So so so its time for a game review, and so I've decided to go for Doom 3, the follow up to the original classic PC shooter, which revolutionised 3D gaming at the time of its release back in 1993. Doom 3 didn't quite have the same impact in terms of its gameplay, but in graphical grounds it broke new ground at the time as it was one of the very first games to use the DirectX 9.0 application program interface (used by Microsoft Windows and other platforms), which saw incredible advances in visuals. But I'll say more about that in a wee while, but first off let's do the usual obligatory style of all my posts, and have a quick gander at the story behind this classic...
The game's setting is in 2145 and it takes place on Mars, which starts with an un-named marine, who arrives at the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) base on the planet. Meanwhile a councilman from Earth, Elliott Swann arrives at the base to meet with Dr Malcolm Bertruger, as there have been complaints about incidents that have taken place on the base. Bertruger's research has involved unnatural experiments with teleportation. Meanwhile the marine meets with Sergeant Kelly, who sends the marine to find a scientist on the base who has gone missing. The marine soon finds the scientist, who tells him about Bertruger's experiments and the dangers involved and that he is trying to send out a message to the UAC base on Earth to warn them about this. However as a result of another teleportation, a shockwave hits the base, and transforms the scientist into a zombie, who the marine kills. The marine is then faced to deal with the rest of the base staff and soldiers, who have mostly been turned into zombies as well.
As the marine makes his way through the base, he also encounters demons of different kinds, coming through portals, which he fends off with his weapons. The marine manages to make his way to a comm system where he receives a message from Kelly telling him to try and send out a distress call to the UAC on Earth. However Swann has other ideas as he tries to prevent anyone from sending out messages to Earth as he believes the situation should be contained on Mars. Based on the player's decision the marine will face the choice of either listening to Kelly, and sending the message or to Swann and not sending the message, which is where the game will go in two slightly different directions. As the marine progresses through the delta labs of the base, he receives a message from Bertruger, who tells him that he is co-operating with the forces from Hell, in order to prepare for the invasion of Earth. From here the marine is forced to continue his battle against the hordes of demons and against Bertruger in his attempts to destroy the Earth, as the fate of the man (and woman) kind lies in his hands.
As a long awaited sequel to Doom II, Doom 3 certainly delivered the goods, as its complete graphical revamp of the series brought it brilliantly up to date. The gameplay of course remains pretty faithful to the original as the marine you simply run around, shooting anything that moves, and picking up key cards to access new rooms, and to access vents and lockers containing ammo and equipment. The game's enhanced lighting techniques also add to the intense atmosphere of the game, as alot of the game is pretty darky lit, it allows for the player to be immersed in its creepy world, as baddies can be all around you and wouldn't even know it, or you don't know it until you hear the groans or screeches. And graphically even by today's standards, Doom 3 is still quite an impressive looking game, and with it being re-released for the Xbox 360, with improved HD graphics, the game looks better than ever before (this is also really as good as the previous PC version didn't support full HD resolution).
And partly what makes Doom 3 work so well as well as in addition to its amazing graphics and its intense and creepy soundtrack, its the baddies themselves, as there is quite a large variety of baddies here, quite a few feature from Doom and Doom II. The classic baddies have been brought back really well starting with the imps, who hurl fireballs at you like they are throwing a baseball, who have a high pitched whine. There are also the cacodemons (who still give me the creeps from the original!) who also fire big fireballs at you (a popular weapon in hell I'd say!) and float around, the hell knights, who are massive and probably the toughest of the enemies in the game. The are also the revenants (walking skeletons with rocket launchers attached) and the mancubus (large blobs with attached flame throwers) who featured in Doom II. Some of the new enemies feature mutated soldiers, who have a long retractable arm that can attack you, large head spiders who can lash out and attack you, and worst of all babies with attached wings that jump out at you, who are without a doubt one of the most horrible baddies in any game!
The games arsenal is also quite impressive as you have pretty much the same array of weapons from the first two games, but they look great graphically and are easy to use. The weapons feature a hand gun, shotgun, machine gun, minigun, plasma rifle, rocket launcher and of course the BFG (and we all know what that stands for!). There is also plenty of ammo strewn throughout the game so you will never normally run out of ammo in a hurry, although the baddies can come thick and fast so there will be times will you might run a bit low on juice.
The game however of course does have some flaws, as for starters the gameplay can tend to get a bit monotonous after a while, and the level design is at times a bit samey. The marine tends to just follow the formulaic pattern of just running about shooting anything in his way, grabbing key cards, pdf files, and CDs to gather information, and not much beyond that. However the intense thick and fast action in the game does help to sort of alleviate this problem, and despite its somewhat repetitive nature it still remains quite compelling to play. There was also an issue with the controls in the original PC version, where you couldn't hold a weapon and the flashlight at the same time, as you had to access one at a time, however this was fixed for the BFG edition, as the player now has the flashlight attached to his shoulder of the marine's outfit, which he can turn on and off and still use his gun at the same time. Another criticism that can be levelled at the game is that most of the baddies can be killed with fair ease, especially some of the ones such as the demon dogs with the robotic legs, which are pretty big in size, yet an imp can still take a few more shots to kill! Naturally the bigger baddies such as the hell knights, and the mancubus are pretty tough to eliminate but quite a few of them can be dispatched with just one or two shots from your shotgun. And finally another flaw that can be levelled at the game is the lack of a map in the inventory screen, as it would be good if it gave you a map of each level, as there are times where you can get lost wandering around the corridors at times, trying to feel your way through the level, which means you are running blind, you can eventually get through the level fine but it can take a while based on what level you are doing. In fact even Doom II had maps for each level, so its bizarre they don't have that in Doom 3!
Despite all that though Doom 3 still remains a thoroughly entertaining, intense and creepy experience, which if you are a fan of the original games, you must give it a go, and despsite the at times reptitive nature of the gameplay, its still alot of fun. And also quickly and worthy of note is the game's soundtrack, which features a suitably creep and atmospheric score as well as some deep low humming sound effects (which will give your surround system a workout!). The title theme of the game is also great, which was by Tweaker (Chris Vrenna, the drummer from Nine Inch Nails) which is basically a metal track with some crunchy riffs and big sounding drums.
So that's it for now, more stuff to follow soon, probably might try to manage another post before the new year, if not I will say a happy new year to you all!
Peace out.
K.
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