Forget everything you ever knew about Doom

Doom is a classic shooter by id Software, one that has revolutionzed the gaming industry. Halo, Half-life, none of these would ever exist if Doom had not caused first person shooters to be noticed. Doom has been a long running series of games, from Doom, to Doom II, to Final Doom and lastly Doom 64 to finish the story. Many years in development, id Software's Doom 3 is not a sequal to Doom, but a brand new edition of the original. It starts from square one where the original Doom series began. The only difference is, instead of being an early 90's 2.5D shoot em' up game, this is the most powerfully advanced game currently on the market, with many innovations. This game has been hyped for a long time, and is one of the few I have ever seen that didn't dissapoint, infact it was much more than I expected.


Story (9/10): Most FPS (First Person Shooters) have only enough story to explain why you are killing everything in sight. The original Doom had a story but you only knew so by beating the game and reading the manual to explain what the hell (literally) you were doing. I have read all four Doom novels based on the classic game, so the story isn't new to me but for those wanting to understand let me explain. UAC, a corporation that performs experiments and studies on a base on Mars (It was the moons of Mars, Phobos & Diamos in original Doom), and they have made many great accomplishments, such as mastering many technologies that use plasma. During the invention of the teleporter, meant to be a convience of travel, they have opened a gateway to hell. Because the scientists are so freaked out by the 'strange occurances' they see, (Play this game and think about how eerie it would be to be on another planet and have 'ghostly' rumors and sightings. Classic sci-fi horror.) so they have called for marine support to make sure the place is secure. Your the unlucky one who witnesses the gate being opened. The level of evolution this game has become since the original Doom would be the equivalent of taking Tetris and making a movie out of it the scale of Titanic. The story is beautifully mastered and is very realistic (assuming hell is real and we were messing with teleportations and gates).


Graphics (10/10): Anyone who ever says that Doom 3 doesn't have great graphics is very ignorant when it comes to the subject. Infact, there is not a game on the market with more powerful graphics than Doom 3. Everything has been mastered down to the monsters looking deathly real, every last detail on your pistol, you can nearly smell the gunpowder everytime you fire it. It is dark and loomey some of the time, and if you play it lights off and alone as if it were Resident Evil, it's very easy to become startled or feel eerie while playing it. When gateways to hell open, very sutbly you can see satanic writing on the walls or other surfaces. I have not seen this game for X-Box, so I am only speaking for the PC version. Also, a downside to being so great looking is it's costly effects of system resources. It requires something from a Geforce 3 up, and although that isn't much today, the Geforce 3 was a power house for Quake 3: Arena only a few years ago. One thing to know, although this game is graphically superior to Halo, Halo has been coded badly and believe it or not, Doom 3 runs smoother than Halo in higher resolutions. In other words, if Halo runs badly on your computer, don't give up all hope on Doom 3, id knows what they are doing with computer code. Also, I dont have the fastest video card in the world, but the only time this game has ever slown down is when that damn spider bot is moving, which I don't understand. (I personally run using 1024x768 resolution, everything on and 2x Anti-Aliasing. You can use this for comparison.)

Sound (10/10): Every single sound effect is realistic sounding, and during events like the gateway to hell opening, it can send chills down your back. You hear a roaring sound, very similar to a tornado, and the cackling laughter of perhaps Satan is done perfectly, not cheesy like you might expect. I turn my system volume all the way up with a subwoofer, so when a monster jumps at you, it literally scares the **** out of you, and the sound of fire arms letting loose hurts your ears as if it were real. Very eerie sound effects coupled with the graphics make this a perfect horror type game.

Controls (10/10): It's a first person shooter, and you use a keyboard and mouse. What more can I really say? As long as you can play FPS's then you can play this game. Also, using F to switch from flashlight to a weapon quickly is very handy. Something else, throughout the game you must use computers and keypads, and the game flawlessly works with it. If you move your aiming reticle over the screen, you instantly begin to use it as if it were a touch screen. move off and your weapon is ready again.

Gameplay (9/10): Doom 3 is revolutionary in many ways, from graphics to story, and even the way everything works out seemlessly with the controls. Unlike classic Doom where you go into a room blazing, it has much more Resident Evil qualities now, where you have fewer bullets, and monsters sneak up on you, suprise you, and you only have 6 bullets left and you have to think quick. Also as explained above you use keypads and there is no trouble to use them, it happens naturally. Also this game requires thinking and mystery, such as the need to find out codes and hints via a PDA (the replacement of the Automap if you played classic Doom). The PDA (Personal Data Assistant) keeps track of emails and videos and your mission, and you can download other workes PDA's for their information. Reading their email and listening to their voice logs can give you hints towards different codes for lockers and doors.
The only reason this score has 9 instead of 10 is because the grenades in this game are the crappiest grenades ever made for a video game. Unlike usual grenades in games such as Halo, these bounce randomly, aren't thrown far, and either miss your target because they move on their own, or bounce back and hit you. What a great weapon.

SMALL SPOILER

(((( SMALL SPOILER: Very neat actually, a website was listed in an E-Mail in the game for a code to a locker of a former marine, and I decided to try it in real life, sure enough id made a real website with the code on it. This game takes thinking. )))))

SPOILER ENDED


Multiplayer (5/10): This score will probably get better, but right now very few people play this game online, and there is no co-op mode. Also, it lags SEVERELY even with broadband. My guess is with updates, id can make the code more effecient over time.


Story (9/10)
Graphics (10/10)
Sound (10/10)
Controls (10/10)
Gameplay (9/10)
Multiplayer (5/10)
Overall (5/5)

Side Note!: My experience with Doom 3 was done with the following specs. You can use this for comparison.
1.7 GHZ Pentium 4
Auto-Overclocked Geforce FX 5700 Ultra
1GB of SDR ram
32x CD-Drive
and a cable modem that averages ping of 50-150 on Doom 3