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Doom 3 is a sci-fi horror first-person shooter computer game developed by id Software and published by Activision. Set in 2145 in the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) research center on Mars, it is a reimagining of the original Doom, with a completely new game engine and graphics.

The game was developed for Windows and ported to Linux in 2004; five months later, it was also released for Mac OS X (ported by Aspyr) and Xbox (co-developed by Vicarious Visions). The Xbox version is graphically similar to (although less detailed than) the original and features an additional two-player online co-operation mode.

An expansion, Resurrection of Evil, developed by Nerve Software and co-developed by id Software, was released on April 4, 2005.

A Doom movie, loosely based on the franchise, was released roughly six months later on October 21, 2005.

History

In June 2000, John Carmack posted a plan * announcing the start to a remake of Doom using next generation technology. This plan revealed controversy had been brewing within id over the decision.

Kevin Cloud and Adrian Carmack, two of id Software's owners, were always strongly opposed to remaking Doom. They thought that id was going back to the same old formulas and properties too often. However, after the warm reception of Return to Castle Wolfenstein and the latest improvements in rendering technology, most of the employees agreed that a remake was the right idea and confronted Kevin and Adrian with an ultimatum: "Allow us to remake Doom or fire us" (including John Carmack). After the reasonably painless confrontation (although artist Paul Steed, one of the instigators, was fired in retaliation), the agreement to work on Doom 3 was made.

The game was in development for 4 years. In 2001, it was first shown to the public at Macworld Conference & Expo in Tokyo * and was later demonstrated at E3 in 2002, where a 15-minute gameplay demo was shown in a small theater. It won five awards at E3 that year. Shortly after E3, a development version of the game leaked from ATI Technologies and quickly spread on the Internet. The game was also shown at the subsequent E3 exhibitions in 2003 and 2004, although id Software's website was not updated to include the Doom 3 project until America's autumn in 2003. According to some comments by John Carmack, the development took longer than expected. Originally, the game was planned for release around the same time as another highly anticipated game, Half-Life 2, in Christmas 2003.

Doom 3 achieved gold status on July 14, 2004, and a Mac OS X release was confirmed the next day on July 15, 2004. Doom 3 was released in the U.S. on August 3, 2004. Additionally, a Linux version was released on October 4, 2004. Due to high demand, the game was made available at select outlets at midnight on the date of release. The game was released to the rest of the world on August 13, 2004 (except for Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, where official localisation was delayed and caused the game to be released about four months later, on December 10, 2004).

Two days before its official release, Doom 3 was released by pirate groups onto the Internet where it became one of the fastest-spreading pirated games ever. As the game's focus is its single player mode, the need for a valid retail serial number for online multiplayer gaming was a weak deterrent against piracy. Other factors contributing to the high demand for the pirated version were the gamers' expectations for Doom 3 and delayed release outside of the U.S.

Features

According to John Carmack, the lead graphics engine developer at id, the "tripod of features" in Doom 3 technology are:

  • Unified lighting and shadowing
  • Complex animations and scripting that show off the real-time, fully dynamic per-pixel lighting and stencil shadowing.
  • GUI surfaces that add extra interactivity to the game

The key aspect of the Doom 3 graphics engine is the unified lighting and shadowing. Rather than computing or rendering lightmaps during map creation and saving that information in the map data, most light sources are computed on the fly. This allows lights to cast shadows even on non-static objects such as monsters or machinery, which was impossible with static lightmaps. A shortcoming of this approach is the engine's inability to render soft shadows and global illumination.

To create a more movie-like atmosphere, id interspersed the gameplay with many in-game animated sequences of monsters ambushing the player or just lurking around.

To increase the interactivity with the game-world, id designed hundreds of high-resolution animated screens for in-game computers. Rather than using a simple "use key", the crosshair acts as a mouse cursor over the screens allowing the player to use a computer in the game world. This allowed an in-game computer terminal to perform more than one function, such as a readily apparent door-unlocking button, and a more obscure function allowing an astute player to unlock a nearby weapons locker.

Other important features of Doom 3 engine were normal mapping and specular highlighting of textures, realistic handling of object physics, dynamic, ambient soundtrack and multi-channel sound.

Weapons

Italic text in this section is taken from the Doom 3 manual.

  • Fists — There's nothing like a little hand-to-hand combat. An entertaining way to kill a foe, or even an ally. As a mêlée weapon, the berserk powerup will turn a landed punch into a one-hit kill. In multiplayer, in addition to inflicting damage, one can steal another player's weapon by landing a punch.
  • Flashlight — Power fluctuations and maintenance issues continue to create poor lighting at the UAC Facility and flashlights are now required for all security forces. Also works as a club in close combat. Fortunately, the flashlight's battery is infinite and so is its durability for bashing enemies. The combat differences from fists are: double the damage, slightly more range, but slower rate of fire. As a mêlée weapon, the flashlight can kill with one blow if the user has the berserk powerup.
  • Pistol — Standard marine issue semi-automatic pistol. It's highly accurate and provides solid stopping power without expending too much ammo. The pistol is commonly used to conserve other types of ammunition or as a backup weapon when a primary weapon's magazine is exhausted in action. In multiplayer, the pistol is the player's starting weapon.
  • Shotgun — The weapon of choice for close combat. Use sparingly for medium or long-range targets. Due to this weapon's extremely high spread (22 degrees in single player), the shotgun is a very poor weapon outside short range. However, the great damage that the shotgun can inflict at point-blank makes it one of the most useful weapons, capable of dispatching most standard enemies with one well-aimed shot. In multiplayer, the shotgun's spread has been reduced to half (11 degrees), increasing its effectiveness at range.
  • Machinegun — A high rate of fire, good accuracy and excellent power makes this a perfect weapon for medium and long-range enemies and quick targeting. With only 1° spread and a large magazine size of 60, the machinegun is the best weapon for dishing out a string of headshots that can bring most enemies down in seconds. In Resurrection of Evil multiplayer, the machinegun is the player's starting weapon.
  • Chaingun – This is a great short to medium range rapid-fire weapon as each bullet inflicts twice as much damage as the machinegun, but however also has more spread. In multiplayer, the chaingun's spread has been reduced to a mere 1 degree, thus making it the prime long-range weapon.
  • Handgrenade — A very bouncy type (three quarters bouncyness), these yellow, cylindrical grenades detonate either on an enemy or three seconds after being primed. There is no danger of one being obstructed by or detonating on the user due to proximity. In multiplayer, the player starts with two handgrenades.
  • Plasma Gun — The Series 3 Plasma Gun has a magazine size of 50 and shoots blue orbs of plasma. Doom 3s version of the plasma gun is similar to that of the original Dooms for the latter, and also as it is rapid-fire (albeit not quite as rapid) without any spread. However, the projectile velocity has been considerably reduced, making it an unsuitable weapon for long range. In multiplayer, the plasma gun's clip size has been reduced to 30 but its damage per projectile has become greater. Because of its large shot size, the plasma gun is useful for putting up "flak", which can render ineffective a wide variety of explosive projectiles.
  • Rocket Launcher — Launches a fast projectile that deals great damage to the victim of a direct hit and adds splash damage to those near the explosion. In single player, the additional height gained by rocketjumping is very small.
  • BFG 9000 ("Big Fucking Gun"; "Bio Force Gun" in the film) — an extremely powerful energy charge weapon, very capable of room-clearing. One fully-charged blast will overkill almost all enemies on a direct hit, and most cannot survive within a few meters (in contrast to the 15 meters described by the UAC video). Each projectile beams a damaging ray to enemies and contains a microchip core to determine friend or foe. When the microchip shatters, the projectile automatically detonates. Caution: the BFG 9000 can be overcharged and will instantly kill the user if done. The BFG is not found in the standard Doom 3 multiplayer maps, but is still modified to fire a slower projectile in multiplayer.
  • Chainsaw — The very powerful mêlée weapon with a blade that never dulls. Named the "Beaver Tooth", presumably in reference to its standard non-combatal use for cutting through wood. Most enemies fall to the sawing in mere seconds. As a mêlée weapon, the chainsaw can be used with the berserk powerup to kill instantly on impact. The chainsaw is not included in the standard Doom 3 multiplayer maps.
  • Soul Cube — The Soul Cube is a supernatural weapon whose provenance is explained by a detailed backstory within the plot of the game. Employment of the Soul Cube releases a whirling blade-type weapon that automatically homes in on the enemy with greatest health, delivering 1,000 hit points to the target (instantly killing all but the bosses), and restores the player's health according to the health of its victim prior to the attack. The Soul Cube becomes "charged" for use after the player has killed 5 enemies, and any more will not further charge the Cube. Upon being charged, the player is alerted by the Cube's spoken advice, "Use us." After use, the Cube must be recharged again with 5 kills. The Soul Cube is useless in multiplayer and not included in the standard Doom 3 multiplayer maps.

Story

Similar to the story of the original Doom, the game focuses on the marine who is transferred to Mars and sent out on a routine mission. In contrast to its earlier disdain for storytelling, this time id Software employed a professional science-fiction writer Matthew Castello to write the script and assist in story-boarding the entire game. id focused on retelling the story and creating a tense horror atmosphere. The game's events and atmosphere show a great deal of influence from George Romero's Living Dead series and James Cameron's Aliens, as well as Valve Software's Half-Life.

Unlike in previous id games, there are now cut scenes that give purpose and context for the player's actions and introduction to new enemies. Similar to other science fiction action/horror games such as System Shock, System Shock 2 and Aliens versus Predator 2, hundreds of text, voice, and video messages are scattered throughout the base. The messages are internal e-mails and audio reports sent between lab workers, administrators, maintenance staff, and security personnel at the Mars base. The messages explain the background story, show the feelings and concern of the people on the Mars base and reveal information related to plot and gameplay. Video booths and televisions give planetary news, corporate propaganda, visitor information and technical data about the base.

The story of Doom 3 surrounds the discovery of ancient ruins underneath Martian soil. Tablets found at these sites record how an ancient Martian race developed a form of teleporter technology. They realized an important fact all too late, however; the route the teleporter took passed through Hell. Quickly invaded by demons, this alien race created and sacrificed themselves to a weapon known as the Soul Cube. This cube, powered by the souls of almost every being of this alien race, was used by their strongest warrior to defeat and contain the demons in Hell.

Having done so, the remainder of the alien race constructed warnings to any who visited Mars, warning them not to recreate this technology; to avoid opening another gate to Hell. They then teleported to an unknown location, fleeing Mars; there are hints that at least some of them fled to Earth, and that humans descended from them. It's stated that the demons once inhabited Earth in an unknown context, but lost possession of it due to an unknown cause. Consequently, the demons want to reclaim Earth.

The UAC, discovering the Soul Cube and the warnings, used them to invent the same teleporter technology. Discovering that they opened a gate to Hell, scientists decided to explore further (encouraged by the head scientist, Malcolm Betruger), sending teams in and even capturing living specimens from the realm at great loss of life. The portal experiments also had strange and disturbing effects on the Mars City research facility where the experiments were conducted. Scientists and workers, unaware of the nature of the work being performed by Dr. Betruger and his team, frequently reported strange phenomena and unlikely industrial accidents. A general sense of paranoia and fear spread throughout the facility, leading many workers to request a greater marine presence and/or weaponry accessible by themselves.

In response to numerous industrial accidents, complaints, and requests for transfers off Mars, the UAC on Earth sends Counselor Elliot Swann to investigate these problems. Accompanying Swann are his personal bodyguard Jack Campbell (with attaché case) and a single marine (the player). Upon checking in, the marine is called to Marine HQ to meet Master Sergeant Thomas Kelly, the marine commander of the facility. He sends the marine to track down a missing member of the science team. On the way, he overhears a tense meeting between Swann and Betruger.

The marine finds the scientist in a decommissioned communications facility, preparing to send out a warning message about Betruger's extreme portal experiments. The message warns that Betruger's tests are threatening to overload the portal's containment fields, which would create a catastrophic scenario. The scientist was unable to finish and send his message before the next portal experiment.

As soon as the portal opens, Betruger takes the Soul Cube into Hell and apparently made an unknown kind of deal with the creatures there. Under his direction, the demons again invade Mars, confident that the only key to their defeat lay safe in their hands. The marine and scientist watch on the monitors and radio as chaos erupts throughout the base. The marine watches as a fellow marine in the Delta Labs is possessed by a demon, as another flies through the screen to possess the scientist. Under Sergeant Kelly's orders to all units, the marine returns to Marine HQ. Along the way, the marine overhears radio chatter as various teams attempt to coordinate their efforts or give their last screams for help.

Returning to Marine HQ, the marine is sent by Kelly to assist Bravo Team (one of the few surviving squads) in reaching the Communcations Tower in order to send a distress signal to the fleet. The path to the tower leads through the Alpha Labs and Energy Production plant, both of which are heavily infested with demons. The attack has left most of the Mars base population either dead or as zombified slaves. Most marines who had survived the first attack were wiped out by the demons and the undead Mars security forces in a matter of minutes.

After entering Administration, the marine overhears another conversation between Swann and Betruger. Insisting on taking over command of the situation, Swann is rebuffed by Betruger, announcing that he will handle things personally from the Delta Labs. Swann realizes he must take matters into his own hands, and Campbell opens his case to commence "Plan B."

As the marine nears the motor pool for the transfer to the communcations tower, he learns that Swann is also heading for the communcations tower, but Swann wishes to prevent the transmission to the fleet. Unable to find Bravo Team's communications card, he moves on. The marine is catching up, but was not able to get to the comm. tower's control room before Campbell destroys the computers with his BFG9000. Believing they have succeeded in stopping the transmission, they head off towards the Delta Labs, where the main portal (and source of the invasion) is located. However, the marine is able to find a way into the satellite control room and access the transmitter directly. The transmission calls for a full ground engagement with no orbital bombardment. Swann contacts the marine and tells him to abort the trasmission, arguing that until they understand what they are up against, the base must remain cut off from the outside world. Kelly presses the marine to send it. The marine must make a choice.

After leaving the communcations tower, the skyway to Delta Labs is crushed by an invisible power, forcing the marine to find an alternate route through the waste treatment plant. In the plant, he learns that Betruger plans to wipe out the reinforcements that are on their way, and then use their ships to take the demons to Earth in order to conquer it. If the marine aborted the transmission at the tower, Betruger announces that we will send the distress signal himself. Betruger then attempts to trap the marine in the plant, which is filling up with toxic gas.

Surviving the attack and fighting his way out of the plant and through the monorail station, the marine ultimately reaches the Delta Labs, where the main portal is located. The marine also learns of the Soul Cube and the portal to Hell where it is held.

The marine, pursuing the Soul Cube, is sent into Hell by Betruger via the main portal in the Delta Labs. After losing all his weapons during the teleportation, he rigorously picks up the scattered weapons while fighting his way through the demons. Finally reaching the Soul Cube who asks the marine, "Save us," he is confronted by the The Guardian of Hell — a gigantic, near-blind demon who uses smaller creatures, named seekers, to "see." With the Guardian of Hell defeated, the marine takes the Soul Cube back through the teleporter to Mars, where he learns that his actions have made Betruger unable to use the teleporter technology.

Resurfacing at the Delta Complex, the marine must again find his weapons, and battle the remaining demons in the base. Betruger, upset by his loss of the teleporter and the Soul Cube, vengefully tells the marine of a natural portal to Hell which could transport millions of his minions from Hell. On the way to the new portal, the marine encounters Counselor Swann, who is found wounded and unable to move. Swann, who is unwilling to allow the invasion of Earth, grants his PDA to the marine, and directs him to go through Central Processing and then to the caverns, where the portal is located. Swann warns that Sarge is no longer human and that Campbell has gone to find him.

In Central Processing, Campbell is found dying on the floor without a weapon. As he dies, a demonic voice begins to taunt the marine, who is approaching the mortifying monster. Once the arena is treaded on, the BFG-wielding Sabaoth reveals himself as a mutated hybrid of Sarge and a military tank. After the battle is over, the spoils — the BFG9000 — is seized by the marine as he advances to Site 3 and transfers to the caverns.

At the Primary Excavation site of the caverns, the portal to Hell has been opened at the site of the alien ruins. There, the marine uses the Soul Cube to defeat "Hell's mightiest warrior", the horrific Cyberdemon, and seal the portal. The ending scene shows the marine (revealed in Doom 3's expansion pack, Resurrection of Evil, to be the only survivor) being rescued by the fleet, and Betruger reincarnated as a dragon-like demon called the Maledict.

Atmosphere

The most important element in the gameplay and action of Doom 3 is the atmosphere. Most of the levels are very dark, to create the feeling of helplessness and scare the player. It also relies heavily on lighting effects to set the mood.

The in-game story explanation for the pitch-darkness is as follows. The portals to Hell could only be sustained for a short period of time, which was nowhere near enough to conduct any serious experiments. To rectify this, the power grid was illegally tampered with, diverting a significant amount of power from the non-critical systems (Such as Lighting) of the rest of the facility to allow the machinery to sustain the portals for a much longer time. This did not go unnoticed however; the staff were becoming increasingly suspicious of the massive amount of power being drawn (The huge energy consumption caused frequent overloads on power-grid components).

Creatures may appear just as well unexpected as anticipated. Surprising ambushes, usually from dark places, tend to shock players and test their reflexes. On the other hand, exploring new areas against a background of theme music makes the player expect a monster to appear behind each corner.

Emergence of stronger enemies (bosses) is backed up by new lighting effects and/or cutscenes. To achieve best effect, this usually happens in a dark room or the room darkens suddenly.

Almost the whole game takes place indoors, which provides many opportunities for surprise. A frequent phenomenon throughout the original Doom game is the "Monster Closet", where a door disguised as a wall suddenly opens and an enemy issues forth in an attempt to startle the player.

Hardware requirements

For a modern game with an advanced graphics engine, Doom 3 had suitably high minimum system requirements. Early during development it was widely expected that the recommended video cards would be DirectX 8 capable, such as Radeon 8500/9000 and GeForce 3 (where Doom 3 made its debut in 2001), but nearing release those cards only constituted near-minimum requirements. Early reports also indicated that there was supposed to be legacy support for the widespread DirectX 7 technology such as the Radeon 7200 and GeForce 2, but at release, the GeForce 4 MX was the only DirectX 7 chip officially supported.

It was widely reported on various review sites that a minimally recommended 1.5 GHz processor coupled with a GeForce 2 MX graphics card achieved satisfactory performance with the game (about 20 frame/s in low resolution). The Macintosh version runs satisfactorily even on a 1.25 GHz G4 PowerBook with an NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5200 GPU.

However, to make full use of the game engine, newer hardware is required. A high-end CPU (based on those available in 2004 or later) coupled with the GeForce 7800 graphics card or ATI's Radeon X1800 benchmark well over 100 frame/s in 1024x768 resolution. A 6600GT however will also easily play the game on the same hardware at those speeds under the same conditions in most situations.

While the game's packaging declared that 384MB RAM was required to run the game, it was highly recommended that around 1GB RAM be present in the machine. Having 512MB RAM or lower would cause the game to freeze for lengthened periods of time when entering a new room, due to the textures being preloaded into the limited memory. This could, however, be avoided by reducing the texture size to medium, which was recommended for video cards with 128MB of RAM in any case, and keeping the resolution at 800x600 or 640x480. It is possible, but difficult, to achieve smooth gameplay at 1024×768 with detail set to high on a machine with 512 MB RAM.

Reception

Few games have polarized gaming as much as Doom 3 has, causing the two group's reactions to the game to be wildly different.

Critical and hardcore reception

The most often named gameplay shortcomings of the game are:
  • Reliance on traditionally overused horror techniques such as pitch black darkness, limited use of the flashlight and stock horror movie clichés, which some feel makes the game frustrating to play rather than scary or atmospheric
  • Repetitive gameplay, similar linear levels during parts of the game
  • Slow movement unlike the faster play speed of Doom, Doom 2 and the Quake series
  • No ability to use the flashlight and the weapon at the same time (known as "No duct tape on Mars" problem), whereas today many real-life weapons have hands-free light attachments (however, many light-mods on the internet add a flashlight to the guns)
  • Somewhat stale storytelling techniques, forcing the player to read or listen to messages by hiding access codes in them, and a shortage of cut-scenes providing story exposition
  • Poor monster AI, over-reliance on scripted sequences
  • Somewhat limited use of physics
  • Slow ammo reload times that too often caused ranged fights to become blind button-mashing melees
  • A small multiplayer deathmatch mode of only a few people, although Doom 3 was attempting to focus on the single player experience.
  • No official cooperative gameplay in the PC version whereas the original Doom contained a cooperative mode.
It has been argued that a few of these criticisms are based on expectations for other types of FPS games. During development, Doom 3 was often compared with the equally anticipated Half-Life 2. Some have argued that since Doom 3 was released before Half-Life 2, many have come to expect things from it that they previously had expected from Half-Life 2. For example, the common complaint about Doom 3's lack of environment interactivity could be considered a subtle complaint that Doom 3 doesn't have a Half-Life 2-style "Gravity Gun", a weapon which can be used to throw or push many objects in the world, including small objects, cars, and organic lifeforms. Ironically, Doom 3 was said to have a "Gravity Gun" item designed long before Half-Life 2, but was not in the game proper. This weapon appears in the Doom 3 expansion known as Resurrection of Evil, which has drawn the ire of those who feel id is pandering to Half-Life 2 fans.

However, it is worth noting that longtime Doom and Quake players found this particular criticism to be somewhat spurious and based upon wishful thinking, particularly on the part of those who never played the original Doom and Doom II games. Speculation and hype from the game press likely did not help. Doom and Quake had a particular shooter formula, run and gun as it is called; fast and furious with little interactivity beyond that. While Doom 3 may have ignored some of these established conventions, infuriating hardcore fans of the series, it was never intended to be a Half-Life 2 clone. (Also see "Rebuttals to critical reception" below.)

Some critical reviewers consider that the technological level of Doom 3 is similar to that of other games of 2004, and that features such as bump mapping had already become industry standard. For example, an often mentioned feature of Doom 3, per-pixel lighting and stencil shadowing, had already been implemented in many games released in 2003, even a budget title from Activision Value called Security Breach.

Rebuttals to critical reception

Many gamers claim the apparent shortcomings are not shortcomings at all, but are integral to the gameplay id determined to display for Doom 3.

Since Doom 3 is a remake of the original Doom—a game which did not have high-end concepts common in today's more complex games—remaking Doom with too much complexity would remove a key component that made Doom popular in the first place.

In addition, the flashlight is a key element of Doom 3's gameplay: the player must balance between seeing the enemy, and defeating it. In the default game (without any modifications added), almost every monster has glowing eyes, or some aspect of bioluminescence which offers a target for the player. Modifying the weapons to project light, results in the mystery of "the unknown" to be less potent and frightening. Additionally, muzzle flashes can be enabled for marginally better visibility while firing.

Another rebuttal concerns the story of Doom 3, which is done through the use of audio and video logs. Using logs like this harkens back to the age of System Shock 2 and aids the progression of the story. Interestingly, it has been commented that normally the type of gamer who has played System Shock 2 is the breed of gamer who would be expected to be critical of the comparatively simple Doom 3. Ken Levine, lead designer of System Shock 2 said of the logs in Doom 3 "It amazed me when I played Doom 3 that they didn't mix their recordings into the ambient space of the world. The people sound like they're in a recording booth.""The Vault: System Shock 2". PC PowerPlay (January 2006), pp.108.

Despite its apparent flaws, the game was still a commercial success for id Software, with the planned total revenue estimated by Activision at $20 million. The financial success was bolstered by the near-record number of pre-orders placed for the game. id Software also typically benefits from licensing the engine to other developers. Several games are already being developed using a modified Doom 3 engine, including Quake 4, Quake Wars, Castle Wolfenstein (tentative title) and Prey.

As of August 17, 2005 Doom 3 has garnered an average review score of 88%, according to 81 media outlets on GameRankings.com. By the same source, it is in the top 10 PC games of 2004.

List of levels

There are 27 levels in Doom 3. Most of them are quite large and typically require under an hour each on a player's first run through the game.

  1. Introduction (Mars City 1): A short tutorial on the basic features of the game. The player also picks up the first assignment from Sergeant Kelly ("Sarge").
  2. Mars City Underground: A shorter tutorial covering a few more features in the game. In the communications building, the atmosphere becomes awry; the shooting begins here. The imp is introduced at a cutscene.
  3. Mars City (Mars City 2): The same level as the Introduction, but after the demon invasion.
  4. UAC Administration: The pinky (demon) is introduced at a cutscene. The chaingun is also makes its first appearance in a Martian Buddy cabinet. Monsters start to teleport in the base, beginning where the growth taking over the base is first seen.
  5. Alpha Labs – Sector 1: Built in 2095 and located on Site 2, Alpha is the UAC's center research lab. Sector 1 houses the EPD (Elemental Phase Deconstructor) and the Hydrocon. Maggots are introduced.
  6. Alpha Labs – Sector 2: Trites give their first appearance soon after the first web sighting. There is a glimpse of the Bravo Team through a window.
  7. Alpha Labs – Sector 3: Contains a secret plasma rifle on ceiling pipes as well as an optional hallway with the chaingun.
  8. Alpha Labs – Sector 4: The player must navigate either the EFR or the bridge. There is the infamous "they took my baby" sequence, the plasma gun is available from a hidden location, and the Vagary (first boss) appears at the end.
  9. Energy Processing (EnPro): Bravo Team cutscene. The lost soul is introduced in a cutscene, and wraiths begin to appear later on. Some rooms are less claustrophobic but more acrophobic. As the EnPro plant produces plasma cells as a byproduct, an abundance thereof is scattered throughout. Swann and Campbell give up their attempt to intercept the marines sent to transmit a distress call, and therefore travel by vehicle to the communications complex.
  10. Communications Transfer: There are several outdoor areas. The first cacodemon appears at the start, and the chainsaw zombie makes its first appearances here. The berserk powerup appears for the first out of two times in the game.
  11. Communications: The player is confronted with the decision to transit or cancel the distress call.
  12. Monorail Skybridge (Recycling – Sector 1): Where trash is processed in the UAC. The Revenant is introduced in a cutscene, and this is the only level with toxic waste pools.
  13. Recycling – Sector 2: A trap is sprung on the player by Betruger, slowly filling the building with toxic gases. The mancubus is introduced in a cutscene, and cherubs make their first appearances.
  14. Monorail: Commando zombies are introduced in the opening cutscene. The player must reach the Delta Labs by monorail.
  15. Delta Labs – Level 1: This level contains no demon altercations of any kind for quite some time upon entering it. The player must initiate power by turning on main reactor.
  16. Delta Labs – Level 2A: Player goes through the teleporter for the first time. The BFG9000 is first received.
  17. Delta Labs – Level 2B: Arch-Viles begin to appear, shortly after their haunting cackles are heard.
  18. Delta Labs – Level 3: The player is hot on the heels of Betruger and travels through several second-generation teleporter units.
  19. Delta Labs – Level 4: Hell Knights are introduced in the cutscene. Betruger sends the player to Hell through the main teleporter after the battle.
  20. Hell: The player has lost all weapons and ammo through the teleporter. The player must trek through Hell in order to defeat the Guardian (second boss) and retrieve the Soul Cube.
  21. Delta Complex (Revisited): The player has once again lost all weapons and ammo. From hereon, there will be no more zombies other than commandos. The ticks make their first and only appearance.
  22. Central Processing: The effects of the growth in the base are evident.
  23. Central Processing (Server Banks): The player fights the third boss, Sabaoth, the demon transformation of Sergeant Kelly. Sabaoth has integrated Campbell's BFG into his cybernetic tank-body, and uses it against the player. After defeating Sabaoth, the player acquires Campbell's BFG.
  24. Site 3: Where archaeological entities are brought to and where the research is done. This is the last level where the surface of Mars is visible.
  25. Caverns – Level 1: The player advances towards the primary excavation site, where the Hell portal is located. Level 1 contains the oldest, original Mars base.
  26. Caverns – Level 2: Features an ancient Martian temple. The Vagary makes another appearance at the end, and may come in a pair.
  27. Primary Excavation (Hellhole): The player must defeat the fourth and final boss, the Cyberdemon, in order to seal the Hell portal. An exploratory player may find the hidden "id Software" PDA, containing messages from several id Software employees.

Software patent controversy

A week before the game's release, it became known that an agreement to include EAX audio technology in Doom 3 reached by id Software and Creative Labs was heavily influenced by a software patent owned by the latter company. The patent dealt with a technique for rendering shadows called Carmack's Reverse, which was developed independently by both John Carmack and programmers at Creative Labs. id Software would have been putting themselves under legal liability if they used the technique in the finished game, so to defuse the issue, id Software agreed to license Creative Labs sound technologies in exchange for indemnification against lawsuits. *

Web-integration

Shortly following the announcement of Doom 3's development, a promotional website was released that serves as the homepage of the fictional corporation operating on Mars in the game. Until the announcement of gold status, the site served as a teaser; later a countdown to the release date was added. The website for Martian Buddy, a fictional corporation prominently featured in the game, was also revealed before the game launch.

Some other developers have also created websites for in-game companies in the past. For example, Rockstar Games created sites for most companies mentioned in commercials on the in-game radio in Grand Theft Auto.

E3

Doom 3 was announced at E3 2001, and the gameplay demo was shown in both E3 2001, Quakecon 2002, and E3 2002. At E3 2002 and Quakecon id showed an interactive demo. This version, known as the alpha version, was leaked on the Internet likely by ATI.* id Software developers were extremely concerned as the build was bug-ridden due to the fact it was still in alpha stage. Despite fears of poorer sales, the game went on to sell well.

Linux

Doom 3 continued id's long track record of creating games that were Linux compatible. This was primarily a result of id's decision to use the OpenGL standard for the graphics engine as opposed to Microsoft's proprietary Direct3D API which is only available for the Windows line of operating systems. The executable for the Linux version can be found on id's FTP or BitTorrent server. It can also be downloaded from TTimo also has a Wiki with information regarding the Linux version [http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/linux/doom/" target="_blank" >*.

Development team

Some work was done by outside specialists:

References

Trivia

  • The id Software PDA is on the last level as an easter egg.
  • The Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3 arcade game is in the kitchen on Mars City (the switch is on the back).
  • Tim Willits, the lead designer on Doom 3, started his career making maps for the original Doom and releasing them on the internet for free. id liked his work and hired him as a designer in 1995.
  • Steve Blum, a popular American voice actor who is best known for playing Spike Spiegel in the anime series Cowboy Bebop, appears in Doom 3 playing various marines, technicians and zombies.
  • There were over 500,000 lines of script code and over 25,000 image files generated in the process of creating all of the graphical interfaces, computer screens, and displays throughout Doom 3.
  • The Soul Cube first appeared as part of the origin design for the id game Quake by lead game designer John Romero. It was quickly removed from the game once other members of the id team decided to make Quake as a FPS similar to the original Doom games.
  • The storyline was originally going to include another human antagonist called General Hayden, who would become corrupted by demonic influences and manipulate Sergeant Kelly, ultimately leading the Sergeant to his own downfall and corruption. Hayden would seem like the main villain until the player hunted him down and defeated him in Hell, only to return to Mars and find Betruger the true mastermind and leader behind the invasion. Hayden was removed from later drafts of the storyline in order to simplify the main characters for the sake of game flow.
  • There is a reference to the British sit-com The Office in the game. One of the PDAs contains a message addressed to "Finchy" from "Brent" wherein they discuss tactics for an upcoming quiz night, with a recommendation that they brush up on their Shakespeare to avoid being beaten by a team from administration for a second time. This refers to a first season episode in which Brent and Finchy's team lost to Tim and Ricky on a Shakespeare-related tie-breaker.
  • The first ever Doom 3 multiplayer competition was held at the Assembly demo party, only a few days after the game's release.

Awards

E3 2002 Game Critics Awards: Best of Show, Best PC Game, Best Action Game, Special Commendation for Sound, Special Commendation for Graphics

External links

Mods

Community Maps

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Doom 3".

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