Easily the most hyped game of the year; Doom 3 is a classic example of a perfectly competent game's inability to live up to impossible hype.
Getting it out of the way, Doom 3 is indeed the best looking game to ever see a retail shelf. On a properly equipped PC, you'd be hard pressed to think you weren't playing a CG movie with no slowdown. Think a playable movie in the vein of Shrek, only with more blood and guts than Freddy vs. Jason.
However, even those with considerably more modest machines will be able to partake of the goodness that is Doom 3 – ID Software made the engine surprisingly flexible, meaning that a 500 dollar upgrade to the graphics card of your computer isn't a prerequisite for an enjoyable trek through hell. As an example, at 800x600, medium detail with no AA, Doom 3 is comparable to a high-def version of the Xbox sleeper hit, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay. This is no small compliment, given the fact that CoR is widely regarded as the pinnacle of modern console graphics.
Once you get past the game's amazing visuals, Doom 3 quickly reveals itself to be the same game you played on your old 486 machine all those years ago. Yes, there's now the inclusion of "interactive" elements by way of conveniently placed PDAs and video discs. Yes, the text screen narratives have been replaced by full-motion sequences. But when you get down to it, Doom remains as "pure" as it was in the beginning. You point the gun at something, and shoot it till it dies.
There's no problem with that. Doom 3 only runs into problems when it tries to be all things to all people. It focuses on all the small details, and in the process, lets some of the bigger core concepts fall by the wayside. For all its impressive in-game computer interfaces and lighting effects, Doom's physics are laughable – shooting a laptop or a glass panel has the same effect as shooting a solid steel blast door. The sound work is genuinely creepy taken as a whole, but the gun effects are desperately weak. The pistol is a pea shooter, the machine gun an un-muffled street racer. But the biggest disappointment is that the shotgun just doesn't "feel" like it should. There are several fan-made mods to remedy this situation, but it shouldn't be an issue in a game like Doom 3.
Another problem is that in its attempt to create atmosphere, Doom 3 seriously detracts from gameplay at times by way of its lighting system. For much of the game, you'll be in total darkness. If you choose to use your flashlight, you'll be unarmed. Yes, you read that correctly – it seems that in the future, nobody has discovered how to put flashlights or night vision into a soldier's weapon…even though we have them today. Intentional design choice, or huge oversight? Either way, it certainly speeds down what is an otherwise fast-paced romp through the FPS hay.
Though Doom 3 is certainly a great single player game with a decent (if basic) multiplayer offering, its impact is considerably reduced by way of some questionable design decisions. These ill-advised choices are being remedied by the game's mod community, but they never should have been there to begin with. All in all, Doom 3's a lot like getting a manual transmission Corvette when you've been promised a Ferrari that drives itself – you're still very, very impressed, but not to the level you were expecting.
-George
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