Doom 3 BFG Edition takes place in the future and on Mars. Things go crazy at the start when some sort of futuristic Necro-science unleashes hell all over the damn place. So it’s up to you Marine; it’s time to drive those zombies, imps, and other various Hellspawn back to the depths! If this all sound very familiar, well, that’s because it should.
Doom 3 BFG Edition is a strange Billy Pilgrim of a game, floating unstuck in time. You see, Doom 3 was actually released several years ago during the last console generation. It was released as a re-boot of the series blasting Doom into the present. Now the BFG edition is attempting to blast Doom into the present… again. Is it a refresh or a rehash? Either way Doom 3 BFG Edition is a redo of a redo and quite frankly falls a little flat.
It isn’t that Doom 3 is a bad game, in fact as a fan of the series I think a current-gen reboot is a great idea. The problem is that the BFG edition finds itself in a unique trap. Doom 3 does not fit the standards we’ve come to expect from modern shooters, which it shouldn’t, being made years ago. On the other hand Doom 3 isn’t old enough to have any retro appeal at all. Poor thing just came along at the wrong time. It has a few other flaws as well. Sloppy targeting and sub par graphics can be explained by the fact that it’s an update, an inter-generational port. What is not so explainable is the tunnel of fun style game play. Now the style itself isn’t a problem, tons of enjoyable tunnel of fun games have been released (Halo, Call of Duty), but the design choice to put your TOF mostly underground in actual tunnels and taking away any real maneuverability only serves to make the player feel like they have no choice as to how a given encounter will play out.
Doom 3 does have some things going for it. The previously mentioned modern take on the series for instance. The idea of taking an old and very popular title, tearing it down and rebuilding it with current technology is both a fantastic and gutsy move by Id. The level of detail and world building that went into Doom 3 is incredible. NPC PDAs can be found scattered all over the place and in them can be found audio logs, e-mail correspondence, and public service announcement videos on a wide range of topics. These things add a lot of life to the cold industrial martian corridors.
What would a special edition of a game be with out pack-ins? Doom 3 BFG Edition has a couple good and a couple not so good on disc additions. “The Resurrection of Evil” and “Lost Mission” game add-ons are packed in. While they don’t add much to the main game the additional content is welcome. Who doesn’t like extra content? The glorious early champions of the first person shooter genre Doom and Doom 2 are also on the disc. What a great value for those old school Doom fans… except they’ve been available as console downloads for some time now, so pretty much every old school Doom fan already has them. But, thanks anyway Id, for packing on the disc that stuff I already paid for.
Chances are if you’re interested in the BFG Edition of Doom 3 you’ve already played it and have made up your own mind as to whether or not it’s worth the cash. For the three of you left undecided: Monster closets, straight forward no muss no fuss no choice combat, cheap scare tactics, and a ton of content. All for about forty bucks. Despite the draw backs and faults mentioned above Doom 3 BFG Edition is a pretty good deal with a lot of… bang for the buck.
Related Video:
Doom 3 BFG E3 2012 Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zKTObOL_iY
Dom 3 BFG Edition Launch Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNQ2-JuxFt4