Doom 3 is a story-driven action game played from a first-person perspective. As with previous Doom games, the main objective is to successfully pass through its levels, defeating a variety of enemy characters intent on killing the player's character. Doom 3's more story-centered approach, however, means that the player often encounters friendly non-player characters, who provide key plot information, objectives and inventory items. The game incorporates ten weapons for the player's use to survive, including conventional firearms such as a submachine gun, shotgun and grenades, experimental plasma weaponry, and the powerful BFG 9000 and chainsaw weapons of the Doom franchise. Enemies come in multiple forms and with different abilities and tactics, but fall into two broad categories of either zombies or demons. Zombies are humans possessed by demonic forces, who attack the player's character using their hands and melee weapons or a variety of firearms, while demons are creatures from Hell, most of which attack using claws and spines, or by summoning plasma-based fireballs. The corpses of demons are reduced to ashes after death, leaving no trace of their body behind.
The game's levels are fairly linear in nature and incorporate several horror elements, the most prominent of which is darkness. This design choice is not only intended to foster feelings of apprehension and fear within the player, but also to create a more threatening game environment in which the player is less likely to see attacking enemies. This aspect is further enhanced by the fact that the player must choose between holding a weapon and holding the flashlight (until the BFG editions released in 2012 made the "duct tape mod" a standard feature), forcing the player to choose between being able to see and having a readied weapon upon entering a room, which consequently leads to a more deliberate pace for the player. In addition, the levels are regularly strewn with corpses, dismembered body parts and blood, sometimes used in conjunction with the game's lighting to disorient the player.
Frequent radio transmissions through the player's communications device also add to the atmosphere, by broadcasting certain sounds and messages from non-player characters meant to unsettle the player. Early in the game, during and directly after the event that plunges the base into chaos, the player often hears the sounds of fighting, screaming and dying through their radio transmitter. The ambient sound is extended to the base itself through such things as hissing pipes, footsteps, and occasional jarringly loud noises from machinery or other sources. Often ambient sounds can be heard that resemble deep breathing, unexplained voices and demonic taunting from the game's antagonists.
Early in the game, the player is provided with a personal data assistant (PDA). PDAs contain security clearance levels, allowing the player to access certain areas that are otherwise locked and off-limits. Additionally, the PDA can be used to read e-mails and play videos that the player's character acquires during the game. Whenever the player picks up any of the other PDAs found throughout the game, its contents are automatically downloaded to the player's own device. Other PDAs often contain e-mails and audio logs for other characters, which can provide useful information such as storage or door key codes, as well as significant plot details.
Multiplayer
Doom 3 was released with a four-player multiplayer element, featuring four game modes. However, the game's community created a modification to boost this to eight or sixteen players. The Resurrection of Evil expansion would later officially increase the player limit to eight. The four game modes are all deathmatches. The standard deathmatch game mode involves each player moving around a level, collecting weaponry and killing the other players, with the player with the highest kills when the time runs out winning. A team variation of this involves the same principle. The third game mode is "last man standing", in which each player has a limited amount of respawns, with players losing a life when they are killed. Eventually, all but one player will be eliminated from the game, leaving the survivor as the winner. The final game mode is "tournament", in which two players fight each other while the other players watch as spectators. The victor of the battle remains in the arena, facing each other player one at a time until the winner of previous rounds is defeated. The loser then moves to the spectators and the new winner remains to fight the next player. The Xbox version of Doom 3 also incorporates an additional two-player co-operative mode for the main single-player game.
As of April 15, 2010, the Xbox Live service was shut down, thus online multiplayer for the original Xbox game is no longer available.
Synopsis
Setting
Doom 3 is set in the year 2145. Much of the game's story and dialogue was created by author Matthew J. Costello. According to the game's backstory, the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) has grown to become the largest corporate entity in existence, and has set up a research facility on Mars. At this base, the UAC are able to conduct research into several scientific areas, including advanced weapons development, biological research, space exploration and teleportation. On Mars, the UAC can perform its operations outside of legal and moral boundaries. As the player progresses through the game, they learn that the employees on the base are unsettled due to a large number of incidents involving hearing voices, unexplained sightings and increasing cases of paranoia and insanity, often leading to fatal accidents with the facility's machinery. Rumors regarding the nature of experiments in the UAC's Delta Labs division are especially prevalent among the base's employees.
