Doom 3 = 2/5
Resurrection of Evil = 3/5
The Lost Mission = 2.5/5
I’m rounding these three campaigns to an overall 2.5/5. My issue with Doom 3 isn’t that “it’s not Doom” but rather that the actual level design and game design aren’t great.
The main campaign is absolutely the worst offender, with an overabundance of filler levels that don’t add anything to the experience. Hallway after hallway, killing the same enemies in the same ways is not very fun. I’m cool with Doom going more into a horror direction and the core gameplay, while finicky at first, isn’t too bad once you understand the little interesting things you can do with your arsenal.
Resurrection of Evil has a pretty noticeable improvement in level design and also adds new weapons and abilities that are actually really neat and fun to use. The bosses are a lot better too, though I hate how there is zero music for any of the boss fights across all three campaigns.
The Lost Mission takes the new weapons from RoE (except for the Artifact for story reasons) and also some of the new enemies but doesn’t add all much of its own to the mix. It just feels like a slightly better version of the main campaign.
If you really do want to play Doom 3, I would exclusively recommend Resurrection of Evil. The other campaigns aren’t really worth your time and you can go into RoE not knowing anything about the previous campaign’s story. This, of course, is assuming you’re interested in a slower, more horror-focused Doom game.
Resurrection of Evil = 3/5
The Lost Mission = 2.5/5
I’m rounding these three campaigns to an overall 2.5/5. My issue with Doom 3 isn’t that “it’s not Doom” but rather that the actual level design and game design aren’t great.
The main campaign is absolutely the worst offender, with an overabundance of filler levels that don’t add anything to the experience. Hallway after hallway, killing the same enemies in the same ways is not very fun. I’m cool with Doom going more into a horror direction and the core gameplay, while finicky at first, isn’t too bad once you understand the little interesting things you can do with your arsenal.
Resurrection of Evil has a pretty noticeable improvement in level design and also adds new weapons and abilities that are actually really neat and fun to use. The bosses are a lot better too, though I hate how there is zero music for any of the boss fights across all three campaigns.
The Lost Mission takes the new weapons from RoE (except for the Artifact for story reasons) and also some of the new enemies but doesn’t add all much of its own to the mix. It just feels like a slightly better version of the main campaign.
If you really do want to play Doom 3, I would exclusively recommend Resurrection of Evil. The other campaigns aren’t really worth your time and you can go into RoE not knowing anything about the previous campaign’s story. This, of course, is assuming you’re interested in a slower, more horror-focused Doom game.