interesting article I stumbled upon on the net on the strengths of D3 and why you will either love or hate it.

http://alt.3dcenter.org/artikel/2004/08 ... nglish.php

its 2 pages, click "weiter" bottom right to continue

is not a review but has some interesting insights going on, kudos to the autor, it was written August 19, 2004.

he nailed it imo.

so, Gimme, you masochist! :twisted:

I don´t agree with this point: "there are no actual rewards for actions. Most games that function at all do so because there is a constant progression of ever greater challenges and ever greater rewards for overcoming the challenges." The reward in Doom3 is the game itself: being able to explore the game world further, getting new weapons, finding out some more things about what is going on by reading PDA messages. It worked perfect for me. I really enjoyed cleaning a section with my last precious bullets and my last drops of blood, then go get some health packs and rest in a save corner to read through the lates PDA or listen to a voice log.

"Doom 3 does not reward players for being "good", in fact it does the opposite in some places: in one level, whenever you pick up armor (standard player reaction: armor=good=me want) a handful of enemies will spawn, sometimes right in your face. " Well, it is rewarding: you have to earn that armor. You can grab it, but you also have to do something for it.

Tetzlaff wrote:

"Doom 3 does not reward players for being "good", in fact it does the opposite in some places: in one level, whenever you pick up armor (standard player reaction: armor=good=me want) a handful of enemies will spawn, sometimes right in your face. " Well, it is rewarding: you have to earn that armor. You can grab it, but you also have to do something for it.

Exactly!

Tetzlaff wrote:

It worked perfect for me. I really enjoyed cleaning a section with my last precious bullets and my last drops of blood, then go get some health packs and rest in a save corner to read through the lates PDA or listen to a voice log.

me too, I know what you guys are saying, I enjoyed D3 that way from my first playthrough at release.

I found the article does a good job in describing how D3 works underneath the "first, superficial look".

I think he nails the reasons why the game is/has been a love/hate affair for most people.

and in retrospect, I find D3 has some purity in its hard-edged gameplay and conception that most of the new, recent games lost.
D3 has his very own character, dares to challenge and punish the player, to make ihm feel uneasy, whereas in the last gen games the tendency is exaclty the opposite, you always win and feel good, you almost can't even die anymore.

you know, all sort of health regen, superpowers and extra abilities, slowmo, revival chambers, constant hints and babysitting during gameplay, - often a whole game feels like an extended tutorial, autoaim, all sort of automatism, etc...

I think a basic shift took place somewhere 2006 in terms of gameplay experience, the concept of challenge and reward in games and such ...

You guys are right, I think the same way as vertex007. Main problem with "those days" fps are fact that they are sometimes too much easy, they are made for every gamer, even casual or console player that do nor know what it is strafing. I like to explore,long games, to solve puzzles and find monsters week spots by myself, sometimes I think I'm some kind of old retro gamer that do not fit those day market. I was disappointed by new AvP and it looks like Fear3 will be same style game. In Doom3 I love the fact that player need to explore, search, operate different terminals, read, yes - READ, stop killing, find safe place and watch/listen/read all those pda messages. It is not another game where first npc You meet will tell You story of his life and give all information what is going on here, You have to figure it out by Yourself.

I do not say that new things like health regeneration are bad (look at Fear 1 qnd 2), game need to be fluent, gameplay need to be balanced (like patched Bioshock without vital chambers). Game need to have challenging moments, not too easy, not too harsh, make my time worth playing it.

When D3 came out, there was no FPS that was as cinematic as it was. We've gotten used to creatures running over the ceilings, or down elevator shafts. But ID was the first to do in such a fluent manner. I remember loading the last Alpha maps 3 times in a row, just to see the imp running down the elevator shaft and see if I coudn't catch it. I figured it's a cinematic thing... imagine my surprise when I was able to shoot it halfway in it's animation. Cool stuff!

BloodRayne wrote:

yep, I also remember how impressed I was from the first Pinky introduction and how fluent and credible the animation was, never saw such impressive animation before.
same applies to the Vagary or Hellknights introductions, very cool stuff even by todays standards (and they are not cheapo Bink videos btw.)

Cinematic? I think there was one cinematic game Unreal2, that game was one big cut-scene, where player jump from one planet to another so quickly that he have no time to catch plot or enjoy nice graphic. Or how about Alien vs Predator 2 or half-life?

Gzegzolka wrote:

Or how about Alien vs Predator 2 or half-life?

Both did not have the cinematic quality that D3 had. I never felt like 'watching a movie' when I was playing HL2.

BloodRayne wrote:

I remember loading the last Alpha maps 3 times in a row, just to see the imp running down the elevator shaft and see if I coudn't catch it. I figured it's a cinematic thing... imagine my surprise when I was able to shoot it halfway in it's animation. Cool stuff!

What map? You're talking bout e3 alpha?

BloodRayne wrote:

Gzegzolka wrote:

Or how about Alien vs Predator 2 or half-life?

Both did not have the cinematic quality that D3 had. I never felt like 'watching a movie' when I was playing HL2.

HL2 looks better than Doom 3. Tho I'm not a big HL fan but that's it.

I was talking about H-L 1 (not H-L 2, for me that game got cinematic feeling ) and You must remember about time factor, in 98 when H-L 1 was made game got top graphic. Same thing is with D3, FarCry, Bioshock when I seen it first time it was best game with outstanding graphic.

Gzegzolka wrote:

Or time to actually play a little bit before the next small and restrictive map section loaded... I absolutely hated Unreal2, it was extremely linear, restricted and flat. All about impressive (often just tacky) looks and "cinematic feel".

Although I was disappointed that Doom3 wasn´t as non-linear and open as the original games, it was at least less linear and restricted than these typical shooters of the Unreal2 era, exploration at least played a significant role in the gameplay.