First impression: Having first played the PC demo a while back I wasn't too overwhelmed or excited at first seeing Doom 3 on the XBOX. The graphics were pulled off really well on the XBOX, yet they were already quite familiar. I was noticing the truncations off the initial maps, and felt a little dissapointed that the XBOX single player didn't allow as much environment interaction (although initially little on the PC demo) and backdrop on the story of the Mars station where the whole game takes place. Upon finding the first foes I found them to be easily shot down, predictable, and not much more challenging or smart than the original pixilated counterparts of the original Doom games. Into the game: It took about two hours for me to start feeling the game. The levels flowed nicely between eachother seperated mostly by an airlock or a cargo lift. Each level felt as though is was connected to the last one even after waiting through a modest load screen. It was still a breeze to blast through enemies, but ammo, health, and new weapons started to be in shorter supply. The occasional ammo providing Doom 1/2ish secret areas existed, but were not as interesting or plentiful as they were in the old versions. Most ammo or health could be found behind a box or under a stairwell and wasn't really rewarding to find, even when it was in short supply. Although the gameplay is as straight forward as a shooter can be, its was fun thanks to the nice feel and power of the weapons, and controls that feel fine tuned very manageable. The ability to use the D-pad as a weapon shortcut is innovative, usefull, and much more preferable than having to cycle through the lineup of weapons available. A quicker way to set up the D-pad other than flipping through the options menu would have been nice, but I eventually worked into a setup I liked. Doom 3 eventually sucked me in slowly and steadily. Just as this game's dark and foreboding atmosphere is, Doom 3's ability to draw me in crept up slowly out of the shadows to keep me wanting more. Although overall the game's surprise demon spawns and creatures jumping from shadows were really no surprise at all, I still looked forward to the next attack feeling like a professional demon exterminator. The best moments were when the game actually caught me with my pants down. I'd quickly turn from the demon pulverizer to putting my tail between my legs, hoping for any escape route, if there even was one. Boss battles are scattered throughout the game, but aren't much more memorable than an encounter with any regular group of demons. The sound of the game also helped suck me in. It is surround sound candy. Not only are all the sounds as dark as the visuals, they adequately fit the feel of the environment and matched the smallest details. Ambient sounds can guise themselves as a demon, or help disorient you to the sound of a real demon nearby. Low frequency rumbles and pounding of machinery pierce right through you. The soundtrack of the game is not real music, but more an ambient cacophony of mechanical sounds and chilled drafts of air. It is a shame however that there is never really silence in the game, since silence is the most frightening of all sounds. The game has a universe and simple storyline built in to explain events and why you are going from point A to point B. Most of this is through PDAs scattered in the levels throughout the levels. Some PDAs are also necessary as keypasses or to open supply lockers. Reading emails on PDAs break the tension of the game, which is good or bad depending how you like it, and give insight to the story. The story really doesn't need to exist in this game, and will normally be in the lime light anyway. Blowing away demons from point A to point B is much more interesting than why you need to get to point B. If I wasn't surrounded by a bunch of Hell Knights and Imps, the game's visually detailed and neuropathic maps were nice to soak up. I was surprised how much work went into some areas that the player might only see for a few seconds and pass on by. The level to level progression of the darkness and evil happening upon the Mars station is done very well, at least for the first 2/3s of the game. I found the environments and sound of the game generally to be much more creepy than the enemies hiding in it. Eventually this backs off like passing the peak of a bad acid trip, yet offers some hefty battles in exchange. The action then finally starts to feel a little overdone, and the nightmare feels over before the game is even beaten. Overall the single player campaign took about 20 hours. Co-op is a nice addition to this game over the PC version. I found it a little difficult to tactically coordinate with your teammate since no on screen indicator directs you to their direction or location. This would provide a few chilling moments where your own partner could scare the crap out of you as they popped out of a dark corner. With friendly fire turned on your partner could be worse to your health than any demon. Co-op's campaign is shorted and the levels are edited. The edits to the levels felt right for a co-op session. It took about five hours in a single session to play the entire co-op campaign. The storyline is completely absent, as with all cut scenes, but it is appropriate and offers a nice fast pace to keep you and your partner well occupied with demon hunting. The pace will abrubtly break when you die. One must start their way from the beginning of the level and work thier way back to where they died to get their weapons and ammo back. This makes the other teammate either have to wait for you, or otherwise go ahead and steal all the fun. The shortened co-op surprised me at first. I kept asking my teammate, "how the hell did we get here already?", but I could imagine playing through the full unedited levels could be a bit tedious. Also, just as the single player felt to fizzle near the end, co-op suffers the same. The other multiplayer modes in the game haven't interested me that much to even try it. All said and done: Doom 3 has a few shortcomings and should be done betters. As simple as the gameplay is, it is very well polished. The sounds, visuals, and environments are very detailed, allowing Doom 3 a dark and rich atmosphere.
Gameplay Gameplay in Doom 3 is pretty simple but fun. You walk around, shoot monsters. That's pretty much it. You really never really run out of ammo so, unless you have a really bad aim, you really don't have to str... Read Full Review
DooM 3 for x-box proves itself to be better than the PC in several ways,but it also shares it's amount of areas that needed polishing. DooM 3's graphics are better in the PC version in several ways, First off,the blo... Read Full Review
