Doom3, from delta to hell

[DRuM]

Whoopy, I've continued doom3 again after a year, having left it at delta labs sector 2b. Tonight I've so far gone from delta labs sector 2b into Hell, and they're increasing the enemy count quite heavily.
I've encountered a few hellknights so far, ( at least, I think they're the hellknights, they're pretty big), and they don't seem that hard to kill. They love their imps eh, they're everywhere in the game. I'm enjoying it, though I do miss the hi-tech look of the labs and all the buttons to press. I entered hell on about 9 health points. I quite like it when that happens because it's a challenge to not die, kill your enemies and THEN find health.

[Mogul]

From Delta all the way to the end, it's very cool. Well, the excavation stuff is pretty gay in my opinion (but most people loved it, which I don't understand).

[MKJ]

i thought getting back to delta after the hell bit was a fucking downer. i was like "great, not this shit again "
the hell and excavation bits where the most promising parts. the rest of the game are just bland labs. and bathrooms.

[Mogul]

That's interesting. See, I know a lot of players really liked the excavation but I'm having a very hard time understanding it.

Stylistically, the base levels, especially the latter ones (with the absolutely huge generators, and all that stuff) are just way better than the excavation maps. Agree?

I mean, the excavation maps are just a bunch of dirt, with some Egyptian references here and there. And everything Egypt is pretty lame, in my opinion. It's one of those stereotyped areas of culture/image like the native Americans -- it just doesn't appeal to me at all and I have a hard time understanding what is appealing about it.

And the gameplay isn't that different for the base maps, right? Unless I'm forgetting something.

[Lukin]

i thought getting back to delta after the hell bit was a fucking downer. i was like "great, not this shit again "

I thought exactly the same thing. Whole part after Hell could be easily throwed away.
IIRC a guy from id said they make levels in inverted order - first they made maps that appear at the end of the game, and when they know engine and tools better then they create the rest. I think it's noticeable in "Doom 3"

[blakjack]

there's only one level of delta after hell, and it makes sense returning there, as thats where the teleporter is. Running through corridors + floors of computers in central processing shortly after was probably the low(er) point, but those levels also introduced the more action type gameplay and had some memorable 'hell taking over base' moments like this:

http://www.levelsource.com/d3levels/part4/m22_cp_p3.jpg

The mars base levels (majority) DONT all look the same, just take a look through here, but yes they are all linear corridor designs. After playing 15 or so levels of that style, site3/caverns opens up a bit and with the noticably different style, the change is more memorable. I dont think that makes them better levels, but agree that leaving the more obvious style change (excluding hell) to last doesnt exactly help. i wouldnt call it egyptian style either, just because they are underground and stone construction. http://www.levelsource.com/d3levels/par ... ca2_p5.jpg

[Lukin]

Well, it's good that you mentioned this page, I took over a half of those screenshots. I remember that when I was flying trough all d3 levels I had no problems to find something interesting on maps from the begining of the game. But those from the middle and from the end were really boring. For example "Monorail" - this level was a nightmare I had to took screenshots like this one below (it's quite interesting when compared to the rest of the map).
[lvlshot]http://www.levelsource.com/d3levels/part2/m14_mr_p7.jpg[/lvlshot]

I agree that levels in d3 don't look the same, but their gameplay doesn't vary much. It could be not so bad in the shorter game, but...

.. I feel Doom 3 was a little too long. This is why the X-Box version is shorter than the PC version. We trimmed it up a bit, and it actually turned out to be a better game.

Amen :icon26: