Doom 3 (2004)

Settling on a 2 here, for me. I believe this is a "you had to be there" game, which I respect. I bet it was awesome. But I felt the core loop of the game to be mundane, the atmosphere not up to par, and with too many things that I consider annoying. The flashlight isn't top of the list, either. It's mostly the encounter design. (And after all that, I don't think I got hit once by the final boss. Bizarrely easy).

I am, however, fascinated by the talk surrounding this game. I'm reading the Making of Doom 3 book. And the reviews at the time...hm...though I didn't like the game, I am glad I played it because now I get to go back in time and look at the conversation with hindsight. Since I can't find it digitized, I might buy Game Informer #138 on eBay where it is reviewed. Next stop, GameFAQs, who has user reviews of the day still up.

I think I'll play this next. I'm trying to churn through all the books I own but never read in an effort to clean some shelf space. I have The Making of Doom 3, which looks really cool, but I want to play it before reading the book. Here's an archive.org link to the book if you want to take a look: https://archive.org/details/makingofdoomiii0000kent/page/n5/mode/2up

The question is, do I play it with or without the flashlight mod? The game has a lot of dark areas, and originally you had to put your gun away to pull out your flashlight. So, it became this other scary mechanic of not feeling prepped with your gun out and all. However, this was due to a technical limitation at the time. Supposedly, John Carmack has said that he actually intended for your guns to have flashlights attached. Anyway, it's a contentious part of the game, and one that was altered in the BFG edition. You can play the original, or a version where your gun has a flashlight on it so no need to swap. My gut wants to play it "as intended", but having just come off Dead Space remake, I could use a less scary game...hm...we'll see.

Just finished the game. Really enjoyed it. It's a refreshing rethink of the Doom franchise. After playing Quake 2 not that long ago, I was very glad to find out it didn't have nearly any of the flaws Quake 2 had. By the end of it, I was starting to get a little bored at the repetition, but I think the game ended just in time. Either way, definitely one of the better games I've played.

Two other quick things to add:

• I developed a habit of turning around whenever I heard the "castrachios" teleporty noise, because they always teleport in one in front of you, one behind.
• My biggest gripe about the game is I got hung up on the geometry more times than I'd like

Dhewm3 makes running the original Doom 3 on modern hardware as plug-n-play as possible, complete with 64-bit support, widescreen and great 3D Sound through emulated EAX 4.0. Had it running at 60fps maxed out on a very slow machine.

Great, beautiful game with wonderful shadows and real-time lighting.

The three main idTech4 games, Prey, Quake 4 and Doom 3 all deserve a playthrough. Wonderfull stuff, great blend of oldschool gunplay and more modernized level design compared to the shooters of the late 90's.