	Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil
	Developer: ID Publisher: Activision Release Date: Out Now Players: 1-4 System Link & Xbox Live	Words By:
If you ask me Doom 3 needed this data disk sequel to be released now like I need another hole in the head. Despite being quite a fan of Doom 3, coming soon after Far Cry Instincts and Half Life 2 meant it was never going to shape up very well. A few more missions resulting predictably in another trip to Hell and just 7 new multiplayer maps mean that this standalone add-on certainly ain’t going to do for Doom 3 what the Multiplayer Map Pack did for Halo 2. Set on Mars again, you play as a lone Space Marine fighting against strange forces believed to be unleashed from the gates of Hell itself. Boasting what are still remarkable lighting and shadowing effects, Doom 3 RoE 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, hell knights or trites (giant spiders), and the next you’re reading some poor dead UAC employee’s mundane email to a colleague... Doom 3 RoE has updated versions of all the demons that appeared in the old games, and some all-new beasties and weapons (including a return for the good old double-barrelled shotgun) as well, but for some reason my favourite chainsaw seems to have gone missing, and that’s not the only thing to have mysteriously disappeared since Doom 3. In addition to the DB Shotgun (incredibly devastating close up but slow to reload) we now get a gadget called a “Grabber”. This is a rifle-shaped tool that allows you to lift small to medium-sized objects (crates/barrels etc) and move them around, or fire them as projectile weapons – you can even “catch” demons’ fireballs and return them – nice – but hang on a minute... If you’ve played Half Life 2 you might think this weapon sounds familiar, and so it should, it’s a shameless copy of HL2’s Gravity Gun, only sadly not as well implemented or anywhere near as much fun to use in the game’s claustrophobic settings. I guess the moral of the story is; if you’re going to copy something, at least make it a good copy… The next “new” feature is an artefact from the shores of hell called ‘the relic’ that enables you with awesome powers (well, it sucks the souls from the dead, slows down time, makes the screen go blurry and generally makes you harder to hurt). Did someone say “Bullet Time”? – Well yeah, that’s what I thought too… it s-l-o-w-s things down and gives you the upper hand against some very powerful enemies, and if nothing else shows the Doom 3 engine's splatter-gore abilities off to the max. But correct me if I’m wrong, but should developers as famous as id really be borrowing ideas from other games? So as we’ve said twice before in Doom 3 reviews, Doom 3 may have all of old 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 RoE 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. 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, unlike Riddick’s adventure in Butcher Bay which used it rather cleverly Doom 3 takes a scary setting and flogs it to death. Previously having to fumble around switching between torch and weapon, you now have a light fixed to your pistol, but that’s all – but are we still really supposed to believe 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 shotgun/chaingun/BFG?? As Dunk said in his review of the PC version, games such as Thief 3, Splinter Cell and Riddick use lighting and shadows intelligently, but here it just becomes dull – in more ways than one. Again there’s more old-school key/pass hunting and re-treading of levels to be done, this can be tiresome, and gamers who thought some of Halo’s levels looked samey had better steer clear of Doom 3 RoE, it’ll drive you nuts - and to make things worse, if I’m not mistaken they even re-used a couple of locations from Doom 3… Hey, so familiarity does breed contempt. When you can see things though, the Doom 3 game engine still looks stunning – comfortably up there with the Xbox’s best looking games. The textures vary and are mostly amazing to look at all - usable panels and items are hugely detailed even when really close up and metal, stone and oily flesh bring the levels and creatures to life. The lighting effects really are special too (even more impressive than Riddick’s Butcher Bay adventure) with those shadows everywhere and the 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 and Far Cry Instincts, with only a maximum of 4 players on Xbox Live. The 7 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! Ah yes, the other missing thing that I mentioned earlier; the most disappointing thing for me about Doom 3 RoE is that the co-op mode has been removed – it was without doubt the best thing about Xbox Doom 3 for me, and its omission is a huge mistake in my opinion – everyone I played deathmatch games on Xbox Live with was complaining about it… For 15 quid or thereabouts this is of course by no means a bad game, and Doom 3 RoE never failed to entertain and scare me right until the end, but whilst playing it through I found that after a couple of hours play I’d had enough and had to go play something else. This could be credited to the game’s intense atmosphere, or that I don’t actually like the dark all that much – but Halo 2, Far Cry and Half Life 2 managed to be plenty scary enough in brilliant sunshine – Resurrection of Evil just oversteps the ‘dark mark’ to the point of repetition. It’s an awesome game engine but needed a few less dingy and more open settings to break things up and give the intense gameplay some much needed variety.

Best Bits
- Scary as hell.
- The graphics (when you can see them) are gorgeous.
- Possibly the best use of sound yet makes the game incredibly atmospheric.

Worst Bits
- Too dark – it’s just overdone.
- Where’s the co-op mode gone?
- It’s a bit short.
- Two “borrowed” features from other famous games smack of desperation.
- Disappointing deathmatch options and no split screen.
- It’s still just not Doomy enough – too much of a departure from the original formula.


by: 'Big Tony' Bolognese