Originals

[Continued] Page 2

4) Generic sci-fi setting

It didn't help that the over-explained world of Doom 3 was woefully generic. The irony is that its plastic cast of characters and sterile, metallic space station setting was derivative of games that were themselves labeled as generic Doom clones. Meanwhile the pixellated world of Doom 1 and 2 is still interesting for it's surreal, foreign environments and simplistic, but unsettling enemies. Had Doom 3 stuck to the otherworldly feel of the originals it would have felt entirely novel. Unfortunately the game is a product of its time, and in the early 2000s the industry was still chasing ultimate polygonal realism.

5) Terrible multiplayer

The multiplayer of Doom 3 is the sad punchline at the end of an already unfortunate joke. What you get is a handful of standard deathmatch modes with four players. In the expansion that number was increased to eight. Either way you were getting the same flat combat offered in the single player in the same drab environments. I doubt much will be done about this, if the game includes multiplayer at all.

6) The flashlight

As if Doom 3 wasn't already betraying the original games on almost all accounts, id Software went a step further and introduced a challenging and controversial gameplay element: the dreaded flashlight. The flashlight could only be equipped when you put your gun away, forcing you to fire wildly into darkness or take cheap shots to the face. It was an interesting idea that got a lot better in the Xbox port's co-op mode, but in single-player it was a huge pain. Thankfully, the complaints were so loud that the remastered version of the game will allow players to use the flashlight and gun simultaneously.

One gameplay fix isn't exactly a ray of hope for Doom 3: BFG Edition. There are many serious issues with the game and I don't think id Software will address them because they are so fundamental. Fixing Doom 3 would require reworking it from the ground up. Does that sound like a classic worthy of an HD remake? I don't think so.

Tags: Doom 3, HD, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3