First Impressions:

Now that I've had some time to experience Doom3 and the excitement has died down, it's time to reflect on whether the sequel to the classic first person shooter really lived up to the test. You play an unmanned marine transferred to the Union Aerospace Corporation at Mars beset with unknown problems. With no surprise, soon after arriving to base all hell breaks out. The game plays itself linearly, with levels taking placed in dark hallways, locked doors, and did I mention lots of evil creatures. They jump out often enough to keep you on your toes as your grab ammo, health, and ammo packs between pelting your enemies with constant gunfire.

Graphics:

As we all know now, this game was a milestone for graphic engines. Texas based id overdid themselves with an incredible looking environment. It's one of the first games to fully utilize DirectX 9.0, a marvelous feat, a feat that puts the best gamer's PC through its paces. With a midrange system I was able to run the game at medium settings. Doom3 produces the best graphics I have ever seen with a 800x600 resolution setting, but all the beauty is hard to enjoy. The game is pretty dark, especially in the beginning. Despite the darkness, my favorite innovation is the transition to in-game movies. The movies themselves won't win academy awards, but they effectively communicate what there is for a plot. What's fantastic, and is seen from the opener, is a smooth uncut transition between movies and game play. So how good do the creatures look? Well to be honest, they don’t look as good as the levels, but not bad at all. Albeit, they tend to move pretty quickly and by the time you are done shooting at them the tend to look like a bloody heap on the floor. Innovative and neat though. Some of the classic bad guys from the old dooms have been revamped in addition to the new creatures spawned.

Sound/Music:

A combination of darkness and great sound effect create a convincing scary atmosphere reminiscent of any horror movie. Screams of your fellow soldiers fill the room as you’re confronted with creature after creature, and more haunting noises follow you as you creep from room to room.

Gameplay:

Nothing innovative here. In fact, they seemed to seek to preserve the classic game play to the tea. You're equipped with weapons such as shotguns, machine guns, and a chainsaw to fight back legions of hell-spawn creatures that just don't seem to stop coming. The darkness proves a problem here. You can't see half of the creatures coming at you, I found myself more than once shooting blindly in the dark. This is also partly due to the fact that the flashlight can't be held with a weapon armed, so you must switch quickly between a gun and light which proves quite awkward. After playing Far Cry and MaxPayne 2 I have been spoiled with physics engines. Well let me tell you now, this game doesn’t have much of one. Considering what is possible, they kept it down to the bare minimal. They must have spent too much time on the graphics, because there is nothing realistic about shooting a bad guy point blank with a rifle and he keeps walking at you. Guess I’ll have to wait until Half Life 2 for my physics fix. As for artificial intelligence, most of the characters show little sign of brains. Several times I had bad guys get stuck in doors or near walls. But then again, they are creatures spawned from hell so what can we expect. This point really did not bother me until I began getting bored with the predictable repetitiveness that sets in after a few levels. There is no strategy or game plan present. No ready. No aim. Just Fire.

Enjoyment:

I have to admit, the first couple of hours of this game were quite frightful. Turn your lights out, sound up, and lock your door for a fully immersive experience. As much hype as there was, I was disappointed half way through in the predictability of the game. It seemed like a remake of the same old first-person shooter packaged in a much prettier package. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret playing it through, but by the end I was in it for the graphics, not the game.

Multiplayer:

Doom3 multiplayer is nothing to get excited over. It comes equipped with a basic 4 player multiplayer mode including death-match and Last Man Standing. News is that the technology is scaleable, though, and the core technology is not limited to four players.

Overall Impression:

If you are not a fan of blood, guts, gore, paper thin plots, and a game that includes interactions with other characters that only end in death, then save yourself some cash. But if you were a fan of the classic Doom's, Duke Nukem, or Serious Sam then this game is a great ride. If your current settings at least don’t meet the medium requirements, you will have to have an important conversation with yourself on whether you really need to upgrade. I wouldn’t recommend upgrading for this game only. If you had previous plans for upgrading and you’re running an archaic computer that can’t play anything, then it might be time to upgrade with Doom’s system requirements in mind. It will probably keep you ahead or with the curve for several years. If you suddenly got an urge to upgrade with the release of Doom3, you have been inflicted by the nasty bug released by ID and spread by every starving hardware manufacture out there. Don’t worry; I don’t think the specs on Doom3 will become the norm quite yet.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

This game was not intended for the traditional woman. Marketers probably figured woman just didn't have it in them to blow a hole through an attacking creatures head, but to give them credit; marketing lacked the traditional clandestinely dressed woman. They stuck to what they were good at, grotesque creatures from hell. Woman like muscular, bloody, toothy, red creatures from hell. Right?