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Hell on Mars
Your character is a low-ranking Marine on a routine rotation to the Mars Research Facility of the United Aerospace Corporation (UAC). That's pretty much all the backstory you need. Doom 3 is a bit skimpy in the storyline department, but rich plotting and character development have never been the focus of the Doom franchise. Action is the name of the game here, and we found plenty. After a few minutes of wandering through the facility, listening to rumors about impending catastrophe from the staff (remember Half-Life?), it was time to start shooting. We fought our way through dark, lavishly detailed environments until finally doing battle with pure evil in the depths of hell. Although the game offers no opportunities to explore the Martian setting apart from the linear corridors of the research facility, good level design and well-crafted sound effects succeeded at scaring the living heck out of us all the way through.
 Fearsome monsters. Dimly lit environments. The perfect recipe for horror. |
Guns, Guns, Guns
While there are many powerful weapons in the game, they are designed to force players to anticipate and plan for firefights. For instance, we liked wielding the chaingun to shred enemies at longer ranges, but the weapon devours ammo and using it on close-range targets was a waste of bullets. We quickly learned to switch to the shotgun or the chainsaw to dispatch foes at close range.
One piece of hardware, the flashlight, was a point of both salvation and frustration for us. Doom 3 is a dark game and many enemies know how to take advantage of it. You'll often find yourself switching back and forth between your weapons and your flashlight just to see what's lurking ahead. This problem might easily be solved by duct-taping the flashlight to your equipped weapon, but, alas, we found no duct tape on Mars.
Looking Good
Doom 3 looks incredible. Every room is exquisitely detailed, from the shimmer of the air near a heat source to the texture of a hamburger sitting on the counter of the company mess hall. Id obviously went all out designing every creature in the game and their realism makes them all the more horrifying. The eye candy does come at a price, though, and we were forced to play at fairly low resolution even on a Pentium IV 2.8 GHz and an ATI Radeon 9500. Even so, gameplay was smooth as silk. For higher resolutions (1024 x 768 and above) the latest generation of ATI or Nvidia cards is suggested. --Joshua Gunn
Pros
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible - did someone upgrade my XBox?,
By
= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Doom 3 (Video Game)
Wow. Doom 3 on the XBox... does it deliver? You bet!
Graphically, I was expecting to be blown away by the visuals but worried about the frame rate, especially having played the PC version on a high-end PC which still ran sluggish. My worries were unfounded though; D3 on XBox is smooth as silk with little difference in terms of detail from the PC version. The lighting, the locations, the textures all blend to fully emerse you in the levels. Never before have I felt so deeply swallowed by a game's emersive graphical atmosphere. (And let's not even discuss playing this game at night with the lights off!) Sonically it's top notch. The breathy wails, the voice recordings, the mechanical creaking of the collapsing station all work in unison to convey the best sound experience you'll have. There's subtlety to the sound effects too - if you're leaving a particularly noisy area and a security door closes behind you, the sound from the previous room disappears. Open the door and just stand there and it's back even though you didn't move. That kind of level of sound control is phenomenal and is used very effectively. The control system is excellent and the button layout intuitive - you can even assign favorite weapons to the D-Pad. I had no problems navigating the levels and felt any death was entirely due to my lack of skill and not a bad control layout. And you WILL get killed in this game - it's a tough one even on the easy level. During play, pure fear urges you to run through the level hoping you'll escape with engaging the demons, but skill and patience should be the order of the day. Gameplay - it's Doom. It's not GTA; there's no missions, sub games or careful strategies. Like the original (and games like Serious Sam) this is a straight forward linear slugfest with very little thinking required. To be honest, even though I was aware before purchase the game was lacking in the gameplay department, I thought D3 might be 'boring' or repetitive... but it's not. It's an adrenaline filled, genuinely scary game that works despite the simplistic gameplay and 'samey' first half. If you liked System Shock 2 and thought that game was scary then you'll be blown away by D3. Nothing comes close to it in terms of graphics and no other game has more 'boo-mammy' type moments. Doom 3 is a unbelievable sequel to D2 and should be a part of every XBox owners' game library.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Survival Horror FPS',
= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Doom 3 (Video Game)
I picked it up last night and so far I think its absolutely awesome. I have never felt this immersed in an FPS environment since I first played Half Life on the PC. The graphics are simply jaw dropping, but I think the vaunted sound effects are a mixed bag. The radio chatter is great. The dependence on sound to alert you to the presence of unseen enemies has never been done better. On the other hand, some of the weapons sound pretty weak. And in some instances, crucial sound effects such as dialogue, gunfire, and monster noises are too drowned out and muted by background noise. But still, these aren't really major issues.
The whole idea of having to switch between a flashlight and your weapon does seem ridiculous from a logical perspective, but I quickly forgot about this and began loving this mechanic while actually playing the game. It definitely adds a strategic element to the game and enhances the overall creepiness and immersion. Although the actual gameplay mechanics are very basic, this is unlike any other FPS I've played in awhile. The feel of the old Doom is definitely there though. But this time the presentation is 100 times more effective. But as far as FPS games go, this is not a Halo style shooting rampage. Its more of a 'survival horror FPS'. The pacing is more similar to that of a Resident Evil game than Halo. In the Halo campaigns you always feel like the unstoppable predator. But in Doom 3 you feel like you're the prey... like YOU'RE the one who's being hunted. You're not running forward, spraying bullets like a juggernaut, as in Halo. You're moving slowly and very cautiously. You're shining the flashlight in every corner of a room before you dare take another step forward. There's a constant sense of tension, and the effect is just awesome. I'm not necessarily saying its better than Halo. Both games are great in their own way. But they have a very different vibe from one another, which I find refreshing. Although its too soon in the game for me to know for sure, I'd guess that Halo probably has more longevity in the long run. But there's no denying the powerful experience in Doom 3. Its very obvious to me that the Id Software folks are true masters of the art form. Only true masters can stick to such a simple barebones gameplay formula, yet make it so fresh and effective. To those who might be worried about the game being repetitive, I'd remind you that the entire FPS genre is repetitive. An FPS game is basically built around one moment of fun repeated over and over again. But when its done right (such as in Halo or Doom3) it keeps you enjoying every moment. Here's one scenario that has already happened to me numerous times in Doom 3: An imp pops up in the dark out of nowhere. I crouch just in time to avoid the fireball he chucks at my head (sometimes he hits me). I strafe/duck to avoid a few more fireballs as he closes the distance. When he's almost right in my face, I explode him like a watermelon with a well aimed shotgun blast. As I said, this scenario has happened numerous times, in a bunch of slightly different variations. And not once has it failed to put a big smile on my face. Doom 3 is great!
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wha? What? Was that a woman crying?!?,
By
= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Doom 3 (Video Game)
Single Player*:
Doom 3 is avant garde in the sound and lighting department. The strange sounds you hear bouncing along the piped walls seem to get more frequent the more time you take. You have no idea if they are in the distance, if they are right in front hiding in some unlit place. Hell, you hear them. A rattling corpes falls , dangling from the ceiling, it was this the rattling noise, nothing more, nothing less. Next noise and you might not be so lucky, cause the service lights of the complex just went out. Should you hold your favorite artillery in the dark or hold your flashlight to see your way through? Balance it out, perhaps, switching mindlessly between light source and twitching trigger finger. This is Doom 3 and it's a perfect upgrade of what I'd expect the Doom 2 classic to be today. The graphics and mood are built with as much realism I've ever seen in a game. Things pop out from dark corners and lunge through opened doors, making you jump back more than once. The controls in the game utilize the XBox R-type controller perfectly. The D-pad allows you to assign direction (^V<>) to your favorite lead/plasma/rocket/soul stocked wrist cronies. This allows for quick access. The concept of quick access is driven further with the incessant need to switch flashlight/artillery. The single player story is told through dead people's PDAs. Pick em up (they're not using 'em anymore) and find access codes and tales of their experiences in their UAC Depts. It's an interesting way of telling a story that's been told before. I enjoyed this medium. Online Co-Op*: This is a great addition to the game, one that any XBliver will be very happy to have. Grab a buddy and go through the game together. I haven't solved the game in this mode, but the levels for Online Co-Op seem to be a little fewer and/or peared down from the single player game. It's a fun experience especially with a friend. In closing, Doom 3 is a great dark masterpiece. It's very reminiscent of the old Doom games you remember from PC, seeing upgrades of your enemies and all that. You'll also remember that the enemies will come right at you, head-on, in a rather dumb sort of fashion, meaning they lack state of the art AI. That's a reason I chainsawed a star away from being a 5 star title. Don't expect flanking or running and hiding on the vermin's part. They come right at you. Many times this makes you jump back. *The reason I structured this way is because I found the Single Player game the best experience of Doom 3. Don't cheat. Single Player meaning no spectators in the room and lights out. Stereo sound if you have it. The game is less atmospheric if you are talking to someone in the room or joking with your XBox live buddy at how fat his ex-girfriend is. 2115|RBACW097HWPIL;2115|RO7423EG92E0L;2115|R29BB4WCRJJ4US;
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