Doom 3: BFG Edition: The Most Fragile Badass on Mars

Despite showing age, Doom 3 can still have some really impressive visuals both in and out of regular gameplay.

Now on paper it seems like a no-brainer that Doom 3: BFG Edition is a bargain, and why wouldn't it be? You get Doom, Doom 2 (with a bonus chapter), and Doom 3 with Resurrection of Evil and an exclusive The Lost Mission expansion, offering up a massive amount of potential playtime. So it came as a surprise that I had mixed feelings playing this, most notably the parts pertaining to Doom 3. I enjoyed Doom and Doom 2, but make no mistake, most of my time was spent in Doom 3 and its expansions, and it's here where there's definite criticism to be made.

Though the surface of Mars is largely safer than being indoors, it still doesn't feel safe in the least.

Storywise, Doom 3 and its expansions are essentially the same as the first two Doom titles, with demons from Hell invading the UAC facility on Mars as a consequence of experimentation with teleportation (The Warp anyone?). The similarities end there however, for right off the bat Doom 3 and co. take great pains to make it a Doom for the modern (2004) era, with a fleshed out story complete with voiced characters and a backstory. Really it's not the most sophisticated, and from the get-go you immediately know who the bad guy is, but on the other hand it's a really nice and atmospheric experience, especially compared to the first two Doom outings, which I found pretty difficult to get invested in. It's also filled with horror elements, and though it's limited to spooky satanic imagery and jump-scares (there's a lot of those), nevertheless it was pretty damn unnerving. Hell is also fleshed out and given a little backstory/story, though it pales to what was hinted at in 2016's DOOM. While Doom 3 takes a bit of time to get to the point where you're massacring demons (though unfortunately never at the scale of Doom, Doom 2, and DOOM), the expansions take almost no time before getting you into the action. In the expansions you face new and old demons, though Resurrection of Evil is by far the better one, and actually feels fresh and new whereas The Lost Mission feels like a collection of levels cut from the base game. But at the end of the day it's Doom at heart with more development, and do you really play Doom for it's complex and thought-provoking story?

In Doom 3's escort portions, the escort protects you. Don't let the size fool you, these guys are the real terrors of these halls.

Gameplay was where my issues with the BFG edition of Doom 3 really surface, with my playthrough on Veteran difficulty. It felt really strange honestly, and for much of the game I had more ammo and armor than I knew what to do with, but I was constantly at low health. Seriously, what does armor even do? I still take a huge chunk of damage as soon as one of the beefier enemies land a hit on me which is made easier by the relatively cramped quarters that seem to be a relic of this era of games (looking at you Quake 4). This lead to me frequently backtracking to try to heal to full so I could tank that 33 damage fireball that would hit me in the next room, which in a word, is bullshit. What does adrenaline even do anyway? I never noticed any change in how the gameplay functioned while it was active. Also enemy placement is problematic. They are frequently placed in such a way to be jump-scares (the goddamn imps are the worst), and often that means that you have no way to avoid their attacks (see armor). Thankfully the enemies aren't particularly spongy at all, never being able to withstand more than a full clip of the several machine guns (with a few exceptions, so at least that felt fair) On top of this, while most of the guns are useful and do have some use there are three to five exceptions. First is melee. While DOOM (2016) really expanded and gave melee a place to shine in the gameplay, melee (with the fists and later chainsaw) in Doom 3 is nothing short of suicidal, with the problem of armor and enemy strength once again being a bad penny that continually shows up. The exception to this is the two instances of the berserk powerup, which finally let me feel like the unstoppable killing machine that the game is supposed to make you feel like. The next problem is that of explosives, which I only used a handful of times, with the reason being the cramped quarters. Seriously why? Only the BFG 9000 is really of any help, because otherwise using them is just invitation to lose a chunk of health because of their high range and damage. By far the largest offender is the shotgun, you know, the iconic weapon of Doom. I've never understood the phrase "couldn't hit the broad side of a barn", but that is creepily accurate when referring to the shotgun here. It's also pretty damn weak, taking two to three point blank shots to put anything stronger than an imp down. It's incredibly unreliable, being my weapon of last resort, as nearly every other weapon is a better option as soon as you get them. It's a definite shame to be sure, I love shotguns in my games, but this is just embarrassing. Fall damage is another minor complaint, as you'd think that in your futuristic sleeveless marine armor you could fall a few more feet before you almost die. Maybe it's because of the equipment's weight, or the burden of sins real and imagined, but it made me sick of how frail this guy is on a regular basis. However, despite this long tirade I actually had a pretty good time playing this, and there were many times where I actually felt like a badass through my growing experience, though a frail and often shaken badass at that. Gunning down demons and evading their attacks by a hair never ceased to thrill me (especially knowing how vulnerable I was), and never more than whenever I dodged a jump-scare attack. It's fun and pretty solid, just be ready for a lot of frustrating moments that on Veteran feel like a crock of horseshit.

Here we see an imp making the fatal mistake of not launching himself out of the shadows at a marine who's fully had enough of this shit.

Visually I really liked the grim and rusted style of Doom 3, and this was helped a lot by the great lighting and sound used throughout. Especially at the beginning, the lighting and sound really well establish the spooky atmosphere, and you can really understand the unnerved feelings of the workers at the UAC facility. Hell, it would make anyone jumpy, and while nothing attacked me in the vents, I really expected to be. It shouldn't come as a surprise then that the game is dark, and I mean really dark. You'll be using your flashlight often (nearly constantly) and those afraid of the dark will probably find it even scarier than it can occasionally be. Let's just say that imps leap out from the shadows a lot, but sometimes you can foil their ambushes by being cognizant of darkened corners and whatnot. A small detail that I liked that again seemed to be a thing in games at this time was all the various screens in the game and how you navigated them with a cursor that would pop up as you approached it. It just felt very natural and realistic, and I wish that it was done more today. The enemies were a little strange-looking, with many having, oddly enough, insectoid features, and these were definitely the most frightening. Even though they're squishy, there's something scary about being rushed by fly-baby hybrids. Beyond this the textures are more than a little dated, with all of the human models looking pretty darn ugly and blocky. Thankfully they more than make up for this with their voice acting, which was well-done across the board, whether it was the cartoonishly menacing Dr. Betruger or the the more grounded audio logs. Doom 3 definitely shows its age at times, but where the gameplay frustrates, the technical aspects of the game are really quite strong, and was perhaps the game's strongest aspect.

Though unfortunately not appearing for each enemy, I really liked every one of the enemy introduction cinematics.

At the end of the day, would I still recommend this game? Hell yes. While I frequently became frustrated with the gameplay of Doom 3 and the first two titles didn't particularly impress me, it remains a fantastic deal, especially for those who have never played any of Doom. However, for a better Doom 3 experience, you'd be better off buying it standalone. For those that are looking for some great horror that still lets you put down your nightmares (with some great added value), you can't go wrong playing Doom 3: BFG Edition.

Getting gameplay photos is pretty hard especially when you keep almost having heart attacks from these damn imps.