Replaying D3

[Capela]

......But man, D3 really is the best choice for the Mod, its so freaking spooky and moody even with a sci fi setting. I actually find myself hiding in shadows, even though I know it doesn't do me any good. The constant squeaking and whining of machinery really starts to eat away at your sanity after a while too....

 

That appened to me to, trying hiding in the shadows, i remember think, ...if only they could not see me... maybe when darkmod is finished some of us could try to implement such a gameplay in a doom3 universe mod.

[SneaksieDave]

I loved id's work on audio in the game. Playing through D3 with headphones on can be an unpleasant experience.

 

Shotguns with hellknights = big fun.

[Maximius]

I used to call my wife in to see new stuff in the game, she won't come now after the scene where one of the two headed thingys chases after you down the wall pipes as your elevator goes by. She shrieked and ran when I blew it apart with the scatter-gun.

 

I can feel the Doom-itis setting in, shutting off all the lights, playing until 3 A.M., willing yourself to just leap into that dark fucking room with only a few blinking consoles that you know is filled with insanity. I'm playing on Easy and already they are hitting me with 15 + spider demons at a pop. I cannot imagine the cacaodemons and viles up ahead...

Edited February 15, 2007 by Maximius

[SneaksieDave]

Easy!? Damn. Start over! Really. Normal skill was even too easy.

[Domarius]

Geez Maximus!

 

Personally I don't see any point playing a video game on anything but the hardest difficulty setting, the principal being that the game is performing at its best - so that doesn't include settings like Nightmare on Doom which is just made to be extra hard in a ridiculous way (constantly respawning monsters) for re-playability.

 

But yeah, all the things you're describing I experienced on my first and last play through It's not THAT great, but still it seems pretty good for such a simple game. And it has its rare moments of awesomeness.

[Maximius]

Geez Maximus!

 

Personally I don't see any point playing a video game on anything but the hardest difficulty setting, the principal being that the game is performing at its best - so that doesn't include settings like Nightmare on Doom which is just made to be extra hard in a ridiculous way (constantly respawning monsters) for re-playability.

 

But yeah, all the things you're describing I experienced on my first and last play through It's not THAT great, but still it seems pretty good for such a simple game. And it has its rare moments of awesomeness.

 

I only intended to play it for scenery, thus Easy, but I got drawn in. But I just killed about 8 flying skulls, followed by 4 imps and then another squadron of skulls! I got crushed, I couldn't reload or switch fast enough, all weapons were in the red, I was shooting my pistol even. If this is Easy I cant imagine Normal. I always play on the hardest setting too but no way! Whats Normal, fifty skulls at once?

[Komag]

I say just to challenge yourself, and if you are challenged on Easy because you're less of a twitchy Quake 3 trigger finger than most of us, that's just fine

 

With Doom 3 you should never have tons of ammo rarely get full health. If you find you always have most of your health and are always topping off the ammo, set it harder.

[Maximius]

I say just to challenge yourself, and if you are challenged on Easy because you're less of a twitchy Quake 3 trigger finger than most of us, that's just fine

 

 

Who are you calling old!?!

 

umm, nm..

[Komag]

wha?

[Maximius]

wha?

 

 

I'm joking man, as if to say you were implying my reflexes were deteriorating.

[Crispy]

Heh, don't worry, I'm a spring chicken and I suck at shooters. Give me a puzzle or a 2D platformer any day...

[Domarius]

Hard level - You need the determination. And adrenalin... sometimes you surprise yourself, it's pretty cool.

 

Just work out a control layout that you can switch to whatever weapon you need straight away. For example, E is plasma, G is grenade, Q is rocket launcher, 1 2 and 3 stay as what they are because they're in easy reach, etc.

[STiFU]

Yeah, it really works out great. Especially if you are used to that weapon layout from quake 3 online play... Was pretty much fun. Though, I still felt there were too less monsters. Should rather have been like Serious Sam in some areas. Or like good old quake 1 (which is still the #1 game in coop in my oppinion).

[Komag]

I think they had to limit the monsters a lot because of framerate issues. Even in the spots where tons of those little dissappearing crawler dudes warp in, they only come in small waves - you kill some, get more, kill them, get more, etc.

[ZylonBane]

Personally I don't see any point playing a video game on anything but the hardest difficulty setting, the principal being that the game is performing at its best

Your principal is intrinsically flawed, based as it is on the ridiculous assumption that all game developers work from some common understanding of what the hardest difficulty should be.

[Schatten]

Yay, that discussion again. I'm still looking for a good solution to the differently percieved difficulty problem... don't want to drag this discussion in here, but I'm looking forward to BioShock in that regard (I know ZylonBane and I have have a very different opinion about adaptive difficulty, so I won't dwell on the topic).

 

When I got Doom 3 for the Mod, I played the first few levels on Easy difficulty as well, just to get a look at it. I think by the second level I got bored with the predictable enemy spawns and stopped playing though.

[Vadrosaul]

One thing that Quake 4 hands down beat Doom 3 in was the cast of characters. Raven assembled a fine cast of Marines, my personal favorites being the sharpshooter Cortez, and Stormare's portrayal of Strauss.

[Capela]

I allways play games at the normal difficulty, in fact im in favor that games should not have levels of difficulty.

[Gildoran]

When I got Doom 3 for the Mod, I played the first few levels on Easy difficulty as well, just to get a look at it. I think by the second level I got bored with the predictable enemy spawns and stopped playing though.

That's a shame... although the enemy spawns and hidden items remain predictable (the enemies are always behind you and the items are always under the stairs), the game gets better once you pass the initial slump in the beginning. Doom 3 even has a several genuinely creepy moments (such as the thumping thing behind behind the door), and a couple of places that gave me a real scare! (including an ingenious yet completely natural monster spawn involving a trite and a computer) I just wish they made better use of the possibilities that GUIs give to the creation of puzzles.

 

I allways play games at the normal difficulty, in fact im in favor that games should not have levels of difficulty.

The first time I play a game, I usually play it on normal, and then increase the difficulty if/when I later replay it. I don't see anything wrong with difficulty levels, though I think there's usually no need for more than 3 levels. In particular, I'm convinced that a "very very easy" difficulty is necessary, after trying to convince my father to play a few games.

[Maximius]

That's a shame... although the enemy spawns and hidden items remain predictable (the enemies are always behind you and the items are always under the stairs), the game gets better once you pass the initial slump in the beginning. Doom 3 even has a several genuinely creepy moments (such as the thumping thing behind behind the door), and a couple of places that gave me a real scare! (including an ingenious yet completely natural monster spawn involving a trite and a computer) I just wish they made better use of the possibilities that GUIs give to the creation of puzzles.

 

 

I really think its the best Doom I've ever played, it is fucking freaking me out. But at the same time, its so exhilarating to go Bonzo and just start tearing into the bastards. I actually say aloud "get in there you wussy!" to goad myself.

 

But the noises will get me first, I think, SD was right about the noises and earphones, its almost too much to bear. There are demon voices woven into the doors and machinery, in the EnPro core the doors made a sound almost identical to the screech of an imp as they opened and closed. In another section, as you pause on a platform over a red glowing pit far beneath, you can hear faint screams from below. The one scene a few levels back, one zombie feeding on a corpses guts, as you kill it the corpse gets to its feet and attacks as well. This beats almost any horror flick I've seen in years in terms of actually making me want to shut the game down at times.

 

FarCry had a lot going for it, good firefights and all, but the monsters were goofy and it never developed any real immersion in a horror/sci fi sense.

Edited February 17, 2007 by Maximius

[SneaksieDave]

Shit. You're making me want to play through again. I still have to finish the expansion pack! I should do that.

 

making me want to shut the game down at times.

Hah, I was going to say the same above, but I didn't want to give any spoilers. I think you're safely beyond this though?

 

Have you gotten to:

 

the bathroom scene, which is not with the demon eating the corpse? the other bathroom scene?

 

 

If you don't know what I mean for sure, don't read this spoiler:

 

where the hallucination takes place; you're looking in the mirror, and the room turns to hell and your skin starts to burn and rot as they play field of view tricks to suck you into the scene - oh fuck that messed me up!

 

 

When that happend, I remember actually getting pissed internally, I was so freaked out, so... offended, that they caught me completely off guard and almost made me shit my pants, that I said "man, fuck this!" and shut the game down. Took me a while to calm down after that. The game makes me wonder if at some point (VR, better graphics, etc.) games are going to start becoming a little too intense to play and will have to come with warnings for people with heart conditions (not joking).

[Maximius]

No I haven't yet hit that bathroom yet, sounds like I'm going to need to be using it myself. It does get too much sometimes, too much darkness everywhere, but then after about an hour I have to go back and do it. Its Doomitis, the last time I had it it was on two linked 486's and the Doom2 /FM box set. Hours upon hours, sun up to sundown to sunup. Break loading double barreled shotgun smoking like a chimney. Can't hang with that insanity anymore but I can feel its leathery grip on my mind none the less.

 

I can see some incredible Mod maps in these Doom maps, Im looking at one robot arm swinging canisters around an assembly bay and I can see an enormous painted brass orrery swinging planets around strange orbits, vapors rising from tables of alembics and flasks, robed and cowled figures quietly gathering in the shadows underneath the mechanical planets and comets, muttering over a cracked mummy whose lips quiver slightly as the figures slouch past and whisper to it "Arise, awake!"

 

The orrerys' spheres slowly glide into a triangular pattern as above in the howling, blistering starry sky an identical pattern forms. The Sycophant, rotted with age himself but upright and grasping a gnarled staff, croaks a short command. The figures form a triangle with the Sycophant at its Northward point. He mewls a few words nearly to himself and the mouth of the mummy gapes open. The Sycophant turns to the lectern behind him, hesitates, a shadow in the shadows?, nothing, no, and reads aloud from the wild, spidery script. The assembly begins to moan and sway, in the skies above the light of three bright planets falls into crystals placed within their mechanical counterparts below and is fed into a single watery beam which licks out and touches a ice pure gem dangling on a chain just above the lectern. The planets, the orrery, and the gathering have all come into some eldritch concordance and time itself seems to shudder to a stop. The gem, rather than scattering the silvery,squirming light, seems instead to be collecting it, slowly filling up.

 

The Sycophant eyes light with a fierce joy at the sight, soon the gem will be filled and placed within the mouth of his dark, fallen Lord and there will be a reckoning, yes a righteous reckoning! He glances at the text again, speaks a few words aloud , then turns to lay hands upon the body of his Lord, to lend his miserable strength, to prepare the husk so that it can be filled again. Under his touch, the cable hard skin and bones begins to soften, flow, and the fingers of the mummy twitch and clutch slightly.

 

Above their heads, the planets suddenly move on, the window has closed, the gate shut. The beam of light has vanished. The Sycophant wheezes with his building joy, the time has come friends!, the assembly throws back their hoods to reveal rotted cheeks, gaping holes, an assembly of lichs, vampires,necromancers and dark alchemists who have extended their lives far beyond their mortal roots. Now, the time to reclaim the world of the living for their own, to wreak a wild, furious war against life and light, to tread the world beneath their heels! The Sycophant turns to the pluck up the gem, brimming with darkling power, my Lord will rise, rise and lead us in a burning arc across the face of the world, across the mighty gulf of the....

 

But the gem is gone.

 

The Sycophants face is for a brief moment empty, stunned, for the first time in five hundred and seventeen years he feels a spike of fear in his withered heart. The blankness is then suddenly contorted with a rage that cannot be contained in his worn flesh. He claws at his face, splitting his leathery cheeks, seeming to try to contain the single word that finally shrieks out past his dead lips....

 

"THIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEF!!!!!!!

 

As the assembled monstrosities explode into a storm of wails and cries, the Sycophant, fallen to his knees in his torment, looks up past the chain, past the metal spheres, up to the banks of windows that border the half dome now opened to the night sky. There! A figure, a mortal, clad in all black, is halfway out an opened casement. It stops, glances back, and the eyes of the two meet. The Sycophants' right hand reaches out to grasp at the image, trembling with curdled rage and agony...and the window is empty.

Edited February 17, 2007 by Maximius

[STiFU]

Very nice Maximus!!

 

The game makes me wonder if at some point (VR, better graphics, etc.) games are going to start becoming a little too intense to play and will have to come with warnings for people with heart conditions (not joking).

 

I think games like Silent Hill and Resident are some of the titles which can be waaaaaay too intense. There were scenes where I had to stop playing and open my shutters or switch on the lights... Damn creapy. Same with Manhunt, especially when that pigman was after you. Fuck, those games really gave me the creeps. But they were a lot of fun to play. It's not the violence that is so damn scary but the atmosphere, while Manhunt was really veeeery violent... Doom 3 had it's shocking scenes and a great atmosphere, but it will never be as scary as the horrorgames i just mentioned.

[Maximius]

Very nice Maximus!!

 

 

Thanks man

[Komag]

That bathroom scene is actually right near the beginning of the game, so if you didn't see it then you missed it, sorry.