Tuesday, August 03, 2004 12:15 AM
Okay. I played through about 1 1/2 hrs of Doom 3, and all I can say is: DAMN. I'm not a big horror fan, so that may be why this game scared the crap out of me. I had to stop playing because I was getting the willys. Okay...Aside from that, here are my first impressions:
- It's pretty. Dynamic lighting, curved surfaces and bump mapping all make things look more realistic than in any other game I've played.
- It's creapy. Most of the game is dark, and in a lot of places you have to keep switching between your flashlight and your guns. There was more than one time where I sat in the only lighted corner unloading round after round at the noises. And it's not just the visuals, the sound is creapy too. Creaks, groans, the occasional evil laugh. After a while I just had to stop. No need to have nightmares!
- It's a FPS. Other than some different play mechanics (no “use” key. You just walk up to something and your crosshair becomes a mouse pointer. Then you click on what you want to use), it's just you average FPS. Run around, shoot things, open doors. Not that that is a bad thing. It's just the way it is.
I also played some multiplayer. It's pretty cool, but 4 person DM is not as cool, in my opinion, as 32 person DM. I had heard that the reason Doom 3 only had 4 person MP was because they wanted to enforce more of a stealthy approach, not so “run-and-gun”. Well that didn't work, atleast not in my experience. All 4 of us ran around like maniacs and tried to get as many kills as possible. I also don't quite like the guns. Well actually, I like the gun choices, but the guns themselves seem to be a bit weak. It would take a full clip from the Chaingun to take a guy down, unless you managed to get dead on hits everytime. But that's pretty hard, because the players all move so damn fast. I'm hoping that id will tweak the guns when they release their 32 person MP patch. ;)
All in all, another fine id game. I can't wait to see what the mod authors do with this one.
On a non-Doom 3 note: I asked the guy at GameStop if Half-Life 2 was going to make it out September 2nd like it's supposed to, and he said it's been delayed until November. Now he may be talking completely out his ass, but if he's right...I don't even want to respond.