Two thousand and four. Seventeen years ago, but it seems like millennia. Not that Doom 3 has aged badly, on the contrary: many still think that it was the best choice that of abandon the original '93 graphics engine for id Tech, created ad hoc for this third chapter.
That "3", placed there, next to a name that a large group of fans had come to love, is almost a counterbalance to the various sequels / non-sequels that dot the current videogame scenario, from Horizon Forbidden West to Assassin's Creed without numbering now from the Black Flag of 2013, and, why not, to the Doom Eternal which evolves much (for some, too much) as it did from the "reboot" of 2016. That "3" was a promise, the promise of a return, but It wasn't, because Doom 3 was more of a spin-off than a true sequel. A brave choice? Absolutely yes, but also a rather profitable risk, so successful since making Doom 3, to date, the best-selling id Software title ever, with more than 3,5 million copies sold.
Of course, as often happens in the face of the courageous choices of some developers, now as then, the criticism was split in two from Doom 3, clearly divided between those who praised the more horror and less action nature of the title, and those who instead found too many infiltrations from the original Doom.
The review you are reading needed an introduction of this kind, suitable for better contextualize the 2004 game that in the past few days we have been able to try with our PSVR. So continue to follow us on this path, as if to virtually live yourselves what was the gaming experience of the writer of these words. As soon as the code arrived in the editorial office, the curiosity was a lot: in fact, the writer has never been able to enjoy, more by chance than by choice, the first Doom at best, coming into close contact with the franchise only with the 2016 reboot, relatively close to Doom 3 for the narrative plot but obviously its antipodes in terms of game flow, combat system and, inevitably, graphics performance.
Being able to review Doom 3 VR was an opportunity to enjoy a must of the genre and perhaps of the videogame world in its entirety, with all the inevitable comforts that time has been able to give; to make you understand, there was also a lot of frenzy in reconnecting the PSVR to the Sony console, including the skeins of cables which are as annoying as they are still unavoidable, if not with much more expensive VR systems.
PSVR set, PS Move charged, mind and heart ready for the frenzy of a Martian space station of 2145 assaulted by demonic forces… and here is the first stop.
An incompatibility, you will think, maybe an unexpected update or a badly positioned PS Camera: the thoughts that populate your head, right now, are exactly the ones that filled the head of the writer. Saving you the worry of the remote possibility that something was no longer working in the PSVR system, comes the discovery of the mystery: Doom 3 VR does not support PS Moves, thus relying on the DualShock 4 or a possible PS Aim Controller, which unfortunately the writer does not have and which therefore remains, for now, a completely what if experience.
The disappointment leaves us momentarily, we press "Start" and select "Doom 3", sure to remember that the "Resurrection of Evil" and "The Lost Mission" offered by the menu are two expansions, promising to play them after finishing the main campaign.
With the first sounds the sense of immersion is immediate, any doubts silenced, the previous disappointment is forgotten: Doom 3 VR feels like THE way to experience Doom 3, a horrifying experience from which we are as safe as the Doomguy himself, like him protected by a helmet, like him we find ourselves in a context so recognizable yet so alien. The introductory cutscenes are lived from the outside, our PSVR game camera that makes us witnesses of the deliberately concise narrative pretext that sees us on this Martian base one step away from being stormed by the infernal hordes ... and here is a new stop .
Movement is always one of the most hostile aspects for developers who decide to bring a first-person title to VR: often they opt to adhere to the safe standard (the binaries of Until Dawn: Rush of Blood), other times they go to solutions "Punk" but which also work in the context of the game mechanics (the "teleportation" of Batman: Arkham VR) and the few times in which the player is left free to move, the outcome is a "make it or brake it”Which takes on the contours of a Russian roulette, in terms of risks. Remember the introduction above that told you about calculated risks?
The free movement of the player, in Doom 3 VR, would be acceptable, in a vacuum, but it is the mode of rotation in the environment that leaves a bit stunned, even if including the limitations that the title can offer to the transposition in VR: the player it can in fact rotate with adjustable snaps (starting from 15 degrees, not a little, we assure you) or switch to free rotation. After a few attempts with the first, even with several adjustment tests, switching to the second seems to be the solution… it seems. The rotational movement, in free mode, is fluid but sees the creation of a sort of cone of darkness around the view of the player that disorients both the first time and the following, a number of movements that will barely see you pass the second corridor .
It is understandable, mind you, but we cannot justify a choice of this type on one of the pillar elements of every VR experience, especially since the result is a player who prefers to take "wrong" corridors rather than suffer the motion sickness of the umpteenth rotation.
Trying not to think about the feeling of being unwell we begin to explore the base, just in time to witness a new cutscene, a moment in which the camera, that is us, detaches itself from the avatar and backs away, witnessing the events from behind the Doomguy; a couple of dialogues, new movement of the cam and we enter (literally) in the head of our alter ego; a few corridors and here we go again. The sense of mental exhaustion disappears in an unexpected situation, that is one of the very few "open air" outings: let's be clear, we can hardly see anything on Mars, but it is outdoors that we realize that sound design is the first big "yes" of the experience, more immersive than what i have been able to do up to that moment new texture packs or the visual integration of VR itself.
It is perhaps the first moment in which we feel we are… “elsewhere”, which is basically a bit of the destination and purpose of virtual reality, right? Obviously there is no time, oxygen is starting to run low and we are sure that our health, now of convenient consultation thanks to an indicator placed on the left wrist of our virtual alter ego, would not be very grateful.
You go back indoors, within the walls of that base, and that's when we decide to explore the quality of the environments: we wander happy with the integration of the fixed torch (one of the shortcomings of the original Doom 3), we wander with curiosity and hope, the hope that even the dark corridors will be able to give us back the sense of immersion that the outside of the planet gave us a little while ago ... but it is the inorganic nature of the textures that extinguishes the flame of our enthusiasm. The more we stop to look, the more we recognize the difference between the reworked and refurbished level sections and those that have been left a little to themselves: in a title with more frenetic gameplay, perhaps we would not even have noticed it, or we would have let it go, but in a Doom 3 VR that makes the mood of the environments its strong point, like Doom 3 before itself, it is difficult to think of a valid reason for such an inconsistent management of visual assets.
They shrug their shoulders and move on, basically we're here because "fantastic things are about to happen" and we can't wait any longer.
“We get to the shooting, then it can't help but improve“. Did we ever tell you what the definition of insanity is, didn't we?
The portal opens, the ethereal skulls begin to roam the base and it's time to shoot the zombies ... and this is where the disappointment for the lack of support for PS Move returns. Doom 3 VR thus puts us in the conditions of having to shoot using the rotation of the DualShock 4: everything is so uncomfortable and clumsy as to abstract us from the experience again; the terror for yet another dark corridor populated by the excruciating screams of soldiers and scientists and by the sounds of a metal that seems to cry fades, watered down by the annoyance of that laser sight that never seems to be where we want, from that just wasted bullet, from the yet another zombie spawned behind us with the sole purpose of annoying us even more.
We would like to tell you that the experience, in the 13-14 hours that follow, improves and raises the fortunes of this Doom 3 VR, but it is not so; the arrival of the demons is logically unable to change the formula, e all the effort of sound design is nullified from the umpteenth shot of the BFG9000 failed. It is not nice to find ourselves using these terms or comparisons, but we will not lie to you: everything that, for audiences and critics, worked in Doom 3, in Doom 3 VR loses something, is diminished or diluted by an aspect or technical choice that unfortunately, in the VR context, it can only be exalted and consequently pilloried. Doom 3 VR is saved from an audio point of view, but very few other aspects deserve attention or applause.
We say this without shame or anger, just with a little frustration: at different times it was the need to bring the review to these pages that pushed us to hold on until the next corridor, the next demon, the next locker to open with a combination. Doom is not that, and it shouldn't be.
Doom 3 VR succeeds in something that we did not think was possible, especially not in a context like that of the id Software franchise: it makes the VR experience diminutive compared to the original (which we then relived precisely to dictate this comparison), managing to on almost the entire technical sector, and even in the basic game loop and in the gunplay, a veil of mediocrity that arises from mechanical choices that we can barely respect, but that we certainly do not push ourselves to share. Doom 3 VR feels like a cashgrab with no art or part, a title that has the only unexpected potential to push players to replay the original Doom 3. VR is clearly not a concept and design environment on which we can stick a game mechanic without obligation, assuming it works; the titles that in fact excel in VR, and in particular on PSVR, are those that recognize even only part of its potential, limits and needs, starting from the narrative sector, but not without knowing how to push even the meta-videogame one ( the sign language used by Moss' mouse, for example). It is right to draw the terms of comparison with other VR titles, after all we are here also and above all for this, and we regret having to subject Doom 3 VR to such a cruel examination, but the bar of VR experiences has been set and it is pretty high , and it is right that we, like you, know how to recognize that, of course, Doom 3 deserves better than this transposition, but that VR also deserves better.
