Are marines UCA's employees?

[Viscra Maelstrom]

Embarrassing? Really? Its not THAT bad...

it's an okay game. it's certainly not as bad as Other M, which tore apart just about everything the series were standing for. and it was a series of, IMO, consistently good games.

i do agree with wildweasel that it's supposed to be a scary game, but i never felt scared about it. it's probably the reason why Classic Doom 3 worked so well, because it was a set of run and gun maps with moody music in the background. hell, while it's not the same genre, Resident Evil 4 did it better, because it wasn't confused over what it wanted to be (even though IMO it's not a very scary game, but Resident Evil as a whole has never struck me as a very scary series, even though it's supposed to be.)

[NeuralStunner]

My problem with Doom 3 is that they did not commit to their genre change. I would have been okay with them doing slower movement and fewer, more dangerous monsters, if only they weren't giving you ammo hand-over-fist and resorting to "classic-style" ambushes instead of being more creative with them.

Agreed. It can't decide if it's an action shooter, tactical shooter, or survival horror shooter, and pretty much fails at being any of them. You mention ambushes: I got to the point where you're locked in a tiny room, and an imp is dropped in (through a cutscene during which you cannot react). With the weapons you're given up to that point, it's basically impossible to avoid taking a hit (since it won't flinch and you don't have room to evade).

I uninstalled it.

Doom 3 = Doom minus everything good about Doom. It's like sex if you took away the personal intimacy and erotic stimulation and were left only with some vague sense of social validation[...]

Puts me in mind of the future "sex helmets" in Demolition Man.

[Gez]

Reminder: here's Doom's story:

Code: Select all

------------------------------------------------------------
THE STORY SO FAR
------------------------------------------------------------
You're a marine, one of Earth's toughest, hardened in 
combat and trained for action. Three years ago you assaulted 
a superior officer for ordering his soldiers to fire upon 
civilians. He and his body cast were shipped to Pearl 
Harbor, while you were transferred to Mars, home of the 
Union Aerospace Corporation. 

The UAC is a multi-planetary conglomerate with radioactive 
waste facilities on Mars and its two moons, Phobos and 
Deimos. With no action for fifty million miles, your day 
consisted of suckin' dust and watchin' restricted flicks in 
the rec room. 

For the last four years the military, UAC's biggest 
supplier, has used the remote facilities on Phobos and 
Deimos to conduct various secret projects, including 
research on inter-dimensional space travel. So far they have 
been able to open gateways between Phobos and Deimos, 
throwing a few gadgets into one and watching them come out 
the other. Recently however, the Gateways have grown 
dangerously unstable. Military "volunteers" entering them 
have either disappeared or been stricken with a strange form 
of insanity--babbling vulgarities, bludgeoning anything that 
breathes, and finally suffering an untimely death of full-
body explosion. Matching heads with torsos to send home to 
the folks became a full-time job. Latest military reports 
state that the research is suffering a small set-back, but 
everything is under control.

A few hours ago, Mars received a garbled message from 
Phobos. "We require immediate military support. Something 
fraggin' evil is coming out of the Gateways! Computer 
systems have gone berserk!" The rest was incoherent. Soon 
afterwards, Deimos simply vanished from the sky. Since then, 
attempts to establish contact with either moon have been 
unsuccessful.

You and your buddies, the only combat troop for fifty 
million miles were sent up pronto to Phobos. You were 
ordered to secure the perimeter of the base while the rest 
of the team went inside. For several hours, your radio 
picked up the sounds of combat: guns firing, men yelling 
orders, screams, bones cracking, then finally, silence. 
Seems your buddies are dead. 

It's Up To You 
Things aren't looking too good. You'll never navigate off 
the planet on your own. Plus, all the heavy weapons have 
been taken by the assault team leaving you with only a 
pistol. If only you could get your hands around a plasma 
rifle or even a shotgun you could take a few down on your 
way out. Whatever killed your buddies deserves a couple of 
pellets in the forehead. Securing your helmet, you exit the 
landing pod. Hopefully you can find more substantial 
firepower somewhere within the station. 

As you walk through the main entrance of the base, you hear 
animal-like growls echoing throughout the distant corridors. 
They know you're here. There's no turning back now. 

Just the relevant parts for those of us with a short attention span:

Code: Select all

The UAC is a multi-planetary conglomerate with radioactive 
waste facilities on Mars and its two moons, Phobos and 
Deimos. For the last four years the military, UAC's biggest 
supplier, has used the remote facilities on Phobos and 
Deimos to conduct various secret projects, including 
research on inter-dimensional space travel. So far they have 
been able to open gateways between Phobos and Deimos, 
throwing a few gadgets into one and watching them come out 
the other.

So the UAC built these facilities, but the military has taken them over and is running experiments -- it's not the UAC that is researching this "interdemonsional" stuff, it's the military itself.


Yes in Doom 3 they changed it so that it's the UAC that is responsible. As a result it makes the presence of a large military contingent hard to explain. It's on Mars, people can only arrive there by shuttle and there is no civilian population besides the UAC personnel.

[Ethril]

Doom 3 = Doom minus everything good about Doom. It's like sex if you took away the personal intimacy and erotic stimulation and were left only with some vague sense of social validation (or the other thing) and feel of flesh on flesh in exchange for so much time spent in lubing, condom-fumbling, erection maintenance and body hair self-consciousness.

Personally, I prefer to describe it as "Half-Life: Now in Doom flavor!"
and i was okay with that, because i knew about it going in. That being said, I totally understand the disappointment of anyone who got it at the initial release date expecting classic Doom, and not "Gordon Freeman Goes To Hell".

[cambertian]

I just remembered a crazy theory I came up with once that was basically along the lines of "Doom (3) and Portal are in the same universe."

Basically, Doom 3's UAC can operate without "moral and legal obligations," much like a certain Aperture Science does on Earth. The only difference between the two is that Aperture Science is the UAC's older namesake - they probably changed the brand to accommodate the space exploration part of their research (or maybe just to escape controversy, who knows?)

A Portal/Doom crossover would be HYPE, though it's honestly quite a stretch, even for me...

[Gez]

Portal is already in the Half-Life universe, though, so they have their own alien invasion to deal with. If you start pitting the Combine against the demons, you'll end up with Aeons of Death eventually.