🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi,

I've been reading absolute shitload of criticism of Doom3 in this ng 
over the past week or so, after playing through a reasonable section of 
the game I thought I might make some comment on the major criticisms listed.

"The AI is terrible..."

I really can't see how people can say this, quite often now I have been 
attacked by a pair of ZSec guards and one has stood back ducking up and 
down behind a barrel or other cover providing covering fire as the other 
moves up to flank me. The AI on the other enemies I have encountered 
also seems relatively clever. The only Ai which I have played so far 
that is shithouse is the zombies, which is because they are zombies 
(anything that can still run at and attack me without a head is going to 
pretty stupid).

"The game is dark..."

I think some people must be having additional driver/brightness issues 
with this (much the same as the problems a lot of people had with Quake2 
when it first came out) but on my machine there is enough light to see 
what you are doing especially with judicious use of the shotgun. So far 
I've only had a few of the scenes lots of people are bitching about 
where i was shooting in the dark, one against a pack of zombies and 
another which was a cutscene/quest type bit of gameplay that I thought 
was pretty well done.

"OMGZ NO DUCT TAPE IN DA FUTURE HOW STOOPID ARE ID"

This is the kind of gameplay decision that gets done to death by game 
dev companies with every option considered. There is no flashlight on 
the weapons, to create the vulnerable feel in the player and a moody 
atmosphere. If you don't like this than I don't know exactly why you are 
playing doom3?

"Wow original storyline, that's so Halflife/FarCry"

Erm, yes. It was made public a fair while ago now that they were going 
to be using a new engine to retell the original Doom storyline the way 
it was originally intended to be told. Once again I don't know what 
people expected here but it would seem some might have been a little 
unrealistic.

"What's this storytelling bullshit I want to shoot something" / "Man 
there is not enough plot development it's just another shooter."

It would appear ID couldn't win here, on the one hand we have the 
fanboys who desperately want a game where you sit down blow the crap out 
  of things and then packup and go home. On the other hand are people 
who expect Doom 3 to be a grand tale of folk lore with advanced 
storytelling.

Imo through the PDA the storytelling could have been done better, but I 
suspect it was done so light on so that the first type of player who 
just wants to shoot things can do so without really having to look at 
the PDA emails etc. Also I think a lot of the first type of player are 
getting put off by the intro sequence that takes you through for a while 
without blowing anything up. Although this seems a bit un-doomish it 
seems to me that it sets you up for the chaos to put you off balance.

Anyway just my 2c, I think it's an awesome game and can't wait till 
tonight when I get a chance to play some more of it.

-Steve