This article originally ran under a different banner/website in March of 2020 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!! BOYS AND GIRLS OF ALL AGES!!! It feels as though Christmas is around the corner. The same rush of excitement at the thought of gifts under the tree has infected this Doomsayer’s cold heart. What has this Doomsayer in an almost festive mood? Well, the game I am most excited about this year is almost here. It is not The Last of Us Part 2, or Ghost of Tsunami. The thought of burning the Night City to the ground in Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t have me as excited as this game. Some might think I am referring to a vacation holiday run by a friendly raccoon. While I know some are excited for that time off, I am respectfully declining such vacations, as a Doomsayer, or should I say a Doomslayer, my work is never done.
YES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I AM EXCITED FOR DOOM ETERNAL. I have been frothing at the mouth to step into the meaty boots of the Doomslayer. I have been binging the heart-pounding tracks of the Doom (2016) soundtrack. I have been occasionally diving back into Doom (2016) to sate my hunger. However, you don’t want me to repeat why I thought Doom (2016) was a masterpiece. Surely, there is something Doom-related I could talk about upon my soapbox. Then the idea hit me like a shot from the BFG. I should play and review the older Doom titles. Excitedly, I began the carnage.
I immediately ran into a problem a few hours in Doom 1 and 2. It became pretty clear a review of Doom 1 or 2 would be very brief. Not to say anything is particularly wrong with Doom 1 or 2. I had joyous fun wheeling around hordes of enemies in a low-resolution version of Doom (2016). I felt like a Border collie wrangling a flock of demonic sheep. However, it soon becomes obvious that’s all to Doom 1 and 2. It is just a mere skeleton. A foundation. Obviously, an important foundation that the first-person shooter genre was built on. I would definitely say I enjoyed playing Doom 1 and 2 but you don’t bring in an art critic to judge blank canvases.
Personally, I find Doom 3 a bit more interesting point of discussion. Charitably, you could consider it the black sheep of the Doom family. Some go as far as to say it is the worst Doom game. While I don’t think I can convince people otherwise, I can certainly understand their reasoning. Doom has historically worked to make the player the rampaging monster but is quite the opposite in this third installment. A lot of power has been sapped from you in Doom 3. Maps are more claustrophobic, the Doom marine doesn’t feel as mobile and the game is pitch black. It certainly feels like Doom 3 became a horror game in spite of its elder titles. Doom 2 asks Doom 3 when they are going to cut their goth-style hair and Doom 3 screams it is not a phase as they run upstairs to daydream of making out with Ellen Ripley.
The truth of it, my loyal followers, is that I can see where the idea stemmed from to make Doom 3 a horror title. There are sections in Doom 1 and 2 where the level is pitch black. An almost demonic synth-wave track will flood your ears as you stumble around in the dark. You will blunder into a health or armor pickup causing a dozen trap doors to fly open. While this momentarily startles you, you’re not scared as the monsters should fear you. However, things clearly went differently during the Doom 3 design meeting, and I can almost picture that one helpless fool asking what if we try to make that same ambush scene scary.
Luckily, for the developer who initially pitched Doom 3 as a horror game, I believe id Software added a lot of detail in crafting a thick layer of atmosphere. The flickering lights, the clanging of something scurrying in the vents, demonic chanting; it works to make you start to panic as trap doors begin to fly open. Doom 3’s pitch darkness also works to heighten the tension as you scrounge around holding a flashlight instead of your trusty shotgun. The choice between sight and safety can be nerve-wrenching.
However, I have railed against games for being so dark the mere act of seeing the end of your gun is impossible, and Doom 3 will not escape that same criticism. Switching back and forth between weapons and flashlights becomes unbearable in later stages. Horror games live on a knife’s edge when it comes to making the player feel uneasy. If it is too easy, the player will walk around like he owns the place, and tension is lost. Too hard and the player goes from shaking in their boots to frustratingly growling. Having to choose between sight and firepower definitely begins to weigh on my patience, causing this aspect of Doom 3 to work overtime to undermine the atmosphere.
The tension vanishes upon the introduction of the chainsaw. My initial assumption when I acquired the chainsaw was that this was a weapon that had limited ammunition and would have to use sparingly. I decided to use it until I had run out of ammo. Three levels later, it soon became clear the chainsaw had unlimited ammo and I had to stop. Using the chainsaw caused the game to no longer be tense or challenging. I became the grim reaper himself, and the mere act of touching a demon brought them down to their knees. I had become that same master of death from the other Doom titles. However, it soon became… boring. I was becoming a violent game of tag that I couldn’t lose. I eventually decided to only use the chainsaw in dire situations. What does that say about a game when you have to decide not to use a powerful weapon or download a mod that allows you to hold a weapon and a flashlight? Generally, this means your game is suffering from some balance issues.
On top of the questionable balance, I can sense an almost desperate attempt to copy other shooters; mainly Half-Life. Now horror Half-Life in space doesn’t sound like a terrible sales pitch, especially when Half-Life 2 had town trying to do its best Raccoon City impression. However, I argue the wrong lessons were learned from Half-Life. For starters, it seemed like id Software borrowed all the weapons from Half-Life. While the guns in Doom 3 are functional, they lack the kick weapons from Doom 1 and 2 had, and those weapons lacked the animations to feel powerful. The shotgun no longer has that powerful blast that the Doom 2 super shotgun had; it feels eerily similar to Half-Life’s shotgun, even down to that distinct reload sound. The guns would probably have felt better if the Doom marine wasn’t flailing around whenever he got hit. Possessed soldiers with assault rifles can almost keep you stun locked by keeping a constant stream of bullets on you. How is scientist Gordon Freeman able to tank assault rifle shots while this marine’s aim swings wildly whenever he’s hit? While it is common for horror games to give you inadequate weaponry, I believe id Software could have struck a balance between giving us better weapons while retraining the thick oppressive atmosphere.
The other out-of-place feature, like a boney finger in the chili, is the set pieces. The one that springs to mind, is a claw mini-game where I had to use that crane to pick up barrels of toxic waste to remove them from the room before I could enter it. The scene felt more at home in Half-Life than any Doom game. I certainly picture a scientist, like Gordon Freeman, using a contraption like this instead of a marine who’s there to kill demons. I almost began to wonder if I was playing some horror-theme Half-Life mod, especially when I encountered a railcar that seemed very similar to the one in the On A Rail level in Half-Life. These set pieces honestly felt more shoehorned and out of place than the weak guns or pitch-black levels.
It’s plain to see, Doom 3 is a bit of a mess. However, I can’t say I hate Doom 3. I almost find it endearing as this wildly out-of-place entry in this series. I certainly believe it has every right to exist and there is some merit to playing it. For one, asking a developer to make the same game over and over again will lead to stagnation. Look towards the Assassin Creed series around the time of Unity and Syndicate as an example. Many brilliant games were born when developers were given the freedom to take the series in a new direction; you only need to look to Resident Evil 4, Half-Life 2, or Super Mario 64. While Doom 3 is far from perfect, there are certainly more lessons to take away from Doom 3 than Doom 1 or 2. My rambling on this soapbox should prove that. Sometimes, that is more valuable than getting a second helping of your favorite title. Life is about learning from your mistakes and in an industry hellbent on minimizing mistakes to increase profits, it refreshing to see an imperfect game. Maybe Doom 3 is not the game we need, but the one we deserve. At least, until we can finally play Doom Eternal.
