Doom 3

Doom 3 - Xbox Review
Doom 3  Xbox Review
Doom 3  Xbox Review
It all started in Texas in 1993 when the original Doom, arguably the first 3D First Person Shooter to hit the games market. Since then ID Software's hellish FPS has managed to hold a solid presence in the market. I have even seen Doom used as a server administration tool in the past. ID has sold millions of copies of previous incarnations and Doom 3 sold very well on PC. Now the Xbox gets its chance. With no Counter Strike (coming soon) or Quake available on Xbox can Doom 3 satisfy the trigger happy legions ready to blow the living daylights out of anything Hells Gate can throw at them.

Doom 3 isn't without its problems. Having recently completed some super intelligent FPS's Doom 3 seems to be rather two dimensional and dumb in its play. Beyond walking down various corridors and blasting anything that moves there isn't a great deal to this game. Gamers want so much more these days and other FPS titles are really delivering. All that said the one thing that Doom 3 does, it does so well you cannot fail to be blown away by it. Graphically Doom 3 is fantastic and the dark and gloomy mood is perfectly executed.

It's 2145, you are a nameless marine sent to Mars to investigate strange goings on. The game isn't heavily story driven and the bits of story that are featured are ineffectual apart from the odd bit of filler and the odd hallucination all you need to worry about is heading into hell all guns a' blazing.

The game is a remake of the original so most of the weapons and monsters will be familiar from the start apart from the fact that the advanced modeling makes them far more realistic than ever.

On the weapons front apart from a torch there is only one new weapon the Soul Cube this doesn't come into play till the end of the game but involves killing 5 enemies and capturing their souls to charge it up.sounds complicated but you will soon get to grips with it. Now back to the torch!

Even though the year is 2145 the marine corp hasn't seen fit to supply it ranks with any kind of night vision or even weapons with torches attached! Although most weapons of today feature these essentials. This is probably my main gripe with the game, many of the levels are dimly lit or even pitch black and the only means of light is a hand flashlight circa 1972 it may add to the atmospherics but in my view hampers the game play and in some cases hides the beautifully detailed surroundings.

The enemy AI isn't too hot either. Some of the zombified humans you face do use simple tactics against you, and other enemies do a good job of chasing you around. But, in general, your enemies follow the same sort of predictable patterns that you have seen before in previous Doom titles. So from about the halfway through the game you will be able to read these patterns and spend your thinking time worrying about ambush.

So, getting through Doom on the default setting should be fairly straight forward. This is helped by the quick save facility which means you don't have to start at the beginning of the level any time you die.

As you can probably tell my feelings about Doom 3's single player mode are mixed although, I do urge you to experience it for yourself. The detailed levels plus the excellent animation of your foes does make for some beautiful looking game-play. It is like watching a blockbuster movie at times. There is a multi-player mode available with death-match style play offered over system link or Xbox Live to give the game a bit more longevity. If you are already a Doom convert and have an Xbox then this isn't going to disappoint you. If you are new to the series and have a penchant for FPS titles then you should check out Doom 3 even though the game-play has its shortcomings the experience, graphics, sound and shear scare factor will give you many memorable moments.

8.5 out of 10

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