HEXUS.net Review: Doom III

[Steve]

Only a few days ago, we brought you our Half Life 2 review. Everybody has been comparing it to id's Doom III since before either of the games were even available, and Far Cry has given the FPS genre a run for its money this year too. So, if you're still unsure of which game to buy, today we bring you our Doom III review.

This is a classic case of developer believing their own hype and going for style over content with an outdated idea of what drives the market. Sadder still, I can see various reviewers falling for the hype and hailing Doom 3 as the best thing since sliced baked produce. Sit the game along side the original and this is a stunning piece of gaming software. Play it alongside any of its contempories though, and its shortfalls soon become apparent.

Check it out here.

[Stoo]

Where's the rating?

[TiG]

heh i think the realist in me says that a score isn't a good idea after experiencing the PF backlash

Speaking of which where is the extra CD content

I think someone should remind some developers how many copies of tetris have been sold worldwide....

Nice review Deckard as always...

TiG

[ToMmEh]

lmao

"a superb graphics engine looking for a game"

classic

[scottyman]

is it so low rated that it doesn't get a score! scathing review, but oh so true!

[Nick]

lol, no, no, no...

I forgot to put a rating in at the end of the review, that was all... it should be there now.

Edit: Yep, its got a rating now. Thank Directhex for coding the page up for me!

[Nick]

ps, TiG... there's a review of the patched PF being worked on now...

[ToMmEh]

a 7, bit generous :S

[Nick]

I dunno, its certainly a brillinet game engine, if a little too dark for my personal taste. If you take the view that the game is really a complete re-working of the original Doom, then its pretty darn good.

Hold it up against the likes of Far Cry and HL2 and it falls short, but thats not to say its a bad game, it just isn't as good as other games out there now.

[TooNice]

I think it depends on what you look in a game as well. I *like* the linear walk A to B, hit switch at C, flip another one at D and exit at E solution. Thats also why I enjoyed Painkiller.

I get a kick out of running into a room guns blazing, dodging the imps and shooting them in the head. Simple and effective.

Far Cry was good too, but I didn't get the same adrenaline rush. It looked great, the outdoor scenes are certainly a nice change.. But the pace was different. Granted Doom 3 is far different from Doom 1 and 2.. Serious Sam/PainKiller does the "throw hordes of monsters at you" far better. But for me at least, the fun factor is still there.

[Zak33]

I get a kick out of running into a room guns blazing, dodging the imps and shooting them in the head. Simple and effective.

good for youl....you know what you like, and you go with it

So long as reviews (such as Decks) tell us what to expect we can make our own mind up.

He's saved me lots fo dough in reviews and cost me lots more where I didnt expect

[jonathan_phang]

I think TooNice hit the nail on the head. Many people are quick to just say that D3 isnt as good as farcry etc and state that its soooo linear and samey, without actually looking at what the game is trying to offer. We all knew it was never going to offer a huge evolution, but id set out to make the creepiest game experience on PC and imo, i believe they have made the scariest game there is. Good on you id.

[Stoo]

The thing is, it just isn't scary after the first 5 minutes, you *know* where the imps will appear, you know what will happen once you walk over to that tempting pick-up etc etc

Not only do you know it from playing the first 5 minutes, you know it from 10 years ago in the original Doom series...

For example, in half life 2, the enemy will hide, retreat, circle, so you never really know where they're coming from, the world has moved on while ID crafted their perfect vision of a FPS.

[turkster]

I think it depends on what you look in a game as well. I *like* the linear walk A to B, hit switch at C, flip another one at D and exit at E solution. Thats also why I enjoyed Painkiller.

I get a kick out of running into a room guns blazing, dodging the imps and shooting them in the head. Simple and effective.

Far Cry was good too, but I didn't get the same adrenaline rush. It looked great, the outdoor scenes are certainly a nice change.. But the pace was different. Granted Doom 3 is far different from Doom 1 and 2.. Serious Sam/PainKiller does the "throw hordes of monsters at you" far better. But for me at least, the fun factor is still there.

Personally I found quite the opposite. Now I only have the demo of Doom3 but I played straight through that on the most difficult setting with a feeling of complete boredom. The only time I jumped was when a zombie broke up through a flight of stairs as I was walking up it . In contrast FarCry had me involved right from the beggining. It is exhilarating, tricky and often scary whereas Doom3 is shoot,shoot,shoot and get killed if you miss. TBH I found the original Doom better. Ok the graphics are good and there are some impresive effects but they go to waste in the dark and dingy corridors and generally are not any better than the graphics in FarCry.

[Zathras]

Personally I found Far Cry set the pulse racing far more than Doom 3, and that's because of the checkpoint save system. Battling through a cave of Trigen or storming up a hill on a buggy avoiding rockets and sniper-fire on minimal health just trying to make it to the next checkpoint was far more exciting than the tediousness that was Doom 3. The only bits of Doom 3 I really enjoyed were taking on the Cacodemons and some of the other larger monsters as they'd charge at you and you could strafe out of the way and watch them sail past then circle-strafe round them unloading shotgun shell after shotgun shell into them whilst they turned. More fun than the usual stand, fire, duck, stand, fire or just run straight at you with no deviation of most of the Far Cry enemies and reminiscent of proper human-on-human deathmatching.

[TooNice]

I didn't appreciate the check-point system as much as you did.

In a way it adds to the challenge. But it didn't get my adrenaline rushing that much. More a case of "worrying" for me.. I played safe most of the time because I didn't want to risk having to re-do the area again. More realistic? Maybe.. But I've never found realistic FPS to more fun than something more fictional.