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SECOND OPINIONS
In all fairness (and wanting to give a more general
and unbiased approach to reviewing this game), we decided to give some of our
forum regulars a chance to give their own point of view as to how the game works
and should be rated. With my review, I tried to be as unbiased as possible (and
I’d say I succeeded, I hope), so beware: everything that you will read here will
likely be opinionated. If the review didn’t fully help you make up your mind
regarding this game, here are a number of second opinions for a complete image
of id Software’s latest shooter.
Skullz:
Gameplay...
Game play is quite fun, however, only if you like original FPS titles. Trust me,
hardly anything original about it. Why then is Doom 3 so superior? Why all the
hype? Because this game perfects it. Absolutely amazing programming
allows for smooth firefights and epic boss battles. All weapons are pretty well
balanced (The shotgun, however is too strong do to Doom 3's close quarter
battles.) At some point all player's will think “s this it? This is falling kind
of flat.” And at times it does. But your interest will come back and you will
enjoy it.
8.3/10
Difficulty...
This game isn't too rough. You won't be dying often. If you do, it will be more
accident and curiosity as opposed to a monster slaying you. So it's not like Far
Cry (headshots are like footshots), it's only moderately difficult. Pretty well
balanced, a little bit on the easy side.
8.5/10
Graphics...
This is obviously where people expected this game to shine and I'd say it does a
great job. Great interfaces and excellent textures and models make this game
gorgeous to watch and there is eye candy galore. Despite the fact that your
enemies burst into flames(Like something out of Blade 2) instead of a bullet
ridden corpse on the floor (besides zombies, sometimes), I'd say there isn't
much to complain about in this department. Doom 3 looks better than its
screenshots and movies for some reason. Future games look to have better
graphics in my opinion (such as Half-Life 2, if it's ever released)
8.5/10
EDITOR’S NOTE: Half-Life 2 having better
graphics than Doom 3? No way.
Performance...
I'm running this game with 512mbs of ram and a 256 ATI Radeon 9600 video card. I
can have graphics at almost full level (High instead of ultra), at 800x600 and
keep almost a constant 25-40 fps in rooms with 10 enemies or more while moving
and firing in dynamic shadows galore. 60 at all other times. That is simply
incredible programming. There are pauses occasionally and when you start a level
for about 5 seconds fps is at 3 but then instantly pops back up to 60. Don’t
know why. I've also had 0 crashes and almost no technological or physics errors.
That is phenomenal in my opinion.
9/10
It's here! It's Fear! Get used to it!...
Fear in this game is a bit strange. When you first start out, I was completely
and utterly terrified. I almost didn't want to move. But it isn't like some
Horror games where the fear is so intense that you're too afraid to play. As you
progress, however, you become less and less afraid until it completely
diminishes. Fear turns into caution. When things pop out, you are frightened for
a moment and may be surprised and may jump, but you instantly snap back to
reality and blow its face open. So that's that. I must say that it did this
quite well compared to most horror games, I do not know why I stopped getting
scared though.
9.1/10
Sounds, Gore and Level Design(Atmosphere)...
A lot to fit into one package but this is way too long. The sounds are great.
The game lacks music, but all the machine humming and chanting and screams and
whispers and such almost act like music. Sound is what really makes this game
scary. Every enemy sounds quite scary (Except for Zombies, Resident Evil for
Gamecube had that one best.) Anyway, on to gore. This really pushes the limits
of an M game, in my opinion. There is a lot of gore and violence and it is quite
creepy. But you're never so grossed out to the point where you feel sick to your
stomach. It does, however, come awful close. Level design is bar none, well
scripted, spawning enemies that aren't stupid like most games and utterly
beautiful geometry, but very repetitive.
9.5, 9.0, 8.7/10
Story...
Have not yet finished the game but from what I can tell so far it isn't
enormously developed. But the way you found out how it happens through all the
little PDA sub-plots is fascinating. Don't, however, expect a strong point here.
6.8/10
Multiplayer I cannot really discuss as I have not played it. But it appears to
be good old DM. Which id is famous for.
Overall...
Well if you like the originals then you're in for a treat. This is basically
what Doom should have been. It's a horror game with Doom style gameplay. But if
you don't like either of those genres then you probably won't be interested. To
someone who is bored by simple FPSs, this won't be any different besides the
graphics. If your friend bought it, try it out at his house or wait for a demo
if you're iffy about FPSs. If you're a Doomer or a Half-Lifer (like me), I'd
highly recommend picking this one up. If not, try before you buy (and I don't
mean the alpha. Shame on you who still have it).
Final Rating: 9.1/10 (Good game, some slight faults, but try before you buy to
see if you like it.)
Mhz:
Graphics…Graphics with DirectX 9 uses everything looks beautiful if you have a ATI card,
uses smartshader, which looks awesome. The downfall is that it doesn't run on
most people’s cards, although for, me having 1 GB of RAM, I can barely run it in
Ultra mode at 1024x768. However, if I set AA any higher or AF over 8x I would
struggle to move in the game.
Gameplay…The gameplay is realistic at times, like when you get hit by the monsters it
takes time to recover and you can’t immediately shoot them. A few things I do
find funny is if you shoot your fellow marines in the foot, they seem to die, so
I really don’t know what the value of a headshot is anymore playing this game
after being such a big fan of Counter-Strike. Another thing is, if you jump off
a small ledge to get away from the monsters, they don’t follow you, but go
around the correct pathway until they get to you. It’s kind of robotic and lacks
AI. I am a big fan of Hitman 3 and the AI in that game is pretty good when it
comes to enemies, makes you think a lot and that makes it fun. This is just
shooting.
Overall, it’s pretty scary if you boost your surround sound system up and it’s a
great game. I don’t have any regrets paying $100 NZ for this game, it lives out
the Doom legacy of being one of the scariest games going around. The Suffering
probably matches Doom 3 in scariness but Doom 3's graphics are something to
love.
Final Rating: 8/10
BroknSpyrl
The game is as good as I expected. My system, however, is not playing that game
as well as I had expected.
Graphics…Considering the lower resolution I am playing at, and the medium detail, I give
the graphics a 9/10. That is considering those two things. Compared to other
games at comparable settings, this game kicks their asses.
Sound…The sound is great. Although, it would be nice if I could turn off the radio
chatter. I mean, who the hell keeps their walkie-talkie on while they are being
mutilated? Sound 7/10.
Gameplay…It may be the speed of my PC, it may be the game itself. It just seems like
switching weapons takes too long. Could be me though. Also: the flashlight. I
don't mind having to switch between the flashlight and weapons. My question is,
since when does a flashlight light go 9 feet and then just stop. That's a bit
irritating. And damn are those armed zombies some crack shots. I find taking
imps out to be easier than taking them out sometimes. But, again, I think I'm
just pissed at my computer. Gameplay: 8/10
Fear Factor…
Alright, I am the kind of player who likes to keep his health and armour up at
100. This forces me to walk very slowly and inspect every inch of the place(and
I've found many hidden things this way as well,). I must say, it can be scary as
hell when you turn around looking in a corner when all the other lights go out,
and you hear a door open at the other end of the room. Damn short range
flashlight. So, I've jumped 5-6 times during gameplay, and one time while I was
leaving my office after playing the game. My damned bathrobe scared the hell out
of me for about half a second. 9/10 for Fear.
I love the game, and if it weren't for my 8 month old piece of shit video card,
I may have scored this game higher. I think I'll be buying a new card soon. I'll
need it for Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 anyway.
Final Score: 8/10
Edit:
I tweaked Doom 3 enough to up my settings to High Quality and 1024x 768 with
really decent FPS (30 Avg.). I started over from the beginning with these new
settings, and played through to the end. I change all of my scores to 10/10,
except for sound, which in some places was VERY cheesy. (Namely, Betruger
laughing.)
New Final Score: 9.75/10
Some one who loves 3D FPS:
Gameplay…Doom 3 is not the 90 mile hour running blow up everything you can fast paced
throwing enemies at you at every second frag -fest, oh nooo…. It's quite
different, not to spoil anything. Doom 3 without doubt is a slow paced game, but
it's not as slow as Splinter Cell, and id Software have gotten very clever here
and there. In certain points of the game, Doom 3 is scary, and in other times
it's just astonishing and fun to play.
8.8/10
Story…
I'm not going to spoil anything here. But Doom 3's storyline is a decent one,
there's a reasonable beginning, middle, ending, plot twists, etc. all connected
together as a fluid stream of dots in a sense. However, I was not as immersed as
I was hoping to be storyline-wise, so I can't say it's a strong area of the
game.
5.0/10
Graphics…
Graphics, an area where Doom 3 was hailed ‘Pixar Quality, Cinematic Quality,
Film Quality’ judging from the E3 and QuakeCon presentations, etc... Well look
no further, because it's here and hungry. Every bit of stencil volumes (for
dynamic shadows), per-pixel lighting (for dynamic lighting), normal maps (for
irregularities on surfaces), specular highlights (for shiny surfaces), 2D cube
maps (for real-time reflections), high precision(for heat shimmer effects), and
volumetric particle effects (for cool explosions etc). All in all, Doom 3's
graphics are a very sweet OpenGL-powered galore to be treated with.
9.0/10
Physics…
This is an area where Doom 3 is fantastic and fun to mess around with, Doom 3's
per-polygon detection system removes hitboxes from the skeletal model so it's
much more realistic in combat. That is combined with full rag-doll physics model
support completely based on the laws of friction, mass, bouyancy, and gravity.
However this rag-doll model is not automatically placed in every area of the
game as Doom 3 is not a physics simulation, but in general Doom 3's physics
engine is one like no other and completely original.
9.5/10
A.I…
Well with zombies abound, A.I is not a very strong area in Doom 3, nor is it
supposed to be. However the demons' pathfinding scripts and general A.I scripts
are nicely written so A.I is by no doubt a faulty area of Doom 3.
8.1/10
Performance…
This is where everyone was worried of: the question "Will
Doom run on MY system?" However Doom 3 will run well on your system, as it's
been optimised to run on a wide range of hardware. From a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4
w/384MB of RAM and a 64MB GeForce 4 MX to a 3.6 GHz Pentium w/2GBs of RAM and a
256MB GeForce 6800 Ultra. Even on my machine, which is a 2.2 GHz Pentium 4
w/512MB of RAM and a 128MB Radeon 9500 Pro, it runs pretty smooth in general. So
no worries.
8.8/10
Multiplayer…
Doom 3's multiplayer is unfortunately capped at 4 players max, but there are
reasons for that. 1) More than 4 players would kill the tension and 2) More than
4 players would kill performance. It would be nicer of multiplayer had a more
variety of game types, player selection etc, but hey, it's Doom, and it's a step
up from Quake 3 Arena multiplayer.
7.4/10.
Editor…
Well as I haven't messed with the editor really yet, I couldn't rate it, but it
would be nice if it was a heavily modified version of the GTK Radiant Editor
instead of the QE Radiant Editor.
6.2/10
Audio…
Audio wise, Doom 3 is very nice, with full surround sound support, nicely done
sound effects, and high fidelity sound mixing and sound shader programming, and
is by no means disappointing, however a little EAX would have enabled a stronger
3D audio engine.
8.5/10
Fear Factor…
Extremely well established in places, and non-extistent in others. But by no
means disappointing.
9.4/10
Fun Factor…Doom 3 might be scary, laggy, and suffer choppy frame-rates at times, but that
doesn't mean it's not fun. It's not only the engine technology that makes it
fun, but it's the fact that Doom 3 is here in a modern style sense with some
hefty extra features and etc., in my opinion, that makes Doom 3 fun.
8.9/10
Final words…
It's here, it's Doom, and it's here to stay, whether you like it or hate it.
Doom 3 is, in my opinion, worthy of being called Doom within the series. Well
done id Software, indeed very well done.
Final rating: 9.1/10
ThiefKiller:
Doom 3 is everything I thought it would be. It's limitations are few, and mostly
have to do with my system not being able to handle high-graphic settings without
A LOT of choppiness. Game play is a bit repetitive, but still a big step up from
the run and shoot of other first-person shooters. The PDA is an interesting
addition to the game, which gives a certain depth to the characters and
story-line. Id scripted the storyline very well and introduced new monsters at
the right times to keep you from getting bored. And there are still the massive
onslaughts reminiscent of the original Doom when monsters, literally, were
coming at you from all directions. This time, however, it's shotgun toting
zombies, fireball-throwing demons that crawl along the ceilings and walls and a
dozen spiders coming at you from every direction, all at once.
The multiplayer aspect of the game has gone downhill from Q3A, in my opinion. It
is frustratingly difficult to locate a server, which is not immediately full
before you connect or else requires a password. I don't know why id did away
with the 'sort by' function of Q3A. It makes finding a low-ping server all the
more difficult. The ‘filter’ sometimes does not work. For example, the 'no
password' filter seems to produce servers which still require a password. Also,
what happened to 'favourites'? Certainly, Doom 3 excels at the single player
aspect of the game, but why did id change a good thing and alter the multiplayer
aspect so much?
BahamutZero:
Graphics…10/10 - Flawless. I've played games since I was 2 1/2 and I’ve seen the works,
but man, this takes the cake, let me tell you now... There are places in this
game that will instantly make you stop running, and just STARE. You will STARE
at things in awe, no joke.
Gameplay… 9/10 - A wonderful, typical FPS, BUT, there is just something new and different
about Doom 3 that will keep you entertained at all times, it’s not just some
BORING FPS. Doom 3 goes a little more into depth than a FPS normally does (The
PDAs, story, etc.) and I believe that’s what gives it its unique gameplay.
Sound…9/10 - Incredible sound, especially with headphones or a 5.1 surround sound
system. Better than any other game I’ve played in a long while. Although, I'm
not THAT crazy about the sound. Don't get me wrong, it's amazing, but it's not
something I remembered and thought about after I beat the game. It didn't ‘Stick
Out’.
Fear Factor…10/10 - 'Nuff said.
Multiplayer…8/10 - Nothing new, id's speciality, of course, is deathmatch. All they did was
PERFECT it in this game.
Overall Score…9.5/10 - You might think I'm being a bit too lenient with these scores but you
just have to see it for yourself. Doom 3 is an EXCELLENT GAME, and even though
it might not have the greatest, most different multiplayer there is, it's fun
just to get into what everyone else is talking about and be a part of it, a part
of Doom 3.
Final Score: 9.5/10
SparnY:
Right then. My review is as follows, its harsh but to the point! Not out of 10
because nothing to rate it against.
Graphics - high... Review - first off you cant get much better graphics right now the lighting and
shadows, etc. are amazing, but I can certainly get a better graphic based game
for my system. Don’t get me wrong my PC isn’t great but then again we don’t all
have great PCs. I can get much better games such as Star wars Galaxies only good
if you have an amazing top of the range PC.
Game play - medium... Review - not that great, I can think of many games with a better story line and
its not scary at all, I’ve played it in the dark with a 17 inch screen and 5.1
sound not one part made me jump. I really don’t think the game play is that
great, it’s really the little things that matter such as no bullet marks and the
vaporise deaths, which gives the awesome rag doll effects no use at all.
Sound - medium... Review - yeah not bad this one, but I just don’t think there is enough 'umph' to
the weapons. I like my guns to sound really powerful, needs to be a little more
realistic so that when you get shot you really notice it.
Fear Factor - low... Review - Quake 3 made me jump more, face it this is not as its been said to be,
not one part, I do not lie, not one single part made me jump in this game whilst
playing in the dark with 5.1.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Quake 3 made you jump more than Doom 3?
I’d say that it’s not the game’s fault, but a weird and twisted sense of fear
you might have that’s to blame here.
Multiplayer - low... Review - 4 players... It’s not that great to be honest and the 4 levels are
terrible, this game should have at least come with co-op.
Final Review - Okay I’ve not mentioned a lot of factors and I have mostly been negative, but I
think its what you want to hear. I’ve been waiting for this game for ages and I
completed it within a day or so it’s not that special. Yeah the graphics are
really amazing but that’s all it’s got going for it.... Everything else is
average and nothing special. Frankly it looks like Half-Life is still one of the
best games.
EDITOR’S NOTE: “Frankly it looks like Half-Life is still
one of the best games.” I guess that sentence pretty much sums up all the
blatant negativity: fanboyism.
Tony123:
Sound…10
Graphics…10
Gameplay…10
Replay…10
You get the idea. I’m no professional critic, I just think that this is the best
game I own AND WILL ever own.
Introduction
Graphics
The beginning
Hell invades!
Multiplayer
Mishaps that you shoot
Mishaps that you shoot (cont)
Odd, ends and a verdict
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