Originally posted by Matrix:
Yoshi, you really need to play Doom3 before making certain remarks. E.g. Doom3 has oxygen-suits for when walking outside.
I figured as much since this was a prevailent theme in D1. I'll get around to trying it eventually but I don't need to play it to get a pretty good idea of what's up with the game; between reviews, screen shots, walk-thoughs, etc., most of the game is pretty much covered...and I haven't even read a fraction of the stuff there is on this product (hence my overlooking certain details). Point is, there doesn't seem to be that much in the way of innovation (i.e. what makes D3 different from any other FPS other than the theme and graphics).
For instance, one thing that new releases tend to market is new game modes. Instead of just sticking to the usual MP free-for-all, the game could try something like a mesh of SP play and the freedom of MP--of course, with the bot number limitation, stuff like that becomes less likely.
Another thing that sells is new player abilities: something that gamers have been asking for for a long time that would go really well with a game of this nature is dual-weapon multi-directional fire (i.e. a gun in each hand but with the ability to fire each in a seperate direction--probably by clicking the alternate mouse button to switch between them). Just imagine demons coming out of every corner and you (the marine), arms outstretched, alternating fire between two SMGs in every dierection--the awsomness factor of the game would double.
The other thing is that from what I hear, the demons are on the ground most of the time. That is, id hasn't used that amazing engine to have demons walking along ceilings and stuff like that, thus making for truely 3D action--not to mention that having to look up as well as around corners adds heavily to the fear factor of the game.
The environment really is creapy in my observation. The only thing I agree with is that you never have to fight more than 3 demons at the same time. Cos there's nothing more thrilling than mowing down a battery of demons...
Although the demon limit is unfortuanate (no 50+ demon slaughterhouses like in D1), but there are ways of adding to the challenge without necessarily having to resort to AI swarming tactics as I mentioned in my previous post.
The atmosphere may intend to be creepy because of the darkness, background noise and the threat of a demon being triggered by each panel you access (you may even be fooled some of the time), but the reality is that you are not really being challenged. It's only really freaky when you start to feel that you can make decisions and that the wrong ones will end you up in a world of hurt. Not that D1 did that, but today's players are way past D1's automated triggering of demon swarms and want something that will offer a new level of depth to the action on the screen--just look at which games have been extremely successful and which ones have flopped miserably to get an idea as to what kind of leaps players are expecting.
