Doom 3

THE BAD:
- Can get slightly predictable after a few levels.

SUMMARY:
Picture the scene. You're edging along a corridor with faulty lighting, you can hardly see where you're going and as if you're not scared enough as you nervously approach a steel staircase to climb to a brighter area, a monster about 1.5 times the size of you bursts out through the steps and chases you down the corridor as you run blindly backwards, firing frantically to save your life.

Welcome to Doom 3. After years of hard labor in their offices, iD Software have re-emerged as the leader in the FPS market with a resurrection of their hellish franchise, Doom, not seen for ten years on the PC platform and regarded by most as the game that started it all. Forget Far Cry, Soldier of Fortune or Quake, this is the game that put us where we are today.

Featuring quite possibly the most blood splashed round walls since Silent Hill, more darkness than a worldwide powercut would cause and thousands of the most foul, disgusting monsters you've ever seen in your life, Doom 3 does not do things in small measures. You once more play a wet behind the ears Marine thrust into battle as your entire base on Mars is wiped out by invading fiends from the darkest bowels of Hell.

Using weapons ranging from your trusty 9mm handgun all the way up to the BFG (Remember it from the previous games?), you'll be fighting your way through hordes of creatures ranging from the fireball throwing imps to Hell Knights, huge 10ft tall monsters that take nearly 50 rounds of plasma to down, as you try to figure out where these guys are coming from and how to stop them.

The game boasts an endless cast of voice actors, which I don't believe are celebrity but certainly do a fine job of making the situation seem ever more believable and frightening. Most are encountered on small PDAs you collect around the base, containing voice logs recorded by their former owners, but you do meet the occasional human still hiding away in a back room. I remember at one point opening a door to be met by a scientist, and I think I jumped more than I'd ever done encountering monsters. The shock of meeting a human after endless exploration of the base encountering room after room of blood and death is overwhelming and impossible to describe in black and white.

At the time of writing this review, I'm almost at the finale and I got to say, I've enjoyed this game so much, it's been so refreshing to get back to killing thousands without motive, and to be able to do it in a modern retelling of the classic Doom story is a bonus in itself.

Doom receives a few lost points scorewise due to being slightly predictable. Once you've encountered most of the scare tactics, you can enter a room knowing where and when you're going to be jumped - maybe a good thing?

THE BAD:
The Barrels aren't green.

SUMMARY:
"Is it dead?" "SHIT!!" "WHAT THE F*CK!?" - These are the most common thing that you will guaranteed say while playing this game. This is by far the best game i have ever played, and it was well worth the year delay. I never thought i would come across a better game than half life. But i have. OK, i'll go over what i said in "The Good" :-

Graphics :- Awesome. Just pure awesome. They don't get any better than this. For example, walk up to a computer and you can click your way around the screen, just like you would in real life, there is a classic thing that was good to see. at the start of the game, walk in the the Canteen. You will see an arcade game there, Can you guess? thats right, the game on the screen is DOOM2. But not all of it, all you do is punch a turkey, but a brilliant reminder that you are actually playing DOOM3, because you will forget.

Imps :- The classic Brown fireball throwing bastard from DOOM and DOOM2, the imp. He makes a return in DOOM3 but he is one scary bastard this time, in the previous DOOMs he was one of the easyest to kill, and you could just dodge his fireballs, in this, he could be one of the most feared monsters in the game, if he gets you into a corner, you are screwed, and he can slash your ass to pieces with the best of em.

AI :- the AI (artificial intelligence) of the monsters is surreal. You could run and hide in a dark corner to reload, when "SMACK" you would get belted round the head with a wrench-weilding zombie, and respond by smacking the little *bleep*er with your torch. Really these guys are so intelligent, You can't run, You can't hide, they will find you. it's probably actually the worst idea to hide and a dark coner in this game, because if you get crowded by them, you will be killed.

Punching innocent people in the face :- Hahaha. The punching is back, but you don't have that spikey ring this time, but thats no big loss. Anyway, at the start of the game, it is just so fun to go talk to someone, and if they give you a rude comment, twat 'em one. they will be knocked down with a huge bruise on thier face. i did this and only one guy was nice to me, so i only left one standing, lol.

Interactivity :- This part is awesome. Punch a computers you can find, awesome.

Almost too much like real life :- Well, it is. You will forget that you are playing a game. Must i explain?

Made me jump 7 times :- Call me a sad bastard, but i did count the number of times i jumped. It's horricly scary, especially when you get to hell.

All the classic guns are there (BFG) (PLASMA) etc. :-
They are, from BFG to chainsaw, it's all here, the only odd one out is the soul cube, but i won't spoil that for you.

Conclusion :- Wow, if i could give it more than 100% i would, but thats impossible. Pure genuis, Id Is BACK! Now we'll see what Half life 2 can do to topple this. Gordon Freeman, it's time to see if you can dance.

THE BAD:
Nothing

SUMMARY:
Aaaahhh.....1992......hurricane Andrew.......mullets......the Olympic "Dream Team".......the L.A. riots. Aladin was the top grossing film and Baby Got Back was on the radio. I was 5 years out of high school, nice apartment and a good sales job. I had been into computer games since I was a kid, having fond memories of our Commodore 64 and later the 128. I remember playing Castle Wolfenstein 3D and thinking wow, what a cool concept the first person shooter was. FPS? What the heck was that?! This little known Texas based company called id software who pretty much invented the FPS genre with Castle Wolfenstein 3D decides to turn the computer gaming industry on its collective ear with Doom in 1992. Nobody had ever seen such a game; the blood, the violence, the incredible 3D effects. Wow! Was it COOL!

You see, history has a funny way of repeating itself. Now, here it is 2004; hurricane Charlie......TWO Olympic "Dream Teams".......another animated film is one of the top grossing films of the year......mullets are back..........and so is Doom. id may have invented the first person shooter with CW 3D and reinvented it with Doom, but they have revolutionized it with Doom 3.

Doom 3 is, without a doubt, the most flat out gorgeous looking game ever made. From the living environments, to the near movie quality likeness of it's character models, to the incredible ambient sound, Doom 3 creates one of the most visceral gaming experiences ever conceived. Never in my life have I ever jumped out of my seat as much as I did while playing this game. Playing this game reminded me of EXACTLY how I felt playing the first one; the trepidation of opening a door, the slow walk into a room and then waiting for a creature to jump out at me. Heart racing, palms sweating....man! It doesn't get any better than this!

A lot has been said about the game play in Doom 3. Some critics have said that it doesn't matter how good a game looks, if the game doesn't play well or is repetitive, then it's a disappointment. I think these folks are missing the point. First Person Shooter is EXACTLY what it says; you're in the first person and you shoot. Perhaps gamers and game developers have gotten away from the true essence of an FPS. Every once and awhile a game comes along that is so groundbreaking in it's presentation, that it makes you want to get to the next level or open that next door, just to see what the developers have waiting for you. Leave it to id to remind us of just how fun it was to lay waste to the Devil's minions with a chaingun........and an exploding barrel.

THE BAD:
The only problem is the advanced video cards, and processors etc. required for playing this game without sluggishness. This makes average computer play choppy and harder to kill monsters. Also always having to switch back and forth from you flashlight to your weapon is annoying, as most of the game is pitch black or very dark even when your brightness level is up all the way. I'm complaining about the darkness just the flashlight.

SUMMARY:
Despite its flaws, Doom 3's good qualities easily outway its bad ones, which is why this game is so great. Even though it runs slow on my computer, it is still a good enough game that i can deal with it. Two thumbs up.

THE BAD:
The game is not friendly to ATI users. Who wants to study all the tweaks for his system to get the game going? Spent 5 hours trying to get some performance. I have looked at various forums for information on tuning the game. There are good forums thankfully. I advise to look at http://www.tweakguides.com/Doom3_1.html ,this guide helpt me out.

At the moment I can use a resolution of 1024 x 768 at high quality graphics without AA or AF. That is after unzipping the pk4 files and updating some settings in a few configuration files. Hope you get the picture.

On my system the game was really too dark. Could not see a thing. After editing a configuration file I got the right visibility. There is stil too much contrast. I turn off the use of shadows because it looks like someone spilt a bottle of black paint. I suppose this is also caused by something special on my computer.

SUMMARY:

THE BAD:
Multiplayer

SUMMARY:
Okay, I Have played through about an hour and a half of the game and here's my view.
The graphics are the most amazing that I have seen ever, even on my graphics card. they are just beautiful and downright gorgeus.
The story really puts you right in the game, you feel like the horror is real and you're actually on mars. everything transitions and works very well. an excellent storyline indeed.
Now'adays games AI are getting better and better. while the AI may not be the best, they work very good and do what you expect zombies, monsters, and demons should do. intimidate you like crazy.
Now for some reason people don't like the gameplay, they say there's too much run and shoot. But what type of FPS is good without that I ask. I say there is never enough shooting. the flashlight being seperate from the weapons is a plus for me as it adds to the suspense of the gameplay very much.
The soundm, well the sound is perfect. I love the voice acting, the sound effects and everything.
And cons... well there isn't many. but I say the multiplayer really bombed. I mean what type of first person shooter has four person multiplayer? So as soon as that's fixed I think the game will be a five out of five.

THE BAD:
multiplayer has lag-bursts (80 ping to 700)
multiplayer filter has no effect except for game type. but nothing a patch cant fix

SUMMARY:
i guess i'll be the first to write a review. i've given some games a high rating in the past...but this one deserves it. the graphics and experience is really amazing...in my opinion. and i really cant believe how well the game works. i mean no glitches...no falling thru the ground, no missing walls or textures, no crappy AI where the enemy just stands in a corner while you bash em with a flashlight, no getting stuck etc etc.
the zombied-marines hide behind cover very well...pretty hard to hit sometimes. the imps jump out of the way of fire most of the time...and just about each time an imp appears is awesome. the smooth animation as they climb over a rail or crawl by a window, leaving a shadow on the wall as you walk by. grade A stuff

the game is easy yet difficult. easy as you wont get so confused that it pisses you off (not a maze you'll get lost in). and difficult from the bosses and enemys. and i dont recommend looking up a strategy guide...really ruin the fun of figuring it out (well in my opinion)

i was expecting something different before i got it...but it was supprising 'different' in a good way

i probably would have gave it an honest 5...except the multiplayer needs working. so besides the minus 3 from the multiplayer...the rest is really awesome. if you've got a decent computer you should really give the demo a try when it comes out. if it tickles your fancy, give the whole game a try. pretty sure alot of ya wont be disappointed

as the front of the box says - "A masterpiece of the art form"