DOOM 3 review

I can't believe doom3 beat halflife2 in getting to us. We all know this 2 heavyweights will go head2head in determining the king of FPS. Whether or not they dish it out among themselves, i think these 2 games are pretty much in their own class and will garner their own fans. And while halflife2 will be coming up shortly (late sept/early oct), Doom3 here should keep us entertained for a bit.

Before i got to playing doom3, i whipped up an earlier version of id's famous fps, doom2 and compared to the new doom, i was like...duude! The gap is extremely unreal! i liked what i played in doom2; it's simple, straightforward and a classic. Doom3 simply builds on that experience and brings the doom franchise to date. One thing's for certain...the spirit of the doom series is as strong as ever in this new take of the FPS that started it all.

Thanks to the new graphics engine devised by the game engine programmer John Carmack, people at id have really outdone themselves this time. This graphical upgrade is essential to provide the mood set by the game and it itself are part of the game mechanics. Every object, tiles, walls and machines are rendered realistically and the whole environment only serves to immerse yourself more. No other game to date has tried this much just to transport the player into the gameworld. Then there's real time dynamic shadows. Almost every little thing in the game casts shadows! You gotta see it for yourself. Shadows play a heavy role in doom3 but its main purpose is to supposedly scare you shitless. You'll eventually freak out by any moving shadows later on in the game. Shadows is one thing, total darkness is another. This game is totally dark. It's amazing how one place is totally pitchblack but when you light it up, you can see all the details. This whole dark thing will play against you as the monsters often surprises you from the dark. Monsters? Did anybody say monsters? ...help!

Zombies in the beginning of the game are just groovy. They moved like one, kills like one, and drops dead like one. Coupled with physics, they go down realistically and often amusing at times. Fireballs hurling Imps...ahh, this guy will show up consistently thruout the whole game. You'll come to love them simply bcoz of their predictable attack patterns. Well, next there's this bull thing, rocket launcher dude, flying fireheads and nasty stinging babies. The bosses are so cool and scary at the same time, i don't know how to describe it. But i gotta say, i hate it when monsters pop up from behind walls or something in the tradition of old dooms. They make me friggin' jump at most times!

Weapons! I thought i loved the sound of my pistol reloading, wait till you hear the shotgun! I pretty much use the shotgun thruout bcoz it's damn powerful upclose. Machinegun's fine and sounds powerful but doesn't pack damagewise. The chaingun's the mean machine with the terrific dum-dum-dum sound. Plasma rifle, like previous dooms shoots blue colored enerby balls. It sounds uber cool to boot! You have your rocket launchers, a BFG that shoots a giant green ball which consumes anything in its path and don't forget your chainsaw darling. Yup, chainsaws! There's this incredible weapon you get middle half of the game...the Soulcube! You have to at least kill 5 monsters before you can use it. Once unleashed, it will kill any nearby monsters and transfer it's life to you. Often up to full. A life saver towards the end of the game. Oh yeah...and then there's this ever trusty flashlight, good to hit slow moving zombies on the head but extremely useful to light up that stupid dark corridors.

I could've swore my eyes began to swell up with heat after playing a couple of hours. It's got everything to do with the totally dark environment. I'd squint my eyes whenever i wanna get a better look with my torchlight on. But even the torch don't light up the centre of the screen, it's a little to the right. Like i expected, doom3 didn't treat us with anything new gameplaywise. It gets a little repetitive down the line but the graphic's what keeps me playing on. I enjoyed my brisk walk down to hell. It's kinda scary with cut up torsos and the nervous crying sound around. The big boss there totally kicks ass. I like how you can interact with the panels in the game with your mouse; the crosshair turns into a cursor to navigate...cool! The cutscenes are well done. This one bad dude, Dr. Betruger...he kinda looks like Anthony Hopkins (hannibal) to me. Sounds like him as well. If doom were to be made into a movie, get him! Great voice acting...chilling sounds...cheap scares abound and you could finish the game 2 days tops knowing it was in development for 4 years? What's not to like!

My rating: 9/10 (Wow! Yikes!)