Aaahh!!!!
I'm taking DOOM 3 so slow and haven't had all day to play it that I don't think I would like to submit a review until I've beaten the game...but here I go anyway if that's okay with you all?
Not gonna be the longest review ever lol. Hopefully it'll make it into the second opinions. Alright here I go....
My Doom3 Review
Gameplay:
Well, as you might expect, it's a DOOM game, without doubt. But it's not the 90 mile hour running blow up everything you can fast paced throwing enemies at you at every second frag fest, oh nooo, it's quite different, not to spoil anything.
DOOM3 without doubt is a slow paced game, but it's not as slow as Splinter Cell, within less than a minute you'll know when an enemy spawns behind you.
Gameplay is very nicely done however, items like the PDA and integrated videos at immersion factor and realism into the game, and the PDA becomes quite handy.
But one of the things that DOOM 3 establishes better than any other game IMO is atmosphere.
It's those creepy moments during the game, where you are all alone in the dark, you know a monster is right around the corner or down the dark hall way ready to tear you apart, and all you can hear is your heart beating, as you take it soooo slowly.....
Bringing you right to the edge of your seat.
Then when you least expect it, everything goes red, you hear something spawn behind you, and a blood curling scream.........then it's up to your wits, courage, and combat skills to tell the outcome of the battle.
Then there's creepy moments where you hear those eerie whispers and god knows what happens next...it's all so much anticipation to be found.
However there are a lot of realistic puzzles, remesences of
H A L F - L I F E here and there.
Weapons and enemies are nicely balanced and won't disapoint you, that's all I can say to not spoil anything.
Otherwise it's another FPS god by id Software, but slower paced and driven by atmosphere.
Game-Play Rating: 8.8
Storyline:
I'm not going to spoil anything here. But DOOM 3's storyline is a decent one, there's a reasonable beginning, middle, ending, plot twists, etc all connected together as a fluid stream of dots in a sense. However, I was not as immersed as I was hoping to be storyline wise, so I can't say it's a strong area of the game.
Storyline rating: 5.0
Graphics:
Graphics...an area where DOOM3 was hailed "Pixar Quality, Cinematic Quality, Film Quality" judging from the E3 ane QuakeCon presetentations.cts(a la the ...well look no further, because it's here and hungry.
There are moments in DOOM 3 graphics wise that are absolutely spectacular, where volumetric particle effeheat shimmer haze effect, dx9 gfx card only) are abound with very nice volumetric explosions, stencil volumes(for shadows) behave/diffuse perfectly all shadowing onto the environment and back upon itself in real-time(however shadows are sharp edged not soft due to soft shadows require twice the calculation processing power, something current PCs wouldn't handle without the frame-rate slowing to a crawl), and shadows are so realistic you can even see your own shadow. Real-time Per-pixel lighting is all interacting perfectly on the fly. Where floating point colour precision is dynamic, studio quality, not over done, and a sure treat to be recieved.
Ranging from 2000-6000 polygons, the models in DOOM 3 combined with the normal(for irregularities)/specular(for specularity, shine) mapped textures look absolutely glorious.
However DOOM 3 is without doubt a graphical feast of interior, but exterior wise it's still sporting bitmaps as backgrounds, yet some nice, complex, smoooth, high-polygon and cleverly placed terrain here and there.
The only thing that bothered me is that all the normal and specular mapped textures that are applied onto the original massive textures lower the resolution a bit too slow, so sure you'll find a more rough, 3D, and shiny feel to the textures, but it doesn't look as sharp as I hoped.
Reflection wise DOOM 3 isn't neccessarily bad, mirrors reflect everything in real-time (ala a 2D cube map), without such a hefty performance hit, however you will find static cubemaps on a lot of textures(AKA semi-reflections) which isn't so impressive.
There are many rendering paths: ARB(beta, for Radeon 7xxx series I believe) ARB2(for R300's and above), R200(For Radeon 8500-9000 series) NV10(for GeForce 4 MXs), NV20(For GeForce 3/TIs/GeForce 4 TIs), CG(for NV30/NV40), and that's about it AFAIK.
Each rendering path brings in general the same kind of look and feel to the game, but with drawbacks such as loss of certain eye candy and precision. However, all of them are impressive considering the wide range of graphics hardware they are compatible with.
All in all, DOOM 3 utilizes the OpenGL API combined with high-end generation renderering technology to bring you graphics heaven.
Graphics rating: 9.0
Physics:
This is an area where DOOM 3 is fantastic and fun to mess around with, DOOM 3's per-polygon detection system removes hitboxes from the skeletal model so it's much more realistic in combat.
That combined with full ragdoll physics model support completely based on the laws of friction, mass, bouyancy, and gravity.
However this ragdoll model is not automatically placed in every area of the game as DOOM 3 is not a physics simulation, but in general DOOM 3's physics engine is one like no other and completely original.
Physics rating: 9.5
A.I:
Well with zombies abound, A.I is not a very strong area in DOOM 3, nor is it supposed to be. However the demons's pathfinding scripts and general A.I scripts are nicely written so A.I is by no doubt a faulty area of DOOM 3.
A.I rating: 8.1
Performance:
This is where everyone was worried of - the question -
"Will DOOM3 run on MY system?"
Any modern one within a wide range.
With a 1.5 GHz CPU, 384MB of RAM, and a 64MB GeForce 4 MX, expect to play DOOM 3 at 640x480 w/no FSAA, some advanced options enabled and low detail mode at a good frame-rate overall.
However with a better computer DOOM 3 will be a great experience.
On my machine (2.2 GHz Pentium 4, 512MB of RDRAM, 128MB DDR ATi Radeon 9500 Pro) DOOM 3 runs pretty smooth in general @ 1024x768 w/no FSAA, all advanced options enabled(except v-sync) in medium detail mode, however does get a bit choppy in multiplayer intense battles and in some intense SP firefights.
1-60FPS.
Yes, DOOM 3 is capped at 60FPS. If there is no difference between 60FPS and above, why cap it there you say?
When running above 60FPS, you are able to perform faster jumps and certain player tic movements that are in an obvious sense a cheat, so DOOM 3 is capped at 60FPS, it's an engine built in, and totally fair IMHO.
In general, DOOM 3 is well optimized, and will not disapoint you performance wise.
Loading times aren't super fast, but are not surprisingly long.
Multiplayer network optimization could have been better(less data packet loss, lower pings), but is good considering how much data must be transmitted with this new, revolutionary engine.
Performance rating: 8.8
Multiplayer:
DOOM 3's multiplayer is unfortunately capped at 4 players max, but there are reasons for that.
1) More than 4 players would kill the tension and 2) More than 4 players would kill performance.
It would be nicer of multiplayer had a more variety of game types, player selection etc, but hey, it's DOOM, and it's a step up from Quake 3 Arena multiplayer.
Multiplayer rating: 7.4.
Editor:
Well as I haven't messed with the editor really yet, I couldn't rate it, but it would be nice if it was a heavily modified version of the GTK Radiant Editor instead of the QE Radiant Editor.
Editor rating: 6.2
Audio:
Audio wise, DOOM 3 is very nice, with full surround sound support so you can literally hear everything around you complete in high fidelity with ambient music, and like in the original DOOM sounds of monsters around the corner can freak you out, however is unfortunate not to include support for 3D hardware audio sound shader acceleration renderers like EAX, which would truly add to the immersion factor.
However, DOOM 3 does a good job of calculating all sound mixing and shading calculations in the CPU/software, and you can see how much hard work went into things such as voice syncing etc.
Audio rating: 8.5
Fear Factor:
Extremely well established in places, and non-extistant in others. But by no means disapointing.
Fear Factor Rating: 9.4
Fun Factor:
DOOM 3 might be scary, laggy, and suffer choppy frame-rates at times, but that doesn't mean it's not fun. It's not only the engine technology that makes it fun, but it's the fact that DOOM 3 is here in a modern style sense with some hefty extra features and etc IMO that makes DOOM 3 fun.
Fun Factor Rating: 8.9
Final words:
Love it or hate it, it's DOOM! It'll be virtually played by every DOOM fan! And very worthy of the DOOM series IMO, it's here so get used to it. 4 years of overhype and grand anticipation centered around one game could certainly result in disapointement, and I'd have to say that there was
too much hype centered around DOOM3, but it is not a game that sucks. It's totally lived up to my expectations and the hype IMHO. It's game by the legendary FPS gods of id Software, and DOOM3 now is only the beginning. Once all kinds of mods, patches, enhancements, and games based on the DOOM 3 engine are upon us, you'll realize that the age of THE NEW DOOM is here. And it'll be here for the next several years until another game as revolutionary or more is in our hands. So DOOM 3 has pushed the bar, let's see the next game obliterate it.
Well done, id Software, very well done indeed.
Final rating: 9.1.
)
