muslimmetalhead wrote:
Misery wrote:
As a huge fan of the series since the earliest days of it, my thoughts on Doom 3 are, well....
I'll put it this way: That game is NOT a remake. Not even close. Doom 3 doesnt play even close to the ways that Doom 1 and 2 did, or the extremely numerous amount of similar games did (Heretic, Hexen, Duke 3D, many others...).
Doom 3 is Doom in name only. The original Doom games were fast paced exploratory shooters, with constant action, monsters everywhere, lots to shoot and even more to dodge, big complicated labyrinthine levels.... and so on. The action was speedy and just kept coming.
Doom 3 though..... ugh. At one point it could be called "Flashlight: The game". Or maybe just "Jumpscare". Because that's pretty much what it devolved into. They went all-out on the graphics.... and, in the process, proved that graphics mean a whole lot of nothing. To me, the game was awful. The worst part: Doom 1 and 2 managed all sorts of big, chaotic fights versus many monsters at once, for instance, with the level structure taking big part and so on. Combat in Doom 3? Hah.... no. Back when the game came out, computers at the time would nearly explode at the idea of rendering ONE monster.... let alone the big hordes that the first 2 games liked to do. And no, I dont mean that those games were always putting out like, 100+ enemies at once. Not the sort of comparison I mean. Doom 3 likes to throw ONE monster at you at once. Maybe 2 or 3. But they'll JUMPSCARE you ZOMG!! !!1111 seems to have been the theme with the game, as if that made it worth it. The original 2 games did not do this. They didnt NEED to. They were about gameplay, not cheap scares. Hell, they werent about scares whatsoever. That's the part that baffled me the most. Not only did they get the gameplay wrong, they GOT THE ENTIRE GENRE WRONG. The Doom games were NOT "survival horror" type games, not any more than something like Duke Nukem 3D was. Not even close. They were action/exploration shooters.
All in all, honestly, I tried my best to like that game, but frankly, it was awful. It had become a slow-paced (VERY slow at times) shooter with not that many targets, not all that much to dodge, in rather dull levels (where everything is dark.... ALWAYS with the dark.... that flashlight, ugh....) and just.... bah.
I've bought TONS of games over the years. Tons. Of all of them though, Doom 3 might have been possibly the single biggest disappointment of all. I'd been SO looking forward to it, too. Such a shame.
I think that game was the one that cemented in my mind the idea that graphics seriously mean nothing at all.... and gameplay was the only thing that mattered. Bloody good thing, too, as that idea has helped me avoid similar other disappointments while allowing me to find other games I ended up really loving.
On top of all of this, Doom and Doom 2 now have various external things available for them. Programs that do things like increase the resolution, add graphical effects, improve controls, there's LOTS of things of this nature now, some of them very impressive. And of course there's about 10 squillion user-made levels and things out there, and mods, and.... yeah. There's ALOT to love with those two games if you find that they agree with you.
so what's wrong with horror?
Oh there's nothing WRONG with the survival-horror genre.
The problem was that it was a sequel..... that had NOTHING to do with the original games. I mean, seriously, they could have (and probably SHOULD have) just given it a totally different name, and not associated it at all with Doom in general, and.... actually, the game might have sold BETTER if they'd done that.
I mean, it'd be like taking the old Mario platformers and suddenly making a new one where it's like a Tomb Raider-ish thing where he's got guns and has to use stealth and.... yeah. It's that type of disjointed design that was part of the problem.
My point is, the games are NOTHING alike and cannot really be compared to one another. So it entirely depends on what type of game you prefer. Me, I have no patience, dont like slow movement, and expect combat to be speedy and challenging, and I prefer to have as much exploration (and some puzzles/secrets) as possible WHILE having the speedy fights. Games like Doom and Duke 3D and Hexen are perfect for me.
Survival horror though... I can understand it's appeal, but it puts me to sleep.
So yeah, it's about determining that aspect.
And be aware: If what you want IS survival horror, there are going to be much better games of THAT genre found elsewhere. Doom 3 was still sorta trying to be Doom in a half-assed way, and even from other horror fans, it apparently didnt do THAT aspect very well either. Disjointed design can do that.
18 Jul 2014, 6:27 pm
