Classic Doom 3

Today I’m going to take advantage of Southquarter’s expansion towards other games and their fans’ work. I’m going to review a Doom 3 mod. But no, it’s not going to be the all favorite and loved DarkMod that most Thief fans and FM authors highly demand. I’m going to take you back to the year 1993 – the remade 1993!

When id Software released Doom 3 in 2004, a certain amount of the DooM community members disapproved its different play stile, linearity, very dark environment and greatly missed the loads of enemies and fast-paced mindless action. I’m not one of those players, as I found a new immersive adventure in Doom 3. Still, in this context in September 2007 a free mod for the game was released by Flaming Sheep Software, to satisfy the above mentioned Doom fans. Its name is Classic Doom 3 and it does exactly what its name implies.

Knee-Deep in the Dead

The Doom series are made of memorable gaming quotes and moments. The mod targets a remake of “Knee-Deep in the Dead” – the first episode of Doom released in 1993 and again in 1995 as a part of Ultimate Doom. The treat is that this is the Doom 3 engine which means smoother gameplay, better graphics (subjective), the ability to use the mouse to look and aim and the ability to jump and duck (only useful in a handful of situations). All the classic maps from the Hangar to the secret level Military Base (or E1M1 to E1M9 as some people prefer) are present in this mod, with all the items and all the secrets. The classic difficulty settings’ names give the player the feeling he’s back in the old days.

But Flaming Sheep Software has gone beyond a simple remake and included a wonderful remixed version of the original soundtrack plus an original menu song, all made by Brian Kline aka Sonic Clang (E1M9 song was made by Thumpmonk). The soundtrack is so awesome that it was released as a separate mp3 download. The maps, although “copies” of the original Knee-Deep in the Dead levels, do feel more like a new experience. The id Tech 4 engine provides the ability of complex geometry, lightning and shadowing which gave the mod’s developers more possibilities to explore.

In addition to all of the above the dev team made a very nice and even comical at times into movie, complete with its own original voice acting. In this attempt to introduce a deeper story, the intro actually sets a very nice mood for the upcoming battles. The story goes pretty much as the original doom. The UAC scientists in their arrogance and miscalculation open a portal, in the Phobos research facility, trough which all sorts of nightmares and horrors emerge. The marines stationed on Mars board a spaceship and go to aid their fellows at Phobos. Our protagonist, the Doomguy, equips his legendary green armor and goes along for the fight. Soon after, all his fellows are either dead or possessed and from there the action begins. The objective is to survive and reach the hell portal, classically referred to as “The Anomaly”.

Let’s Rock!

As soon as the intro sequence is over you get right into the action. The old hardcore Doom fans will feel right at home when they recognize John Romero’s classic E1M1 map and hear the remake of the famous “At Doom’s Gate” soundtrack. The heavy metal theme gets one in the mood for fraging right away.

A single minute playing and I’m already getting into the different gameplay style. Opposed to the Doom 3 narrow corridors, scary silence and fewer enemies jumping from the darkness, here you get wide corridors, open spaces, loads of enemies and nice music to keep up the warrior theme. Comparing to Doom 3 it feels a bit awkward. But compared to the old Doom it feels like “rebirth” to aim and shoot with the mouse and strafe easily at the same time. You can actually shoot enemies positioned on a higher level from quite afar, instead of relying on the old Doom auto aim, where the computer decides whether you’re shooting up or down. In addition the weapons have no reloading and you can go outside without the loos of air. The exploding barrels are green colored and come in use quite frequently. I was also relieved by the lack of the constant search for small buttons or checking every monitor like it was in Doom 3. All the buttons and monitors are big and placed in plain view.

Many of the classical items reappear. The old blue health vial make your health go (and stay) beyond 100 which is another difference with Doom 3. Classic Doom has the Soul Sphere, the Mega Armor, the Berserker Power Up and the armor shards look like knight helmets. Still vital items like the Light Amp Goggles, Hazard Suit and the Invisibility Power Up are missing. Also I often find myself picking up a keycard without even realizing that I have done so. This leads to some confusion and slowdowns.

The maps are as action oriented as possible – wide and mostly bright, no harder puzzles than finding the door keys and tons of enemies. Still, I have to say that some of the areas feel quite dark. They are supposed to copy the same dark rooms, with flashing lights, in the old doom, but they just seem darker than they are supposed to. You enter a dark room with a red flashing light coming form the opposite wall and you desperately try to find all the items and shoot the demons. You hear them, but can hardly make out their silhouettes. This is the moment where you discover that you have no flash light, but you shouldn’t have it in the first place. All the areas should be as well visible as they were in John Romero’s time. It would have been nice if you had the old Light Amp Goggles or the option to use at least the Doom 3 flashlight. Also the lack of an overview map seems to make finding where to go even more difficult. The Knee-Deep in the Dead maps are rather short and simple, and a player who has played them will be very orientated, but new players may have a hard time. Just one more thing. Usually when I find some secrets in a specific map, it doesn’t acknowledge at the end of the level. It would help if there was some sort of indication like a “secret found” message at least.

Hurt Me Plenty

This mod has all the classical demons form the first Doom, in great numbers corresponding to the difficulty level. Well they still look as they do in Doom 3 and utilize the same A.I. which is a problem. Battling 10 Zombies with shotguns at the same time is one thing, but trying to kill them while they constantly dodge your fire, roll around and use cover is another. Even the hardcore Doom fan may find the higher difficulties a bit stressing. The monsters still pop out from dark corners and spawn from the depths of hell like in Doom 3 which give the players variety, but can be quite scary at times. The looping soundtrack brings the scare level to a minimum, focusing the game on action.

The weapons have been tweaked so now taking a bunch of Pinky Demons is not as much of a deal as it was in Doom 3. All the monsters have been somewhat changed in order to bring the old memories back. Some of the changes are very fun, like the Imp’s fire ball, which doesn’t arc and flies straight like in the old days. The old Monster infighting has been revived and now you can enjoy watching several Zombies tearing each other. Others are plain petrifying. For example I entered a dark corridor to get some Health Vials. Soon I heard a pinky behind me and prepared the shotgun. All of a sudden, something from thing air starts ripping me apart! It took me lees than 2 seconds to realize that the pinky was invisible. It had a nice cloak effect and was as easy to kill as all the other Pinkies, but that was the scariest moment I experiences in a game form quite a while. There is a lot of room for the player to maneuver and evade most of the demons, but there are places where you are in the middle of a toxic pool, with multiple invisible Pinkies and Imps attacking.

Conclusion

Pros: A fine Doom 3 modification bringing the fans back to the old days, with lots of new stuff and a nice hard soundtrack thrown in.

Cons: All of the issues I mentioned above are not enough to hamper the legendary warrior-like frag fest.

The mod is a nice short fraging experience and I can recommend it for the classical Doom gameplay fans for that. But Classic Doom has its own unique feel and can be a blast for even the not so faithful gamers as well.