DOOM 3

Doom 3 did not quite stand up against its predecessors, and a relative lack of mods for it reflects that, but it still offers a highly enjoyable experience that I have personally played through multiple times. Whereas the preceding games (and even Doom 2016 that follows) focuses on raw action, challenges based on how many enemies can be played on a map and their locations, Doom 3 goes a different route, it is not the same genre of game. Doom 3 oozes in horror and sci-fi elements that lack in the rest of the series. The quiet moments are broken rather suddenly and often effectively with monster encounters. Due to the change in genre and style, Doom 3 rarely features hordes of monsters, instead focusing on small encounters of up to 5 monsters at a time. The player's health is more rapidly depleted and the monsters are tougher to make up for it. On the latter two difficulty modes, this game is sure to give you all the challenge you could hope for :-) On the BFG Edition: It is a largely faithful representation of the original Doom 3 release. A few areas are very subtly brightened up, the flashlight is no longer a separate 'weapon' (opting more for a Half Life style), and some extra ammo is added around the maps (I never had problems with abundant ammo in the original release anyway, but still, there's even more here). It includes a brand new expansion to whet the appetites of old fans, at least. BFG Edition, sadly, is incompatible with mods for the original Doom 3, and that will be the majority of mods you will find on the internet. The original Doom 3 really needs to be sold on GOG or included as a bonus with this version, in my strong opinion.

Game works well, but they were supposed to completely remove that CD-KEY thing before they added it on GOG, it's annoying, it was annoying back in 2004 and it's still annoying in 2023. Sometimes it just asks for serial key for no reason again.

The original Doom 3 is such a atmospheric and action paced Master Piece. I love the original Classics, but the Redesign of the Monsters here are very well done and very welcome. I recommend to use HD Textures, they make the Game look up to Date and makes it even superior to the BFG Edition. The original has better Design in how the Lightning is done, also some Effects are missing in the BGF Edition. The Eyes of your Enemies also don't gloom in the Dark. Alls the Stuff that is going on in the Industrial Complex and the Depiction of Hell is so great and unique. Love it! Shotgun is a oneshot Killer, it just forces you to overcome your Fear and get close to your Enemy. Your Light is a handy Tool to "kill" Corpse... To prevent them to scare you when they stand up :P

I really like Doom 3; it's my favorite Doom game by a large margin. It is much more of a survival horror than its action-focused brethren. I thought taking this direction with the franchise really served its setting and style extremely well. It was legitimately terrifying for me when originally playing it, and it is one of very few things I still have nightmares about from time to time. It lives in my head all these years later. The atmosphere is moody and morbid; I love how dark the game is. And I love how it is more of an understated creeping horror kind of game punctuated with the action. The weapons are all very different and fun to use, and they each have their own strengths and drawbacks, so there is an extra layer of gameplay in switching between weapons that I feel a lot of games lack. It has what might be one of the best designed interfaces/control schemes of any game, and yes: I even like the flashlight decision of the original. So why only four stars instead of five? Well, it's realllllly close to five stars for me, but the game does rely on monster-closets a LOT, and that gets a bit old as the game progresses. It's also entirely linear and has a functional but not memorable story. The game doesn't do much beyond shooting demons in a hallway, and even though it does that thing really well, it is kind of one-note. That said I would still consider it one of the best pure shooters I've played. If you have never tried it, or have only played the BFG version, I highly recommend the original.

Bethesda/ID/GOG, when you get a minute, could you pretty please include vanilla installers for Doom 3 and expansion? That would be great. Pros: It's Doom 3, with it's expansion and an additional mission. Cons: - Cheapened lighting (and muzzleflashes don't emit light) - Less control over graphics settings - NO MOD SUPPORT - No multiplayer (Well there IS multiplayer, but it's hidden) - Game pauses for a few seconds when quicksaving - Disabled console - Performance issues at times Now as for the flashlight being shoulder mounted, I see this as both a good and a bad change. In vanilla Doom 3, you had to hold a flashlight to see in dark areas, but couldn't dual wield it with anything, and it created tension, but the flashlight had infinite battery, and you could whack things with it. In BFG, it's mounted on your shoulder so seeing in the dark and shooting can be done at the same time, but it has limited battery that needs to recharge after it turns off, also this removes tension in dark areas and makes the part with the guy with the lamp escorting you a joke. Here's how they should have handled the flashlight in vanilla to begin with: You get the handheld flashlight for the first 60% of the game, and can dualwield it with the pistol, and in the last 40% of the game, you get the shoulder mounted flashlight, and it doesn't need a recharge. Bam, best of both worlds. Also it would have been cool if they could have gave weapons alt fires for the BFG edition, and also changed their handling a bit. Pistol: Pistol whip or iron sight, make it fire and reload faster. Shotgun: Double shot, and better handling/pellet physics. SMG: Burst fire. Plasma: Plasma shotgun. RPG: Laser guided shots. Etc If you're fine with just Doom 3 + Expansion, and no mod support or multiplayer, than it's more or less the same Doom 3 experience, otherwise, stay away. Also if you care about Doom 1 and 2, just buy the originals and get GZDoom + Brutal Doom, much better.