So how come people don't think Doom 3 is scary

I always thought it was pretty scary especially in terms of the sound design of it.

It overuses monster closets and Betruger as an antagonist was a bad idea for kind of thing it was going for but everything else about it is spot on for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgRA4T5BO3U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpLmERNSV3U

Simple, some people are simply not scared by the kind of horror the game presents.

I'm rarely scared by horror movies/video games nowadays for instance, although I admit that Doom 3, along with Amnesia TDD were pretty damn disturbing. I also find that whether you immerse yourself into a game's world or not has a different impact upon one's self, especially when it comes to horror games.

I was scared shitless by the game back when I played for the first time at the age of 13 - not so much nowadays. At this point, I've finished the game enough times to basically know it like the back of my hand. I still enjoy the atmosphere, though.

Wait, the game is supposed to be scary?...  Honestly the atmosphere never had effect on me except lady which was whispering to you, that was kinda disturbing. it's cool but not scary. But on the other hand is hard to scare me and even horror game are ok for me.

Because it's not scary... Even my 9-10 years old self wasn't scared by this game, I found it pretty funny though as it really tried to give goosebumps when something appears when you don't expect it. The real problem was that it became way to predictable.

Doom 3 was scary in a way.  It was also fun in a way.

10 hours ago, DesecratorJ said:

The real problem was that it became way to predictable.

Exactly

I like Doom 3 and recently replayed its single player. I will play through the expansion soon too. So here's my thoughts on why some may not find it as scary as some other games.

I've heard some of the sound design was inspired by the ambient work in Doom 64. But instead of doing composed tracks as Aubrey Hodges did, it seems they just did loops in the environment. Loops when overused lose some of their creepiness due to being predictable and your brain will filter them out. And when it is not mixed dynamically the overlaying sounds turn into mush. They probably could have improved upon it with live synthesis (or sound interpolation) with randomization but they would have taxed the processor too much.

A lot with Doom 3 felt like they wanted more than what the technology at the time could handle. Their demon models are reminiscent of Giger (or Cronenberg) creations which have a lot of curves and fleshy bits. Graphics cards at the time were just barely capable of handling that many polygons for smooth looking curves, so you can see a lot of the sharp polygon edges on the demons when they're supposed to be looking fleshy.

DOOM3 has good ambience and atmosphere and that's what matters to me. I don't care about being scared because games don't scare me. I'm much more interested in the creepy and disturbing vibe or unsettling story because that still works for me.

17 hours ago, DesecratorJ said:

The real problem was that it became way to predictable.

Yeah, that would be one of the biggest problems, and it becomes predictable way too soon, after a short time spent in the game you can already expect how the enemies will ambush you, so the element of surprise rapidly vanishes.

tbh I liked Betruger, reminds me of Antony Hopkins lol, but otherwise I agree with what DesecratorJ and Agent6 said, I think the game would have been miles better if it dropped the focus on Horror mid-way of the journey, just like Bioshock, and this would allow people to appreciate the atmosphere of the game more without getting interrupted with poor jumpscare attempts.

It's a bit too predictable to be scary.

It was usually pretty tense, but never really scary. 

In my view Doom 3 isn't a horror game, it's an action game where scary things happen. It doesn't build tension or keep the player off balance psychologically in the same way a proper horror game does, nor does it make the attempt.

The only thing that truly "scared" me in Doom 3 was that cheap mirror jumpscare.

I didn't exactly find it creepy but it did make me sick at some parts.

tbh, DooM 3 is scary. i was scared alot when i finally got to Hell part, and realized that i only finished half of the game. it was the scariest moment in my whole life: "WHAT? EVEN MORE HOURS OF THIS? I CAN'T DO IT, PLEASE, JUST KILL ME!"

why is it not scary? there's individual creepy events going on, and that's about it. A skeleton is thrown around, there's a spooky sound and evil laugh, but does it harm you? All these spooky things are just spooky but cause no actual problems, aren't really unexpected, and just grate after a while. also #000000 isn't spooky, it's just annoying.

Doom 3 does have its moments. Id did a lot of experimentation: the engine, the atmosphere. The controversial flashlight. The big story. They did invest in the horror aspects, and I think a lot of it paid off. But I believe they had goals beyond the scares. Had their entire focus been to get you to soil yourself, they'd have taken different approaches, and, with that fantastic engine, they could have really disturbed people.

I can think of 2 unintentional scares in Doom 3:

1. Clip into the infirmary and 'talk' to Joe, the corpse: He flies into upright position, and stares at you from every angle. Heh.
2. Every now and then, you can trick a skeleton into some pretty creepy ragdoll twitching and wiggling that just keeps going and going... Anyone know what triggers it? (It seems like the rocket launcher, or a grenade sometimes does the trick, if you don't cause the body to burn up).

Those are a lot more scary then things spawnning behind me.

While Doom 3 isn’t like “it’s so scary it’ll keep you awake for days,” it does manage to be legitimately disturbing every now and then (when it doesn’t rely on jump scares). 

A few examples come to mind, especially with a couple of demon intro scenes:

-The Maggot intro; there’s just something about that screaming corpse that’s very unsettling, possibly due to how inhuman it sounds. 

-The Lost Soul intro and everything building up to it, ESPECIALLY the sound of sobbing you hear beforehand. It doesn’t help that the Lost Soul reveals itself in a very gruesome manner. 

-The “they took my baby” scene. While there’s really no scary imagery in the traditional sense, the horrifying sound effects you’re subject to will more than likely make you think that the loot you get afterwards feel like something of a consolation prize. 

That being said, it is somewhat hard to be scared of the environment around you when you still have the arsenal of a one-man army and the general ability to more-or-less instagib most of the demons with a combat shotgun. 

The whispering lady is easily the most disturbing thing in this game. "They took my baby". I was like, What she mean by that, is there something i should known or be aware of?

I mean, tbh Doom 3 wasn't really scary, mostly because it didn't have exactly any proper build up of terror, not to mention the sound design most of the time wasn't exactly great either, Reznor's sound design would've benefited Doom 3 a lot better had the stars aligned and he'd been able to stay in.

Another problem that screwed Doom 3 over in scariness was the camera effects when the player is struck by an enemy, which resorted to just being outright annoying and atmosphere breaking to have a cherub come out of nowhere and giving Doom3Guy a damn seizure yet only dealing like 3 damage.

PSX Doom, and Doom 64 were also much more scarier (I can handle playing Doom 3 in one big long run, but Doom 64 and PSX Doom I break up over time because Hodges' music and sound design brought terror to those games) honestly, but Doom 3 was much more atmospheric.

I didn't even find Doom 3 scary at all. Apparently, someone in the developing dept. screwed up trying to make it look scary.

7 hours ago, XLightningStormL said:

PSX Doom, and Doom 64 were also much more scarier (I can handle playing Doom 3 in one big long run, but Doom 64 and PSX Doom I break up over time because Hodges' music and sound design brought terror to those games) honestly, but Doom 3 was much more atmospheric.

Doom 64 wasn't scary for me. I can't speak for PSX Doom, since I've never got the chance to play it (I never get the good stuff. Woe is me!).

D64 is definitely more scarier than D3, especially thanks to awesome soundtrack. D3 really missing something like that.

yeah. darkness is not scary, darkess is annoying. that is, darkness can work if you will use is sparsely, but building a whole game on it... just no. it doesn't work.

tbh, getting out of bases to mars surface were the moments i both still remember as "best moments" ('cause i was finally able to see where i am), and scariest moments. 'cause somehow i started to feel myself alone on a distant planet, with nobody to help me, and with something unknown waiting around the corner. that is how horror should be done, not by forgetting to deliver ducktape to highly advanced tech base.

2 hours ago, Marlamir said:

D64 is definitely more scarier than D3, especially thanks to awesome soundtrack. D3 really missing something like that.

Exactly, that's why a consider Doom 64 to be the true Doom 3. Doom 64's soundtrack really gave you a disturbed feeling that something was watching you. There was only ONE theme I can think of in Doom 3 and that was the title theme. Maybe they didn't put any other music in D3 for atmospheric purposes, but it still doesn't work. Doom just isn't the same without a soundtrack.

4 hours ago, Marlamir said:

D64 is definitely more scarier than D3, especially thanks to awesome soundtrack. D3 really missing something like that.

But I actually liked, how ambient was dynamically composed of discrete environmental sounds. Esp. sound of increasing pülse-like noise near room with archvile in central processing and top floor key in data storage or all sounds from hellhole pre "elevator" area. I'm by no means against specific tracks, but it this case I'd rather prefer more distinct PSX soundtrack.
Oh, relatively eeriness. Never found any of these games such one. All so called scary stuff I would name game's aesthetics, whether it's specific to Doom 3/64/PSX version or common among them. It's just like Pumpkinhead or Hellraiser series, which are watched to enjoy slaughter in macabre background instead of getting scared.

It was mainly the ambiance and lighting (lack there of) that got to me as well as the mirror jump scare when I was younger.
D3 looks great, but it just felt like a clunky shooter after my third or fourth playthrough, I still play it for about an hour once in a blue moon.
These days, it just sits in my steam library and in its case for my 360 next to Turok from 09 (A far more disappointing game).

Maybe back then they though the lighting is soo damn good and scary that they didn't need anything more. There was probaply some enviroment ambient that was make you feel unsafe or something. But nothing can beat hodges work.

edit: now im imagine in my head how the game could be if Hodges would work on D3 with id. That would be something.

I really miss DOOM 3. Need to find discs and reinstall it. I remember one day when I played DOOM3 on my friend's pc and his sister was watching. And suddenly from the dark jump maggot - she jumped up on her chair :D