Back in 2004, the release of Doom 3 was a pretty huge deal. There was an incredible amount of hype for this game, and I was constantly coming across coverage for it in my EGM magazine subscription, or listening to Adam and Morgan discussing it on G4's X-Play (there's a couple of nostalgia trips for ya!) Despite never having played a Doom game at the time, even I was getting wrapped up in the hype. This wasn't just the first Doom game of the new millennium, it was id Software's first release since Quake III Arena in 1999. It had been a long awaited return for the FPS giant. Despite all of that hype though, I never ended up playing Doom 3 until this year, for a variety of reasons which I will discuss.
The biggest selling point for Doom 3 back in the day, and what was discussed more than anything was the highly-touted visuals. Seeing footage and screenshots for this game was simply mind-blowing for the time period. It was like a next-gen visual delight before the next-gen (at the time) had even arrived. This was largely accomplished by Doom 3's use of dynamic lighting, which was ahead of its time. Because of the amount of darkness you'll encounter, the game is able to present what you are able to see in pretty high-fidelity. In modern day comparisons, think of the how incredible the lighting enhances the visuals in the RE2 & RE3 remakes and consider that Doom 3 was doing pretty much the same thing with its lighting, only about 15-years prior. Even all of these years later, the lighting is probably the strongest aspect of the game. In the portions of the various levels that make a really strong use of the lighting, it still looks really great. However, the portions of the game that aren't impacted by the dramatic shifts in lighting aren't very impressive, and it really does just look like a game from its era. This is the most apparent in terms of the human character models, which... umm... have their charm, I suppose... The realism approach to the demon models are pretty well done though, and really, the total package was still impressive for 2004, and it's a large reason why I ended up skipping out on it -- I just didn't have the PC specs to run the game at that time. I could have went with the port to the original Xbox at the time, but I can't recall why I didn't have any interest in that version.
Because of the lighting technology, id Software decided to take Doom into a dramatically new direction. They decided to move away from the run & gun action that the previous games were known for and instead went with a more more methodical horror approach. The game honestly does a pretty good job creating a horror-movie quality environment, using the lighting to its maximum effect, which is successful in helping manifest a tense, anxious atmosphere, as there could be a demon lurking behind any dark corner, or ready to pounce at you from a barely-visible vent. This is made even more effective because the only tool you have to diffuse the darkness is your trusty flashlight -- the most controversial tool in the game.
Earlier, I had mentioned the positive hype surrounding Doom 3 before it released. However, after it released, all I can remember hearing about was the critical division that was caused by the game's flashlight mechanic. Other than some shifts in the interior lighting of each level, the flashlight is your main tool in not just being able to proficiently navigate the levels, but it also provides you with a tool that can help determine enemy positioning. The controversy stims from the initial iteration of the game, which only allowed you to wield your flashlight in place of your main weapon. Meaning that if you wanted to illuminate an area, you had to put your gun away to do so. There was certainly a split in audience's reception of this mechanic, to say the least. On one hand, having this restriction in place certainly creates tension, having to decide what is more important -- light or fire-power. Knowing that an enemy is stalking you in the shadows, but having to decide to briefly sacrifice your ability to shoot at them to get an idea of their positioning, or to dictate how many enemies you're dealing with -- it's easy to see how having to make that consideration can create the kind of tension that the game is going for.
On the other side of the coin you had a significant portion of the audience who just felt frustrated and annoyed by the flashlight restriction. They just couldn't make sense of it logistically either. We're playing in the future as a highly-trained Space Marine, at a point in time where humans have developed the technology to colonize Mars, but we can't mount our flashlight to our gun?? Hell... our Doom Guy apparently isn't even competent enough to duct tape the flashlight to his arsenal?? I mention duct tape on purpose because soon after this game released, the aptly-named fan-made "Duct Tape Mod" was released and became a pretty famous addition to the game, allowing you to now have your flashlight permanently mounted (or duct-taped) to your weapons. It was such a prolific mod that I was well-aware of it, even though none of my friends nor myself played the game. The discourse at the time would have you believe that the creator of this mod had implemented something that should have been a feature of the game design on day one. I will also admit that this controversy played a large part in me losing interest in trying the game when it was still relatively new. It all painted the game in a pretty negative light -- at least for me and my group of friends at the time.
It's kind of funny. After all of the controversy in the mid 2000's, where it felt like there were way more gamers that were opposed to the flashlight limitation, nowadays, it seems that discourse has flipped. In the BFG edition -- the edition that I played -- the developers resolved all of that discourse and just allowed you to have your flashlight mounted on your body-armor, which you can manually turn on and off while still wielding your gun. And wouldn't you know it -- when you look at the reception to this change, it now has shifted to a large portion of the audience complaining that losing that flashlight restriction completely spoils the intended experience of Doom 3, and the original version was the only acceptable way of experiencing this game. Really, I shouldn't be surprised, because that's the way these things tend to go, and what it comes down to is that you're never going to please everybody. But where do I fall? Well, somewhere in the middle. I can certainly understand the added tension that would have been present as a result of having to choose between using your flashlight or having to contend with the darkness to be able to defend yourself. But even playing with the ability to toggle my flashlight at will, I never felt like the tension was spoiled for me. The game does such a great job of presenting dramatic shifts in lighting that even when you have your flashlight on, the areas you aren't directly looking at are still nearly pitch black, meaning there's still plenty of opportunity to have that tension exist. I will say that I'm slightly more in favor of not having to switch between the two items, for convenience-sake though. It does need mentioning that as an effort to try and please both sides, the developers in the BFG edition decided to implement a battery mechanic to your flashlight, which depletes in about 20-seconds of constant use, requiring you to periodically turn the flashlight off, at which point it will recharge back to full-charge in a few seconds, allowing you to turn it back on. It's just a wildly stupid middle-line that they tried to implement in an attempt to get the best of both worlds, but it makes even less logistical sense than the initial iteration of the game. Screw the lack of duct tape technology! Now apparently human society completely regressed in their flashlight technology, being unable to create a flashlight that can remain lit for more than 20-seconds, despite colonizing another planet. Regardless of the stupidity of the concept, I'd still rather deal with it over having to make the manual swap to the flashlight, which I really felt would not have created a whole lot more tension for me, because the tension already becomes massively spoiled due to another aspect of the game design.
Despite the macabre presentation of the earlier games in the franchise, Doom was never really considered a horror franchise. As a result, it's not surprising to me that id Software wasn't comprised of a development team that properly understood how to create a horror game. Sure, they nailed it visually, but in my opinion, they completely failed on the gameplay execution. What completely exemplifies my point is regarding enemy placement and spawns. Essentially, throughout the entire game, if you think there's going to be an opportunity for them to try and startle you, you can bet your bottom dollar they are going to try and take advantage of it, so much so that it becomes completely ineffective most of the time. It got so predictable that I just began feeling a general apathy toward the horror elements of the game, and this is coming from someone who is an absolute chicken shit when it comes to horror games. It's really a case of there needing to be a 'less-is-more' approach. I guess they would have felt that if they didn't constantly have an onslaught of demons, then it wouldn't be Doom any longer. But the game already feels like so much of a departure from Doom in the first place, they might as well just fully leaned into it. It's not only this attempted tonal shift that makes this game somewhat of a black sheep in the franchise, however.
Before Doom 3, the previous games in the franchise weren't without their linear design. Really, you could say the entire id Software catalog was comprised of very linear FPS games. Even in modern-day id games, most of them are still pretty linear. There's not anything wrong with games that have a linear scope. But if your game is going to be linear, then it has to have the right kind of feel to it. Simply put -- it has to feel satisfying to play. Doom 3 severely lacks that feeling, in my opinion. For a sequel in a franchise that is known for its tremendous gun play, Doom 3's gunplay just does not feel very fun. The only way I can put it is that the guns just lack that visceral satisfaction. There's a lack of feedback. A lack of impact when shooting the enemies. Really, just a straight-up lack of design quality for a large portion of your arsenal. The famous Doom shotgun feels like it hits like a wet noodle. The assault rifle feels like you're playing with a toy gun. Even the higher-impact weapons feel decent at best. Don't even get me started on the super awkward grenade tosses in this game... I mean, honestly, it's not dreadfully awful. I think for any other generic shooter from this era, it would certainly be passable. But having the prestige of being a Doom game, I expected a top-notch feel to the gun play, and it just does not deliver. As a result, what you have is a super-linear game in terms of its objective design, and it just doesn't deliver the moment-to-moment gameplay to make up for the lack of variety. Being the case, Doom 3 becomes pretty darn repetitive. What you find yourself doing in the first couple of levels, you're going to be basically doing for the next 9 or so hours, outside of the occasional underwhelming boss fight. Toward the end of the game, they do provide you with a new 'weapon' that spices things up a bit, but it feels like it was too little, too late to have a meaningful impact.
In accordance with the more realistic approach that the developers went with, they also decided to flesh out the story and lore of Doom a bit more. Throughout the game, you'll encounter a variety of codec entries, audio logs, and video files, all of which attempt to create a more believable universe. The problem is, I don't play Doom for its world-building and lore, thus I really, really struggled to care. In fact, I just ignored all of this for the most part. I initially tried to get invested, but I couldn't muster up the willingness to care about anything other than killing demons. The same thing happened to me in Doom Eternal as well, when they attempted to deliver more on the story and lore front.
It's just not a world that I can take seriously enough to invest in its attempts of deep world-building, even when it tries for a more realistic presentation, such as in Doom 3.
Regarding the sound design - It exists, I guess. As expected, because of the realistic approach, gone is the famous heavy metal Doom soundtrack. Instead, there's very subtle ambient music that plays throughout the game, which never stood out in the slightest. What is a shame is that the initial sound design for the game was to involve work from Nine Inch Nails, which could have potentially been freaking awesome. They even went as far as to do some work with Trent Reznor, but for some reason, they ended up scrapping the idea and went with this super unmemorable sound design instead. There's nothing wrong with it, and it does its job of adding to the atmosphere, but it doesn't stand out either.
In the end, Doom 3 isn't really bad in any areas that count, but it's not great in any of them either, outside of the dynamic lighting design. It's a game that feels like it sacrificed a lot of what makes a great Doom game feel like a great Doom game, all for the sake of being a technical showpiece at the time, and I think that it ultimately has suffered in the long run because of it. There's just not really a whole lot that makes this feel like an entry in the Doom franchise, other than little tidbits that they implement to remind you that it is. Almost the whole time I was playing, I kept thinking -- if you removed the demons and replaced them with various Xenomoprhs -- it's a game that could have been super-fitting as an Aliens title. In fact, I think it clearly drew a lot of inspiration from the Alien movies. That's not a bad thing necessarily. But as a result, outside of the memorable pre-release hype and the aftermath of the flashlight controversy, it will likely remain a pretty unmemorable Doom experience for me, and I just don't feel like either implementation of the flashlight mechanic would have changed my opinion.
This is the final mainline game in my Doom franchise playthrough. Because I was fairly underwhelmed by this game, I was largely considering not even bothering with the expansion packs, but after some consideration, I have decided to go through with playing both Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission to close out this series. I hope to have those both knocked out of the way in the next week or two.
