Despite showing its age, even with the updated graphics, Doom 3 remains a fantastic horror-shooter in its own right.
Well, it certainly deserves a chance.
Doom as a franchise has never really had a foot planted firmly in its narrative. Oh sure, there's an over-arching story that sort of binds the series together, but aside from a little exposition that gets the story going, it's a largely linear point-A-to-point-B shooter. That is by no means a detracting comment. It knows what it is, and it isn't going to apologize for it. Doom 3 functions more like a reboot than a sequel. It's pretty much a reimagining of the original Doom games, and what they would look like with updated graphics and enemies. Going into it with that mindset will help you forgive some of its missteps.
Essentially, Doom 3 takes its story to a very well-trodden envisioning of the future. It's the future. In the future there are people living on Mars. Those people on Mars are doing research in a large installation. There's your setup. There's obviously a bit more to it than that, but that's your basic pre-game premise. You are a nameless space marine (original!) who arrives on the planet to locate a missing scientist who skipped out during some high-level classified experiments. After a brief walk-through of the very well-designed intake area of the spaceport, you are guided through a truncated tutorial that will acclimate you to the controls and the world. We've seen this countless times. Well, you find the "missing" scientist like 200 yards from where he went missing, and he explains that the devil is real, and that he knows this because of the experiments that have been going on at the facility. Just as he finishes that sentence, reddish lights permeate the room, gravely screams and growls come through your radio, and the scientist is transformed into a zombie before your very eyes. Welcome to Doom 3. Now get to killin'.
The game essentially uses an A-to-B system for going through the largely linear levels. There are dark corridors off the beaten path, and they're usually worth exploring, but the mission structure is strictly linear, and enemy encounters are mostly scripted, but well-placed. Health doesn't regenerate in this game, so you have to sometimes go out of your way, balancing the risk of running into another enemy with the potential reward of more health and ammo. Ammo is scarce in the world of Doom 3, and you might find yourself low on ammo or health from time to time. This is where those short moments of exploration will be the most enticing, and where they will also be the most dangerous. It's a brilliant way of making the player feel vulnerable, but it can be a bit disarming if you're way too entrenched in the modern FPS paradigm, the adjustment can be a bit jarring.
The gunplay and movement is pretty basic by today's standards, but you have to remember how this game was an enormous critical success when it was first released. The gunplay is still intact in its fun-yet-painfully-dated glory. A few welcome changes have been made in the BFG edition as well. First of all, you can use your flashlight and a weapon at the same time. This must have been a difficult choice for the developers, because while being forced to use only one or the other heightened the suspense of the game, it became frustrating very quickly. This simple change drastically enhances the overall experience by streamlining the combat and exploration. The guns feel powerful, but there simply aren't all that many of them. The enemy AI is serviceable, but it's pretty easy to sidestep their attacks with little effort. The game, for all intents and purposes, is almost exactly like you remember.
The game also includes a cool prequel chapter that's pretty much looking at the outbreak of hell through the eyes of some other marines in a different part of the facility. It's good, but not that great of an addition.
The game also includes Doom and Doom 2 and many of the expansions for all three games. Don't play games with me, you've played Doom and Doom 2.
So is this worth your money? Probably. If you never got to play Doom 3 when it was originally released, or if you are a horror junky who wants to take a gory trip down memory lane, this is certainly one to check out. If you're really attached to modern shooters or you aren't a horror gamer, this may be one to pass by. I happen to enjoy this trip back in time to take a look at the days gone by, and to see how far we have truly come.