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Author: HQH
Released: September 4, 2004
Updated: N/A
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Story Line
A game that is re-telling the story of the original Doom game id Software released a very long time ago. You're stuck on Mars
and going through Hell to stop the demons from invading Earth. That's pretty much it. There's some change from the old Doom game.
This time, it actually has a plot and a storyline. Not a stellar one, but it does boost Doom 3's single player experience. From the
old Doom game, all you do is run and gun. This time, you're after a mad scientist and slowly exploring the area you're pursuing
after the scientist you're trying to stop. You can't really run and gun. Doom 3 has some what more of a storyline than old Doom
ever did.
Graphic
Doom 3 is all about graphics. Darkness surrounds you. Shadows casting down to the ground, and you are wondering if it's a demon
or just some inanimated object. The graphics really makes the environment feel creepy. If your computer system is high-tech enough
to let you play the game on at least high quality and a good resolution (like 1024x768), then you will see a game that sets the bar
on rendering graphics. There is no doubt in my mind that Doom 3 is the best graphics engine to date (2004) and for years to come.
It's just too bad that you'll need a very good video card to see all the eye candy. With my computer, a Pentium 4 2.4C overclocked
to 3+ GHz, 1 GB of RAM and an ATI AIW Radeon 9800 Pro, I was able to play the game where slow downs are less of my worries. In fact,
I did not even once complained about any slow downs in Doom 3. The game ran fluidly enough that I can still have control in the game
and start killing demons as they pop up. I have yet to really see a slide show frame rates from Doom 3. My computer handled the game
very well given its parts built almost a year before Doom 3 is released. I have benchmarked my computer with Doom 3's timedemo
here. You can compare what numbers I get with my computer with yours. At the time when
I played Doom 3, I was using Catalyst 4.9 beta drivers, playing at a high image quality, and at a resolution of 1024x768.
Audio
This seems to be a hit and a miss. What I like about Doom 3 is that it supports 5.1 surround sound. And what it does with it is
amazing. Since you have rear speakers, you can actually be caught off guard when a demon sneaks up behind you. Yes, it's scary, and
awesome at the same time when you can hear some foot steps coming up behind you. What I dislike is some weapons' sound effects
sounded weak. For instance, the pistol and the shotgun. They sound like crap. As for the monsters, the noises they make are spooky
enough that in the dark environment of the game, they can make someone go paranoid, wondering where to point the gun at and pull
the trigger to end its miserable life. There's not much of music going on in this game. There are some moments where the ambient
music plays, to match the current situation when you go face to face with some monsters.
Control
The only impressive thing with Doom 3 is the ability to click and control those in-game monitors or touchpads that are found
plentiful around the base. It's a nice touch to replacing buttons with. Now there's going to be a little bit of interaction with
these monitors or touchpads. But then there's the use button. id Software got rid of the use key, and just went with automatic
style. Because of the automatic styling, interactivity in the game will lack severly. No key to search around or apply some activity
to some object won't be much in Doom 3. There's a hit and miss with the doors. Doors open automatically (given you have access)
when you're near it. Sometimes, you just don't want the door to open when you run for some cover from the demons. No use key to
operate the door when you want it to open or shut it. Other than that, the control scheme of Doom 3 is almost like any other f.p.s.
(first person shooter) game out there. awsd keys to move, 1 through 0 as weapons, mouse to point and shoot.
Difficulty
When I started off playing Doom 3, I automatically choose to start on the hardest difficulty mode as possible. This happened to
be labeled as Veteran in the game. Nightmare isn't available, and by all means, I'm not that much of a pro to take on Nightmare
mode. Playing through the game on the 2nd hardest difficulty mode wasn't a breeze. The game felt challenging, and was decent for
me to not complain one bit. I felt that the difficulty setting for hard is just about right. I can't comment on the easier modes
nor the hardest mode in the game: Nightmare. I'm pretty sure the game would be much easier with the less difficulty than Veteran,
and Nightmare to be a pain in the butt to complete the game within the same time frame as I can complete in Veteran mode. I guess
it's best to say you have to know which weapons to use when you're up against particular monsters to make the game less difficult
to beat (Soul Cube comes to mind).
Length
Doom 3 took me a while to beat, since I kept on playing the game for a few hours and then come back to it the next day. I would
estimate that it took me about less than 2 weeks to beat the game playing few hours a day. Not saying that I'm suck at killing the
monsters, but I ended up collecting all those PDA's and reading all those e-mails, watching the videos, and listening to the audio
logs. Trying to get most out of the game you know. I felt that Doom 3 was worthy of its length. Not too long, not too short. Just
about right.
Replay
Once the game was beaten, that was pretty much it. I wasn't compelled to play the game all over again on Nightmare mode. Once
you've beaten Doom 3, the fun starts to fades away fast. You're going to be less scared and surprised. Once you experience it, it's
all old news from there on out. Once you've done it, nothing will get you too excited any more. Thrills and frills will die away.
Then there's the multiplayer aspect of Doom 3. But then again, Doom 3's main focus was on single player. Multiplayer for Doom 3 is
just too plain. Out of the box, the game is limited to 4 people on a server. So much for having a frag fest. There are mods out
there now that raises the limit, but still, Doom 3's multiplayer is plain and stale. So people would have to wait on for the
modification community to bring better multiplayer offerings to Doom 3. Just have to sit back and wait for a few months, to probably
half a year until Doom 3's replay value on the multiplayer side can see some better production for Doom 3's multiplayer part. Co-op
on the other hand, is not available. It's too bad, you can't play with friends. Now we have to wait for the mod community to give
this missing feature to the gaming mass. Having co-op would boost the replay value of Doom 3. I know this for sure, because my
friend and I enjoy playing co-op in the older Doom, Doom II and Final Doom games. It was a blast.
Ingenuity
Doom 3 mostly shines by combining immersed graphics and 5.1 surround sound to scare the living crap out of the players. Doom 3
is on a different level with this game engine that John Carmack has carved for out for id Software. No doubt, the game engine is
very excellent. Physics in the game is quite nice addition to being realistic. Although that's pretty much can be said about Doom 3.
The game starts to show some disadvantages: very little interactive objects throughout the game other than picking up PDAs and video
discs. Basically, Doom 3's main interactivity are based around the PDA (to read e-mails and listen to audio logs) and video discs
that you can pick up. Talking to n.p.c.'s (non-playing characters) only show the storyline. If you try to get other information
other than your main task (stopping the demons), you'll come up short.
Value
After beating the entire game, I must say that Doom 3's single player experience is a very good game if you want a good scare.
There are many times in the game that I felt I got scared, screaming profanity at times, and even paranoid that monsters were
sneaking up behind me. Given that you can run the game at a good rate, you'll enjoy the spookiness and Doom 3 easier. Doom 3's
graphical engine really helps out to set the environment to be fearful in the dark. Although when Doom 3 came out, the price tag was
$54.99 plus applicable tax. That's a high price tag for the game. I would say the game is worth about $35 to buy. $55 is too much
for this game. It is over priced. I would recommend people to get this game when the price is lower and if they have a high end
computer so that it is worth playing Doom 3 and that they can get the crap scared out of them when playing through the game. If you
don't have a top of the line computer, be prepared to enjoy the game less as you'll end up compromising graphical quality for a
suitable fluid gaming experience. You'll miss out on the scare factor and miss the fun out of being scared the crap out of yourself.
Also, just don't look at Doom 3 to have high replay values. Only if it had co-op, it would be another story.
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Recommendations:
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© 2001, beyond and forever by HQH. All rights reserved.
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