Posted on: January 19, 2023

Louard_le_Barbare

Games: 295 Reviews: 126

Turns out to be a good re-imagining

Doom 3 is a controversial game, and understandably so. Instead of letting you play as the traditionally overpowered Doomguy, it’s a survival horror reboot with a very different pacing than the rest of the series. No more wide combat arenas filled with demons here: most of the fighting takes place in dark narrow corridors against enemies that have a tendency to appear behind you and/or jump at your face, with guns that, shockingly for the franchise, actually require to be reloaded! The thing is, you have to accept Doom 3 for what it is. It’s unlike what Doom was before, and it’s unlike what it has been since then… but it’s still a valid interpretation of the series, and one that arguably corresponds to the original vision the devs had for Doom '93: it’s just as much a game about fighting hellspawns and surviving hostile environments, it's simply a bit less flashy. On its own merits, it’s pretty damn solid. The combat is good: it constantly keeps you on edge, demanding you to be aware of your surroundings to avoid bad surprises, and to keep your aim steady even in desperate situations. The graphics are impressive for the time, with a great use of the lighting technology and awesome art direction. Those dark facilities are as sinister to explore now as they were 19 years ago, and the way Hell and its demons are designed is perhaps the most creative in the series! This 2012 re-release of Doom 3 seems... fine. You’ll need to crank up the FOV, but unlike the original it lets you use a gun AND a flashlight at the same time, and it’s overall more action-packed. It comes with a fun new expansion, as well as the two original Doom games with a new addon – even if the classic games are poorly emulated (protip: get the .wads files from the game folders and load them with a free sourceport like GZDoom ;) ). Still, it would be cool to include the 2004 version as a bonus download, as the BFG Edition won’t run well on every computer and is overall pretty divisive among fans.

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Posted on: September 5, 2025

MaFFianCZ

Verified owner

Games: 240 Reviews: 2

This belongs in your library

Contains both the original and BFG edition, the original can be played in standalone VR, that's enough for me..

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Posted on: August 18, 2020

GOGVainaMoinen

Verified owner

Games: 218 Reviews: 12

Not a home run but a good game

I typically enjoy first person shooters, and if you do too, you'll like Doom 3. It isn't a bad game, but it has its share of weird frustrations. It's too dark, too often. I understand that it's a design choice to make the game so dark, and it really does create a great, creepy atmosphere, but it also gets annoying really fast. At least in the BFG Edition, we can use the flashlight at all times, even with weapons. The experience is different from previous Doom games in that it's a slower crawl instead of an all out gun fest, although the last third of the game or so does bring the fast paced action back a little bit. The first two thirds are all about entering rooms, waiting for the "jump scare" enemy spawns, rinse and repeat. Still fun, but it gets predictable and the enemies seem like more of an inconvenience to your trip around the base than they do an actual threat. The color coded key cards of old have been replaced with different PDA's from dead UAC base members. The story is predictable and basically just a retelling of the original Doom. However, much of it is told through the video logs and emails that you find on the PDA's scattered throughout the base, or by finding one of the few remaining living members of the science team. Nothing groundbreaking but it does what it's supposed to do. I enjoyed my play through. I don't think it quite lives up to the Doom legacy, but it's such a different experience that it's not a totally fair comparison. The real star of the show here are the lighting effects and shadows and what not... personally, I don't really care about the technical or graphical side of things nearly as much as I do the basic game play, and that's where Doom 3 misses the mark. But it only misses it by a little, and it's still worth playing if you're a fan of FPS games.

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Posted on: February 19, 2025

bigbossbalrog

Games: 40 Reviews: 13

Great game!

Not my favorite DOOM, but still excellent in my opinion!

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Posted on: August 24, 2017

Ebonyblades64

Games: 183 Reviews: 5

Good and Different

Doom 3 is different from the previous two titles by a country mile, but that is not a bad thing. Doom 3 takes a different approach to what was established formula and does its own thing by feeling like a survival horror game. Ammo is pretty scarce in this game and you are more than likely always scavenging for more ammo, armor, and health kits on Mars City. In some areas where you leave the city and go into the surface of Mars you notice you have a limited air supply but this isn't as much of a nuisance as you would think it would be because these sections are over quickly or their are multiple air canisters around the area. These changes are positive and work well for the most part. The only problems I have with this game is the constant jump scares that happen almost every few minutes. What I mean by this is that sometimes Enemies will usually pop out of closed off closets and rooms and will immediately take off a good few points of your health. Their are times when you can see some of these coming from a mile away but other times you can't see them coming. Now this wouldn't be a problem if they didn't happen all of the time. The ones that you can see I have no problem with like if you are about to walk in a door to the next area and a few Marines pop out to take a few shots that isn't a problem. The ones that are annoying are when Imps come out of places that you wouldn't even think to look for enemies or walls that flip open that you didn't even notice were doors. That is really the only problem I have with this game and if you are ok with this, then try this game out. I do not know how Doom fans felt about this game when it came out. Don't know if they loved it or hated it but I have to say that I like this game. Not one of my favorite games ever but is a good game to fall back into every not and again.

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