Cheap Deaths are not the same as Challenging Combat.

So lately I've started playing Doom 3. Because it was one of those games that came out when my parents didn't like gore and I was still young, and once I was "old enough" I just never got around to it. You'd think I would have been all over it being such a horror fanboy but eh, it looked like 10 hours of jump scares to me. Which in a way it is, but it's actually atmospheric enough to be creepy, and keep you jumping. But that isn't what this post is about, I'll prolly post a flash-back review in a few days or so when I beat it. This post is about the combat. I've got it on the easy setting because I've been playing very casually and have been playing for the creepy factor, not because I want a challenge, and for the most part that's what I'm getting. Combat isn't a cakewalk but it's hardly difficult. Then you happen to be standing next to an explosive barrel, a demon throws a fireball at you, and you die, instantly. It's so god damned frustrating I can't even explain it. Especially when the auto-save system only saves at the beginning of each stage, which can be fairly long. Or another example. I'm waiting for a lift to come down from above, a tiny enemy, like the size of a crab, comes up behind me and hits me, knocks me under the lift, and it crushes me. Fun right? Or how about when you get cornered by 2 of the charging enemies. Every time they hit you the camera flies around uncontrollably, it distorts, and you lose control of your character. 1 on 1 this isn't a big deal. When there are 2 of them, if one of them hits you, it's over. You won't be able to recover in time, the next one will hit you, then the first one comes in again, repeat until dead and screaming at computer. This can happen with large enough swarms of small enemies too. Where you don't get killed for lack of skill or effort, you get killed because the game is kind of broken in these encounters. It's frustrating and I wanted to rant about it. But, it's worth saying that this isn't enough to ruin the game for me. I just have to be as anal as they are backstage at The Birdcage about saving my game.