I was only a kid back then when I first played it, but the main reason I think I didn't find it repetitive was because of the variety contained in the excellent level design - no two levels felt alike. Levels were hard for me to figure out back then too, and though it's way, way easier today, I still find each level a fun puzzle to figure out. Especially if you go secret hunting. Several levels tease you with great pickups just out of reach and completely out of the way of solving the level. Unlocking these secrets could be a real challenge and only added to the mystery of the level.

There's that, and of course the fact that it was the premier shooting experience at the time. Depending on your appetite it could take quite some time before you finally had your fill of its shooting mechanics.

What finally made me bored of Doom 2 was the release of Duke Nukem 3D, which blew Doom 2 out of the water as much as the latter blew Wolfenstein 3D out of the water.

It's weird enough.. I can barely get enough of Doom but I can barely get past the first level of Duke3D before I get bored.

Damn you for this topic Elmofongo! :P

Day after reading it i dreamed i was in Doom 3 but the stupid flashlight wouldn't work so i couldn't see skit in the dark and demons were everywhere! After i woke up i realized i wasn't in BFG Edition. :P

i loved fear when it came out but i pretty much hate it now. i have it, but cannot stand it because the sound effects and some of the tropes are obnoxious and just... sooo... of that era, and not in a good way.

the little scary girl thing which was popular then.

all the sound effects sound like they're cribbed verbatim from that awful show hell's kitchen.

all of the npcs are buzz headed commando types, which is was popular back then, but then the one female in the group decides to call the player character 'cute' which lame and patronizing.

it's literally a list of things that were hip back in the early 2000's which some fun gunplay tacked on.

at one point i though chef gorton ramsey and the girl from the ring were going to attack the white house with 50 cent in tow.

Doom 3 NON BFG version which I own ID Software PRE-BETHSOFT was average at best FEAR was so bland and boring!

Then evidently I'm dead because that's exactly what happened when I went to see "Fellowship of the Ring".

I was wondering if a religious or non-religious preference made certain kinds of horror scarier to people. I'm Christian (but also a shitposter and pessimist) but a denomination that doesn't believe in eternal hellfire/torture (which is pretty damn cruel :P), but since I do believe in the supernatural I find supernatural stuff creepier than people - many of whom I assume are atheist or agnostic - who think human beings are the ultimate things to be scared of.

I couldn't finish Doom 3 because it got too creepy for me towards the end - visuals, sound design, etc. I do owe Bethesda some money for it though, so if the original ever shows up on sale I'll pick it up.

Which is exactly why Hellish portrayals is scary because of how cruel and evil it is.

Can you imagine just played straight pure evil in this world that actually acknowledges itself as evil and lives to do evil things to you.

Thats what makes Demons and Hells scary. No bullshit and no need for explination.

No, not for me, and it really shouldn't. I don't believe in Xenomorphs either but "Alien" is still a scary movie.

But are you certain, sir? Some people working in offices, might beg to disagree, with that statement, lol... Offices with poor lighting can be Hell incarnate, sometimes!

I can't speak for all people, but I think most of us -- regardless of religion -- are desensitized to pop-fiction portrayals of hell and demons. They're just monsters, and we've seen them before. Even if you believe in fire-and-torture hell, having seen it all in games and movies probably means you take it for what it is, games and movies. Works of fiction. The same goes for cute little girls of course.

I think Doom 3 is scarier mainly for its atmosphere. But there's another theme that is common to horror: powerlessness. Now Doom 3 empowers you with a lot of firepower (versus rather unoffensive AI), but on the other hand, anything could spawn in (or sneak or jump out) any moment from any direction and it might be hard to see it in the dark. So things are constantly happening out of your control, and you're constantly on the defense, so to speak.

I don't really get that vibe from FEAR. You move forward into new areas, and there's new enemies to shoot. End of story. You're not constantly looking back left and right and trying to see whatever lurks or spawns before they attack you. You can take all the time to look around and crawl carefully, headshot the dudes you see, or turn on the godmode bullet time and slice through them like they're nothing. You're in full control, and even beyond.

We could get into a long boring talk about what constitutes fear but I remember reading an article a while back about what, in day to day life (so no monsters) scares people the most, and the one common thread in all the answers was a loss of control. The two that really stuck out were going to the dentist and flying, two endeavors which leave you complete in the hands of someone else, no control.

My mommy always said there were no monsters - no real ones - but there are.

You can lump me into the "neither was actually scary" crowd as well. Both were mostly enjoyable games but outside of the occasional jump scare (Doom 3 in particular), there was nothing particularly fright inducing in either.

F.E.A.R. pretty much told you exactly when the scary bits were gonna pop up, and gave an ample warning at that, and then (outside of one instance that I remember) they didn't even have the decency to keep the gameplay tension up during those moments, they were glorified breathers. Alma wasn't scary in the least to me and not once did she ever show up when I didn't expect her, which is disappointing because she's the main source of "horror" and I wanted it to be a scary game. The only scary thing about F.E.A.R. was how repetitive the environment and ergo the enemy encounters were.

Doom 3 has a few jump scares, but just like F.E.A.R. they end up repeating them over and over and over, so eventually (by that I mean by level 3-ish) you know exactly when they're gonna happen, there is a reason Doom 3 is also called "Monster Closet Simulator". Hell wasn't scary and the complete darkness of a lot of its environments was more annoying than scary. Oh and the flashlight was the best weapon in the game, so why even ever go without light?