Doom 3

[Volais]

Ok, so I had some extra money in my hand and there it sat, the last Doom 3 box in the store. Was I really looking forward to it? No...not really. Half Life 2 and Halo2 and Everquest 2 (I seem to have an attaction to the number 2) are the current ones i have in my "HOLY SHIT! BUY BUY BUY!" bank. But there was something about it. Maybe it was those fond days of playin Doom 1 & 2 that brought me to it. Maybe it was the wonderous visuals. Maybe the hope that Id be able to shoot off a BFG for the first time in years. Or maybe, just maybe, it was the whispers in my head beckoning me to come closer. "Coooollin. Cooooolin. Save meeeeee..." It spoke to me. I came closer. I held it in my hands. Moving it around to scan the back. I felt I tingling in my arm. A jangling in my wallet. I must buy this. I must buy this.

I ran to the register. I plopped in my money, I secured the days money, locked the store, jumped in my car, and raced home with great speed!

Upon loading the disk in, I began to read the booklet inside......to boring.besides, not i need to change disks. And so it went, In which i did replace thy disk three times. One for disk 2, once for 3, and once more to play it.

Bt you dont want to hear about this story (In which i somehow end up falling asleep in my bed watching Family guy with an empty bottle of root beer and last months readers digest on my forehead). YOu want reviews! Well I got em! The first game to require diapers...its Doom 3.




<Cont>

[Volais]

The first thing your gonna notice about Doom 3 is the visuals. From the beginning "ID logo" start up screen, you instantly realize, that this game is pretty. I mean, really, really, pretty. The environments, models, and textures are all top quality, giving this game a graphical feel that has never before been seen in a game. Period. Nice as the bump mapping and hideous scientists look, this game's graphics really shine when the lights go out. To say the lighting in this game has dynamic lighting and shadows would make John Carmack himself vomit with rage. It’s really something that must be seen to understand. Light bounces, reflects, and refracts off of everything. Boxes, swinging objects, and even your gun. Its easy to say tat this game has the best graphics in a game, ever.

However, we all know that graphics don’t make the game fun. Well...in this game, they do. Doom 3's basic, shoot everything that moves and don’t get shot yourself, corridor crawl, type of FPS is starting to show its age? How do you make it interesting? Good ol fashioned horror of course. Id software did an excellent job of scaring you. Yes. It will scare you. You will on occasion scream out, "JESUS CHRIST!” You’ll also gain the confused looks of all in the room. But nuts to them. Everything just builds up tensions so well. The fact that the enemies take a good amount of shots to take down. And that the most ammo that you want to get your hands on (Shotgun shells mostly) are few and far between, with many enemies in your way. To the dark corridors with tiny sparks casting short tiny flickers on the walls. And then...there’s the sound. Ohh...the sound. Like I said. You don’t wanna waste ammo...or worse, your health (Which once found give you a decent amount...but is rare, you want to know, where and when an attack is coming. The worst part? You’ll never know. So you’ll be moving down a corridor. The sounds of your own footsteps will set you off. Scanning around, finding nothing...moving on. The slightest sound will set your back hairs on edge. Because the Imp monsters can literally, attack from anywhere, your always just scanning around...scared.... Alone. And then, the heartbeat. Thump, thump, thump. It doesn’t happen always. But everytime it does, you begin to really think, "This is it.... Hellspawn...lots of them. Then...the moving lights.... The humming sound of machines, the heartbeat...thump...thump.... THUMP. Moving up the stairs...your footsteps...the fear of what just waits around the next turn. You look at your gun. 8 shells left! The darkness creeping up.... Must switch to your flashlight. Now you must contend with the fact that your visibility is limited by a great deal.
And then it his you. Your gripping the person closest to yours hand so hard that they've been screaming for help. But you didn’t notice...it’s just that suspenseful.


Now. How’s the gameplay you ask? I think Ive told you. Run, Shoot, run, find key card, scan keycard, run, shoot, rinse, repeat. It’s same ol doom.


But don’t let the dated gameplay distract you. This game could have crappy gameplay and still be about worth it. Of course, the run and gun gameplay is still fun. So there’s no reason to go out and plop down your money on this. Truly, one of the best games I have played in years.


A horrifying 10 out of 10




P.S.: Get this game for Single player. Multiplay pretty much sucks. Chain gun is the best bar none. And the basic game support only 4 people (WTF) though we have found ways to get up to 16 people.

[Volais]

hmm...i think i meant to post this in AW. Oh well...if some mod wants it there do whatever.

[Flameforge]

Cool review

I don't think this is one I'll get. I keep remembering when I tried Alien vs Predator at a friend's house once... a marine creeping down a dark hallway... BAM something snaky and horrific falls out of the ceiling, I leap off the seat in fright, letting loose a full clip... only to find it was some silly pipe... LOL... I don't like scary so much

[BigSwede]

Nice review. I'd like to see the game once.
Last time I jumped in my chair was when I crawled the ventilation tunnels in Halflife and one of those small furry things with fangs jumped up infront of me.
I remember old Doom. It was the first game I played over lan. Me and my friends played coop, and had a blast. Too bad they didn't put more energy into the multiplayer code on the new one, I guess they went for the scary part instead.

[furyangel]

Nice one Volais, this made me instantly think of Alien V Predator too, the blip of the motion detector and the dark corridoors were really atmospheric. I am considering this but too into AO atm so will probably just wait for Half Life 2, and my much needed new Graphics Card hasn't turned up yet

[Sidarion]

Very nice review, Volly!

Two days ago, I stood in the local comp store and pondering wether I should get the game.

I bought "The longest journey" and "Splintercell" instead, since I never played TLJ and Splintercell had a great appeal to me since I got hooked to that concept ever since I played Thief for the first time.

But:

There was a 30'' flat screen in the shop (for the bargain price of 3199 US$ o.O) and Doom 3 was running on it. I just played it for five minutes, basically in the part of the Marine HQ where you don't yet have to deal with enemies. Boy, this game looks so sweet it ain't funny anymore. Imagine walking around, looking up you see a TV where an actual newscast is running (in the same gfx quality like the rest of the game) with a crystal clear image. The closer you move, the clearer gets the sound from the TV. That frikking newscast ran for five minutes before it looped!!! And the images on the TV cast real-time lighths into the room...

Freaking me out, really!!!

Of course, there is no computer on the market yet that can handle the program with all the gfx options set to high... but we'll see, in two years time, there will be.

[LilBurst]

Of course, there is no computer on the market yet that can handle the program with all the gfx options set to high... but we'll see, in two years time, there will be.

Alienware Video Array

edited for clarity sid

[Sidarion]

I said there is no computer on the market...


AW Video array is NOT on the market yet

[Volais]

Of course, there is no computer on the market yet that can handle the program with all the gfx options set to high... but we'll see, in two years time, there will be.

Mine can...

[furyangel]

OMGZ why isn't my new nVidia 256mb card here yet and why isn't Doom 3 released yet in the UK?!!!! This is so unfair

[Fasteel]

I have to fully agree with the review. Picked up Doom 3 last week, and have been scared witless since. I LOVE IT!!

Here's a little story to illustrate how freaky this game is.

While playing Doom 3, I was creeping down a corrodor. I hadn't seen any MOBs in a while, so I lit up a smoke. This was not a good idea.

I came upon a door, opened it, and killed the imp that was standing on the other side with one well aimed shot from my shotgun. No biggie, so I start to raise my cigarette to take a puff, when some of the undead marines start shooting at me from behind - a corrodor that had just seconds before been completely empty. This shocked me, but I blew them away, and tried to take a puff.

Now keep in mind, this game puts me totally on edge. All the above happened in about 3 seconds. Little did I realize that I had somehow flipped the cigarette around in my fingers after being spooked. The next thing I heard was a little sizzle, as the cherry seared into my lip.

Moral of the story: Doom 3 and smoking do not mix.

[Sidarion]

Well...

cherries searing your lip are bad in this special case...


Uhmm...

never mind


*runs away and hides*

[furydemon]

I only want to play it multiplayer - so someone tell me about that.


Me: *headshots*

Angel: Damnit you killed me again, stop picking on me

Me: *headshots recently spawned Angel*

[Volais]

Let me put it this way, you need a mod to play 32 players. Id screwed up multiplay BAD. By default (And not using a little server side trick) you can only have 4 people in a single game. Also, there is no point of using another weapon, the Chaingun is an accurate weapon from close to medium range. Guess what, thats all there is in multiplay.

Also, people dont hack, no,. But dont hide in the shadows, people have the duct tape mod which sticks flashlights on the end of most weapons. Some times the mod works in Multiplay, sometimes it dont. but a couple servers have blocked its use.


Overall.


Single play- 10/10

Multiplay-4/10