Action_Snark's Full Review: Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil for Windows
I do have a soft spot for the Doom series. I think that the original Doom was one of those games that became a sort of social rite of passage for nerds of my generation. In middle school, the vaunted 'alpha geek' status was constantly shifting depending on which of my fellow gaming nerds was the first to play the Doom shareware, or the first to get the full retail game. Doom and Doom2 were really a work of art, as the balance and atmosphere were perfect, creating feelings of fear and trepidation over some pixelated monster sprites. When I heard Doom 3 was on the way, I looked forward to it with bated breath, as I had long hoped for a continuation of my most beloved FPS series. Anyway, on to the review:
Plot: (Spoilers ahoy!)
Doom 3's plot is basically a 'retelling' of the first Doom game, with some artistic license and a soupcon of Doom2 elements. id put a little more effort into the story of Doom 3 than the instruction-manual blurbs that set up Doom and Doom 2. The game again revolves around the 'you're a nameless marine grunt pulling guard duty at a martian outpost, something goes wrong, and all hell breaks loose', but with a few added subplots, and an overall more fleshed out story. While it's nothing to get excited about, the plot is pretty good by id Games standards. My main problem with the plot was that it was too linear and spoonfed. You can see every plot twist coming a mile away, as it's dribbled to you via personal logs, radio transmissions, and in-engine cutscenes. Overall, plot scores a 6 out of 10. Stellar storytelling for an id game, but that's like winning a footrace against snails.
Graphics:
This department is where the game really shines. The Carmack (Yes, I think John Carmack deserves proper noun status for the Doom 3 engine) proves that he is in fact, the patron saint of OpenGL. The game sports pretty much every impressive graphical trick OpenGL is capable of, and for the most part, does it well. However, all that eye candy comes at a price, namely monolithic system requirements to really get the full effect. A GeForce 6800 seems to be the minimum price of admission for 1024X768 at higher detail levels.
There are also a few other drawbacks to the insane graphical capabilities as well. First, enemies onscreen are limited to maybe a half dozen at most. Gone are the ravening hordes of Doom and Doom2, replaced with a plethora of claustrophobic close encounters with one or two enemies. While the monsters are a sight to behold (bump mapped, massive poly counts, and real-time shadowing) it's kind of a letdown to only encounter a few at a time. Quality over quantity is the axiom Doom 3 seems to live by, as far as monsters are concerned. Environments are another matter altogether. Aside from an all-too-brief stint in the Hell dimension, the game is pretty much stuck hip-deep in a quagmire of generic 'futuristic installation' rooms and hallways. There are some impressive set pieces that attempt to break the boredom, but for the most part, the game's graphical stallions are coralled into dingy steel rooms.
Another issue is the fact that the game is so downright dark. A good portion of the time is spent viewing those gorgeous graphics through the shaft of your flashlight beam, which trades eye-candy for atmosphere.
Overall, I'll give graphics an 8.5 out of 10. The engine is stunningly impressive, but I keep feeling like it's not being used anywhere near it's full potential in the game.
Sound
Sound is another bright gem in Doom 3's crown. Full 5.1 surround, with an impressive amount of audio work being done to reinforce the atmosphere of the game. There were a few times when unexpected sounds caused me to nearly jump right out of my seat, something the graphics failed to do. As impressive as the graphics are, I think that the real winner in Doom 3 is the sound work. The atmosphere and feelings of fear and trepidation are downright palpable in a couple of places, due in large part to the dilligence of the sound design and implementation. A lot of story and a few helpful hints are meted out through System Shock 2 style audio logs found on the PDAs of deceased denizens of the mars base, and these logs tend to provide a downright chilling glimpse into the strange happenings leading up to the current situation. Sound gets a perfect 10 out of 10, for being the perfect compliment to the games visuals and atmosphere.
Gameplay
Gameplay is where Doom3's veneer of awesome starts to wear thin. First off, the game can't seem to decide if it wants to be a "run'n'gun, wade through the blood and viscera of your enemies" killfest like it's predecessors, or a Silent Hill style atmospheric survival horror game. There's plenty of atmosphere, and quite a few chills and a few 'jump out of your seat' moments, but you've also got enough firepower at your fingertips to turn Hell itself into a sea of glass a dozen times over. Gone are those glorious Doom moments of trying to take down a demon with a pistol because you don't want to use those last, precious shotun shells in your inventory. Scary isn't quite as scary when you're equipped to roll over the opposition with minimal trouble.
Another issue I have is with the game's linearity. There are about 20 levels or so, and a fair amount of backtracking done through these levels, and you are led by the nose pretty much the entire way. There were a few choices the player could make, but for the most part, it was always a game of 'gun your way through similar looking rooms, and then find the Conveniently Placed Ventilation Shaft™ to progress past the Seemingly Insurmountable Obstacle In Your Path®.' Add to that the fact that the enemy mix is pretty lopsided (Imps are incredibly commonplace), that the game's already same-feeling, linear gameplay gets bogged down even further by the fact that you don't even have anything new and interesting to kill. There's pretty much zilch interesting NPC interaction, as NPCs' only purpose seems to be to serve as demon fodder, possibly after letting you know what your next objective is.
Weapon balance is also just not quite right. All the old favorites are back, and in recognizable form, but the perfection of Doom and Doom2's weapon balance just didn't carry over. Barring a lucky headshot with a full shotgun spread, imps and zombies can absorb multiple rounds of buckshot, while falling to relatively few well-placed pistol rounds to the head. The chaingun and machinegun both suffer from an utter lack of usefulness, as they're too inaccurate at range, and have less up-close punch than the plasmagun. The rocket launcher is also well-nigh useless, as the tight confines in which 95% of the battles take place make getting taking a rocket shot a dicey propostion at best. The BFG 9000 is back, though in somewhat watered-down form, lacking the same area-of-effect punch that it's previous incarnations had. The plasmagun is the sole shining star among Doom 3's weapons, with accuracy at range, and enough firepower for those close encounters of the bloodsoaked kind. The SoulCube is also something of a disappointment, as it's essentially a 1-hit kill on most monsters, and homes on it's targets remorselessly.
Overall, I give gameplay a 7 out of 10. Doom 3 definitely has it's share of thrills and chills, and manages to successfully straddle the fence between shoot-em-up and survival horror for the most part, but there was a lot of wasted potential here. Gameplay is fun the first time through, but quickly becomes linear and repetitive. Replay value is just too lacking to give this anything more than an average score.
Overall
Overall, Doom3 is an above average offering, but one that wasted the potential that could have made it a cathartic experience. Graphics are bleeding-edge, jaw-droppingly impressive, but come with a laundry list of drawbacks and shortcomings. Sound is a shining star, managing to make what would otherwise be a bland, if technically impressive corridor-crawler into a genuinely scary experience in places. The gameplay is fairly good, but suffers from linearity, repetitiveness, and an overall lack of replay value. I'll give the game an 8 out of 10, mostly on the grounds of it's technical merits, and that first, amazingly fun playthrough. Doom 3 is really an excellent game, but it will probably wind up collecting dust on my shelf before long.
Hell on Mars has become Hell on Earth.Take part in a terrifying battle with the forces of Hell. A massive demonic invasion has overwhelmed the Union A...More at Buy.com
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