With bated breath I waited for Doom3 to hit the shelves, as by the looks of it Id was once again going to up the bar with an fps that would set new standards. With previous Id games it was clear that Id had a winner from the onset and plenty of lush licensing deals resulted from other companies using their game engine. This time around I ended up doubting what Id has been doing ever since the alpha got leaked. The final release of the game is hardly better than the leaked alpha, which they said was nothing but a rough version, that needed polishing. Sure, it looks okay, but after you’ve played games like FarCry, Doom3 is just another fps, nothing special. If it had been released a year ago, well before FarCry came out, this would’ve been different. So did we all wait in vain for that next generation killer game that’ll justify the purchase of those $500 videocards ATi and Nvidia have been touting?
Possibly, because even with a $500 videocard this game doesn’t look nearly as good as you’d expect. For example the artwork used in the game ranges from good looking to absolutely horrible, I mean why use low poly count artwork on walls and ceilings and objects, it sticks out like a sore thumb. And the characters are nice, but all of them seem to be running off of the old, and obsolete, Quake III engine, with the low poly-count to boot, making their heads and body parts have awkward, rectangular shapes. And then there’s fog, fire and shadows that look like they’ve been taken from a 90s game instead of the would-be blockbuster of 2004. Did Id rush this game out? Maybe, as they must’ve seen other developers announcing games that looked as good, or better than Doom3. FarCry for example must’ve raised quite a few eyebrows at Id. At the end of the day Doom3 is just yet another FPS, there really isn’t anything to get overly excited about.
