Once billed as a remake of the original Doom, Doom 3 is actually a retelling of that game, now set in a much more frightening and disturbing environment. In fact, Doom 3 shares more in common with many survival-horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill than its predecessor. Narrow space-station confines replace the dungeonlike interiors of past Dooms, and now the emphasis is solely on one thing: terror. id Software has developed a magnificent game engine from the ground up to bring to life this much darker Doom. And amazingly, although the stunning graphics are nearly flawless, the bloodcurdling atmosphere as a whole takes center stage. Anyone who writes Doom 3 off as a mere technology demonstration is mistaken. What we have here is none other than pure hell on a computer screen--and that’s a good thing. The plot of the original game was paper-thin; Doom 3 increases the story’s arc to a short science-fiction novel. In 2145 humans live on Mars, but mostly only those working for the Union Aerospace Corporation, a massive conglomerate whose current project is the exploration and excavation of the red planet. As a nameless (but not faceless) marine on your first day of work, you report to the UAC Mars base and, as expected, chaos erupts. Demonic creatures teleport into the base and wreak havoc, and as one of the few remaining military personnel, it’s your job to exterminate them. You’ll uncover a deeper back story during your journey through the various complexes--if you wish. Skipable cut-scenes and linear mission objectives allow you to shoot your way through the myriad UAC caverns without giving mind to story details. At anytime, however, you can holster your weapon and equip your personal data assistant, Doom 3’s way of keeping you informed of story-related events. You’ll find the PDAs of dead UAC workers in many rooms, allowing you to check e-mail for important storage cabinet codes and door access rights, as well as context to your surroundings. The PDAs also serve a less obvious but very useful purpose: a break from the action. Doom 3 is one scary game--maybe one of the only games you’ll want to stop playing so you can gather your senses and calm down. The PDAs provide a much-appreciated break from the carnage. Repress your fear and resume playing and you’ll find expertly designed level after level. One mission has you searching to open a locked door; once you find the remote computer terminal that unlocks it, you realize you’re in an onlooking room one story higher. Your mission objective of returning to that door is now crystal clear and you know exactly where to go. Holding true to the Doom legacy, these small puzzles are kept to a minimum. In one situation, you come across an unusable low-power elevator and are simply told to “find another way” to the next level. Whereas a game like Resident Evil would have forced you to look for a power source for the elevator, Doom forges on. And if you get stuck on certain puzzles, a small tool-tip window pops up with a hint. There is no idle time in Doom 3. A new id graphics engine needs no introduction. This one, however, has run into some competition. Engines that power Far Cry, Half-Life 2, Serious Sam, and the Unreal series have taken a bite out of the once-impenetrable id Software industry. In spite, Carmack’s latest stands up wonderfully--it is simply the most beautiful graphics engine available, and in particular, the lighting and shadows in Doom 3 catapult it to the top of the pack. Doom 3 was clearly made with horror in mind, as the lighting effects are, arguably, the scariest aspect of the game. Light bounces off everything: walls, doors, enemies, and even your own guns. Your most useful "weapon" at times, a flashlight, is a double-edged sword, illuminating one area while forcing you to lower your firearm to see ahead, as countless corridors are pitch black. Pictures cannot convey what Doom 3 has to offer. True to form, Doom 3 retains the age-old id Software trademark of remarkably smooth and simple controls. Unlike other bloated engines in games like Far Cry, Doom 3 seems to have been coded to include everything it requires and nothing more. The game can be scaled to lower-end machines more easily and will likely be used in benchmarks for years to come, like id’s last title, Quake III. This translates to the game experience as a seamless and streamlined interface and control mechanism. Eleven buttons are used for weapon switching, one for your flashlight, one for your PDA, and the others for rudimentary controls: crouching, jumping, running. No Use button is needed; all the doors in Doom 3 open automatically, and when you approach computer screens or other input devices, your weapon lowers and a mouse pointer appears that you use to interact with the device. Simply put, Doom 3 wouldn’t be the same without its terrifying audio and sound effects. And incredibly, they’re nearly on the same level as the graphics. The game uses 5.1 surround sound to its full effect, creating a completely immersive environment. Much like the lighting, sound effects cue at the most terribly inappropriate (or for the macabre, appropriate) times: immediately after intense firefights, misleading you into believing a demon awaits; as you enter a room, the lights die, and you’re left wondering if a monster is inches away; during stretches of demon-less action, which are just as scary due to the hair-raising sound effects. Get this: Even the voice acting is top-notch. Not everything is perfect, though. You’ll receive missions objective updates and audio transmissions as you progress, but they’re often obscured by other elements--usually attacking hell spawn. Though not a game-breaking fault--you can check your mission objectives on your PDA--it is quite irritating. Although not as dependent on straight-up gun-toting action as the original Dooms, Doom 3 is still a first-person shooter, and as such, there’s lots of shooting. Lucky you, there’s plenty of ammo scattered around the UAC. It's too bad, though, that the gun sound effects don’t measure up to the level of quality set by the rest of the game. Your pistol sounds laughably weak (perhaps on purpose?), the machine gun must have been replaced by an automatic stapler, and the shotgun would sound more convincing if only it were a bit louder. That said, the fire of the BFG 9000, plasma gun, and chain saw are well done, if only because the first two are fictional and cannot be compared to real-world weapons. New to the Doom world are grenades, and although they sound great--creating a shockwave that rocks the surrounding area--it’s cumbersome to switch to them in battle, and they often land astray. On the whole, most of your journey through Doom 3 will be with weapons whose accompanying sound effects aren’t very convincing. Most of the series’ stalwart demons from hell return, including the Imp, Revenant, Archvile, Hell-knight, Cacodemon, and Cyberdemon. In fact, the list more reads like a Doom best-of than only those found in the first game. A few new additions are featured, such as a dismembered baby torso and a crawling Imp-like demon, and each fits in quite well with the rest. Seemingly in a nostalgic nod to the older games, enemies sometimes cross fire and begin fighting each other, a helpful (and humorous) occurrence when you’re low on ammo or health. But never mind the Cyberdemons: Unexpectedly, the shotgun- and machine gun-wielding humans-turned-zombies are some of your toughest enemies to slay thanks to their dead-shot accuracy. Always billed as a single-player experience first and foremost, it’s obvious. Multiplayer in Doom 3 has a 4-player maximum limit, includes only five maps, and has just deathmatch, team deathmatch, and variants of the two. That’s it. But unlike Quake III, multiplayer in Doom 3 is a slower and more methodical monster. Thanks to the graphics engine, hiding in the shadows is a viable technique you can use to stalk opponents. The maps have been designed to take advantage of the best parts of the single-player game. One map, Lights Out, has closeable windows and variable lighting, often forcing players to switch to their flashlights to see. As it stands, however, Internet play is a hit-or-miss prospect. Lag plagues most online matches, and the in-game server browser is buggy, requiring many to manually enter IP addresses to play. In all likelihood, id is planning a patch to fix these bugs, but in its current state, Doom 3 multiplayer is problematic at best. When combined with the demonic monsters and the unknowing of what may lie around the next corner, you have what is most likely the scariest video game ever created. Doom 3 doesn’t just capture the spirit of the original game; it takes that concept and transforms it into a much better and more horrifying adventure into the depths of hell. The ho-hum multiplayer mode and the sometimes repetitive single-player game may turn off some players, but rest assured that there’s a lot here to enjoy--and be scared of. Have several dark and lonely nights to burn? Doom 3’s the ticket. --Patrick Caldwell
I think this game is indeed the best game I've ever played. I like it because it scares me, though I've played it before. The gameplay is really rapid, you should always load your weapons, otherwise you would be torn apa... Read Full Review
This game is not for the faint of heart, the paranoid or the weak stomached. Playing this game alone in the dark with headphones at full blast is one of the most enjoyable if un-nerving experiances you can have with a ga... Read Full Review
