Doom 3 - 16 Years Later: A Retrospective

I played Doom 3 just a few years ago and was surprised how much fun it was. I didn't like the demo when it came out, it gave a false impression that there would be lots of dark shadows and flashlight use but that wasn't the case, they probably used that to showcase that effect clearly but beyond those first few levels things were more nicely lit. Also I only remember a few "jump scares", again people probably just assumed the entire game is filled with em but nah... there are more open areas with more baddies but it's true it was never huge open outdoor arenas.

HL2 was fun too but also got worse as you progressed in the game, peaked at Ravenholm then just coasted and then the ending kinda sucked imo. The opposite is true of Doom 3, at least for me it just got better each level in and eventually thrashing around Hell (the action does pick up) was fantastic
 
Youn said:
I played Doom 3 just a few years ago and was surprised how much fun it was. I didn't like the demo when it came out, it gave a false impression that there would be lots of dark shadows and flashlight use but that wasn't the case, they probably used that to showcase that effect clearly but beyond those first few levels things were more nicely lit. Also I only remember a few "jump scares", again people probably just assumed the entire game is filled with em but nah... there are more open areas with more baddies but it's true it was never huge open outdoor arenas.

HL2 was fun too but also got worse as you progressed in the game, peaked at Ravenholm then just coasted and then the ending kinda sucked imo. The opposite is true of Doom 3, at least for me it just got better each level in and eventually thrashing around Hell (the action does pick up) was fantastic
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Agree completely!

I really do think the people that complain about darkness and monster closets must have only played the demo.
 
Toboggan said:
I barely played Doom 3 when it first came out. Just got a 3080, gonna give it a solid run through after sunset for the next few days.
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Make sure you enable all the weapon lighting effects in the .def files. Or just use a mod.
 
Toboggan said:
Got a link for what to mod in the .def files?
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Not off the top of my head. I actually just went into the pak/pk files (they're just renamed ZIPs) looked for the weapon def files (named for each weapon type) and there are TONs of things you can change. Projectile velocities, mass, spread, etc. If I remember correctly, turning on the plasma lighting may have been in a different script file. Might have to look that one up.

Actually, I found this. I think this is it, though it's been a while since I've done this:

  1. Open <path-to-game>\base\pak000.pk4 with 7-Zip or similar program.
  2. Go to materials folder.
  3. Open lights.mtr with Notepad++ or other text editor.
  4. Search for plasmaglow, and delete the noshadows line under it.
  5. Save the changes.
 
Doom 3 was great back then. I had a GF4 Ti 4400 and had to lower resolution and graphical settings. All things changed when I bought the 6800gt oc. Max details, true dx9 effects. I might just pop it in again just for some nostalgia. I also have it on Xbox 360 too and it actually looks pretty good.
 
I hated DooM 3. I did not like the horror/scary part of it.

I do remember proving my 9500 to 9700 Pro Omega Driver mod with the leaked alpha.
 
There are a few shader enhancements to the game that make it really pop. I’ve probably played it like 4 or 5 times throughout the years.
 

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Playing the BFG Edition on Xbox 360 right now. It's really a fun game. I never did beat it back when it was released in 2004, so I want some nostalgia of the good times in PC gaming.
I could never get the resolution on PC to reach 1080p but the Xbox 360 version is great.

I'm recording the whole playthrough
 
Some annoying things about Doom 3:
-Armour is almost useless
-Marine difficulty is stupidly easy
-Veteran difficulty makes it difficult to survive some of the rooms on the first try and I'm using the quick saves a lot

Otherwise it's a fine game.
 
It is a fine game, but the name was off. Think of it as Resident Hill 3, and maybe enjoy it for what it was.

I did tire of monsters in closets, but it’s a game dynamic, and we know it, so meh.
 
Blackstone said:
It is a game that got owned by Half-Life 2 in every metric by which one can measure a game.
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The sound and the atmosphere is better in Doom.

I would also argue that the story telling in Doom is better. I recently played them back to back and I had more fun with Doom. I didn't find the story in HL2 very engaging, and it seemed only loosely connected to the original game. Breen also sucked as a villain. Some of the novelties like being able to drive a vehicle in an FPS game and physics puzzles also didn't age well.

Partly it's expectations, since HL2 got nothing but praise, while Doom 3 got a lot of complaints. I was really surprised how great Doom 3 was.
 
I bought the game at release but never played it because it ran like garbage and I didn't have the money at the time to upgrade. After watching the LGR retrospective I want to go back and revisit it. I wasn't a fan of Doom 2016 but I'd like to see if I enjoy Doom 3.
 
For anybody who wants to go back through the game, or play through it for the first time, I would recommend the original over BFG or the Bethesda.net version. You can still buy it on Steam. The BFG Edition cuts out content from the original game. It also made the game a lot easier by increasing the amount of ammo pickups and doubling the amount of ammo each one gives. Also, in addition to having a battery-limited shoulder mounted flashlight, the brightness of everything was increased which frankly ruins the experience of the game. The only advantage it has is 120 FPS support while the original is locked to 60.

If you go get the original version, you're going to need to do some tweaking. The main thing is to set your resolution correctly. I can share my autoexec.cfg when I get home, but in the meantime it is useful to find the original Tweak Guides guide. That guide has recommendations for hardware of the time, though, so I would use judgement based on current hardware.

https://tweakguides.pcgamingwiki.com/Doom3_1.html
Blackstone said:
It is a game that got owned by Half-Life 2 in every metric by which one can measure a game.
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I respectfully disagree. In fact, I think the exact opposite. Story, pacing, sound, graphics, gameplay... everything is just better in Doom 3.
J3RK said:
I loved HL2 when I played it the first time. I came back to it a couple of times, but never felt like finishing it again. I still play Doom 3 every couple of years. HL2 had its good points, and I would say some of it may even be better than some of Doom 3. However, after all these years, I still find Doom 3 entirely entertaining. HL2 is more like a good memory.
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I agree. I occasionally try to go back and play through Half-Life 2 and almost always end up quitting halfway through the damned airboat sequence.
 
Krenum said:
Doom 3 was a great game. I remember playing it on my Ti4200 @ 800x600. Definitely had trouble playing it in the dark :)

This makes me want to go back on play it.
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Same with my GeForce FX 5900 non-U @ 1024x768. I only had 512MB of RAM at the time and clearly it needed 1GB. Definitely had me wowed at the time. Didn't even mind that darn flashlight so much.
 
I didn't know that the BFG version cut out parts of the game. I thought they just made it compatible with modern hardware and add the ability to have the flashlight and gun out at the same time.
 
Having played Doom 3 + ROE recently multiple times and having spent a lot of time with it, I must say it's one of the funnest FPS games ever. It's a much improved experience playing it today on a modern system then it was playing it on its release. Dhewm3 source port + redux mod is how I would recommend anyone play it.

And I recommend avoiding the BFG Edition. The BFG Edition doesn't allow you to skip cutscenes, the shadows suck, there is no muzzle flash or zoom function, and some good content is missing (especially from the expansion). It's not completely terrible and you can still have a good time with it, but the original games are better imo.
 
Colonel Sanders said:
what content is missing from the BFG version?
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The sewer portion in Resurrection of Evil where you need the environmental suit was completely cut out. Various levels of the original were trimmed in some instances, mostly involving the removal of enemy encounters. The most noticeable of which is the level taking place in Hell. As far as geometry goes the maze where the power constantly cuts out and an employee guides you through has fewer branches where you can get lost. Things of that nature are prevalent.
 
I don't get what the comparisons between Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 are all about. They're both first person shooters but the similarities end there. They're very different games and I enjoyed them both. Half-Life 2 is definitely more widely regarded as the better game and I agree, but it didn't have the best graphics in every way.

The big thing about Doom 3 was the new real time lighting engine which no other game had yet. It was clearly superior to Half-Life 2's lighting. Half-Life 2 had great graphics and had some good graphical features that were better than other games but it didn't have the best graphics at the time. Unreal Tournament 2004 had better graphics in many ways and Doom 3 had better lighting. Doom 3 even pushed things so far they had a setting that required more vram than the current graphics cards had at the time.

Has anyone tried the Doom 3 VR mods? Someone just released a version that can run on the Quest. If I replay that's how I'm going to do it.
 
Blackstone said:
It is a game that got owned by Half-Life 2 in every metric by which one can measure a game.
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Graphics of Doom 3 were better at the time (lighting, many textures/poly counts etc), plus I think the overall 'dread' you get playing the first chunk of it is great. I love that suspense and 'people being unaware' tension that arises. I still do prefer the earlier ones and 2016 for shooting and overall fun though, Doom 3 has it's own persona and style. I loved it but would choose HL2 over it if I had to go as an all rounder. But all-rounders aside, for scary, Doom 3 is up there with Dead Space, Prey, Fear etc. Sure it's more often jump scares, it does it well though. I do enjoy how they introduce some characters, slowly crawling out to full horror.

sharknice said:
The big thing about Doom 3 was the new real time lighting engine which no other game had yet. It was clearly superior to Half-Life 2's lighting. Half-Life 2 had great graphics and had some good graphical features that were better than other games but it didn't have the best graphics at the time.
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This. HL2 finally got closer with later Source engine revisions, e.g. Lost Coast etc.
 
I'm finally playing through this 15 years later.

I'm about two hours in and I'm quickly getting tired of the Monsters in closets mechanic, but I can work around it thanks to easy quicksave / quickload. At least they fixed the horrible flashlight limitations in the original with the BFG Edition!

https://doom.fandom.com/wiki/Duct_Tape

The game-play and engine are solid, but I expected as much after playing Quake 4 (same engine). It really isn't that amazing a game, and it deserved to be forgotten in the hailstorm of Source Engine releases over the next few years (Halflife 2 episodes, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2).

Remember when ID Software actually made games? for about 5 years there, they forgot how to! They have farmed-out every other franchise except Doom, and the results are extremely inconsistemt.
 
defaultluser said:
I'm finally playing through this 15 years later.

I'm about two hours in and I'm quickly getting tired of the Monsters in closets mechanic, but I can work around it thanks to easy quicksave / quickload. At least they fixed the horrible flashlight limitations in the original with the BFG Edition!

https://doom.fandom.com/wiki/Duct_Tape

The game-play and engine are solid, but I expected as much after playing Quake 4 (same engine). It really isn't that amazing a game, and it deserved to be forgotten in the hailstorm of Source Engine releases over the next few years (Halflife 2 episodes, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2).

Remember when ID Software actually made games? for about 5 years there, they forgot how to! They have farmed-out every other franchise except Doom, and the results are extremely inconsistemt.
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"Horrible flashlight limitations." No. Doom 3 BFG eliminated the melee ability with the flashlight and it has a severely limited battery life. It also doesn't have the realistic lightbulb effect.

Since Doom 3 it has always been a long period between prime releases. It was 7 years between the release of Doom 3 and Rage.

1999 = Quake III: Arena
2004 = Doom 3
2011 = Rage
2016 = Doom
2020 = Doom Eternal
 
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Armenius said:
"Horrible flashlight limitations." No. Doom 3 BFG eliminated the melee ability with the flashlight and it has a severely limited battery life. It also doesn't have the realistic lightbulb effect.

Since Doom 3 it has always been a long period between prime releases. It was 7 years between the release of Doom 3 and Rage.

1999 = Quake III: Arena
2004 = Doom 3
2011 = Rage
2016 = Doom
2020 = Doom Eternal
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Quake IV 2005ish... Many don’t like it, but I do.
 
J3RK said:
Quake IV 2005ish... Many don’t like it, but I do.
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I thought Quake 4 was a better game than Doom 3. I actually got far enough into Quake 4 to get transformed, before the game got boring@!

And then we had 6 years of zero single-player FPS games games (not even outsources like Quake 4), so Armenius, how exactly do you forgive that just because Doom 3 sucked your cocks back in the day?

ID Software was buried in a ditch for ten years, until they got things back on the track with Doom 2016. Doom 3 was a marginal game that needed day 1 mods to make work at-all.
 
RAGE was excellent. I don’t know what you’re on aboutThat Doom 2016 was the next good game. It had a rough start like 35% of all PC games. I still play it today. In fact it’s better than RAGE 2 IMO.

You like their games or not of course. Their schedule is as it always has been. Take it or leave it really. There are other good game companies out there to fill in the gaps.

I completely agree that D2016 is excellent though.
 
Armenius said:
Quake IV was made by Raven Software, not id.
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I know. It's still in their core series of games. Much like RAGE 2 is not an id-proper game. I still include it. If it's a spinoff, (Enemy Territory games for example) I don't include it, but anything in the named series contracted out or not, I do. Plus Raven always worked so closely with id on their earlier games it would be silly not to include them. They could almost be called a sub-studio during those years.
 
I enjoyed Doom 3 and the expansion- Resurrection of Evil...but yeah too many forced jump scares...so many moments where an enemy would magically show up behind you
 
J3RK said:
RAGE was excellent. I don’t know what you’re on aboutThat Doom 2016 was the next good game. It had a rough start like 35% of all PC games. I still play it today. In fact it’s better than RAGE 2 IMO.

You like their games or not of course. Their schedule is as it always has been. Take it or leave it really. There are other good game companies out there to fill in the gaps.

I completely agree that D2016 is excellent though.
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Sorry dude, it was the world's worst Borderlands ripoff, except each mission was just another corridor shooter level. Yes, I actually have a copy,

if they hadn't wasted 6 years on nothing, and just released RAGE in the normal 3-year dev timeline as a pure corridor shooter with new IP, it would have been more tolerable; but no, they expect you to care about multiple characters , when all you're doing is driving between mission waypoints, surrounded by an empty world there is no point in exploring!

Game sucks even worse than Doom 3 did, , quit painting over ID failures
 
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J3RK said:
I know. It's still in their core series of games. Much like RAGE 2 is not an id-proper game. I still include it. If it's a spinoff, (Enemy Territory games for example) I don't include it, but anything in the named series contracted out or not, I do. Plus Raven always worked so closely with id on their earlier games it would be silly not to include them. They could almost be called a sub-studio during those years.
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I didn't include it because my list was specifically in reply to this:
defaultluser said:
Remember when ID Software actually made games? for about 5 years there, they forgot how to! They have farmed-out every other franchise except Doom, and the results are extremely inconsistemt.
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Quake IV would be considered "farmed out" in this context.
 
defaultluser said:
Sorry dude, it was the world's worst Borderlands ripoff, except each mission was just another corridor shooter level. Yes, I actually have a copy,

if they hadn't wasted 6 years on nothing, and just released RAGE in the normal 3-year dev timeline as a pure corridor shooter with new IP, it would have been more tolerable; but no, they expect you to care about multiple characters , when all you're doing is driving between mission waypoints, surrounded by an empty world there is no point in exploring!

Game sucks even worse than Doom 3 did, , quit painting over ID failures
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So, what, I didn't actually enjoy these or think they're cool games? If you don't like them cool, but they're actually some of my favorite games BECAUSE of what they are. Simple, refined, shooters on cool engines. Which is a stark contrast to all the stupid military online crap that I hate playing. I'd play RAGE and Doom 3 for the rest of my life over any Call of Battlefield garbage. There are plenty of people that agree with my assessments of these games, so your opinion that they are failures is just that. An opinion.
 
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