While I was off last week I had a loan of Doom 3. What a load of old pants.
While it’s a joy to look at, and the graphics are DAMN good, the gameplay is disappointing.
Sorry. Did I just say disappointing? It’s piss poor. Or somewhere between disappointing and piss poor. I don’t know.
First off, the story is really linear. And I mean REALLY linear. I know the same can be said of similar games, Halflife is a good example, but at least Halflife gave you the impression that you were going somewhere or achieving something.
And scary? Not really. Well, there was this one bit…
I’d just wandered in to a room and handily dispatched a couple of big and nasties when I say aloud to the darling wife, “I don’t really see what all the fuss is”, and a corpse leaps off a console as I walk past. The under garments were an unfortunate shade of brown then, let me tell you. 
But after that, when you realise that the corpses can’t be trusted, all you have to do is be wary of the shadows and realise that when the lights go off and you’re scrambling for the trusty flashlight, there’s some of those pesky undead creeping towards you…
I got bored with it pretty quickly and resorted to cheating to finish the last few levels. I know it’s not the done thing but I was so fed up with the same-ness of it that I just wanted to get it finished and get on with my life.
I’m hoping that Halflife 2 is better.
BigAl
I never learned to be wary of the corpses – I occasionally get an urge to bop them around the head with the torch so I have a tendency to approach. When they fly 8 foot into the air or are flung clean across the room I get a little bit of an addition to the brown stain on my chair.
The biggest “Oh bollocks…” moment so far was when I entered this corridor and 3 or 4 cacodemons came zooming round the corner at the far end like chavs in Civics. You might be able to tell, I’m not that far in – I actually find it creepy so I can only play about 20 minutes at a time…
…but then I am playing on a 21″ monitor with all the weird effects turned on, the volume up reeeaal loud and the lights off – there’s no other way to experience it. Turning around to have a natter with the missus is not an option…
I’ll have to agree that gameplay wise you start to develop an instinct for what to expect within the first 10 minutes but as an immersive experience it can’t be beat – seriously, turn the lights off.
Some elements I really look forward to:
- A new PDA. The voice logs may deal with the prosaic and mundane, but that only adds depth… Also, one of them had a really bad Oirish accent
- Cacodemons. Sometimes I don’t kill them straight off – I strafe around with a torch and admire the rendering – the exposed brain bits are fab.
- Weird satan crap. One corridor I walked into had screams rippling through the walls represented as flaming pentagrams and that sort of crap – it was like being in the intro of a Black Sabbath album.
- The big tech. Some of the equipment rocks. Walking into a large area with humming machinery and stuff whizzing about has appealed to me since I played the first Half-Life.
- New monsters. There was a thing with spider’s legs and a woman’s body – I’m not being perverted (*cough*) but I wouldn’t mind seeing one of them again – bizarre! There’s also that big dog thing – the “Pinky” – they’re great to look at if you can run backwards fast enough while you get your chainsaw ready.
Anyway, rambling mode off. Oi loiks dat game, oi does.
I’m with BigAl on this. Doom 3 is technically impressive, but otherwise turd, much like Episodes I and II (not seen Sith yet so can’t comment).
Half-Life 2, on the other hand, has the tech and gameplay required.