Well, just like everyone else, I've been playing Doom 3 for the last few days. I didn't buy it, my friend bought it, but he doesn't own a computer that can run it, and there are two in my apartment. So I told him he could play it here, and he decided to go ahead and leave the disks here since he can't do anything with them while he's not here. Not a bad system. He plans to do the same with Half-Life 2, which I'm really, really looking forward to.
I wasn't looking forward to Doom 3 at all, I was pretty indifferent and thought the screenshots looked like ass. Then it released and the positive reviews started coming in, and I thought, "enh, it's just release-week hype, the complaints will roll in soon enough." But then my friend brought it over and installed it, and I played it, and I just have to say...
SWEET MOTHERFUCKING CHRIST WHAT IS THAT THING OH JESUS *blam* *blam* *blam* AIEEEE NO GET OFF ME AARRGGHHH *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *pant* *pant* *pant*...You get the idea. This game is, in a word, really fucking creepy. I guess that's three words. I have, really, literally, jumped back from the computer screen, more than once. I get shivers walking around, shining my little flashlight(which cleverly does not actually shine right at your targeting reticle; sort of annoying, but it totally enhances the fear effect, as you can never clearly see what you're looking at, if you want to line up your shots while you can see anything) into dark corners and dreading the moment when some hideous thing is going to pop around a corner or out of the ceiling or from behind a door you didn't notice.
And you know how, in a lot of FPS's, when the enemies hit you, you just take damage but your aim isn't interrupted at all? Not so in this game. When an imp smacks the crap out of you, it really looks like he's attacking your gun arm, and your aim is thrown *way* off, to the extent where it's really actually pretty difficult to kill the giant ugly demon that is clawing the living fuck out of you, imagine that. This is fairly easily solved by backing up, of course, but it's sometimes hard to think of that when you've just wet yourself in terror. No, I did not actually wet myself.
Some handy tips for you: Don't waste shotgun shells on regular zombies, unless they appear right next to you or there's a crowd. For the first level or two, you can easily take out marines by getting their attention, then ducking around a corner and blowing them in half with the shotgun when they come around. Later you're better off using the SMG, because they get smart and wait for you, usually behind cover, and lay down suppressing fire. Fortunately they're not smart enough(at least not yet) to stagger their fire to be constant, so you can get them while they reload. For imps, don't run from them, run right up to them. Stick your shotgun in their chest and pull the trigger and watch them disintegrate. Wait until they've thrown their fireball at you, though, and hit them during their recovery animation. And when they start teleporting in, later, those are my favorite imps. They announce their presence with loud, flashy light show instead of the silent crouching in a dark corner the others do, and when they do appear they pose and roar at you, giving you all the time in the world to run up and introduce their midsection to the business end of your shotgun. Easier to kill than zombies.
If you have the pants for it, I suggest you play it with all the lights off, at night, alone. Actually, the lights off thing isn't just for atmosphere; the game is dark as fuck, designedly so, and it's easier to see stuff before it can kill you with all the lights off.
I don't know, though. I still don't think I would've actually paid money for it. It's an excellent game, no mistake, but once I finish it I'll never play it again. I mean, hell, I won't play most of the games I already do own, but at least I intend to. Doom, though, play through once, never again. Although maybe if you like multiplayer games that might make it worth it, although for me, generally, *fuck* multiplayer. Occasionally you might play something cool with some friends, but fuck the internet. And I hear the Doom multiplayer isn't that hot, anyway, although I expect the cool mods will be coming along shortly.
Posted by stirge at August 12, 2004 01:10 AM