I just played the Doom 3 demo. Visually, it’s as good as it gets. Although — and I realize they’re going for spooky, claustrophobic atmosphere — I feel that the level design is only so-so. I felt like I was being moved forward on a track. Go through this narrow corridor, go through that door, kill the monster, good, now turn left. I prefer games with more choices.

Ambient sounds and effects were quite good. Clanging, muffled shouting, random noises in the distance, all very creepy. Weapon sound effects, however, were muted. The machine gun sounded especially underpowered.

Overall, I think it’s a good effort and completely worthy of the name Doom. It was scary. But it was probably impossible to measure up to the hype. You know how that goes. It’s a situation not unlike the upset Star Wars fanboys who complained about the changes in the DVD version (but bought it anyway).

It also reminded me that the horror-survival-first-person-shooter genre is definitely not my cup of tea. Clive Barker’s Undying was the same way. I play games to relax. Games like these make me tense. That’s certainly a success for the game. Part of the fun is to be scared, right? But Doom 3 is definitely not something I’m going to go to when I need to unwind.

So, thanks for the demo id. But this time, I’m going to pass.