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Why do so many people hate Doom 3?

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I was wondering...

I have heard from many people (myself included in the past) about how much Doom 3 sucked because "it just wasn't doom".

Okay, fair. It doesn't follow the same formula at all.

But what if the game was called "Demonophobia" instead? Is there anything about the game besides "it isn't doom" that you dislike?

I played it recently and found it to be very enjoyable, that's why I ask.

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Well, funny thing is that I experienced kind of the other way around, because the first Doom game I played was Doom 3, and I loved it, creepy atmosphere, really good action, I enjoyed a lot. After playing Doom 3 I was curious about how the other 2 first games were(At the time I've heard about Doom games, but never played them actually) so I played them and totally loved it too. I think it's true when you said it didn't follow the same formula, but Doom 3 created it's own formula in my opinion respecting the last two games(Old enemies along with new enemies) and that is what made Doom 3 a remarkable game.

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I'm very open to video game series changing direction. If the devs wanted to let Doom 3 have poor shooting action (and there should be no question that its shooting action is poor) and make an atmospheric horror game instead, that would be fine, so long as it executed its chosen direction well.

It didn't. Doom 3's horror is paltry tricks from the local haunted house, poorly-written mandatory audio logs recited in sound booths, and Hell as Half-Life's Xen with a red skybox.

The DOOM name, rather than causing the game to be criticized, is the only reason that failure got a second glance. When those guys at id Software said "let us make Doom 3 or fire us," the whole lot of them should have been canned.

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It doesn't play anything like the original Doom games, which is why many people hate it. Slow paced, lots of darkness, flashlight mechanic, jump scares...

I love Doom 3 but aside from the Hell and monster themes, it is almost an entirely different game. Feels like something more similar to a first person shooter version of Dead Space. But hey, that's perfectly fine with me. Dead Space is an awesome game. Well, the first was anyway.

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Batelli_1605 said:

Well, funny thing is that I experienced kind of the other way around, because the first Doom game I played was Doom 3

Same with me, Doom 3 was the first Doom i've played, then was Doom RPG on mobile phone and only then were classic Dooms.
Tbh, aside from the reason "Doom 3 is not similar to classic Doom" i don't see why people could hate this game. Jumpscares? Well, i personally don't mind them. Darkness? Well, that the game's main feature, which requires you to rely on flashlight. I, personally, have literally no complains about Doom 3 and i think it's a really good game.

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It's also worth mentioning that the Doom 3 shotgun is completely terrible and has way too much spread. It can only 1 hit kill things within 0.5 feet otherwise half the pellets miss.

I like the way it looks and sounds, though. And the behavior is easily modifiable and fixable. Although I find the reload animation odd. Doomguy puts in one shell at a time but it registers two in your ammo counter.

What? Thankfully that Is easy to fix as well.

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I wouldn't say terrible, I think it's just a matter of getting used to it, on my first playthroughs my aim with the shotgun was a complete mess, after a long time playing and praticing, things just started to work out.

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ChekaAgent said:

Darkness? Well, that the game's main feature, which requires you to rely on flashlight.


To be fair, plenty of horror shooting games use lots of darkness but give your weapon a flashlight so you don't have to switch back and forth to see.

John Carmack chose the flashlight route because he didn't want to add another dynamic light pass to cast more shadows as that would slow down the target frame rate. That is the real reason. I could find the interview on Youtube again if anyone is curious to hear more.

John was obsessed with graphics and performance. Building a tight corridor shooter was the result of that obsession as giant open rooms would not run smoothly. He has admitted and explained this many times. That is why Doom 3 is survival horror.

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Doom 3 may not have excited the Classic Doom fans at the time with the gameplay, the different non-doom atmosphere that it had, but you can't say the same as for the graphics... Doom 3 had damn good graphics for the time being, the dark areas of the game to this day are just phenomenal.

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I found the monster closets jump scares to be silly and nonsensical with the realistic atmosphere it was going for and the later levels relied too much on monster teleports rather than clever placement. The weapon sounds also generally sucked arse. Trent's work on the alpha was much better.

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Doom 3 is not a bad game. It has its own theme and gameplay style which are not bad for me, actually. But the level design is boring; it's just continuous corridors with a few monsters to fight per battle. Sometimes it gives me some arena fights, but there are not much monsters to shoot, unlike the classic doom or the newest doom. And soon, the game is pretty much predictable because of nearly identical environment and abusing monster closet too much. Also, I do hate the sound effects of Doom 3, especially the weapons with bullet such as machinegun and pistol. The alpha version had much better sounds, and I have no idea why they ****ed up the sound effects for the main game. Finally, the boss fights are just anticlimactic. Seriously, how could they make the Cyberdemon fight so cheesy like that? That poor bastard have never hit me with his cheap rockets.

Still, I need to say that l do like the computer monitors that you can interact with your cursor. It's like you are actually controlling the environment, instead of just boring QTE moments from other games.

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I don't really hate Doom 3. It has its strengths, mainly talking about the atmosphere and the gameplay that compliments it. Even the sound design and voice acting aren't half-bad, and the story is decent enough.

To me, that's about as far as the pros go. Visuals-wise, they aren't bad, but the game is too goddamn dark, which, in all fairness, is why there's a flashlight. The problem with that, though, arises when the lighting isn't adequate to pinpoint the exact spots where the enemies are located, leading you to either lure them into a brighter area or fire around half-blindly. Not to mention that the game has a tendency to spawn another enemy behind you when you're already fighting one, at least on Veteran difficulty. That's one of my biggest pet peeves in video games in general.

And the level design... Ugh. Aside from Hell, Caverns and Primary Excavation, it's incredibly bland and cramped. At the very least, the aforementioned levels bring some visual variety, but Doom 3 would've needed much more of it. The setting doesn't excuse the monotony and repetitiveness of the levels' theme.

Oh yeah, and add the fact that the game starts essentially forcing prominent usage of the Soul Cube once you obtain it, seeing as there are considerably less medkits in the post-Hell levels.

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I don't. It's the good game with nice story. It's completely different because it's slower than original games and what i hate the most in this game it's the final battle with Cyberdemon... What a lame boss.. Huh...

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It isn't that bad, But it gets repeatitive, The gameplay also is very simplistic (almost adds nothing new)

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Those who say it sucks, are assholes.
Its amazing for what it is.
Its Doom, the serious version AKA what a real life Doom would've been like.
No one hates it. Maybe for not being Classic Doom (which is a stupid comparison).

People loved it. And the expansion pack was even more well received.
There's a poll on QuakeOne forums I made. You can see what they think about Doom 3.

Maybe you meant DNF.

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Doom 3 has too many balance issues and architectural/enemy limitations. Combat is wonky, weapons feel unsatisfying, enemies aren't distinctive enough. It is a fun game for sure, but has too many little things that add up.

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I really like Doom 3, but the problem for me is the weapons and thier sounds, thankfully these can be fixed, get the Trent Doom 3 Sound Pack and while you're at it, get the Alpha Shotgun Mod and this SSG mod as well:https://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-3-general/86008-any-way-i-can-port-the-roe-double-barrel-shotgun-into-vanilla-doom-3-resolved/2/
Everything else in the game is fine with me, although the player could walk a bit faster.

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MFG38 said:

Even the sound design and voice acting aren't half-bad


The sound design is more than half bad, with a distinct lack of ambiance in the audio logs. System Shock managed this, as well as options for text logs (great for those with trouble hearing) and terse logs (great for those who want to get right back to the action). If Doom 3 was going to imitate this element, id should have executed it at least as well.

Voros said:

No one hates it. Maybe for not being Classic Doom (which is a stupid comparison). People loved it.


Posts from 2004 are still readable, you know. It's pointless to pretend everyone was saying "this is awesome" and not "isn't there any duct tape on Mars?" Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 were the real FPS darlings of the year.

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The fact you move like a slug even while sprinting really dampens my tits because it doesn't feel skillful trying to dodge projectiles, it's more akin to the frantic bumping into things trying to escape the zombies in Resident Evil. While it is a good game and I liked it, it's got some really poor design choices and you can tell where they cut corners.

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I don't hate Doom 3. In fact, I make a point of revisiting it every so often. I even wheel out the OG XBox versions on occasion for a bit of variety. But I do hate the BFG Edition for a number of reasons:

- The revised flashlight outright ruins the tension created by the low light levels. Doom 3 is a horror game. It's supposed to be dark, and the gameplay of the original actively discourages the use of the flashlight by forcing the player to switch between it and their weapons. Having a shoulder torch jusr feels like cheating.
- The sewer level in RoE was completely butchered by removing the hazmat suit, making it nothing more than a stock tunnel run. It was one of the best bits of the mission pack and they ruined its entire appeal.
- The Lost Mission was an exercise in blatant copypasta. If I wanted copypasta, I could have gone online and dowloaded some sub-par custom maps for the original without dropping £20.

Anyway, not looking to derail the thread, just needed to get that one off my chest.

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Ok, they didn't "love" it, but it did a good job with bringing the horror aspect of Doom and giving it the spotlight.

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scalliano said:

If I wanted copypasta, I could have gone online and dowloaded some sub-par custom maps for the original without dropping £20.

Well not all of the custom maps were sub-par, there was at least some good ones such as Endarchy for one example.

However another problem I find with BFG Edition is how they added way too much extra ammo to the maps when there's already more than enough at a certain point of the original game.

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It just didn't feel like DOOM, and for many others, DOOM 64 Is the true DOOM 3.

I like DOOM 3, but I wouldn't consider It DOOM.

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Also, I liked Lost Mission... Sure I wasn't expecting something entirely different, it was more of the same that's true, but still it was very enjoayble for me.

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scalliano said:

- The revised flashlight outright ruins the tension created by the low light levels. Doom 3 is a horror game. It's supposed to be dark, and the gameplay of the original actively discourages the use of the flashlight by forcing the player to switch between it and their weapons. Having a shoulder torch jusr feels like cheating.


It's funny how people are defending the flashlight these days when Doom 3 was getting absolutely roasted for it back in '04 and the duct tape mod was one of the most popular addons. There's a difference between scary and annoying and Doom 3 went too far into the latter. Ravenholme in Half-Life 2 was a great horror level with amazing atmosphere, and guess what, you could actually see shit and use a flashlight!

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GoatLord said:

weapons feel unsatisfying

I Don't find it so, I've played few Deathmatch rounds with some random guys and they were fine, Although i agree the Plasma Rifle was shit for Multiplayer .

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I think Doom 3's problems were that it is rather repetitive (a lot of the levels look similar because of the darkness), the new enemies didn't add anything that wasn't there already and that it had some really annoying sound effects (especially that one when demons spawn).

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Xeliv said:

the new enemies didn't add anything that wasn't there already


That's not true: Wraiths, Trites, Cherubs, Maggots, Zombies, Z-Secs, Commandoes, Vagary all add something new and as a result the monsters diversity is greater than in the classic Doom games.

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Tetzlaff said:

That's not true: Wraiths, Trites, Cherubs, Maggots, Zombies, Z-Secs, Commandoes, Vagary all add something new and as a result the monsters diversity is greater than in the classic Doom games.


- Vagary and Tentacle Commando: They are the only true new ideas in the game and I have no problem with them existing.
- Cherubs and Maggots: Why do we need more monsters that can jump in your face when Imps can do that too?
- Z-Secs and Chaingun Commando: Except from the rare shield guy they are this game's former humans.
- Zombies: They aren't really a threat, more an annoyance. I do like the Chainsaw Zombies but those are way to underused.
- Trites: would be okay if the game spawned a lot of them at once so they would swarm you but in vanilla Doom 3 they are Zombie-level dangerous.
- Wraiths: Maggots with a weird teleport gimmick that is to slow and obvious to be interesting.

RoE brings us a few more enemies:
- Bruiser: a mix of Hell Knight and Mancubus. I like the design and due to it being so aggresive it feels like thats what the Mancubus should have been.
- Vulgar: It's an Imp with slightly different behaviour.

So yeah, while the statement "all new enemies add nothing new" might be wrong I would change that to a "a lot of the new enemies feel pointless".

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