	Doom 3
	Developer: id/ Vicarious Visions Publisher: Activision Release Date: Out Now Players: Single player campaign, 1-2 co-op & 1-4 deathmatch via system link or Xbox Live.	Words By:
Way back in 1993 Doom was a groundbreaking game for me, I’d always thought first person games were a bit odd, played by sweaty PC boys and craftily by shop and office workers who were supposed to be working. Yep, I just didn’t see the fascination at all, that is until I actually sat down and played it… After the PC game and its sequel were done and dusted, there were the console versions to get addicted to all over again, and there are few games I’ve spent more time playing than deathmatch and co-op Doom on the PlayStation in the mid 90s – it was one of the few reasons for owning a PlayStation link cable, I was completely smitten. Doom 3 is set on Mars (the planet, not the chocolate bar) and you’d have to have been living there to be unaware of the third coming of the single most famous first-person game ever. You again play as a lone Space Marine fighting against strange forces believed to be unleashed from the gates of Hell itself. Doom 3 boasts a stunning new bespoke game engine that allows for remarkable lighting and shadowing effects, and effortlessly conjures up the right atmosphere for the dreaded missions (think: Aliens meets Alien3) that lie ahead of you on the once bustling UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) Martian space colony. As you explore the Mars base details are loaded onto your very own PDA, and emails, video and sound files can be read/played with it. Reading all this waffle tells the game’s back story (like it needed one) and also tips you off as to lock combinations or locations of new (and vital) weaponry. You have to access many computer terminals in the game and switch more than a few switches, and it makes the pace of the game hugely varied – one minute you’re fighting for your life against fireball-throwing imps or trites (giant spiders), and the next you’re reading some poor dead UAC employee’s mundane email to a colleague... Doom 3 has updated versions of all the demons that appeared in the old games, but some have shrunk and some have grown - they all look amazing though, from the hell knights down to the pale, shambling zombie marines and UAC employees. They all have their individual traits and attack styles, but the closed-in nature of nearly the entire base means that combat is all of the shoot-&-strafe variety, long-range shots don’t exist in Doom 3 and snipers need not apply for the mission. So as Dunk said in his review of the PC version, Doom 3 may have all of Doom’s demons and weaponry, but it’s just not Doom. Doom was a full-on frag fest – loads of enemies to frag and some big, outdoor areas with hordes of demons of all kinds all looking for your blood. Set as it is in a relatively claustrophobic Mars base Doom 3 never recaptures that feeling, but what it loses in grand scale it makes up for in tense, cloying atmosphere and a scare factor that is second to none - Resident Evil, Silent Hill and all. You see, what Doom 3 managed to do within five minutes of the start and kept doing until the end, was make me jump, and not just the “eek there’s a Brute coming at me out of the dark” type scares that Halo 2 supplied, these are often pant-pooping moments of surprise, as time and time again the game lulls you into a false sense of security, and then the combination of excellent state-of-the-art graphics and sound scare the heck out of you – so along with snipers, those of a nervous disposition need not apply… But it’s only half an hour or so into the game that you start to think that whilst the graphics are superb (or at least they would be if you could actually see them), the game is dark - very, very dark, and the dark factor is overdone, and unlike Riddick’s adventure in Butcher Bay which used it rather cleverly, Doom 3 takes a scary setting and flogs it to dingy death. You have a torch to light your way but can’t use it and a weapon at the same time – an interesting game mechanic for a while maybe, but it’s not overly plausible that a space marine’s weapons wouldn’t have built-in flashlights, or that you wouldn’t hunt down some tape, string, elastic bands or even sodding chewing gum to lash the light to the barrel of your weapon. As Dunk said in his review of the PC version, games such as Thief 3, Splinter Cell and Riddick manage to have good use of lighting and shadows and use them intelligently, but here it just becomes unendingly dull. There’s also a fair bit of old-school key/pass hunting and re-treading of levels to be done, this can be tiresome and confusing due to the lack of a map, and gamers who thought some of Halo’s levels looked samey had better steer clear of Doom 3… When you can see things though, the game looks stunning – comfortably up there with the Xbox’s best looking games. The textures vary hugely and mostly amazing to look at all usable panels and items are hugely detailed, metal, stone and oily flesh bring the levels and creatures to life. Spent shells spill onto the floor, chains swing and cast realtime shadows and bodies hang from the ceiling (sometimes to be yanked from sight by who knows what). The lighting effects really are special too - even more impressive than Riddick’s Butcher Bay adventure, with those shadows everywhere and smoke, flame, plasma and haze FX all look amazing. The multiplayer deathmatch aspect of Doom 3 is rather disappointing after the impressiveness of Halo 2, with only a maximum of 4 players System Link or Xbox Live. The 5 multiplayer maps are small and rather retro in design, as is the run & gun gameplay. The only original aspects are the ‘warmup’ period in which you can run around and familiarize yourself with the map and its weapon/powerup spawn points before commencing battle, and the ability to steal weapons from the enemy by punching them – very satisfying indeed! The co-op mode (not included in the PC version) is very cool though, and a simplified version of the solo campaign can be played by two players linked or on Xbox Live – this plays rather well system-linked, although we did experience a few frame rate issues and lag problems online. Weapons, ammo and power ups are sometimes shared and sometimes saved for a particular individual, so careful sharing is a good idea and greedy sods can’t snaffle everything. There are no difficulty settings for the co-op mode online or off though, and it’s quite tough at times, but there’s no life limit and if you die you simply have to get back to where you fell to regain all your weapons and ammo from your backpack. We enjoyed the co-op campaign more than the solo one, and this is what elevates Doom 3 from a mediocre score - the game just isn’t as much fun on your own, and if you don’t have access to Xbox Live or system link capabilities to team up with a mate, then I think this seriously affects Doom 3’s overall appeal. So else is what is wrong with this awesome looking game? Well as Dunk said months back about the PC game, it’s just not Doomy enough for my liking. Rarely to you get a large confrontation with numerous enemies, probably no more than 4 or 5 at a time, and mostly they just appear one after the other giving you time to reload and gain health before taking on the next one. The levels are almost entirely indoors, and trips outside the Mars base are quick sprints from one building to another whilst holding your breath or looking for oxygen tanks (the only time you see the Martian landscape is from a speeding monorail) – so none of the original Doom’s massive outdoor settings and hordes of demons... What you end up experiencing is a tremendously scary first person survival horror with slow and steady progression as opposed to all-out blasting, that feels closer to Resident Evil or Silent Hill than good old Doom, and the constant need for the PDA access means it feels a bit Deus Ex-y at times too. The visually spectacular ‘boss battles’ are also highly unimaginative and disappointing climaxes to sections, set in rather too small and dark areas – I’d really expected better or cleverer from the guys who gave me my first epic boss battles with Cyberdemons and Hell Knights in epic settings with burning skies – even Doom 3’s BFG feels a bit wimpy if you remember the original. A lot of FPS have, but Doom 3 doesn’t even add any vehicles to the mix, so claustrophobic are the maps (although you do get to control a loader & and crane). Good but not great, Doom 3 lacks the epic settings of Halo 2 and whilst it never failed to entertain and scare me right until the end, I found that after a couple of hours play I’d had enough and had to go play something else to “chill out”. This could be a credited to the game’s intense atmosphere, or that I don’t actually like the dark all that much - Halo 2 and Far Cry managed to be plenty scary enough in bright sunshine and Doom 3 just overdid the dark thing to the point of repetition, it’s an awesome game engine but needed a few less dingy and claustrophobic settings to break things up and give the intense gameplay some much needed variety. A game you really should see just to appreciate what your Xbox is capable of graphically, visually it will at times amaze you, whilst noisily scaring your pants off at others.

Best Bits
- Scary as hell - Doom 3 will make you jump.
- The graphics (when you can see them) are remarkable, making the creatures seem real.
- Possibly the best use of sound in a game yet makes the game incredibly atmospheric.
- Immense attention to detail.
- Exciting and scary co-op mode.

Worst Bits
- Too dark, it’s just overused.
- It’s just not Doom – despite some decidedly retro aspects the game is too much of a departure from the original formula.
- Disappointing deathmatch options and no split screen.


by: Diddly