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Doom and doom and doom again
10 March 2005
The release in August of Doom 3 was one of the most anticipated events in the gaming industry, in part because it had been promised and promised and promised for so long. After four years of development, a lot of industry writers wondered whether it would ever be released.
But the anticipation didn’t sour fans – Doom 3 sold 300,000 copies in its first week alone!
Doom is one of those seminal programs that change the way we do things, in this case gaming. The original Doom was responsible for today’s generation of 3D, virtual-reality first-person-shooters (FPS). First released in 1993, Doom was an instant hit: it was simple, fast, furious and looked like it was played in real 3D.
Well, it was a slick bit of ray-tracing that got that effect, and the game was really in 2D, but who cared? You could play it solo or multiplayer, and the waves of demons, monsters and bad guys never stopped coming.
Within a couple of months, fans had created their own level editors and there were mods being crafted. An entire cottage industry of hackers grew up around Doom.
A year later, Doom II was released, and pretty soon the game was being ported to consoles as well.
In fact, variations of Doom, including new levels, ports and “ultimate” packages continued to be released until late 2002 – how many other games have that sort of longevity? Even today Doom has a following online and you can still download it.
So it’s little wonder that the announcement of Doom 3 created such a stir. Everyone wanted it, everyone waited for it. And waited, and waited, and waited…
Appetites were whetted by teasers – screen shots, trailers, brief demos at E3, but the final product didn’t hit the shelves until four years after the announcement was first made.
So is it worth the wait? I don’t think so.
The graphics engine is superb. The dynamic lighting, the textures, the models, the detail-rich environments, the sounds – all truly amazing advances in VR gaming technology.
But the game itself? Well, it’s dark. Very dark. So dark you have to wonder how humans could, in this futuristic setting, manage to build a colony on Mars without the ability to install enough light bulbs to see more than a dozen feet. Or design a flashlight that is better than the dim tool you’re given to explore the darkness.
Heck, I can buy a brighter bulb at Canadian Tire today!
The monsters are ugly, frightening and well crafted. But they are as stupid as stones, and have one mode of attack: hide in the dark then rush at you. As you pick up bigger and badder weapons, the enemies get bigger, faster and nastier, so you don’t really ever get an advantage on them. You keep killing them until you reach the biggest, baddest of the lot, the Final Boss.
AI is not Doom 3’s strong point. Compared to games like Half Life and Ghost Recon, the AI in Doom 3 is dull. The waves of demons in Doom 1 & 2 give way to more single attackers, but they come – predictably – from dark corners, attacking rapidly and violently, but without any finesse.
If you’ve ever played any of the newer Tom Clancy-derived games, you’ll be frustrated by the elementary character controls in Doom 3. You can’t lie prone, or peak around corners. This is basic move/shoot stuff.
Doom 3 is about setting: it’s an intense, suspenseful participatory horror flick. It’s not so much a game as an experience in tension. Doom 3 is immersive and compelling, but doesn’t stand up to much analysis as a game system.
Nor is it one of those games that has much replay value. Perhaps the multiplayer will be interesting in that gloomy environment – although id, the publisher, chose only some old standards for MP play, and didn’t bother to include the much-requested co-op play.
Doom 3 isn’t much fun, not compared to the old Doom, Quake or Serious Sam. It’s too dark, too tense. There’s no humour in it, you have to read and listen to a lot of clues, and combat becomes repetitive. Even the tension wears off as you grope through one dark room to the next, knowing that picking up any stray ammo or armour will spawn another monster.
Doom 3 may be a financial hit for id, and a triumph of programming virtual environments, but I don’t think it’s really a successful game. If you want fun, multiplayer mayhem and insane co-op play, pick up a copy of Serious Sam Gold from the bargain racks. You’ll save $50 or more and laugh a lot more while you play.
But the anticipation didn’t sour fans – Doom 3 sold 300,000 copies in its first week alone!
Doom is one of those seminal programs that change the way we do things, in this case gaming. The original Doom was responsible for today’s generation of 3D, virtual-reality first-person-shooters (FPS). First released in 1993, Doom was an instant hit: it was simple, fast, furious and looked like it was played in real 3D.
Well, it was a slick bit of ray-tracing that got that effect, and the game was really in 2D, but who cared? You could play it solo or multiplayer, and the waves of demons, monsters and bad guys never stopped coming.
Within a couple of months, fans had created their own level editors and there were mods being crafted. An entire cottage industry of hackers grew up around Doom.
A year later, Doom II was released, and pretty soon the game was being ported to consoles as well.
In fact, variations of Doom, including new levels, ports and “ultimate” packages continued to be released until late 2002 – how many other games have that sort of longevity? Even today Doom has a following online and you can still download it.
So it’s little wonder that the announcement of Doom 3 created such a stir. Everyone wanted it, everyone waited for it. And waited, and waited, and waited…
Appetites were whetted by teasers – screen shots, trailers, brief demos at E3, but the final product didn’t hit the shelves until four years after the announcement was first made.
So is it worth the wait? I don’t think so.
The graphics engine is superb. The dynamic lighting, the textures, the models, the detail-rich environments, the sounds – all truly amazing advances in VR gaming technology.
But the game itself? Well, it’s dark. Very dark. So dark you have to wonder how humans could, in this futuristic setting, manage to build a colony on Mars without the ability to install enough light bulbs to see more than a dozen feet. Or design a flashlight that is better than the dim tool you’re given to explore the darkness.
Heck, I can buy a brighter bulb at Canadian Tire today!
The monsters are ugly, frightening and well crafted. But they are as stupid as stones, and have one mode of attack: hide in the dark then rush at you. As you pick up bigger and badder weapons, the enemies get bigger, faster and nastier, so you don’t really ever get an advantage on them. You keep killing them until you reach the biggest, baddest of the lot, the Final Boss.
AI is not Doom 3’s strong point. Compared to games like Half Life and Ghost Recon, the AI in Doom 3 is dull. The waves of demons in Doom 1 & 2 give way to more single attackers, but they come – predictably – from dark corners, attacking rapidly and violently, but without any finesse.
If you’ve ever played any of the newer Tom Clancy-derived games, you’ll be frustrated by the elementary character controls in Doom 3. You can’t lie prone, or peak around corners. This is basic move/shoot stuff.
Doom 3 is about setting: it’s an intense, suspenseful participatory horror flick. It’s not so much a game as an experience in tension. Doom 3 is immersive and compelling, but doesn’t stand up to much analysis as a game system.
Nor is it one of those games that has much replay value. Perhaps the multiplayer will be interesting in that gloomy environment – although id, the publisher, chose only some old standards for MP play, and didn’t bother to include the much-requested co-op play.
Doom 3 isn’t much fun, not compared to the old Doom, Quake or Serious Sam. It’s too dark, too tense. There’s no humour in it, you have to read and listen to a lot of clues, and combat becomes repetitive. Even the tension wears off as you grope through one dark room to the next, knowing that picking up any stray ammo or armour will spawn another monster.
Doom 3 may be a financial hit for id, and a triumph of programming virtual environments, but I don’t think it’s really a successful game. If you want fun, multiplayer mayhem and insane co-op play, pick up a copy of Serious Sam Gold from the bargain racks. You’ll save $50 or more and laugh a lot more while you play.
