Review of Doom 3: BFG Edition (2025)

In 2004, Doom 3 was released to a lukewarm reception, to put it somewhat mildly. The new direction for the series didn't go over as well as the developers hoped, and in 2012, they released an upgraded version of the game known as Doom 3: BFG edition. This new edition didn't just improve the graphics; it also contained the Resurrection of Evil DLC campaign, enhanced ports of the original Doom and Doom II, and two new expansions that are unique to this release. Thus, purchasing this one title would give a player everything that had been released in the Doom franchise up until that point, including some stuff that's exclusive to this package.

So what changed? To begin with, the flashlight is now part of your armor instead of a handheld tool. This means that you can use it alongside any of your guns. Or, to put it another way, the developers listened to the complaints and built the only feature provided by the game's most popular mod directly into the game. While they were at it, they also made the rest of the game brighter, so your flashlight isn't needed as much anyway. Being able to see what you're shooting at makes the game a lot more enjoyable overall, so props to the devs for listening to their players.

Other changes include things like tweaks to the way armor works and the location of certain enemies. Some of the encounters from Doom 3 were simply removed or rescripted, making things a bit more balanced. Unfortunately, some of the other annoying mechanics from the original game are still present, such as the requirement to skim through people's discarded PDAs and the lack of a subtitle option. Oddly, cutscenes are now unskippable, which is an unexpected and somewhat pointless change.

The copies of the first two Doom games included in this release have also been reworked a little as well. Most of these tweaks just enable the older games to run smoothly on newer systems - which you could easily get by using any source port - but there were a few significant alterations to their secret levels. Originally, these games had hidden levels based on Wolfenstein, another popular game by id Software. That game is about fighting Nazis, and so the levels based on it featured Nazi soldiers and related imagery. In order to pacify modern censors, these levels have been heavily reworked so that all of the Nazi references are replaced with something less offensive.

Now that we've skimmed over the major differences between the BFG edition and the older versions of the games it contains, let's move on to discuss the two new campaigns that have been added. The first of these is the Lost Mission, a new story that's part of the Doom 3 adventure. This short (~2 hours) campaign focuses on the last surviving member of the Bravo Team, who is tasked with helping another survivor close down an open gateway to Hell. The problem is that there's an active teleporter on Hell's side of the portal, and it's powerful enough to send its horrors to Earth. Thus, you must work your way through the labs to shut down this portal before the forces of Hell start coming through. It's a fun romp while it lasts, as it's basically a series of elaborate firefights until you reach the teleporter and blow it up.

The other new campaign is an 8-level expansion for Doom II: Hell on Earth. Called No Rest for the Living, it's mainly an excuse to run around new levels, shooting anything that moves. These levels are notable for their sheer size: when Doom II originally came out, computers had much less computing power to work with, and that limited how detailed levels could be. So, now that the developers have a lot more room to work with, they've created gigantic levels filled with hordes of monsters for the player to enjoy.

Personally, I wasn't really impressed by the new campaigns, but the changes to Doom 3 definitely improved it, making this my favorite version of the game. Of course, the second-best reason for buying the BFG edition is that it provides the ability to earn achievements for your skills in the original two games - something that has never been available before - and everybody loves being able to brag about their skills in Doom.

Everything in one neat package

By purchasing this one title, which often goes on sale for less than five dollars, you'll get the first three games in one of the most famous video game franchises. This is good way to save some money if you're just getting interested in the Doom franchise, though I'd suggest picking up Doom II separately so that you have access to its new online services, which includes a free copy of Final Doom.

Steam achievements

There are a total of 65 achievements to be earned across the three games and their expansions. This is also the first (and so far, only) time that you can earn Steam achievements for these games. On the downside, you'll need to use the provided source port for the first two games, but it's serviceable enough. A handful of the Doom 3 achievements are only available during multiplayer games, which might be a problem considering the age and lack of enthusiasm for this title.

Screenshots count as cheating

Like a lot of games, Doom 3 will prevent the player from earning achievements if it believes that you've been cheating. This usually means that making use of the game's console will block progression towards achievements. Things like this are generally a good idea, as it keep people playing fairly. However, through some weird fluke, the game believes that taking a screenshot uses the console, and therefore you can't earn achievements if you took any screenshots during that session.

Basically everything that was wrong with the other games.