Doom 3
Ranked 14 of 24 first-person shooters by recommenders
Fans praise its gritty horror look and smooth run on modest PCs; critics find it too dark, jumpy and less influential than Half-Life 2.
Fans praise its gritty horror look and smooth run on modest PCs; critics find it too dark, jumpy and less influential than Half-Life 2.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 56%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Gritty, atmospheric horror visuals
“Doom 3 had cool gritty horror looks, but HL2 blew it out of the water SOTA wise”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” “Doom 3 doesn't look like artistic blindness.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” Ran well on modest hardware
“I found Doom 3 ran better on a custom built Gentoo Linux system compared to Windows XP.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Gentoo Linux 2025 Review” “I remember Doom 3 running FAR better than HL2.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” Ambitious step forward for its time
“I thought Doom 3 had that energy, but they were also clearly taking their time to get it right.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” “Doom 3 was pretty huge of a step forward in many ways”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Too dark to see
“Doom 3 was definitely more compromised because of it, though, with too little lighting”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” “but it's too dark that I need to actually increase brightness on Firefox reliably”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Half-Life 2 in a Browser” “The problem with Doom 3's gameplay is it was too fucking dark and constantly having demons jump scare you”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” - Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Half-Life 2 in a Browser”
Relies on random jump scares
“The problem with Doom 3's gameplay is it was too fucking dark and constantly having demons jump scare you”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” “D3 felt like it was just random jump scares more than much else.”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” Gameplay failed to hold interest
“each time I gave up before ever having a chance to fire a weapon”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” “the gameplay just didn't interest me”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” Less influential than Half-Life 2
“And if we consider impact on the gaming landscape, Doom 3 was if anything a dud.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” “Doom 3's push for 100% real-time stencil shadows was practically ignored by the industry”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” “The new game just didn't seem to have the same industry pushing, genre changing energy.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software” - Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software”
Other first-person shooters people recommend
The four most recommended other first-person shooters, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quake | 118 | 29 | 80% | 12 | 28 yrs8 owners | Approved |
| Doom by id Software | 102 | 24 | 81% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Unreal Tournament 2004 | 51 | 12 | 81% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Quake III Arena | 49 | 3 | 94% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Doom 3This page | 10 | 8 | 56% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
All 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Doom 3 was unplayable dark on my PC”
“but it's too dark that I need to actually increase brightness on Firefox reliably”
“D3 felt like it was just random jump scares more than much else.”
“Doom 3's push for 100% real-time stencil shadows was practically ignored by the industry”
“The problem with Doom 3's gameplay is it was too fucking dark and constantly having demons jump scare you”
“the gameplay just didn't interest me”
“each time I gave up before ever having a chance to fire a weapon”
“It's far superior in every aspect.”
“Doom 3 plays more like a traditional shooter with very little scripting”
“Doom 3 was definitely more compromised because of it, though, with too little lighting”
“I remember Doom 3 running FAR better than HL2.”
“Doom 3 doesn't look like artistic blindness.”
“And if we consider impact on the gaming landscape, Doom 3 was if anything a dud.”
“Doom 3 had cool gritty horror looks, but HL2 blew it out of the water SOTA wise”
“Doom 3 was pretty huge of a step forward in many ways”
“I thought Doom 3 had that energy, but they were also clearly taking their time to get it right.”
“The new game just didn't seem to have the same industry pushing, genre changing energy.”
“I played Doom 3 at 10-15 FPS in 640x480 and Warcraft 3 with 300ms latency, and I enjoyed it at the time”
“I found Doom 3 ran better on a custom built Gentoo Linux system compared to Windows XP.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.