'DOOM 3' 20 years later: Not the threequel we expected, but still an essential sci-fi shooter

Jump to:The scariest Doom entryRepeating old tricksA necessary experimentAs we eagerly await Doom: The Dark Ages, which will hopefully arrive in 2025, many diehard fans are replaying the entire Doom. Twenty years later, Doom 3 continues to be an inflection point for the franchise, and gamers still can't agree on whether it was great or a disappointment. What if it was a bit of both? I've returned to the dark corridors of the UAC's Mars base to re-evaluate the threequel.When we did our list of all the Doom games ranked, Doom 3 came in last despite its 87 Metacritic score and all the praise it's received over the years. While it might seem like we think it's a bad game, our opinion is quite the opposite. The Doom series is so great and consistent that even the 'least awesome' entry is heads and shoulders above other big first-person shooters. Looking at the larger picture, Doom 3 was an experiment for id Software beyond the graphical presentation. With the OG Doom formula more than exhau...