willmcloone: I actually enjoyed Doom 3. It was a re-imagining of the original game. Story-wise, it was standard for most FPSs... standard action flick stuff. Despite the limited color palette it was pretty gorgeous and graphically still stands up today. Ammunition and health were placed fairly logically and the levels made sense. There was only one particular level that caused any sort of frustration. I thought the atmosphere or feel of the game was pretty good. Felt almost like a survival horror game. There were a few "jump scares" here and there, just to keep you on edge. The use of lighting (or lack thereof) was utilized fairly well and was a pretty integral part of the game. It brought some new elements from modern FPSs to a classic FPS mechanic, or brought a classic FPS sensibility to modern FPSing... however you care to look at it. Was it a perfect game? Hardly. But it wasn't a terrible game either.
hedwards: I'd say it was pretty bad. The levels were railroad tracks without much room to maneuver, the game depended heavily upon cheap scares and darkness for atmosphere. The plot line pops up with QTE all too often. The switching between flashlight and weapon was really cheap as well.
In the context of modern FPS it's probably not terrible, but the genre has really fallen if this is what passes for a good FPS. It was really clear that the people at iD had forgotten about what made them so great. They had a great engine, but they didn't really use it to the best effect and what you wound up witth was a game that pretty much anybody could have made.
I really, really wanted to like Doom 3, but it just wasn't a very good game. Now, had they sold the damned thing as a survival horror game, that might have worked, but it's rather insulting to try and pass this off as a Doom game as it's inferior in every way, except graphics, from the original.
Considering the comments on the Steam page, it's pretty clear that the people writing reviews haven't actually bothered to play the original as it would be pretty obvious just how retrograde Doom 3 was. Doom is still just as much fun to play now as it was 20 years ago, Doom 3 is a complete chore and I can't even figure out how anybody managed to complete it as the entire game feels really cheap in the ways that actually count.
Really, the game is massively overrated. I feel bad that the bar has been set so low for modern games.
I played the BFG version of Doom 3. You didn't have to switch between the flashlight and your weapon. However, your shoulder-mounted light had limited battery life, so you constantly had to keep your eye on it. I think it is unfair to say that the levels were "railroad tracks". Most FPSs are like that. It wasn't until Far Cry came along that you had much in terms of "alternate routes" to choose from. Considering the limited textures/pixels/colors the designers had to work with during the early 90s, the original FPSs often felt like you were stumbling through a maze. Now I am all for exploration within games, but sometimes you have to sacrifice a little to carry on with the game. Even Far Cry knew it's limitations. I'm sorry you didn't like Doom 3, I really am. It's not for everyone. Then again, all games are like that. Just some food for thought.
I do agree that FPSs have declined in recent years, but consider that there are only so many different ways to make a game based around the premise of "move into room, kill the monsters, get the key, unlock the door, repeat". Eventually, something had to change. Again, Doom 3 is simply a re-imagining of the original. A remake, if you will. I liked it. I think many other people did too. Would I try to compare it to the original? Of course not. It's not a shot-for-shot remake. They reinvented some basic ideas (PDAs instead of keys, for example) and fleshed out a world we, quite frankly, didn't really get to see a lot of in the original. It is too easy to put on nostalgic-tinted glasses when talking about classics. Was Doom a fun game? Absolutely. Run and gun? Hell yes. It would have been easy to make that exact same game with different textures... oh wait... that was Doom 2. So how could they up the ante? They had to do something different. Considering they had completely tapped out the Quake franchise at that point (and RTCW was a bit of a dud) a Doom game of some kind was inevitable. iD has always been rather notorious for creating amazing engines, but not a lot of content. That's why Romero left. This is why I compared it to a standard action flick. It fulfilled the basic needs. It didn't stray too far from the original formula, it didn't try to get too deep or philosophical, and yet, it gave us more than some text for motivation. Most reviews I have seen give it an "average to better than average" score. That's not bad.
For the record, Doom 3 is nowhere near my favorite FPS, I just don't like to see it being talked about so unfairly.