The horror is non existant in Doom3 despite it's promises - it makes me jump alright, but it's because it was pitch black and then suddenly somethings clawing my eye, that's all.
Personally I think that dark is only scary when you know something is lurking, like when you hear the womans voice, that's some creepy gameplay there - but until you know something nasty is actually lurking, there's little to be afraid off. Instead you wander around in the dark, ready to jump out your skin because some beast spawned around the corner you just come from. That's not scary, that's nerve-wracking.
I'd like to have seen more humane environments that have been tainted. For example, the toilets in Silent Hill are about as creepy and scary as you can get - yet nothing actually happens there, there's never an enemy in the toilets, yet the environment is really disturbing. The toilets in Doom3 on the other hand, well you know something will happen, you already know that something will spawn, jump out at you, or your reflection will go bad in the mirror. This gameplay dynamic has been done to freakin death!. So you eek round the corner with the flashlight, take it real slow, then ohh wow a scary thing happen with the mirror, mummydaddy that was frightening. About as frightening as a 3 year old shouting 'BOO' from behind a door.
For me the most fun I had with Doom3 was playing the XBox version on Co-op, that's a whole different and welcome twist to the norm, like a link up co-op game like Doom3 just makes sense. Imagine if they made a 8 player co-op add-on for Doom3, like you find some buddies and make up a team, like in all the classic sci-fi horrors, and you gotta get through by working as a team - that's what people should be getting, not the same game with the same spooks and scares and darkness all the way through. I've played Classic Doom in 4 player mode more than the single player missions on XBox, says a lot when it's more fun to play an umpteen year old game, kinda reminds me a loadergames, some games would have mini-games to play while loading (like on the C64 especially), often the loader game would be better than the actual game and you'd just stop the tape.
Van-B
Put those fiery biscuits away!
