Doom 3
Well on wednesday, like the consumer whore that I so blatantly am, I brought Doom 3.
It was a little disappointing actually, after all that hype and expectation the box seemed awefully small in my hot hands. (But I'm told its not the size that counts it how many CDs you can jam into the packaging)
After playing for a couple of hours I feel that I can give Doom 3 an uneducated, unprofessional, low quality game review.
1) The Engine is awesome. Put quite simply there is nothing else out there at the moment that looks anywhere near as good as Doom 3 does.
2) It is quite possible that the people who did the lighting in the levels should be shot. Yes its very atmospheric, yes it looks very nice but its all black and white. I mean your either in the pitch black or your in the light. The idea of a shadow or any kind of radiosity seems to have escaped the level designers. Its great at the start until you begin to realise that every area of shadow is black, no greys, just impenitrable blackness or light.
NOTE: My graphics card does not support Ultra Shadow like the 6800 series of cards, so it is quite possible that the blackness of the shadows is caused by my graphics hardware not by the engine itself. HAving said that the game probly shouldnt be designed to only run correctly on 1 type of graphics card (although this has happened before)
3) Having said the above about the shadows I feel I should again say the engine is AWESOME.
4) Doom 3 is quite simply the goriest (if thats a word) game that I have ever played. It makes postal look like commander keen. The result of shooting stuff is cool, the ragdolling is good (usually) and the deaths are often quite good. The ragdolling can go a little mental sometimes, you'll see what I mean if you headshot enough zombies and troopers, they often end up bent over backwards resting on their feet and heads...weird posture :)
5) The AI is NOT killer as described on the packaging. There is nothing smart about the AI in Doom 3, bascially the enemies move towards you (fast or slow) and try to either shoot you, rip out apart or in some cases one then the other. The enemies rely mainly on sneaking up on you to kill you, they tend to appaear out of dark corner or jump down from above in order to get the drop on you.
6) After the 400th imp jump down from a dark corner of the ceiling you start to get a little sick of it happening. Now I havnt played all the way through the game yet, so I may change my opinion later but right now, I'm just bloody sick of stuff jumping out at me. It not that its scary or particularly difficult to handle (as long as you have plenty of shotgun shells) it just gets sort of repetitive. Walk down a corridor, something jumps out at you, walk around a corner, somthing jumps out at you, climb down a ladder, somthing jumps out at you....
7) Dont eat before you play or plan on eating shortly after. There are some part that will put you off food.
FOr what its worth I give Doom 3 the thumbs up, mainly for the engine, the game is a little too twisted for my liking by the engine is awesome and perhaps the realism is just amplifying the twistedness. Who knows, hopefully we can look forward to some nice mods of Doom 3 that will make use of the awesome engine and perhaps be a little less disturbing than the original game.
It was a little disappointing actually, after all that hype and expectation the box seemed awefully small in my hot hands. (But I'm told its not the size that counts it how many CDs you can jam into the packaging)
After playing for a couple of hours I feel that I can give Doom 3 an uneducated, unprofessional, low quality game review.
1) The Engine is awesome. Put quite simply there is nothing else out there at the moment that looks anywhere near as good as Doom 3 does.
2) It is quite possible that the people who did the lighting in the levels should be shot. Yes its very atmospheric, yes it looks very nice but its all black and white. I mean your either in the pitch black or your in the light. The idea of a shadow or any kind of radiosity seems to have escaped the level designers. Its great at the start until you begin to realise that every area of shadow is black, no greys, just impenitrable blackness or light.
NOTE: My graphics card does not support Ultra Shadow like the 6800 series of cards, so it is quite possible that the blackness of the shadows is caused by my graphics hardware not by the engine itself. HAving said that the game probly shouldnt be designed to only run correctly on 1 type of graphics card (although this has happened before)
3) Having said the above about the shadows I feel I should again say the engine is AWESOME.
4) Doom 3 is quite simply the goriest (if thats a word) game that I have ever played. It makes postal look like commander keen. The result of shooting stuff is cool, the ragdolling is good (usually) and the deaths are often quite good. The ragdolling can go a little mental sometimes, you'll see what I mean if you headshot enough zombies and troopers, they often end up bent over backwards resting on their feet and heads...weird posture :)
5) The AI is NOT killer as described on the packaging. There is nothing smart about the AI in Doom 3, bascially the enemies move towards you (fast or slow) and try to either shoot you, rip out apart or in some cases one then the other. The enemies rely mainly on sneaking up on you to kill you, they tend to appaear out of dark corner or jump down from above in order to get the drop on you.
6) After the 400th imp jump down from a dark corner of the ceiling you start to get a little sick of it happening. Now I havnt played all the way through the game yet, so I may change my opinion later but right now, I'm just bloody sick of stuff jumping out at me. It not that its scary or particularly difficult to handle (as long as you have plenty of shotgun shells) it just gets sort of repetitive. Walk down a corridor, something jumps out at you, walk around a corner, somthing jumps out at you, climb down a ladder, somthing jumps out at you....
7) Dont eat before you play or plan on eating shortly after. There are some part that will put you off food.
FOr what its worth I give Doom 3 the thumbs up, mainly for the engine, the game is a little too twisted for my liking by the engine is awesome and perhaps the realism is just amplifying the twistedness. Who knows, hopefully we can look forward to some nice mods of Doom 3 that will make use of the awesome engine and perhaps be a little less disturbing than the original game.