After being almost over in the game, here is my take on the overall experience (call it a mini-review).
After all the hype surrounding D3, I must say that I have a mixed bag of feelings regarding my experience with the game. Maybe I was expecting too much of it, but for now the game has failed to deliver the experience that I was expecting. This does not mean that the game is bad or that it sucks. On the contrary, it is entertaining (for a couple of hours) and has an impressive lighting and shadow model, but it fails in so many points that in the last levels that I have played I feel that I am only playing to see where this thing goes in the end.
Anyway the good points are:
Dynamic light and shadows - probably the cream of the crop, the best visuals of any game to date are it's shadows projected by every light source. No game has had this quality to date.
Player and creature models - On pair with the best if not a small notch up, its textures and models are excellent. The hand might have needed a little more work, but that?s just me bickering.
Atmosphere (first 2/3 hours) - I manage to have a few jumps off the chair in the first hours of gameplay. It's dark environment is very well done, albeight a little too dark in some levels).
Flashlight effect - it's probably the best to date. It could have been bigger, but that?s just me bickering again.
Interface with computers/doors/lockers- I really liked this interface. Very innovative and well implemented.
Sound effects - Very well done. It could have used some EAX effects but nevertheless there is something that always surprises you.
The bad points:
Atmosphere (+4 hours) - it's just the same stuff over and over again. After a few jumps you just know what?s going to happen in 90% of the situations. Open door-> imp jumps at you. Get ammo/armor/health pack -> three imps teleport from nowhere and a few zombies appear on a secret door. Who the hell designs a station in a remote planet with so many secret doors/areas? It's the same thing in Doom/Doom 2, only a couple of (development) years later.
Guns - They could have implemented different guns than the same ones from D1 and D2. Also there is no secondary shot? I really don't remember a recent game that doesn't have this. Just look at Painkiller. It has the best weapon implementation of all. Learn from it id.
No flashlight with gun in hand - I'm not even questioning the fact that it is the future and a space marine can't do "multi-tasking"... It is basically a bad design decision. In Alien vs Predator the marine had it and that didn't stop the game from being scarier than D3. Same thing with The Suffering and the Silent Hill series. I think that these games are scarier than D3 and they had the flashlight always on.
Textures - Why did some textures came out almost perfect and then many other seem to came out of DE:IW? Bump-mapping disguises some of these bad/blurry textures but some could have been improved my a large margin. Probably performance issues are the culprit here but it doesn't justify everything.
Interaction with the "world" - aside from the lockers and computers and barrels, there is little else to do. Everything seems too static (station machinery excluded). They could have improved by doing what other developers have done in the past.
Storyline - From what I have read id hired a professional writer to do the "dialogues". I'd say that if I was id I would try and get some of my money back. Halfway through the game I only browse the e-mails to check for locker codes. The voice logs were entertaining at first but since the story (or lack of) isn't very engaging, they get tiresome after a while and don't give much info on what?s going on. Also the fact that until now your character doesn't have anything to say is kind of strange. When all Hell is braking loose around him, a "WTF?!" once in a while would be cool to hear. The same happens with The Suffering but the storyline of the prison makes up for it. In D3 case it doesn't.
Music - The lack of it is strange, to say the least. Most of the time a good soundtrack makes for some other flaws in games. This could have been an advantage in D3. Instead it is one more thing to bicker.
The bottom line: It is a great engine that with a little tweaking has the potential to generate some of the best games in the next 1/2 years, but Doom 3 is very similar to Doom 2 and Doom 1. Probably too similar for my taste. In terms of gameplay they didn't evolve. And the justification that it shouldn't be expected anything else then "Run'n Shoot" game is bollocks. I give it a 80% score. Lets hope that other developers pick up the engine and focus more on gameplay, and not on tweaking the engine. It's worth buying but don't expect to be "the best thing since sliced bread".