Biggest Gripe
I'm not a hardcore FPS gamer, meaning that I'm not interested in practising circle-strafing for hours or beating a game in minimum time on the hardest possible setting. Rather than just frantically blasting enemies, I like a more measured approach ("taking my sweet time") that allows me to fully absorb the details of the virtual world that a particular game presents. Basically I don't like very difficult games - there should be a challenge, sure, but I don't want to expend hours and numerous savegames to get past tricky sections. I usually play on a Medium difficulty setting and expect a consistent but not frustrating level of resistance that should gradually build towards the end of the game. If a title is particularly good, I might replay it on Hard just to savour everything again and to compensate for the fact that I now have experience with the gameplay and know most of the "surprises". I don't ever, though, want to rely on cheat codes or endless hit-or-miss attempts to complete an FPS. Games that force me to do this immediately get marked down in my book in terms of overall satisfaction.
Most enemies can be killed with a shotgun blast...
So how does Doom 3 stack up in this regard? I played through it on the average Marine setting and while this was satisfying most of the time, the main problems appeared with the boss fights that came up intermittently. Besides the fact that I don't like FPS bosses in general, in Doom 3 I really loathed running into them (in fact, only Painkiller has more irritating boss monsters). Essentially, the "forgiving" skill level I'd chosen at the game's start just got chucked out the window when one of these mothers appeared: with the exception of the first spider boss (which was quite easy to defeat) and the first group of Mancubi (which were about right in terms of a challenge), the giant Hell demon, Sarge boss and final Cyberdemon just weren't any fun to deal with.
This is not to say that a game shouldn't have difficult end-of-level enemies - in e.g. the original Doom and especially Quake 2 I felt that this aspect was handled very well. In fact, in Quake 2 the bosses were beatable even when playing on Hard. The biggest difference with Doom 3, however, is that the mentioned older games provided a way for the player to have some control over the boss battles to better suit his own playing style or skill level. Crucially, the arenas in which the showdowns took place were quite big or complex - allowing for the player to hide, run away or choose different vantage points for attacks. Also, powerups such as temporary invincibility and quad damage could be collected earlier in the game and reserved for the really difficult confrontations. If a player then squandered these aids on more lowly monsters, he only had himself to blame if a boss kicked his ass. If, on the other hand, a player wanted to up the challenge a bit, he could simply forgo the use of any weapon upgrades.
...but dealing with bosses is not so straightforward.
Doom 3, however, doesn't allow for any of this: the player is confined to cramped or open areas where he's mostly a sitting duck and has exactly the same weapons at his disposal as against normal enemies - without the option of using powerups to help him out. The little extra ammo & health that might lie around is quickly used up as a player like me tries to avoid flying rockets and plasma balls, let alone try to launch any meaningful counter-attack.*
I'm really disappointed that id went this route - they might have catered to the hardcore FPS fans, but at least some provision should have been made for gamers of average ability to also have a go at a boss with a reasonable chance of success. Regrettably, I had to use cheat codes (God mode, extra BFG ammo, Noclip) to get past all three bosses in the latter third of the game - this completely disrupted the flow of the gameplay, spoiling most of the immersion and thrill in the process... I could probably have stuck it out longer, but why put up with hitting a brick wall in an otherwise well-paced game? A good fight is only fun if it's fair, and in Doom 3's boss battles the odds are simply too stacked against the casual player to be enjoyable. If id had found a way to omit bosses altogether and replaced them with some other climatic set pieces, the game might have been near-perfect. In the end, this is Doom 3's biggest weakness and let-down for me.
*After finishing Doom 3, I read about players who used the Soul Cube or BFG to easily defeat the Sarge boss. I can't confirm this, since my Soul Cube wasn't fully powered for that particular encounter - had there been a clue that a boss battle was coming up, I would definitely have kept it charged! And I distinctly recall not having the BFG at hand (since players lose it after the Hell stage, only finding it again later in the game)... As for the Hell Guardian: a quite competent gamer I know gave up on beating that boss, thinking he'd just about reached the end of the game anyway.
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