Review
Release Date: 04.03.2005
Platform:
XboxDeveloper:
id Software, Inc.Publisher:
Activision, Inc.Reviewed by
Samuel Altersitz on 4.8.2005
| Review Rating: 9/10 | User Rating: 7.29/10 |
It seems like only 3 years ago we saw the first pics and videos for id Software’s newest incarnation of the venerable
DOOM series, which is only slightly younger than the
Wolfenstein 3D series, also made by id. id is the company that really got the first person shooter rage off the ground, and with
DOOM 3, they continue to show how they can keep it alive with new technologies that take advantage of the processing power available today.
Now, granted, compared to modern PCs with 3.6 plus GHz CPUs and video cards with 256 MB of RAM on them, the Xbox is pretty old news, technology wise. However, Vicarious Visions, with their port of id’s PC counterpart, have shown that with the correct optimization, older hardware (in PC terms) can be worked in ways people might have thought impossible.
DOOM 3 for the Xbox shows this.
DOOM 3 is basically a re-imagining of the original
DOOM that came out in 1992. The story takes place on Mars, at a research facility in which the inhabitants have inadvertently found a portal into another dimension through their experiments in teleportation. Unfortunately, this other dimension is actually hell, full of demons and other nasty things wanting to devour mankind’s souls. You start out on your first day on Mars, as a marine there for security. As can be expected, shortly after your arrival, all hell breaks loose, literally.
Let’s face it, this story is old hat. The difference being that this time id has put an actual story in the game, complete with voice acting, cinematics, and other things to help you move along. This new telling fleshes out
DOOM’s story into a cohesive, and semi-believable sci-fi horror epic worthy of a lot of movies of the same genre.
The basic gameplay is your standard
DOOM flair: run, kill things, try not to get killed yourself. At first, this seems easy. However, as the game progresses and things get harder, you’ll be looking for those formerly frequent but now oh-so-rare health packs and armor pieces to help protect you. The same goes for ammo; it is plentiful in the beginning, but becomes rarer and rarer as you progress in the game.
Of course, things also get hairier as you progress because enemies like to suddenly appear behind you. So, take note, clearing a room and going back for stuff later is not always going to happen; sometimes new enemies will spawn there as you go back.
Now, there are some additions to the gameplay, though, such as lockers you have to open with codes you get from people’s PDAs, as well as security clearances that replace the old red, yellow, and blue keys from
DOOM and
DOOM II. By finding people’s PDAs, you download their data to your PDA; from there you can read their e-mail and listen to their voice logs if there are any. It’s good to check these, as they’ll often have codes to lockers or to doors that you will want to open.
Of course, all the rage about
DOOM 3 wasn’t completely due to its gameplay. Everyone knows how
DOOM plays, after all. It set the standard that most FPS games follow today. The big thing that got people salivating for
DOOM 3 was the graphics, which were, in short, nothing short of astounding when they were first unveiled. And they’re still impressive now, as well, with only the possibility of
Half-Life 2 surpassing them at the current moment.
The detail in
DOOM 3, the lighting effects , the normal mapping, the particle effects (watch the smoke from imps and others who throw plasma to see these)... all of them are simply fantastic. and, in a shock, Vicarious Visions was able to get them all onto the Xbox, even though its specs are well below minimum specs for
DOOM 3 for the PC. It shows the value of optimization and set hardware configurations, I tell you.
Now, this doesn’t mean
DOOM 3 on the Xbox looks as good as it does on a PC with a super fast CPU, graphics card (like a Radeon 9800), and tons of RAM. It doesn’t. However, it is probably one of the best looking games on the Xbox right now, right up there with
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, and I’d go so far as to say overall it is better looking than
Halo 2 as well.
One of the things to remember, though, is the fact that one of the ways
DOOM 3 looks so good is because it is a dark game. Not thematically, literally. That flashlight you get early on will be more than useful throughout most of the game. Without it, you might miss ammo, or armor, or health in areas of the game. And trust me, you don’t want to miss these; you need them. Of course, it begs the question, “Why don’t these 22nd century marines have lights on their weapons?” After all, lights on weapons are commonplace in our military today, and these guys are 140 years ahead of us. The answer is for atmosphere, but it does make me wish for the duct tape mod from the PC version (the mod that says that somewhere on this technologically advanced Mars colony, there has to be a roll of duct tape to use so you can tape your flashlight to your pistol...), especially since you actually have to manually switch weapons back to your firearms, because otherwise you just hit the enemy with your flashlight... which only really serves to annoy them unless they are weaker enemies.
Enemy designs have also improved over the years since the original
DOOM was released. Marine zombies, imps, Hell Knights and Barons of Hell, Cacodemons, Lost Souls, Mancubuses, and “Pink” demons have all gone through major revisions from their original sprite counterparts. Their roots are evident, but their new incarnations are just frightening. Additionally, there are new enemies to torment you on your journey to seal off hell from the rest of the universe.
The sounds you hear all around you in
DOOM 3 are pretty frightening as well. From the cries of souls, to the moans of zombies, to the roars of Hell Knights and their hurling plasma balls, you’ll get into
DOOM 3 from the sounds alone. The voice acting is also quite nicely done as well.
There’s also the online part, which, well, is hit or miss. The four-player multiplayer for deathmatch and other modes... well, it’s not that great. The four player limit really hurts the deathmatch mode. However, the online co-op mode, now that rocks. The co-op mode has you go through the same missions as the single player; however, there are differences in enemies and other things. for instance, in one level of hell, I knew there would be two imps that appeared... instead two Mancubuses appeared. The co-op campaign has these differences all throughout it.
It should also be noted that this is not a straight port of the PC version. Due to hardware limitations on the Xbox, the levels have all been separated into smaller chunks. Also, some areas of the PC version are just completely missing from the Xbox version. Still, the game clocks in at a good 15 hours on the normal (Marine) difficulty, which is pretty long for a FPS, and that can be extended to around 20 hours if you backtrack for health and such at opportune times.
Also, with
DOOM 3, there is the option of quick saving; something PC shooters have had for years, but Xbox shooters have not. Rather than tediously going through the menu to get to the save game option, simply hit the back button to quick save. This can be helpful if you have full health and armor and suddenly find yourself with few of each or dead just a few minutes later.
Get the collector’s edition of
DOOM 3, for an extra $10 on top of the $50 price tag of the normal game, and you also get some extra goodies, including ports of
Ultimate DOOM and
DOOM II, both with support for four player and split screen action. As much as FPS games have advanced over the years, it is still sometimes satisfying to go back and play the old school versions of
DOOM that pretty much launched the genre on the map.
Overall,
DOOM 3 is a great game. It can get a bit repetitive, and you often find yourself saying “you can’t fool me, game, I know there’s gonna be something popping up here;” but overall it is a fun experience that no FPS fan should miss.
DOOM 3’s old school FPS savvy and new school graphics make for an entertaining experience, and the online co-op mode that was not in the PC version helps add to the value immensely.
