10 TERRIBLE Video Games (That Secretly Saved Franchises)

To be clear, Doom 3 isn't actually a terrible game, but it is a terrible Doom game.

Doom 3 was released in 2004 as a quasi-reboot to the franchise, shifting away from the hardcore, fast-paced action fans of the series expected towards a slower, more survival horror-centric style and tone.

This was to the extent of even forcing players to choose between handling a flashlight or a weapon (until the BFG Edition fixed it). Naturally, many fans were left frustrated.

Though Doom 3's graphics were certainly impressive and the atmosphere was undeniable, it quickly fell into a repetitive rhythm and was, honestly, a chore to play through to the end.

Stripping away the series' sense of fun in favour of self-serious horror gameplay set in an endless array of blandly confined environments just wasn't what most fans wanted to see from a new Doom game.

Despite Doom 3 selling well enough that iD Software could've just rushed out a sequel within a year or two, they actually bothered to listen to the fan criticism, such that the original prototype for Doom 4 was scrapped after six years in various stages of production.

iD ultimately returned with 2016's Doom reboot, which returned the series to its face-melting roots and delivered arguably one of the franchise's strongest entries to date.

Better still, the recently released Doom Eternal was an ambitious step-up while never losing sight of what people loved about the earlier games.

Doom 3 arrived at a major point of uncertainty for the series, which had been on the skids for a while, and it ultimately served as a litmus test for the developer to realise what players really wanted out of the IP.