Doom 3

"Quiet frankly one of the best if not the best survival horror FPS ever made"

This is the long awaited next generation Doom game. On top of that if you happen to get the Limited Collector's Edition of the game, then you are a proud owner of Ultimate Doom, and Doom II as well. This is important because to fully appreciate what ID, Software did with this game it is recommended that you play the previous two installments, as there are a lot of the old content like weapons, monsters and locations is revamped in Doom III.

Story: 8/10
It is a typical Doom story that fans would appreciate but there is no connection between the first 2 Doom games. Like the developers said in an interview, you play Doom III like I and II never happened. However, they are limited by the substance of the story because they have to stay faithful to the Doom theme which is basically a struggle of humans vs. the forces of Hell. You are a marine that reports for duty to a research facility on Mars ran by the UAC - Union Aerospace Corporation. While you making your rounds the UAC is under siege by a demonic invasion. Before you know it, you are the only human left standing with the ability to fight. Hell is about to find out that this human is not a push over.

Graphics: 10/10
First of all after seeing this game on a PC, I never though in a 100 years that this will be out for the XBOX. It practically pushed the PC to the bone and forced a lot of PC gamers to upgrade their graphics card. Yet, this game found itself to an XBOX and let me tell you it is an excellent port. It looks marvelous in terms of graphics, possibly the best, if not the best looking FPS on XBOX. Environments look gorgeous with lots of details and steady frame rate. Great use of shadows as basically 95% of the game play takes place in a shady setting. The darkness is great as it creates a creepy mood. To offset the darkness you have a flashlight. If you get close to something you see the difference between this version and a PC as pixels jump out and pull your eye balls, but other than getting close to items it feels same as on the PC. This game has less gore than PC but nevertheless there is plenty of it, so expect blood and plenty of it smeared out all over floors, walls, and gashing out of enemies as you blast them.

Sound: 10/10
The sound is superb. Everything in the game sounds great, and the sound is used magnetically in creating the survival horror mood. The guns, especially a chainsaw sound incredibly good. You feel like popping the volume and giving your neighbors chills, what that hell is going on in that apartment. The music unlike in Doom I and II is not existent, but there is really no need for it. The brilliant sounds makes up for it.

Game-play: 9/10
The game is a survival horror FPS and it plays like it. The environment is very dark, shady like as I've mentioned it before which is perfect for that type of game. You basically strive through game illuminating your way with a flashlight. When you see an enemy you switch to your weapon and BAMB. The flash of your weapon hitting the enemy illuminates your target, making it for an awesome site. Some people hate the flashlight, but this game is not Serious Sam where you run like a mad man shooting. Here you pick your spots and anticipate the worst, as enemies can creep up behind you. In some instance you can see yourself jump out of hear. Most of the enemies from the previous Doom games make an appearance here, but there are also a bunch of new ones. All the weapons from the original Doom games are back except the super shut gun from Doom II. You have an addition of a machine-gun plus flashlight can also be used for melee. The control is your typical FPS type. Unlike Doom I and II, you can jump in here and crawl. The key cards and skull cards - the yellow, blue and red - are replaced with PDA access cards. So basically to get through a certain locked door you need to find a PDA laying around somewhere that updates your access. In addition to providing access the PDAs in the game contain e-mails and voice recordings that give you clue on what is happening in the facility, and access codes to lockers and some secure areas. Regarding the ladder I suggest to use gamefaqs cheats for the locker combos. Going through those PDAs can really destroy the phase of the game, making you hating the game play, but hey it is up to you. Besides shooting up foes and collecting PDAs you can also interact with machinery, which for some parts is more than just activating it. Unlike the original Doom games, this one features a number of awesome bosses. For those who are used playing Silent Hill games, or saw the movie will find something familiar in this game. At some points during the game play a deserted area can turn red, resulting in monster spawns, the color changes back to normal once you kill them. Important thing about the monsters that spawn is that some of the spawns are triggered based on you accessing certain areas on the map. For example if you see a lot bullets in some vent, when you go ahead and get it this might trigger a monster directly behind you, hocking at you like a maniac. So the more you explore every corner, the more monsters spawns you will trigger. If you are backtracking through a level, unless forced by a story 9 out of 10 times the area should be empty. This game has lots of levels, more than any Doom game before and you can replay them once you beat them. I've played the game on Marine - normal difficulty and found it moderately difficult, because I saved often I always had my weapons and ammos. However if you do die, deciding against loading the game gives you an option to find your bag containing weapons and ammo you had. The game also has some twists within itself where at two points in the game you lose your weapons, which provides for a nice challenge. By the way the game is harder than the PC version, because you do not have any codes working, including the God Mode which I could never made work. Also very limited level content has been removed from the XBOX version, which might alter your game play patter if you fell in love with the chainsaw.

Multi-player: 9/10
This game is fun in multiplayer. It gives you the deathmatch, team deathmatch, co-op, tournament, lastmanstanding over LIVE. It also has system link support. At this point, late in Nov. 2006 LIVE is practically dead, I could not find more than 1/3 games going on at a time. There are also two multiplayer maps available for free download.

Final Impression
Fans of the original would appreciate this overhaul. It is an excellent FPS with a survival horror twist. What this game also make you appreciate is your XBOX, as that baby is pushed to its limits making this thing playable. Oh yeah if you really dig this title, there is a expansion pack called Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, which is the continuation of the story. Currently it sells for $19.99, which is a bargain. I recommend to purchase it since it has a limited replay and value in terms of difficulty and the multiplayer and it is cheap.
I'll give it 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/06