Doom 3

[solipsistnation]

Okay, so it's very very pretty, and plays nicely even though my system is on the low end (!!!!) of the hardware requirements. (And how absurd is THAT?)

I just wish somebody would come up with a new plot sometime soon.

Here's the plot. (I'd say it was spoilers, but, um, is anyone surprised by these things any more?)



In a remote experimental site on:

- Mars
- Black Mesa
- a tropical archipelago
- the moon
- a pair of space ships testing out a new kind of interstellar drive technology

an experiment involving:

- interdimensional hooha
- more interdimensional hooha
- genetic manipulation
- still more interdimensional hooha
- scary artificial intelligence

conducted in:

- Delta Sector
- Lambda Complex
- some unspecified lab
- some other unspecified lab
- one of the ships

has broken free, resulting in:

- demons! all over the place!
- interdimensional icky things! all over the place!
- genetic monstrosities! all over the place!
- demons! all over the place!
- everyone dead! robots and cyborgs all over the place!

as well as:

- more demons!
- government troops, come in to shoot the scientists!
- mercenaries, here to protect the lab!
- lots and lots of demons!
- squishy fleshy things!

which the player, in the role of:

- a marine
- a scientist with a startling aptitude for shooting people
- an ex-special-forces guy
- a marine
- a marine, navy guy, or psychic specialist thingy

must:

- shoot
- shoot
- shoot
- shoot
- shoot

in order to prevent:

- the demons getting back to the Earth, where they would kill and eat everything
- the dimensional thingies spreading out across the Earth, killing and eating everything
- the genetic monstrosities getting out to the mainland, where they would kill and eat everything
- the demons getting back to Earth, where they would kill and eat everything
- the scary AI and/or its fleshy progeny getting back to Earth, where it would take over everything

Along the way, the player is given clues by:

- audio logs, email, and video files left by dead people
- scientists and security guards
- audio logs and so on left by dead people, and a girl with guns
- nothing, since there's nothing that complicated going on, just shootin'
- audio logs and email left by dead people, and the occasional ghost

and may have to sneak through

- darkened areas, using a flashlight
- darkened areas, using a flashlight
- darkened areas, using a flashlight
- sneaking? ha.
- darkened areas, using a flashlight

and will end up having to vigorously shoot the big nasty thing or things at the end:

- lots of very large demons of various sorts
- a big floating baby thing
- [i don't know, i haven't finished it]
- lots of very large demons of various sorts
- a big fleshy thing

Critters along the way include:

- zombified scientists and marines
- zombified scientists and marines
- genetically manipulated marines
- zombified scientists and marines
- cyborgified scientists

and

- horrible spidery skull things
- horrible crab skull things
- horrible things of all sorts
- horrible flying skull things
- horrible spiders

in order to:

- save the world
- save the world
- save the world
- save the world (but it doesn't work)
- save the world.

At the time it was released, the graphics were:

- groundbreaking
- groundbreaking
- groundbreaking
- groundbreaking
- kind of dated but still quite nice

and the enemy AI was:

- groundbreaking
- groundbreaking
- groundbreaking
- groundbreaking
- groundbreaking

The end.

Guess the games? It should be easy.

Comments

[invader-haywire.livejournal.com]

Dont forget "Facing the big nasty at the end..."

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

the was the "end up having to vigorously shoot" piece...

[that-xmas.livejournal.com]

You should get that posted to a gaming site or something. That was funny.

[qedrakmar.livejournal.com]

My guesses are:

1) I don't remember, but I can picture the spider skull things...
2) Half Life
3) Deus Ex
4) Doom 2
5) System Shock 2

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Aww, but I liked {Half-Life|Deus Ex|Doom|System Shock} because it was {fun|groundbreaking|IGN told me to|I get off on monkeys}!

[invader-haywire.livejournal.com]

1) Doom 1

All he is missing is the line up for Duke Nukem

[invader-haywire.livejournal.com]

Wait... no thats not right

[prowler1971.livejournal.com]

Imagine that... you keep playing the same sorts of tired worn out games and they keep throwing out the same tired worn out plots. I thought the plot was "run around and shoot stuff" but then I've never got into these games. Maybe it's time to try something new. Maybe you've just outgrown the desire to spend your evenings shooting stuff.

I've decided rather than play SW: Galaxies or Galactic Battlegrounds or City of Heros, I'm going to play my guitar.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Doom 3!

and number 4 was Doom 1, just to mess you up.

Doom 2 didn't have any plot to speak of, did it? It seemed like it was mostly combat setpieces for the sake of designing neat levels.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

That's part of why I have been...

The thing is, the genre has so many possibilities-- the problem is, it's a genre now. It needs to be treated not as a genre but as a medium, just like movies or books or whatever are media.

When you look at something like Morrowind, which takes a first-person engine and lets you roam around a vast landscape doing RPG things, you can see just the edges of what could be done with this sort of technology.

What I desire is an interesting and immersive experience. This is a particularly immersive media. It's just that not many people are doing innovative things with it. People are certainly trying, which is why we have Deus Ex and Thief and Morrowind and Arx Fatalis, but they're in the minority.

[that-xmas.livejournal.com]

I think you'll start seeing more dynamic mission creation stuff. The two Grand Theft Auto games certainly help, were you've got a number of mission arc and then a framework of open ended things (like driving a taxi, or driving an ambulance, etc.) I haven't played it yet, but I heard that the Riddick game was supposed to be pretty good.

The problem with single player computer games is that you have two competing customer needs. First, you have the need for an interesting and complex story. Second, the game needs to be "winnable". If you over do it on the first need, the second becomes impossible and you lose some sales.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Yes! I am _certain_ that there will be more open-ended and "aimless" or self-directed games out there. Morrowind is a good example of this. It's got a vast landscape to explore, with lots of people to talk to, lots of goals, side-goals, and literally thousands of quests, organized into a few main threads and a lot of smaller or one-shot threads. If you want to ignore the Big Plot, you can. If you want to head straight for it, you can, and even if you finish it, you aren't done with the game. It doesn't have the "Now you can play Crazy Taxi!" sort of random quest you can just take whenever you want kind of thing, but it's certainly coming from a similar place.

I like the idea of the GTA games, but I would like them to be less immoral. I like to play the good guy, if I can at all help it...

[invader-haywire.livejournal.com]

Doom 2 pretty much had the same plot as Doom 1. Kill Demons!

[bonisagus.livejournal.com]

I've taken a break from City of Heroes and went back to a forgotten friend, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

After i finished KOTOR, i went back to Planescape: Torment...