Returning classic games is a pretty dangerous business. On the one hand, you need to keep the old fans who spent more than one day sitting behind past games, on the other hand, you need to adjust to modern standards to attract new audiences. And the return of such a series as Doom is an extremely difficult task. After the first games, the release of the third part was one of the most anticipated. Equally expected, except that, Half-Life 2. However, by the third part of the id Software decided to change the accents of the game a little bit. How successful was the change? Let's see. Welcome to Doom 3.
The first thing Doom 3 meets us with is a story clip. The plot is quite classical and far from the original. The main character is a nameless marine, arriving on Mars in a new position. Quickly ran on the main points, the player immediately gives the task - to find the missing scientist. Silently taking the order, we go to look for it, along the way finishing the basic training. However, as soon as we find the missing "smart guy", so the base immediately drowned in the alarm system, all the corridors are running screams, and people start to go mad and kill each other - the Gate to Hell opened.
From that moment on, the story begins to appear in extremely portions, and the main thing we do is to perform various tasks from the boss, who also survived. And even though the plot of the game itself is not very much, the game still surprises with the study of the world. Let's start with the fact that we, albeit briefly, show the peaceful minutes of the Martian base. Corridors are brightly lit, security patrols and deals with workers' complaints, engineers repairing equipment, etc. After the demons broke through, the same corridors were flooded with blood, the lighting was almost killed, and the ventilation, where one engineer was bickering with another, was already climbing through the devils. It seems to be a trifle, but the difference in the atmosphere is noticeable.
As for the locations themselves, everything turned out to be quite interesting. From the arcade elements of classic games, the new part passed to the realistic. That is, they now do not look like a weave of corridors with a couple of levers, and correspond to their purposes. Office space, medical compartments, engineering complexes, garages, factory sections, research departments and laboratories, everything looks quite authentic and plausible (ie, no skidding in the style of the first F.E.A.R., where blue hammers were at every step and in any room). Especially interesting are engineering complexes and research laboratories. First, there are many curious mechanisms that support the Martian colony in working order, and second, various alien artifacts and uncovered samples of demonic creatures. Each room really wants to consider and study.
Leaving for a more realistic setting has had a fairly good effect on the game, in the local world I want to believe. No problem, however, did not do, but, mainly, in terms of the plot component. As already mentioned, it is not very much and is limited to everything either by short clips or a pack of PDAs with correspondence of local workers, and most of the dialogues come down to "we have a broken fuse in the reactor, go fix it or we all explode. The approach, which has the right to life, but it is in the plot rather weak. Not that Doom was once famous for the plot, but at an intriguing beginning the development and the end turned out to be weak.
The gameplay side has also undergone some changes.
Now Doom is not only a shooter but a shooter with chorus elements. Going into a more realistic setting developer decided to fill the game with more atmospheric sections and places it really turns out. Attempts to take control of the Marine, hallucinations, background noises, whispering, screaming for the life of the guards, etc. Press the atmosphere of the game knows how to play and even not bad. But it is with the horror component that Doom 3 has strong problems. Blowing the horrors and creating a tense atmosphere, the only thing that can finish the game is a jumping monster. Not only is this technique itself quite cheap, but it is also repeated so often that by the fourth or fifth time you begin to understand where the corridor is, and where the next screamer. As a result, the horror of the game turned out to be very strange.
As for the shooter's part, everything is much better here. The game provides a lot of arsenals to play with, which is quite fun. There is a classic gun, shotgun, machine gun, bazooka, and new samples in the form of an assault rifle and "cube of souls". Arsenal opens systematically, but the game scattered a few secrets so that you can open, for example, plasma level-two earlier than necessary. BFG, by the way, hasn't gone anywhere either and it is still delightful and cool. At the same time, not a single barrel is lying idle, all the weapons are used, except for the gun, which is thrown quite quickly. And the feeling from the shooting is quite pleasant. In terms of arsenal, the only claim can only be to the shotgun, which is just an absurd spread, so that for greater efficiency have to approach the enemy at all times, and the fact that the whole buckshot will go to the goal.
Also, by the way, added a flashlight, which is really impossible to turn on with a weapon in hand and you have to constantly switch between the weapon and the light source. In idea, it was supposed to increase the degree of tension, because sometimes you have to fight with the enemy in total darkness and you have to choose - to fight or to find the enemy in the light. There are not many such situations, but they cause more irritation than tension. To help with the flashlight comes a local lighting system, but about this later. The above mentioned "cube of showers" is issued from the second half of the game and is a pretty iambic thing, because it kills any creature, even the Baron of Hell, with one blow. However, to recharge it requires to kill 5 devils, but there are no preferences in their forms.
Opponents also remained in place, albeit underwent some changes, and without updates did not do. The old men were soldiers, imps, acts of revenge, kicks, and others. It is true that arachnotrons went under the knife, but without them, there is much to shoot at. Among the newcomers, two-headed creatures, similar to imposes, and spiders should be singled out. The latter is particularly disgusting both in appearance and behavior.
As a result, you get a great deal of pleasure from the shootings. Weapons in constant rotation, under each enemy, locations allow both caution and open battle, periodic moments of suspense are replaced by fierce shootings, etc. But even here it was not without reservations.
The first is artificial intelligence.
Opponents are given out in portions in different variations, but all of them behave equally, or run directly and beat, or run directly and shoot. If with some simple fighters it is still relatively forgivable, with such a creature as an imp, it's just a shame. Horseradish, which can cling to any surface, throw fireballs, climb out of various narrow holes and build bastards, always goes to the hero a slow step, periodically leaving the fireballs. It turns out somehow boring.
The second is the general monotony and tightness. The game takes a very long time to accelerate, giving us a minimum arsenal and variations of opponents. The first 2 hours, precisely because of the horror component, the game is basically afraid to give out more than necessary, and therefore, most shootings look like "shoot 3-5 opponents in the hallway. We lack some powerful episodes with big shootings. After those 2 hours, there are much more of these moments and the game becomes much more fun, but this part still has to be reached. And when you get to it, the game periodically tries to be more horror than a shooter, which turns out to be a variable success. This does not make the game so bad, but because of the monotony of the first part of the passage, the game is perceived somewhat tedious.
As for the graphical component, it's all here as usual. Carmack once created a great engine, which in some places looks very cool to this day. Not badly animated enemies and weapons, excellent textures and effects, and most importantly, the dynamic lighting and shadows. In fact, this is almost the main feature of the game, on which everything is based. The swinging lamp in the darkened room creates an amazing effect and sometimes the picture looks modern even by current standards. Even fireball impulses or machine gunshots can illuminate the room so that even when visibility is zero, the game makes it possible to fight without a flashlight. Unfortunately, bugs are not without them, but it is more like the influence of time and new operating systems, and those bugs that are available, are often treated in an elementary way, even if it is necessary to deal with the configures.
In terms of sound, everything is also excellent. Weapons sound formidable, except for the same shotgun, hissing spiders and demons create the necessary tension, and the cries of martyrs in hell cause considerable discomfort. The claim can be made only to the music because the memorable track is only one and it plays only in the main menu and credits. It is cool and memorable, but it is only one. Otherwise, it's some kind of ambient, which sometimes is not even heard or some strange electronic squeaks. A little less than you expect from the game, filled with tinplate and murder of demons.
At some point Bethesda decided to revive the 3rd part of the game for consoles and PCs, releasing an updated edition, now classic, of the game. How good is it? Quite a controversial question. Of the good, the edition includes 3 parts of Doom with a new episode for the second part. The third part comes with the addition of Resurrection of Evil, which is about to happen next time, and a new episode of Lost Mission and the flashlight is placed on the shoulder, so there is no need to switch to it separately. And that, unfortunately, ends the good thing.
Among the incomprehensible innovations that touched Doom 3 most of all. First, the picture became much brighter. Almost all the rooms that used to create darkness at least some tension, are now extremely light and do not create any atmosphere. And the worst thing is that the dynamic lighting and shadows were removed, which not only killed the remnants of the atmosphere but also made the picture much poorer. It comes to the point where the original looks several times more modern than the modern reissue.
Second, the game is greatly simplified.
Not so much through complexity as through gameplay. In particular, through the amount of ammunition. In the original ammunition was enough, but the player was not filled with them to the need to alternate weapons, which also made the gameplay more interesting. Now there are more junkies with bullets, and the junkies themselves give twice as many supplies. This makes the game much easier and eliminates the need to think about what to use in a particular situation.
In the end, there were new bugs, and artificial intelligence has become even more stupid, with what still had to try. The new set of levels Lost Mission turned out not so terrible, but very actively uses almost the whole premises of the original game, and that creates an unpleasant feeling of copies. And in general, it is more like a conditional addition than a full-fledged new content.
If you want to play Doom 3 on the console, you have no choice but to take BFG Edition. If you want to play on a PC, it is highly recommended to buy an original Steam Add-on Package, especially since it is given for a penny. Do not buy the original and addon separately, only a full package, keep in mind.
And yet, despite all these disadvantages, Doom 3 is still playing perfectly. Moments of suspense work, battle fierce and adrenaline, the world is interesting and quite original and even a little bit of the plot is. The game has a lame dynamics and a very long beginning, which greatly affects the impressions. However, accustomed to the pace, it gives a lot of pleasure. In 2004, when the game was released, it was one of the best games and one of the best shooters of that year. It could have been the best, but the competition in the form of Far Cry and Half-Life 2 was more than fierce. Nevertheless, the game found its audience, and they still remember it with warmth.
- 2004
It's no wonder that after the controversial, but financially successful Doom 3 id Software we already thought about the sequel. The question of whether to continue or not was solved after the first mobile millions of caches and nines from different players. Oldfags were pouring out, the managers (or whoever was in charge of their money) were jubilant, people were telling people... After squeezing a little more money with the Ressurection of Evil add-on and putting a double-barreled barrel in the player's mouth, which wasn't too loud, John Carmack got ready. And the development of Doom 4 started already then. The continuation was being developed on the next version of the id Tech 5 and was supposed to be developed on the fallen Earth, being a remake of Doom II, the best in the opinion of many games.
- 2007
That's when our favorite programmer reminded us of playing the middle QuakeCon. He wouldn't answer all the questions and asked us to wait. Oh, how long did it take...
- 2008
Project designer Todd Hollenshead announced Doom 4 at the next QuakeCon on May 7th. There was still little detail, but we were assured that the scene would be the fallen Earth, and "the gameplay would return to its original course". That sounded great. However, he answered the rest in a very vague and clingy manner. However, Rage development, a very important game in the history of id Software, was launched at that time, and it was already clear that the second project was the most important one from these two...
- 2009
id's bought ZeniMax Media, which in turn was owned by Bethesda. Since then, it's all started to roll in many ways...
- 2011
"From the creators of Doom and Quake" read the inscription on the cover of the new game Rage, which was shipped to the store in early October. The result... is unsatisfactory. For more details see the local review, and we will return to Carmack and Co. Which already then in one of the interviews before the release of a new toy on the question of further plans said - "let's give up all efforts on Doom 4".
- 2014
One of the best games of 2014 was Wolfenstein: The New Order by Machine Games, the cousin of our hero today. And we have to admit that both games are more than we can think of. We won't go far behind the example - announced DOOM (no longer Doom 4) at the end of one of Wolf's trailers:
Suddenly, modestly, uncertainly. And it is already clear why - the wounds from so many years of empty efforts, all whining. Later, Marty Stratton, the producer of D'16, confessed that both they and Machine Games, and Bethesda Game Studios (Fallout 3) had a difficult task to attract the audience again to the old, cult and quite capricious to the changes in the series of games. Well, it's up to you, and I think all three of you did it. Even the last ones.
Six months later, we had a short teaser on the E3, which showed us all the beauty of the new Cyberdemon. And I started...
Today I want to talk about the Doom series of games. Or rather, I'd like to say which of the classic parts of the series is the best. Can you ask why now? A couple of days ago, I took one pill on the Internet. The survey was about how the Doom parts were the best. In general, the last part (DOOM 2016) was a confident leader, although the classic (old) parts taken together (including Brutal Doom) slightly exceeded DOOM 2016. However, I was more interested in comments, where users mainly praised the classics of the 90s. These comments gave me enough food for thought. In the end, I came to the opinion expressed in the title: DOOM 2016 is the best part of the series. Why we will now find out.
A couple of important details: First of all, although I was born after the first two parts, I played them before DOOM 2016, so I don't want to reduce my love for the last (to date) part of the series to duck syndrome. Secondly, I love old DOOMs. It's still a pleasure to play them. Now my weak working notebook has my first DOOM on it, which I sometimes play on boring lectures. Third, I've ruled out Doom 3. I didn't play it. Besides, it's hard to call it a classic part of Doom. It doesn't cancel its qualities as a game, but it doesn't matter for the theme I'm raising.
It's worth it, however, to move on to comparing games. It should be noted at once that comparing the level of "one game's graphics are better than the other" does not make any sense. The fact that graphically DOOM 2016 is made several orders of magnitude better, is a fact. However, between games more than 20 years of difference. And an important advantage of the first parts of the Doom series is that they can be played without any pain in the eyes. And for its time, this level of graphics was very high. As a result, both games with the graphic stuffing of their games coped with, adjusted for time, very well.
Regarding another important element - design, as the environment, and opponents, we can only say that this is a matter of taste. Older opponents look more hellish and less zoomorphic. And some opponents in the old parts of the dumas turned out to be, in my opinion, more memorable. So, for example, kicks and one of the original Doom demons were put on my mind much more than the ones from the newest game. But in general, I liked the design of DOOM 2016.
The same can be said about music. Yeah, I can't help but notice the music of the new Doom. It's amazing! But the songs of the original Doom, despite its simplicity, are very pleasant and memorable. Yes, and I mentioned the music rather just for a tick.
Let's move on to the most important differences between the old and new Doom. And I think the first difference is the gameplay. The gameplay of the games being compared differs, of course, not in the root (after all, the original Doom, and DOOM 2016 are shooters, with a great bias towards reaction), but it is noticeable. After all, the new Doom is completely built on the arena gameplay, where we mainly shoot away from the sleeping (literally from the air) opponents in (as you can guess) the big arena. Here, perhaps, the main role is played by how quickly the player can dodge other people's attacks and come up with an answer with his own weapons. Due to this new Doom and turns out to be so energetic. At the same time, the gameplay of old parts was in this regard was more corridor, but more open. After all, in fact, the usual map represented a maze of rooms with corridors, where the enemies were attacked. Run along with the level of how much you want to eat.
Another gameplay difference is glory kills.
Being just one gameplay mechanics, these achievements play an important role in the whole gameplay. They increase the dynamics of the game a little bit. They make us, if our health falls, run to the wounded enemy to tear him apart. And in general, killing adds brutality to everything that happens. As a result, DOOM 2016 looks a little more diverse in terms of mechanics (I haven't mentioned pumping, runes and weapon modules, which together also slightly change the game, but are not as important as glory kills). However, you have to understand that the gameplay itself is different in games.
However, the most important feature of the new Doom that distinguishes it from the old, classic parts is the narrative. In a broad sense, of course. Of course, if we had just limited ourselves to the plot, the new Doom would look better, but it wouldn't stand out from the old games. The main thing that we can say about it is that it appeared in the game itself. If the whole story used to fit in the paragraph of the manual, now it is served through the staging scenes and in general became clearer. They explain to us what is required of us in the game itself.
But it's not the story that's more important, and another important element of the narrative is the lor. The new Doom has a lot of Lor's elements that enrich the game, making it a deeper universe. The action no longer looks like a simple race through the levels. Laura helps explain some of the gameplay features of the game... Very often we encounter ludo-narrative dissonance. We are told that our hero in real life is a good person, does good things and all that... and then kills another hundred enemies. To say that it causes mixed feelings is not to say anything. DOOM 2016 has found a simple but beautiful way to avoid it. From our hero - just made a kind of machine for killing. He for centuries, thousands, maybe millions of demons of different powers, and it was possible to stop him only by bringing down the whole temple (!). Even his name, Doom Slayer, hints at his main occupation. Therefore, within the game, the fact that the hero tears the demons into pieces looks logical and clear. He is extremely strong, but also full of hatred. All our enemies are afraid of it. Only some demons in the game are not afraid of our hero (if not one - Cyberdemon).
The history of the world before the events of the game is also revealed. Firstly, we are shown the story of Doom Slayer before the game's events (after the release of Quake champions the lor of the universe became more complicated, but we compare only the parts of the Doom series, where the life of our hero is not so much revealed), and secondly, we show the story of the world of D'nur and tell how he was finally captured. Third, the story with the cultists on Mars was shown as well... In the end, it became interesting to just study Lor.
The main thing is that this new element really changed the old Doom formula. Now Doom is not only a great shooter but also some kind of world. And it is because of this that the new part is better than the old classics. In it, the whole action got a new dimension, a great depth. And judging by the developers' words about the development of Doom Universe, they understand it too.
I'm sure a lot of people have heard of this cult shooting.
But if you've spent the last 30 years in the wilderness without windows or doors, but, hey, I'm going to patch that gap now, don't thank me. Well, or you're ten. And Mom is worried about your nervous system. But, not the point. So, the back of that subject, so to speak. You should thank guys like John Carmack and John Romero for Doom. The first one is a programmer and a computer genius, and the second one is a fantastic game-designer. What can I say, this duo made a rustle in the gaming industry in its time, making a lot of suitable projects. For example Wolfienstein 3D, Doom and Doom 2. Carmack was responsible for the technical component, i.e. the "heart" of the projects, their engine. And Romero breathed life into the games: he was involved in their levels and visual design of everything and everything.
What was Doom? It's naked gameplay based only on your primitive instincts to kill and destroy everything in your way. And it turned out that people like Doom because of its simplicity. Playing this game was not only fun, but also interesting because of the multi-level locations, which were stuffed with top-down secret rooms with different buffets, and sometimes met and Easter eggs from the developers themselves. Of course, this success gave birth to a sequel in which, as a classic of the genre, everything was multiplied by two. More new weapons, more new monsters, more new levels, and more violence.
But even despite the commercial success of the games, in view of the shit between Carmoc and Romero, the latter was fired for lack of performance. As a result, Carmack was left alone with himself, with his creation, and, accordingly, the new Doom completely lying on his shoulders. Many were waiting, "the third coming", the continuation of the legendary ancestor of the genre, pinning too much hope on him. That is, Carmack will set a completely different level of development of the genre, but ... Doom 3 came out of the average game, as for me.
Graphically, the game, in the distant past, demolished the tower with its honest shadows and textures of all objects. Of course, now such a compliment to the game can only give out a go, but still, in due time, believe me, it was a breakthrough. And then a year later, projects with such graphony began to appear on the shelves that even on this point Doom 3 was quickly removed from the pedestal.
In my opinion, Doom 3 shouldn't have been a restart, the game could have taken all the best from the past and combined it, properly mixed up. People were waiting for something else, something funny and brutal, but not something dark and scary. Although there were connoisseurs of such an atmosphere here as well. But what happened was that it happened. Our wants don't always coincide with what the developer can do. And on top of that, there was a load of LEGINDARNAZTI of the previous game hanging over him. You don't want to screw up here. He's not Kojima.
After that, a few years later, Carmack became interested in the promising technology of virtual reality OculusRift, realized that he couldn't sit on two chairs and left software. Later, the studio was bought by Zenimax, and the company lived a new life. There were a lot of rumors about Doom 4: that setting will be the same as in 3 parts, that hellcats will move to Earth. In the end, the truth was somewhere in the middle. In 2016 he came - the heir worthy of his predecessor, the new Doom.
Here he is, the daddy of modern shooters: he came back from hell's ashes to remind everyone who is the king here. The 2016 Doom is a demonstration of how the first and second parts of the game were supposed to look like: tough, meaty, and as pure as a gamer's virgin tears, untreated cruelty. And unlike Doom 3, the new part doesn't invent the bike, but takes all the best of its predecessors and serves it as a new dish, in a medium fry.
Is there a story in the new Doom?
More likely, yes, than not. The mixture is this: you are an ancient tireless warrior, who was in the Order of the Crusaders to fight against the temptations of hell. Well, you know, these allegories of war for the right cause with the Muslims. It was missing in 2k16 so much. Yes, in your time you carried out a natural genocide of hell, arranging there dashing 90s at the local level. Demons had their hair on their asses with one thought of you, and from the look of you, the sphincter was shrinking, so brutal you are. In general, the head of Hell was so much baked with what you were doing in his lands and the military contingent of Satan from your presence did not increase much, but rather rapidly rolled away, but to talk to us was even more problematic than to kill. In general, we were immersed in an eternal dream, but we were awakened by the scientists of the Martian research complex, who decided to look for a solution to the energy crisis in hell.
What can I say, Darwin's prize is provided for them. And since we are awake again, now we have to clean up these stables, put on armor and go to clear the expanses of Mars with the help of an Orthodox shotgun and a strong penalty on the demonic ass. After a cheerful start, we get more than half of the game only small pieces of the plot in the form of holograms and notes. And only at the end of the story accelerates and pours out on us something sharp and interesting, but immediately comes to an end.
There is no feeling that you were thrown for money. Because, no matter how much you spin, the ending looks natural and not foreign, but what is the sin to melt, the understatement was made specifically for the sequel, if suddenly the project will shoot. They are not the first to resort to such a trick, they are not the last ones. Of course, you can see the efforts to do something distinct and interesting, but in the Duma, the main thing is not the plot, but its gameplay. The gameplay game is very fast, some mix of Quake and classic Doom. Here it will not be possible to sit in a shelter, as to stop in Doom means to die, here it is necessary to be in constant movement to survive. Your reaction should be fast to avoid the impact in time. Your eye is a crook to not miss the cool guns with bullets and, of course, Easter eggs. And your hand is accurate to carry the demons in the stuffing with weapons, which is made with the soul that people who passed the first two parts will say: "Eh, like in childhood.
The arsenal is huge, the weapon looks good, and sounds even better, the guns in the game are made with love. But the main nostalgic flashback is famous for Easter eggs in the form of small pieces of levels from the first two parts. "Tae-Baek, what about the levels in this part? - you ask. And the levels in the new Doom aren't bad. If we're going to be very brief, it's the arenas that need to be cleaned up completely, otherwise, you won't get out. Sounds boring, I agree, but in fact, it's fun, thanks to a larger arsenal, a variety of locations, gameplay game, and diverse enemies.