DOOM 3

PN Review continued... Gameplay Don't mess with a winning recipe - this seems to have been id Software's motto when it came to decide exactly how Doom 3 should actually play as an FPS game. The result is that this is easily the least revolutionary aspect of the game. As some have described it: yesterday's gameplay combined with tomorrow's graphics. But this is not necessarily a bad thing, seeing that id essentially perfected arcade-style FPS action with the first Doom, and only slightly modified their formula for the follow-up Quake series. And now, the changes to that style of play have once again been so minimal that anyone familiar with the older id games would feel immediately at home when playing Doom 3 for the first time. Doom 3 mostly consists of classic FPS action. Of course, the title "Doom 3" clearly harks back to an earlier era of PC gaming. But paying homage to one of their early classics didn't stop the id team from radically overhauling almost everything else about their latest blockbuster. So why leave the gameplay itself virtually unchanged while most other elements of the game have been modernized to represent the current state of the art? Maybe it's because most FPS games - and id's in particular - have a reputation for requiring little player ability beside an itchy trigger finger. Attempting to add more cerebral challenges like puzzles and strategy to an FPS game is apparently a risky approach to take when all-out shooting has been shown to easily attract a large following. So, it seems that while some more thought-provoking aspects were added to the storyline of Doom 3, nothing overtly intellectual was allowed to interfere with the actual gameplay. The end-result: straightforward and linear shooter action with a tiny sprinkling of puzzle-solving. Doom 3's "puzzles" never actually involve more than swivelling a crane or finding the access code for a locked door, so this game really is just about making progress through a demon-invested base while blasting everything that moves (except the odd helpful scientist, of course). Unexpected ambushes can mean a swift death... It can be argued that the retention of old-school gaming conventions is a let-down for everyone who expected this game to revolutionize the FPS genre, but Doom 3 plays surprisingly well despite its "dated" approach. Because controls have been kept to a minimum and the ways to move about and shoot are intuitively familiar, Doom 3 has virtually no learning curve - it immediately feels as natural as walking about in a real setting (with a real gun in hand). Maybe the only thing that takes some getting used to is the constant switching between torch and weapon, since both cannot be used at the same time (this is supposedly to add tension and probably works well in that regard - in e.g. Far Cry the ability to have a torch on at all times and also use night-vision goggles certainly took the threat out of most dark areas). Otherwise, even the numerous point & click menu screens found throughout the Mars facility are so easy to use that one hardly even recognizes this new control method for the brilliant little innovation that it is. So, there is no Use key, no Alt fire modes, no route-finding, no strategizing - it's all very simple. Even classic Doom staples such as backtracking to find secret areas and getting a success tally at the end of a map have largely been abandoned - in fact, Doom 3 will occasionally even provide on-screen tips to help with some obstacles, as if nothing should be allowed to slow down your progress through the game too much. And, I don't really have a huge problem with this: the simplistic gameplay actually complements other minimalist aspects of the game, such as the pervasive mood of dread and the visually similar settings. "Hellspawn" appears in many shapes & sizes. The bottom line is that in totality everything works together well and the action flows nicely without the player ever having to struggle with cumbersome control options, solve tough mental problems or perform tricky gymnastics in order to complete a level. A slight niggle, though, is that this simplicity also extends beyond the player controls into less appropriate in-game mechanics - particularly the aspects of enemy AI and attack patterns. To put it bluntly: after a while the frequency of appearance and actions of monsters confronting the player become very predictable and one encounter eventually very much resembles the next. Most monsters also have a similar attack style (rush forward slashing, biting or shooting wildly) - about the only difference being the amount of damage inflicted in one go. And in response to this repeating pattern, the player is not even allowed much leeway in defensive actions. Because most rooms and corridors are quite cramped, it's difficult to dodge attacks by demons that often materialize simultaneously both in front of and behind the player. And, last but not least, these problems with enemies are greatly exacerbated when the attacker happens to be a "boss" (more on this below)... Next Page >

PN Game Reviews: Doom 3 > 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9

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