Just getting this out of the way first since this ended up being a lot longer than I expected (sorry!), Maybe ill post it also as a user review? Anyway... Whether you've loved or hated DOOM 3 before, I highly suggest anyone considering buying this to steer clear of the 360 version!
Having already owned the collectors edition of Doom 3 for the original xbox and playing it until the end game, I was excited to hear the BFG edition was coming to the 360 with a bunch of graphical and gameplay updates and achievements. The Xbox version was far more stripped down than the PC version but controls and the button mappings made sense for a console shooter and I still had fun with it. Additionally, I already played the shit out of the XBLA versions of DOOM and DOOM 2 and S-Ranked both. I figured the BFG Edition would be a good excuse to cash in and replay these games since it also had DOOM 1 & 2 plus the D3 expansion (which i've never played yet) and extra levels, plus knowing it had achievables to further expand the longevity of these games if I ever felt the need to replay it another time was also enticing.
So, I bought the 360 version today totally excited to play some updated Doom 3! I install the game onto my hard drive, as I usually do, and then start up the game. First thing I load up is D3, obvious! Curious to see what the multiplayer was all about I decided to see if there was any online co-op option... nope, only local co-op, the back of the box does not lie about this. I start up a quick match of multiplayer anyway to see how good or bad it may be. The first game I get into was almost instant. Cool, right? Not really. Seconds into this match with a shotgun equipped, the game decides to freeze up on me during the very instant I take my first shot. Off to a great start! Restart Xbox, start Doom 3 Campaign. Immediately, as mentioned by a few people already, I experience the ridiculously intrusive checkpoint/autosave system they implemented (you can already still hard save... so wtf?). It completely stops the game for maybe 3-4 seconds at the worst moments, killing any sort of tension the game would've had built up. The flashlight swapping no longer being a thing sounded like it would be a smart idea, especially since theres a mod for such a feature on the vanilla D3 for PC for quite some time. But after a few levels in, it doesn't make it all that scary or fun anymore, especially solo. I'm sure part of it is due to me already playing through it in the past but these changes alter the game enough that it would've made an online co-op experience far more enjoyable! An 'on/off' setting in the options to toggle for a swap-able flashlight would've sufficed.
I've tried really hard to overlook the issues I've encountered so far but I can't wrap my mind around the thought process behind some of these decisions on all the "improvements" they've made. The game's options are so bare bones that in 2012 this shouldn't be an issue. Some of the options that they do decide to have have are only for multiplayer which no one is gonna play long-term anyway. There are absolutely no subtitles or settings to turn them on or off, no alternative options for controls nor a custom button map config (flashlight toggle on LT just doesnt feel right at all), no option to switch to "toggle crouch", no way to turn off the insane autosaves this version has introduced. Again, they Include co-op in the game but only local co-op (even XBLA DOOM / DOOM 2 and RAGE had online coop! not many people play them this way, but the option is still there!), the versus multiplayer and the maps feel like a claustrophobic mess even with only a 4-player limit online. It's also strange that when your shots hit opponents in the multiplayer it makes the exact same sound you would hear in Quake... and it plays absolutely nothing like Quake multiplayer (which i would much rather play than this hot mess). Why would they even have multiplayer at all if they were going to make it so sub-par?
On top of all this, if you wasted time installing your game to your hard drive and decide to switch to some oldskool DOOM, you'll be welcomed by a notification letting you know you can't play DOOM or DOOM 2 unless you delete the install from the hard drive...why!? There aren't even any achievements either for D1/D2 on the BFG Edition whereas the Steam version does! Again.. what is the point in including these games on disk for the 360 if it's not going to be at least on par with the features included in the XBLA releases? I understand these games haven't been on PSN before but Including a code for XBLA versions -- even if people already own them -- would've been less of a surprise to me or anyone than having the game inform people to delete their game install if they want to access that content. I'll still play through everything on this disk just to try and get my money's worth, but I can't honestly say I'm happy about my purchase. I'm just baffled at how disappointing this ended up being (much like RAGE). What happened id?
EDIT: Just deleted my install to see if there was any difference in the versions of DOOM/DOOM 2 from the BFG and XBLA versions.... all it does is boot up the XBLA versions I have already owned for years.... I really don't understand why I needed to delete my install just to have it load content not even on the fucking disk. ugh... false advertising much? I don't think I'll be buying anything from id for a while...
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