Right, so I've just recently finished playing Doom 3 again on the PS4 and I thought I would do an update of a very old review I did of it on this blog quite a few years back. This is the BFG edition so the review will be based on that (as was the previous version).
So, after 16 years how does this first person shooter classic hold up? Let's find out!
And I will mention a bit about the plot below so the usual warning is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!
STORY
So the game is set in the year 2145 and it takes place on Mars, which starts with an un-named marine, who arrives at the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) base on the planet. Meanwhile a councilman from Earth, Elliott Swann arrives at the base to meet with Dr Malcolm Bertruger, as there have been complaints about incidents that have taken place on the base. Bertruger's research has involved unnatural experiments with teleportation.
Meanwhile the marine meets with Sergeant Kelly, who sends the marine to find a scientist on the base who has gone missing. The marine soon finds the scientist, who tells him about Bertruger's experiments and the dangers involved and that he is trying to send out a message to the UAC base on Earth to warn them about this. However as a result of another teleportation, a shockwave hits the base, and transforms the scientist into a zombie, who the marine kills. The marine is then forced to deal with the rest of the base staff and soldiers, who have mostly been turned into zombies as well.
As the marine makes his way through the base, he also encounters demons of different kinds, coming through portals, which he fends off with his weapons. The marine manages to make his way to a comm system where he receives a message from Kelly telling him to try and send out a distress call to the UAC on Earth. However Swann has other ideas as he tries to prevent anyone from sending out messages to Earth as he believes the situation should be contained on Mars. Based on the player's decision the marine will face the choice of either listening to Kelly, and sending the message or to Swann and not sending the message, which is where the game will go in two slightly different directions.
As the marine progresses through the delta labs of the base, he receives a message from Bertruger, who tells him that he is co-operating with the forces from Hell, in order to prepare for the invasion of Earth. From here the marine is forced to continue his battle against the hordes of demons and against Bertruger in his attempts to destroy the Earth, as the fate of humanity lies in his hands...
THOUGHTS
As a long awaited sequel to Doom II, Doom 3 certainly delivered the goods, as its complete graphical revamp of the series brought it brilliantly up to date.
The gameplay of course remains fairly faithful to the original as the marine you simply run around, shooting anything that moves, and picking up key cards to access new rooms, and to access vents and lockers containing ammo and equipment. And one of the main differences to the original games lies in its use of dark shadow and it utilises enhanced lighting techniques to increase the intense atmosphere of the game, as alot of the game is pretty darky lit, it allows for the player to be immersed in its creepy world, as baddies can be all around you and wouldn't even know it, or you don't know it until you hear the groans or screeches. And with that all in mind it adds upt to a very intense and unsettling experience (but in a good way!).
GAMEPLAY
Gameplay wise the game isn't too different from the original games as its a case of run round and shoot anything that moves with some very cool weaponry. However there are still some additions to the gameplay, which mainly comprise of finding key cards to open doors that require security access, or opening vents to crawl through or talking to NPC's to access door codes and key cards or to carry out other objectives.
The game also features the use of a PDA (personal data assistant) system where the marine will pick up key cards with personnel's names on them and attached with that there will be audio logs that give background details to the story aswell as codes for doors and storage lockers that store health and ammo. So there are numerous key cards that can be used by the PDA throughout the game, which he will need to pick up to progress.
The games arsenal is also quite impressive as you have pretty much the same array of weapons from the first two games, but they look great graphically and are easy to use. The weapons feature a hand gun, shotgun, machine gun, minigun, plasma rifle, rocket launcher and of course the BFG (and we all know what that stands for!). There is also plenty of ammo strewn throughout the game so you will never normally run out of ammo in a hurry, although the baddies can come thick and fast so there will be times will you might run a bit low on ammo so you need to be careful at times.
The game also features a new weapon of sorts in the form of the Soul Cube, which the marine can access later on in the game once they have travelled to Hell, which is easily the best level of game and is refreshingly very different looking from the other levels. The Soul Cube is acutally quite an OP (overpowered) device in that it can demolish any single enemy in one foul swoop, which makes it very handy indeed! It also kind of helps that the cube has a pretty sexy female voice in a way even if it does sound a little creepy too!
The marine also has access to a flashlight that will let him see in the dark as there are plenty of dark and dimly lit areas for sure in Doom 3! However in the BFG edition of the game, the flashlight is now mounted onto the marine's shoulder as before you had to swap between your light and weapon to use it, which was a bit annoying, so its a welcome change to use the light and both your weapon simultaneously. The only drawback is that the flashlight in the BFG edition has limited charge and does drain quickly before you let it recharge again.
ENEMIES
Then of course we have the enemies that feature many of the original foes in Doom I and II and the have been brought back really well starting with the imps, who hurl fireballs at you like they are throwing a baseball, who have a high pitched whine. There are also the Cacodemons (who still give me the creeps from the original!) who also fire big fireballs at you (a popular weapon in hell I'd say!) and float around. And then we got much stronger enemies such as the Hell Knights, who are massive and probably the toughest of the enemies in the game and they can seriously chunk your health!
Other enemies also feature the Revenants, who are walking armoured skeletons with rocket launchers attached and the Mancubus who are large blobs with attached flame throwers who featured in Doom II. Some of the new enemies feature mutated soldiers, who have a long retractable arm that can attack you, large head spiders who can lash out and attack you and freaked me out more than any other enemy in the game. Then of course there are the babies with attached wings that jump out at you, who are without a doubt one of the most horrible baddies in any game! I'm sure John Carmack, the creator of the Doom series is a decent guy but I don't know what he was thinking when he made THIS enemy!
However it definitely has to be said that Doom 3 has no shortage of enemies and there is plenty of variety too.
GRAPHICS
As for the game's visuals well even 16 years on, Doom 3 still looks pretty awesome for the most part with nicely textured environments and great looking (or creepy) enemies and its use of lighting is very effective also.
The only real drawbacks to the graphics are some dated looking gory details such as bloodied body parts lying about that look naff and of course the character models for the humans look a bit daft and very unrealistic! In fact you could argue that humans in the game look far weirder than the enemies as they have somewhat flattened heads and weird eyes! So while certain aspects of the graphics look a bit dated, Doom 3 still looks great for its day and holds up quite well today.
MUSIC
As for the music, Doom 3 has a pretty good score, which is largely very creepy and atmospheric sounding by Clint Walsh and ex-Nine Inch Nails drummer, Chris Vrenna, who composed the excellent theme tune for the game. Walsh wrote the soundtrack along with Vrenna as the two of them together were members of the band, Tweaker although it was originaly planned for Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to write the soundtrack, which never came to fruition. Despite this though, it is still a very good score that nails (non pun intended!) the tone of the game perfectly.
VOICE ACTING
And lastly there is of course the voice acting of Doom 3, which is very good overall as the voice cast all do a fine job. Of course it has to be said that the marine you play does not have any dialogue whatsoever, so it comes down to the other NPCs in the game to deliver the game's dialogue.
Starting with Neil Ross who does very well in his role as Sgt Kelly, who is the marine's commanding officer, who the marine keeps in constant contact with throughout most of the game. Philip L. Clarke also delivers an excellent performance as the sinister Dr Bertruger, who is the mastermind behind the demon invasions on Mars and main antagonist of the game. And lastly Charles Dennis is also excellent in his role as Counsellor Elliot Swan, who is opposed to Bertruger's evil plans and tries to put a stop to them.
FLAWS
So, flaws...does Doom 3 have any? Well, yes it does.
And for starters I would say that the gameplay can tend to get a bit monotonous after a while, and the level design is at times a bit samey too with so many levels having the same dark corridors, ladders and stairs. And the gameplay mainly consists of the marine just following the formulaic pattern of just running about shooting anything in his way, grabbing key cards, pdf files, and CDs to gather information, and not much beyond that. However the intense thick and fast action in the game does help to overcome that for the most part and doesn't spoil the overall experience.
There was also an issue with the controls in the original PC version, where you couldn't hold a weapon and the flashlight at the same time, as you had to access one at a time. However this was fixed for the BFG edition, as I mentioned earlier that the player now has the flashlight attached to his shoulder of the marine's outfit, which he can turn on and off and still use his gun at the same time but the only drawback is the light's charge only lasts for so long before it needs to recharge.
Another criticism that can be levelled at the game is that most of the enemies can be killed with fair ease, especially some of the ones such as the demon dogs with the robotic legs, which are pretty big in size, yet an imp can still take a few more shots to kill! Naturally the bigger baddies such as the hell knights, and the mancubus are pretty tough to eliminate but quite a few of them can be dispatched with just one or two shots from your shotgun. However this will all change of course when you increase the game's difficulty but for most part I would say that Doom 3 isn't too difficult, which some fans might find a negative.
And finally another flaw that can be levelled at the game is the lack of a map in the inventory screen, as it would be good if it gave you a map of each level, as there are times where you can get lost wandering around the corridors at times, trying to feel your way through the level, which means you are running blind, you can eventually get through the level fine but it can take a while based on what level you are doing. In fact even Doom II had maps for each level, so its bizarre they don't have that in Doom 3 so it kind of feels like a backward step here but maybe its the game makers way of not wanting to hold your hand in working your ways through the levels.
Another issue relates specifically to the BFG edition of the game, which is the inclusion of forced autosaves at key points in the game, which are pretty annoying as there are times they can actually hinder your progress rather than help. And the reason being is because you might get to an autosave at a point where you are low on health or ammo and this might force you to load back in a previous save in order to compensate. So, for this reason I think the autosaves were a bad idea and should have been taken out of the BFG edition of the game.
And last of all I felt that the inclusion of the soul cube device was a bit of a cheat in a way as it actually trivialised the later boss fights in the game as you can use it to attack the bosses and before you know it, they would be destroyed as a result! However I can't deny that the soul cube is a very useful tool in the game as it allows you to kill single enemies and it restores your lost health as a result, so its not all bad but in some ways it definitely feels like a cheating device that weakens the challenge of the game.
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up after 16 years, Doom 3 still remains a thoroughly entertaining, intense and creepy experience and I still think its far superior to the reboot Doom game that came in 2016 and maybe also Doom Eternal (although admittedly I haven't played Eternal). And even though the game is a bit repetitve in terms of its gameplay and level design, on replaying it again I didn't mind and still had a blast with it and felt I wanted to play it all the way through, which I always think is a mark of a great game.
So, combine the game's great action, weapons, creepy enemies and chilling atmosphere, you have a real classic on your hands, which after all this time still stands up for me years on.
Right, that's it for now and I will be back sometime soon with another post.
Till then take care and bye the now!
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