20th Anniversary of Doom 3. Which Doom was better?

Doom 3 was pathetic. Doom 1 and 2 were good. Doom 2016 was very good. Eternal is by far the best, and its not even close.

Doom 3 is a game I have to be in the mood for but I love going back to it every now and then on the PC. As of a matter in fact, Doom 3 was my first Doom game when I played it way back on Xbox before I got into the PC realm. Happy 20th anniversary. Cannot believe it's been 20 damned years already!!!

I actually like to pretend it's a prequel to Doom 2016 lol.

You don't know what you're talking about...buddy. Not the best level design but that horror and tension still kinda creeps me out despite being very badly scripted. But truth be told, it's a good guilty pleasure to replay it sometimes😅

I still remember when Doom 3 came out and people at school were talking about how no PC can run it on Ultra and how game graphics have peaked...until Crysis enters the building. Good times, good times indeed.

I never was that much into Doom, but I really enjoyed Doom 3. I remember it to be significantly slower paced and more jump-scare-horror-like compared to other Doom games. Eternal was a much more intense, straightforward shooter.

I thought it was pretty good. Better the 1 and 2 but not as good as Doom 2016 and Eternal.

Doom 3 is THE worst Doom ever. Doom 64 was better. Doom 3 was reviewed badly.

Play Dead Space if you want tension. Doom wasn't made to be like Doom 3 is. Shit game.

Only played it a couple of years ago. Cool game.

Loved Doom 3 but no way its better than 2016 or Eternal.

Eternal is definitely by far best game in series. try something new. now dark ages also trying something new

that's beauty of Doom series. each and every game is different and its longest running franchise without getting stale.

look at COD and AC. they got stale in few years than Doom in 30 decades.

Unpopular opinion, but I think Doom 2 is actually the worst Doom outside of Final Doom.

Doom 3 isn't great by any means, it has weak shooting, repetitive peak-a-boo, very flat and boring level design, but on harder difficulty and VR it can still be fun.

Doom 2 has some legit fucking terrible maps. And doesn't really feel like a sequel, more like an expansion to me. And some of the stuff they added (chaingunners) I'd argue make the game worse.

Overall, I think Doom 64 is better than both Doom 2 and Doom 3.

But, I don't think Doom 3 is the worst thing ever, still enjoy it, though it's replayabily compared to something like Ultimate: Doom or Doom 64 is fairly non-existent due to aping Halflife.

Doom 3 was awesome, still plays well and looks great.

I get an urge to replay it like once a year. Wouldn't say Doom 3 is better than 2016 or Eternal, but it had way better atmosphere and monster designs.

The fact they managed to get this on Xbox as well was incredible.

like I said every Doom game is so different that this is one of the oldest franchise. 32 year old franchise. yet still fresh and new always unlike COD, Far cry and Assassis's creed which they get stale after 2 or 3 games.

Doom is perfect example how you milk old franchise again and again without getting stale.

That's not true at all Ghost lad.

When Doom originally launched Doom 2 was more like a rushed out expansion. A few new enemies and a shotgun.

Final Doom was originally user made mods designed to be free, but they compiled together with little quality control and charged for. At the time, it was viewed as Doom 3.

Doom 64, though I'd argue is very, very good, the best N64 FPS and the only one that actually holds up, didn't really innovate, it's a better Doom 2. More or less. Good execution with lack of innovation.

Doom 3 was well wasn't really, a result of re-thinking but looking at the competition, namely one with a certain rogue theoretical le physicist. It was chasing, not creating.

Overall, something. Bla.

Doom 3 was different breed. it was slow and different but I like it. its slower paced horror shooter.

Doom 2016 and Eternal are also very different.

Dark ages looks to be unique and different too.

Where's the option for "Worst Doom ever"?

I'd argue Quake showed more innovation and varation.

Quake 2 added stuff like an inventory, user activated items, interconnected maps, weapon modifiers, actual objectives outside of key hunting etc.. etc.. etc..

Then had Quake 3 which was entirely multiplayer based, retroactively going back to Quake 1.

Quake 4? Meh. But it had vehicle sections I guess.

Quake Enemy Territory? RTS elements. Classes. Battlefield inspired.

Others as well I guess, and stuff.

But generally when it comes to early innovation and shift put Quake ahead of Doom.

Doom 3 tried to be more like Half Life (the intro section is ripped straight out of Half Life with its world building).

I also love the gunplay and horror elements.

No, I don't think navigating maze levels for colored keycards makes for a better experience.

Nice revisionist history

You should see RAGE running on iphone.

This is essentially what you do in Doom 3, but clunkier.

The other games are slick, ice-skating. This is like walking around with 5lb of sand in your boots having to read fairly boring PDFs ala System Shock 2 to open doors with comparatively boring level design.

Granted haven't played it in a while, but I remember 98% of the being "you have to get thing, to open thing", dressed up with narrative that basically amounts to "get da key"

Again, say Quake 2 was better in this regard, it had objectives, still amounted to "go here, do this", but it had that intricate level design of Doom with pre-Halflife design of more natural immersive levels.

I think it's closer to what Doom 3 should have been and would still rather play it over stuff like the Doom reboot which is more of an arena shooter.

I still like Doom 3 to this day. It isn't perfect like for example it has the worst shotgun in any Doom game and that was always a major sin for me, and Doom 3's version of the Imps can very annoying at times with their forced jump scares. But the gameplay is still very fun and I like the other weapons in the game.

I actually played the Xbox version of Doom 3. It wasn't bad for a console port but I did notice right away that compared to the PC version a lot of the level design was changed in order for the game to run well on the Xbox But the online co-op from the port was really fun to play.

Funny enough the Playstation 2 version of Half-Life also had some fun co-op missions as well called Decay even though I feel really sick for enjoying it since the PS2 port was done by that greasy Randy "The USB stick porn" Pitchford.

And I like a slower pace. Ever since Call of Duty every first person shooter has these ultra fast reload animations that just boggle my mind. Meanwhile me I love the style of Insurgency Sandstorm where reloading is so slow I almost always end up getting killed.

I like when things are slow and methodical. I don't want to ice skate around the level, this isn't the 90s.

From what I remember, Doom 3 feels like a desperate struggle for survival, like Half Life.

You're not the doom guy in this game, you're just some average joe.

Didn't get a ding.

Forum working as good as ever again.

Doom 3 was my first doom and it blew my mind (was an Xbox owner back then)

I couldnt believe that a game could look that good on a console.

Still think 2016 was the best, but Doom 3 will always be special to me.

I also gotta say that these games that incorporated dynamic lighting like Alan Wake and Doom 3 hold up really well today.

What I mean is their assets may have aged, like texture quality or foliage draw distance, but the lighting still holds up in a lot of ways.

I wanted to play Phobos the other day but no luck getting it to run. Anyone that likes Doom 3 should check out the Phobos mod.

Everyone hating on Doom 3 should try it in VR. I wasn't a big fan of the game until I played it that way, where it works really well.

It was what it was ... it's honestly not that bad, more of a product of it's time. Probably the biggest mistake is to have the name Doom on it, but again, it could have been worse.

Not about being better, but it feels the most different by itself with no others in series feeling like it. It was better for it's time, still fun but I still enjoy the first two Doom games and the two latest reboots more.

TBH it still has more features and interactivity than many FPS today and many 5-10 years after it's release.

Think of all the military shooter slop and how in general, environments became wholly uninteractive.

Impressive visuals for it's time, pretty meh otherwise.

Doom 3 is the worst Doom. :/ Just not a fun game

I take everything back what I said about Doom 1993. Can't wait for skating and collecting Blue keycards yeaaaaaaaaaa

because id software even at worse are superior to any other FPS developer.

beside military shooters are all 10-15 years old that are no longer "modern" anymore. watching youtube comments and reddit posts. many consider COD4 modern warfare a classic now lol.

classic it was shit game that ruined FPS genre during 7th gen.

They really should remake those games for the modern era, I think it would be a hit with new and older gamers.

Those older shooters were a product of the time I think has returned (due to mobile and social media)

Shooters of that day were about immediate fun and quick sessions, not bogged down by map fillers or cutscenes. I cant even count how many times I said "ok, one more" and the next thing you know its 3am

It would do so well for quick sessions with friends, especially with online coop and custom content.

Very nice.

School shooters and men over 30 will have a good weekend.

@R4gn4r0k said:

@GameboyTroy said:

Doom 3 is THE worst Doom ever. Doom 64 was better. Doom 3 was reviewed badly.

Nice revisionist history

To be honest I didn't check the metacritic. I heard bad things about Doom 3 specifically. Doom 3 seems overrated.

Better off still using Gzdoom really.

But for people who just want to boot it up and console users improvement I guess. And it does have extra content.

It did fall short of expectations with it being in the same year as Far Cry 1 and Half Life 2.

I think it was reviewed as one of the worst DOOM games, but still there was a lot of positivity as well.

I still remember all the people that got banned here partially because of the review meltdown.

Nice. That's actually some real new content here such as the new enemies and levels. I will definitely play this over the weekend.

True GZDoom is still better for tons of mods and stuff. That update though is still pretty cool. I'm doing to try out that new episode Legacy of Rust.

My favorite Doom (Haven't played Eternal yet though)

I don’t think it matters which is better, as they’re all different experiences.

That said, I like doom 3 for the atmosphere. It is different than the other doom games. It almost feels like a survival horror game in the beginning.

I also like the Original Xbox version. Both Doom 3 and Half Life 2 are actually built from the ground up on the console, so the Xbox is pushed to the limit. That version is fascinating to me.

I'm surprised that they shadow dropped all of this today. The added stuff looks great. The local 4 player split-screen sounds nice. The Xbox Series X/S and PC versions have an 8 player split-screen mode. That sounds insane. Doom 1 + 2 supports 4K and 120 fps now on PS5, Series X/S and PC.

https://wccftech.com/doom-and-doom-ii-re-release/

https://www.gematsu.com/2024/08/doom-doom-ii-announced-for-ps5-xbox-series-ps4-xbox-one-switch-and-pc

It did come as a surprised but on the other hand, this has become a yearly Nightdive/Machinegames tradition:

1. Quake 1 remaster in 2022 (remaster by Nightdive, new chapter by Machinegames)
2. Quake 2 remaster in 2023 (ditto)
3. Doom 1&2 remaster in 2024 (ditto)
4. Heretic or Hexen next?

It's good that machinegames is getting put to get use in between big game releases, and to ammend for the damages it has done to Ghosts and Uninspired.

I wouldn't mind remakes because yeah, Dark Forces (the 1994 Lucasarts FPS)... kinda bored me.

After a while I was just shooting the same enemies over and over and though the levels and secrets were interesting, they couldn't keep my interest for a very long while.

On the other hand a remake of a very old game like this would probably require a lot of work. System Shock remake was a project that Nightdive tackled and it took them so many more years than they had envisioned.

Still, I would love if Nightdive would do another remake.