Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil

THE BAD:

SUMMARY:
2147. Almost two years ago, Mars City (site 3), an UAC facility, was destroyed by a mechanical incident during a secret experiment. Only a marine survived.

Back to 2145. Betruger, Delta Labs Director, went mad and decided to invade the Earth with his hellish army. You, the Marine, prevented this plan to be a success. Betruger is gone to Hell, becoming Maledict, a powerful demon.

In 2146, a signal from the abandoned site 1 was found. A decision was taken: the scientist having asked an investigation two years ago about Betruger and sent back to Earth by Betruger, Elizabeth McNeill, would conduct a new mission for knowing what is this signal.

Today, we're in 2147. You're another marine, exploring the ancient ruins, trying to find this signal. And you find it! It's an heart, an artefact. You touch it...

And give the opportunity to Betruger to come back from Hell and his hellish army to invade the site 1. Your team is dead. You can hear the deaths of your comrades on others facilities. McNeil is still alive and asks you to come back with this artefact.

You don't have a choice: you will have to defeat Maledict in order to save again the Earth.

Doom 3: RoE is Doom 3's add-on and sends you back on Mars, on the UAC base and most important, back to Hell. Anyway, even if the hero isn't the good-looking Doomguy from Doom 3, you'll be familiar in this world with Betruger, the mad scientist, McNeil, the one who was indirectly involved in the first invasion, demons who are recurrent since Doom...

The hero is a Marine (what a surprise) but he's more insolent than his predecessor, he seems to tell to the demons: I'm the boss, here, you're just a piece of crap. I want my Doomguy back, he was good-looking... After all, I'm a girl and love to stare to good-looking FPS heroes. It's a similar thing with Daniel Garner from Painkiller: he's great on the box, he seems different in the game but still, he's sane and then, in Battle out of Hell, he has a twisted facial expression, as if he had eaten too much souls. Here, even if it's not the same hero, I'm under the impression that the new hero is relying too much on this new artefact, eating the souls from the corpses.

Demons are familiar. You'll find the Imps, the Pinky Demons (even if it's rare to meet him in RoE), Cacodemons, Revenants, Archviles, Zombies (with the disappearance of the Marine zombie and the Chainsaw zombie but with the appearance of the Bio-Suit zombie), Mancubi, Hell Knights, etc. Even the Tricks, Trites and Cherubs are there. I wish they weren't but you can't have anything you want.

New demons are also present: Forgotten Ones (instead of Lost Souls), much similar in style to the original Lost Soul than the Lost Soul version Doom 3, Vulgars, with an attack similar to the Imps, Bruisers, a sort of Mancubus with a mouth on a screen and the Hell Hunters, the guardians of the three powers associated with the Artefact: Hell Time - slow motion -, Berserk - like the Berserker: an hit = death -, Invulnerabily - demons can't hurt anymore. Maledict is also present as the final boss, finally, you'll be fighting Betruger.

New weapons and items are making an appearance. If we can point to the cells NRJ for the AM3 unit (or if you prefer, power generator) to carry if you want to continue the game or the Bio-Can, similar to the air canister, only to be used in the toxic sewers, we can only be happy to see that Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 Roe have the same weapons and the reappearance of an old weapon. Yes, the grabber is a sort of gravity gun, useful for sending back to the demons their plasma/fireballs, killing Forgotten Ones and others Trites by taking them. And yes, the double barreled shotgun is back, the legendary weapon from Doom 2 is really making damage: one good hit and adios Vulgars! The third weapon is the Artefact, a portal to Hell, but also a very powerful weapon to reload with the corpses.

PDA's are still there. Some of you will find them totally "stupid" - I mean, keys would have been better than finding PDA's for security clearance. But PDA's are also players for the Videodisks, used as a email box (very useful when you're interested by the story - there is so much information as the ambiance or the placards codes) and well, it's a reminder of the objectives. In RoE, PDA's aren't so rich for the story and I'm disappointed to see it because I'm really a fan of Doom.

The gameplay is still shooting demons but you can have a little break from it with the arcade games: Hellanoid (Arkanoid in Hell), Sarge's Big Hunt Game and Martian Buddy, where beating the 5 levels with your BFG 9000 version Doom will be rewarded by a new BFG 9000 somewhere in the Phobos Lab. Anyway, you don't have to think in RoE, even if the grabber can be used like in Half-Life 2: making stairs for reaching some parts.

The path is linear but with the usual sequences in exterior, in Hell and the revisited Phobos Lab. You will have a stressful sequence in a toxic sewer, similar to the exterior ones but harder. And well, guess what? You're sent back to the site 3, the one in Doom 3, but it seems that Hell is interfering. Anyway, you'll find the Delta Labs 3 having not really changed since your last passage, Mars City (Administration) is still keeping the door that your first Pinky try to destroy and Betruger's office not really invaded by Hell, Delta Labs 2 with the memories of the professor analyzing an Imp and the Specimens Museum, void of the corpses but now a home for these damned Ticks and McNeil's office... And well, I don't know how the UAC repaired the portal in Delta Labs 4 since it was destroyed when coming back from Hell but it's still there.

Graphics are still marvelous: the mixing of hi-tech and cold offices and ancient ruins and awful Hell (sorry but I do no like the Doom 3 Hell, I prefer the original) are strengthening the scary ambiance. Blood is everywhere, everything seems to be so dangerous, the Bruiser is so special with his mouth and McNeil is a good-looking woman. And miracle, alive. Yes, because Theresa Chasar from Doom 3 was transformed into a Lost Soul. So having a woman alive and trying to lead the marine is a great thing.

Soundtrack is also the same as in Doom 3 but the quality was high, so RoE is still a scary game with its sounds, its screams, etc. etc.. Even when used to the game. Hell is a scary level with your useless flashlight (because it doesn't show too much). And I hate this level.

Difficulty is high in this game, even in Recrue mode. You're directly into the action and don't think that the first levels will be easy: Vulgars are appearing soon, as the first Hell Hunted and Mancubi are already in level 5. It's a nightmare to play in Nightmare: you don't have the Soul Cube for recuperating life and I have to remind you that in Nightmare, your HP is going down to 25 everytime you're picking a medikit or using an health station.

RoE is a true challenge, with a surprising end and with the reappearance of the double barreled gun, a good weapon from Doom 2 and the appearance of a certain Grabber, similar to the HL2 Gravity Gun.

STORY: 8/10 - Love the story but doesn't like the Hell passage.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10 - It's Doom, it's just lock, load and shoot, but not like our dear Doom. Clearly. You can't go back in previous arenas.

GRAPHICS: 9/10 - I love the mix between the cold corridors from the UAC facility and the mystery behind the ruins. Anyway, I do not like the new hero and Hell.

SOUNDTRACK: 10/10 - Nothing to add, it's just an excellent soundtrack, even without novelties.

LIFETIME: 8/10 - 4 levels of difficulty, more multiplayers maps but still, it's an add-on, so the lifetime isn't so high.

FINAL: 9/10 - I loved RoE, even if I dislike the Hell, I don't like the fact that I was thrown directly into the action in this game when Doom 3 wasn't doing it, I do not support the many Vulgars at the end. I wanted more information on PDA but not, they're not destined to be deleted. Yep, I loved McNeil but no, the new hero wasn't my type, gimme back the Doom3guy. And I find Doom 3 superior to RoE but without it, Doom 3 wouldn't have a rich universe and the end to the Betruger saga. I recommend highly to play RoE unless you're easily scared.