Well over the weekend my curiosity got the better of me, so I installed the Doom III demo onto my rig. This demo consisted of 8 playable levels but lacks ATI driver support each level must be loaded via the in game command line.
Here are my thoughts on what I played (I am keeping in mind this was a DEMO)
First off Doom III looks great, we have all seen the screens and they are accurate, eye candy a plenty in this game. There are some amazing cuts scenes integrated into the game play that is jaw dropping being rendered by the engine.
Now here is where it goes down hill, (yeah i know that did not take long). The Monsters are cool looking and scary as they should be and I did jump at one point because I was surprised! After that it got old. Run around a corner surprise monster! eeeeeeeek! Rinse and repeat.
There is a feeling of claustrophobia when playing this game, I am a big fan of Far Cry the one thing I love about that game is the open feeling you get when you can take ANY approach to a level you want. In Doom 3 you have hallway after hallway. At one point I felt as if I should have a light gun instead of a keyboard and mouse.
I hope that when the game is finished there will be some areas to explore and some open terrain.
The AI in this Demo is something I have to address, its just plain bad. Now granted they probably were/are working on the engine and other things other and the AI, but I was able to walk up to Monsters and shoot them in the face after waiting 3 sec’s. Also I basically waved at an enemy to come down a hallway so I could ambush them. I waited and waited and waited they did not want to follow me.
I know this is a game a lot of people have been waiting for, myself included. However when I play a demo I know then and there if I will be buying a game @ release or not.
Doom III is not a game I will pick up at launch. The game just does not set itself apart to me. Far Cry set the bar for next gen FPS’ the feeling I have is Doom 3 meets the bar.
All in all I enjoyed playing it, but it was a dose of reality for me. I encourage people to get out there and find this demo; make the call on your own.
Happy Gaming All.

Tested on “m0nk3y”
AMD 3000+ @ 2.16
1024 mb @ 2700
ATI 9800 pro (latest drivers)