing effects) still look great today.

I think STALKER lighting hit its peak in ClearSky. Just amazing, really.

A lot of games look great in lit areas, but look really fake and "chalky" in the dark. STALKER shines in the shadows and the darkness. I really miss this IP.

 

[fustercluck]

Doom 3 sucked pretty hard. The only thing it was a benchmark for was maybe visual/graphic eye candy stuff, nothing gameplay wise. For me, it was very forgettable. To each their own, though

 

[datalink7]

I'm in the "Doom III wasn't very scary" camp. Whole game was "meh" to me. :shrug;.

 

[blankslate]

FEAR.

That game was scary and awesome.

 

[Renob]

You seemed to fail to realize in almost every statement I made I used facts to justify them. That you had a different opinion despite or because of them is fine. Man, you're slow as hell. Clunky game mechanic is not arguable btw. That you could tolerate it is your trait and shaped your opinion, but that doesn't change the fact.

You two are very funny, please keep up the good work!

Oh and by the way I liked Doom 3 its was good for one play through for me.

 

[etrigan420]

Doom 3 scared the crap out of me...for the first couple of instances. Then it was, "Here's where the lights go out". Still a great game.

FEAR didn't scare me at all. Not sure why. A good enough game, but just didn't scare me.

SS2 was "creepy", but not "scary". Great game, would smash again.

Undying was an excellent game with some scary moments, but wasn't "sci-fi"...

Never played Dead Space (the controls were all wonky when I tried the demo and it didn't interest me enough to worry about), STALKER (somehow I just missed this game...might have to try it eventually), or Metro (I actually *have* this game, just no desire to play it...the premise doesn't interest me)

Sooo, in my opinion, yes. Doom III is the best "scary" sci-fi FPS to date.

 

[ericlp]

I enjoyed Doom 3... It's not a game your play in the daytime... You enjoy playing it past 11PM. Usually 1-3 AM when your tired! But really. The game was suppose to be DARK and had all the EVIL effect to be scary. If you had a dark computer room with some headphones the game was Awesome.

But most people missed the point that this game was suppose to be played late at night alone... So no one saw you jumping when monsters popped out of lockers.

Tho the real key was for me, I thought of it as a devil's type of game and the graphics and thought that went into all the evil shit was well drawn and looked super cool ... I'm an atheist but I would think those that believe in god, wouldn't enjoy this game that much being how dark it was.

 

[futurefields]

I think STALKER lighting hit its peak in ClearSky. Just amazing, really.

A lot of games look great in lit areas, but look really fake and "chalky" in the dark. STALKER shines in the shadows and the darkness. I really miss this IP.

Yes the STALKER series is very atmospheric and nice lighting....

...if you compare it to games from 2002.

Seriously... not sure why those games consistently get compared to modern AAA titles. They have supremely interesting story, but the execution is so lacking. They would make better novels than video games.

 

[Whirlwind]

Great game...looks great 10 years later.....modded up and sikkmod

 

[Grey!matter]

I bought doom 3 second week of release and i played for like 4 hours and never played it again, I just didn't find it appealing at all.

Silent hill 1+2, dead space 1+2, Fear(its expansions, multilayer was so much fun), system shock 2 and quake 1(1996?) were all amazing horror shooters or w/e.

I enjoyed metro for its atmosphere only really, and I've never played the stalker series.

 

[DigDog]

doom 3 used shock tactics to scare you, so meh.

FEAR was the king, still unbeaten.

 

[Nintendesert]

System Shock 2 was better. That game was frightening in a much better way than Fear or Doom.

 

[TheVrolok]

System Shock 2 was better. That game was frightening in a much better way than Fear or Doom.

/fact. I actually really enjoyed Doom 3, mostly for the art direction, but as far as best scary Sci-Fi FPS? SS2 absolutely runs away with it (unless you really want to split SS2 away because it's really a FP-RPG). It's not even close.

 

[shortylickens]

DAMN WHIRLWIND!!


Anyway, no it isnt.

AVP 2 was a poopload better.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Exactly what I'd say, except I never played Dead Space.

Do so. I'd say it's a proper sequel to System Shock 2.

 

[Sulaco]

doom 3 used shock tactics to scare you, so meh.

FEAR was the king, still unbeaten.

FEAR was the epitome of that.

Seriously, go back and play it again. Once you realize that the ONLY threat to you physically are the forgettable human/clone soldiers with guns, and that the game relies on jump scares from Alma's cliche "appearing suddenly when you turn around" schtick, the scares wear off.

That, and a mind-bogglingly convoluted story, made the game creepy, nowhere near scary. Human special forces guys with assault rifles attacking you (truly the only threat you really ever face, and you learn that within the first couple of hours) just isn't frightening.

Still, its gameplay was miles beyond DOOM 3's.

 

[futurefields]

Doom 3 still has superior lighting ,shadows and animation of any thing 10 years after IMO. It may be the Euro devs with Stalker and Crysis that have comparables in lighting/shadows .

No way is the lighting in Doom 3 superior to modern games. There is not even basic ambient occlusion.

But, the art direction is second to none, which is why it looks so good imo.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

sorry, but anyone having anything positive to say about doom 3, then or now, is an idiot.

 

[pmv]

As this thread has been resurrected like a respawning enemy in System Shock 2, I'll say I thought Doom 3 was damn good at the time even if it did use 'cheap' tactics - it pushed things forward in terms of its engine also. And the use of sound did a good job of emphasising the demonic atmosphere.

I never got on with SS2 because of the combination of endlessly respawning baddies and breakable weapons and finite ammo. Plus all the slightly cumbersome RPG elements. Still yet to finish it, now I come to think of it! Sure I still have my save games on a cdr somewhere. Doesn't help that it soon became problematic to run on later hardware.

But Undying was also scary, with a better plot than Doom 3. But as with D3 the art direction is a big part of what makes it good.

And the _first_ AVP was the first scary game I played. I think the 180-degree-only motion sensor in that must have been supplied by the same military contractor that came up with the Doom 3 non-duct-tapeable torch. Why do these guys keep getting contracts?

I think at one point in that my big tough space marine locked himself in a tiny box room and decided he was not going to come out again till the scary monsters had gone away. Sadly they came and found him.

FEAR was very well done, but I didn't find it especially scary. And I'm not convinced the plot ever really made sense.

 

[darkswordsman17]

My problem with Doom 3 is that it wasn't Doom. It felt like a Doom mod for Half-Life, or maybe a Half-Life mod for Doom.

I think its an ok game, but even though I'm actually not that big of a Half-Life or HL2 fan (I know blasphemy, don't get me wrong, I understand why they are lauded but they just aren't my favorite for various reasons), I feel it aged a lot better and is by far a better game.

I didn't mind the flashlight bit, although I do think that's a valid criticism and they could have made it just as scary (battery? have to have filters to see in some conditions, stuff like that) without the weird limitation.

Doom 3 did some things really well, in fact, I kinda get the impression that it was quite ahead of its time in some ways graphically, but I also think that worked against it. The game models were a bit of a mess (the character/monster models especially although some were ok and the animations were a bit hit and miss) and the textures were bleh. It seems to me that many of the graphical things it did so well just don't matter that much (I believe shadows were really exceptional and it did some interesting things with lighting, but I think the "smoke and mirrors" with better models/textures of recent games offers a much better end result).

I don't want to fault id too much for not just making another sequel (for instance, the newest Serious Sam, its like the same old with better graphics and that's ok, but I'd prefer them to try and push things in some way, like Serious Sam would be amazing with tons of destructibility) as I get they wanted to do something different and make Doom much more of a scary game, I just don't think the end result was that impressive.

Ultimately Doom 3 didn't live up to expectations and I feel it is a poster child for how FPSes changed, and in my opinion, not for the better. I think what really hits the head on why I find the game so mediocre is comparing it to say Chronicles of Riddick that came out around the same time. I know they're quite a bit different gameplay wise so its not a great comparison, but Riddick seemed similar but better visually, much more interesting gameplay wise (and they allegedly scaled back the gameplay some). It was like, it took id how many years to make this?

Oh, and I'm utterly disappointed with the BFG version. Its like a somewhat improved version that comes nowhere close to some of the mods for the original game (Doom 3 I mean), which really helped give it back some of the feel of Doom. To me it should have been a much higher quality experience, with maybe a "classic" mode (or the earlier games in the D3 engine).

 

[darkswordsman17]

The shadows and some of the way the lighting acts is still very good, but when paired with the constant corridors and subpar textures and models, the game just really doesn't look that good overall. Like all the effort went into the shadows and doing some special things with the lighting, which actually hampered the rest of the game (IIRC its the reason why its a pop-up scare game because they couldn't fill the screen with enemies as it killed the framerates, and likewise its why its such a corridor shooter with not all that terrible great of variety).

I think its held up decently but that's less a testament to it and more of the derivative mess we've gotten the past several years. Personally, I prefer Gears of War, somewhat similar aesthetic (that hefty industrial look), and I'm sure Doom 3's engine blows it away as far as lighting and shadows go, but I greatly prefer the end result that Gears brought (and don't get me wrong I don't think Gears is the most amazing thing ever either).

No way is the lighting in Doom 3 superior to modern games. There is not even basic ambient occlusion.

But, the art direction is second to none, which is why it looks so good imo.

I wasn't all that impressed with the art direction. I don't think its garbage or anything, and its fine enough for the game they apparently set out to make (a more realistic and scary Doom), but I don't really find anything special about it either. That Chronicles of Riddick game has it matched or beat in basically every way visually.

Fear didn't do much for me. I could see why some people liked it a lot more but it was pretty meh to me as well.

 

[EDUSAN]

doom 3 art direction, to me, is quite a generic sci-fi look. Everything is metalized and pretty clean to be fair. It had a good use of dark spots to take screenshots of (i never finished it though)

For instance, the last screenshot Whirwind posted, looks like it could be used in any sci-fi game and you wouldnt even noticed