Man, I can’t tell you how excited I was to pick up and get to review Doom 3. Anyone who has read my bio will know that I am a fanatic about FPS titles, and have played the best to the worst of them all. I especially enjoy run and gun style FPS titles, and my entire love for these games were spawned back in 1994 when I sat down at a friend’s house and played the original Doom by id Software. Years later, I have owned Doom, Doom II, and Final Doom on every platform ranging from SNES and Jaguar to 3DO, Playstation, and PC of course. Finally, the long awaited sequel is here … Doom 3. Was it worth the wait? Well, a whole bunch of underwear changes later, I definitely would say yes.

The story to Doom 3 follows along the footsteps of the original title, and you get to play as a marine who has been dispatched to Mars to relieve the current military crew on an interstellar laboratory. All is not well when you arrive however, and you are accosted by stories and bizarre ramblings from some of the employees about madness and the extreme desire to get out of there as soon as possible. Well, seems as though the UAC (who owns the facility) has found some alien technology, and they are messing around with the possibility of warpgates. Due to carelessness (or possibly intentional, play the game to find out more) a warpgate is opened into Hell itself, and soon the story takes a horrifying turn as you are left alone fighting for survival among some of the nastiest and scariest denizens that Oblivion can hurl in your direction. There are survivors that you will stay in contact with during the game, but overall you are left to fend for yourself.

In standard id fashion, Doom 3 presents some great, action packed run and gun action. While there are things to figure out, and the environments have a dark, claustrophobic, maze like kind of atmosphere that makes you worried at times about getting lost, most of the puzzle element to the game revolves around “get from A to B” or “Find so and so”. And of course, you will be finding access key cards to allow you into more high security sections of the facility. Control wise, Doom 3 stays in the “easy to figure out” mode with W,A,S, and D controlling primary movement, the scroll wheel to quickly switch weapons, and a key to reload, one to crouch, and one to jump just to name a couple.

Let’s talk for a moment about the monsters and weapons that you will encounter while playing, because I for one (being a Doom fanatic from way back in the nineties) was concerned about them trying to remake a classic. Fortunately all of the artillery that made the original great are back, like shotguns, plasma guns, the rocket launcher and the BFG 9000. There is also a neat new weapon, called the Soulcube, which will automatically kill off an enemy and provide health. As for the beasts of Hell, I was happy to see some of my old favorites like the Imp, Cacodemon, and Pinky Demon back once more … but this time they have had a major graphics upgrade which will not only leave you impressed at the new movements and looks, but also in the fact that they are intimidating as heck now.

One cool new feature that was added into this newest fun filled romp through Hell is a PDA that your character will carry with him along the way. This is handy if you forget your current mission objective, but it also is useful for playing video clips that you find as well as audio transmissions from some of the crew aboard the facility which not only give you more info from a personal perspective about the goings on in the UAC complex, but also will revel helpful things like combination to lockers where you can find things like armor and much needed ammo or weapons for your arsenal.

Usually, I save comments on graphics until I get all of the gameplay stuff out of the way, but one thing that really helped out in the gameplay arena here WAS the graphics. The game looked absolutely awesome in my opinion, and this new engine that they are using pumped out graphics and looks smooth enough to scare the heck out of me when I came across an Imp, Zombie, or one of the many other monsters that there are to have to deal with along the way. The lighting itself was dark and eerie causing you to have to rely on a simple flashlight in many areas, which also added a little strategy into the mix rather than the old school style of just hopping into a room and unloading at whatever you saw. See, the creatures in this game are not only scary as hell (no pun intended), but they also aren’t stupid. Monsters with distance weapons will take cover to avoid your fire, and many will actually sit in dark corners and wait for you to pay attention to something in front of you before attacking from behind. Yes, it forces you to play smarter. Yes, it’s an awesome idea which makes you cautious and nervous about entering any area, and yes … there are many instances where you may need to pause so you can go and change your undies or catch your breath before getting a heart attack. I literally kicked my pc over once accidentally when I jumped at a corpse that crashed out of the ceiling in front of me right after all of the power in the facility went out.

One area that I have to say could have used a little work personally was in the multiplayer department. Before I go any further, please understand that I didn’t dislike the multiplayer experience; I just felt it could have been a little more. Basically, every server I logged into was a deathmatch or last man standing game that we’ve all seen and played a hundred times before, and while it was cool to play it in the new Doom 3 engine with the upgraded lighting and effects features, this was a good opportunity to really go all out and offer some cool modes of play … one of which could have been a co-op mode.

The ambiance to the game both in sound and in lighting in Doom 3 was nothing short of fantastic. The game overall is very, very dark (regardless of how high you turn the brightness), and as I stated or hinted around before, you are armed many times with a simple flashlight trying to illuminate dark corners of a room before entering to try and ensure that you don’t get jumped. The sounds to Doom 3 set an incredibly scary tone to the game from start to finish, and you will be assaulted by everything from static chatter on your headset with the sounds of your comrades screaming for help or dying to background noises that will set you hair on end trying to figure out whether it was human or something much, much worse.

Overall, Doom 3 is a game that any Doom fan should go and get (if you haven’t already), and don’t worry … even with my current system specs I was able to run it without hardly any problems or lagging (nothing worse than I’ve seen in other games, even with detail set to high), but stay off of Very High res mode if you don’t have something equal to or better than a 128 graphics card. Well, id Software has shown why it was the creator of the single player FPS market as we know it once again, and while many of the elements here are things that we’ve seen and done throughout the years, the environment, lighting, animation, story, and sound will probably once again raise the bar in the world of FPS gaming.   

Gameplay: 9.1
While the gameplay is very simple, with most controls being basic movement and firing, this game was designed to give the player plenty of action and scares … not be a tactical shooter. It’s kind of hard to get used to, since it’s not “run and gun” as we know it and requires a bit more caution to avoid getting killed, it was done well and the cool storyline and scary as hell gameplay will keep you going until the end.

Graphics: 9.5
Awesome. I was a little concerned at how dark the game was when I first played it, but soon realized how much more it added to the game in terms of edge of the seat gameplay and constant edginess. The character models are very well done, and the lighting / shadow effects are some of the best I’ve seen to date.

Sound: 9.4
The sound, noise, and music came together perfectly to create one of the nastiest and creepiest atmospheres that I’ve played to date. Weapons sound excellent, and everything from the footsteps of monsters to a sudden and unexpected crash of a doorway or object were great.

Difficulty: Hard
Even on the easiest setting, be prepared for a challenge. The game is designed to really make you watch your step, and playing this game in typical FPS “charge in and shoot” fashion will quickly cost you ammo and ultimately your life. Check every corner carefully before entering.

Concept: 9.2
While it is essentially the original Doom told and played out more as it was probably meant to be, it is a great remake of an old classic that seemed to do most everything right. The good voiceovers, awesome lighting, and killer sound also just add to the big picture to make it a great experience.

Multiplayer: 8.8

The multiplayer is solid and enjoyable; there just wasn’t really anything to Doom 3 that made it stand out against other titles. Playing on the updated Doom 3 engine was nice, but some extra game modes and such would have really made this a great experience.

Overall: 9.2
As I stated before, any Doom fan or FPS player should definitely look into picking this up, and be prepared for some major scares and edgy gameplay from start to finish. I was really happy to see a new Doom game hit the shelves, and the long awaited return of the FPS king is over. It’s been a long wait, but well worth it in the end. Glad to see id Software back again.