Attaining DooM 3 a few days ago, I was pretty anxious. Having the game of such a caliber to finally be released (and to have been released before the end of the world). Now, DooM 3 as the people that have any interest in the game should know, is the retelling of the original DooM, going on as though both DooM 1 and 2 had never happened. It does a significantly better job of portraying a story in comparison to the game from a decade ago, which basically happens to be you're a marine went to Mars, and all hell literally breaks loose on a space station, to which you go to hell and back before the game ends.
Now, my initial reaction to DooM 3 wasn't too positive. I guess you could even say I was disappointed, to some extent. A game that was in the works for the past four years, I had expected something revolutionary innovative in the gameplay-- but the gameplay pretty much stays true to the original DooMs, however instead of your marine from being capable of infinitely running without losing breath, you actually have a stamina bar this time around. Other than that, it's pretty much the exact same thing from ten years ago, as far as gameplay is concerned. Point, shoot, open a door, get more ammo, point, shoot, open a door, get more ammo. The way iD attempts to scare you in this game have a very RE fashion, you know, the whole enemies popping out of nowhere when you least expect it, but before long this whole ordeal becomes predictable; you'll be able to tell where enemies are likely hiding. The story in DooM 3 is attempted to be thickened out by using a System Shock tactic, you get logs and audio reports from dead scientists, and the way the enemies come at you, the suspense iD tries to give also seems System Shock inspired; at one point I was wondering when I was going to level up my stats. My disappointment was lifted when I reminded myself that this was essentially a DooM game, I don't know what innovation I was expecting, but as a DooM game this thing is great.
They try to make the atmosphere as dark as possible, I'm talking dark as in "can't see my hand in front of my face" dark. However, with the use of your trusty flashlight (which can be held by itself, and not used in conjunction with a weapon, or attached to a weapon) you can light your way. It does become inconvenient to have your flashlight out, only to be attacked by an imp and having to switch to your shotgun while you're watching yourself being shredded to bits. The game tries to hit you with some disturbing scenery as well, I'm talking about scientists with their faces removed, marines with bits of their skull taken out, bloody messes left in rooms, at times the game goes completely weird and reds your vision and you can hear something whisper. There are certain scenes where pentagrams will decorate a room, and while I never found any of it to be scary it sure was cool looking. The graphics in this game are by far a technological step above anything else right now, everything just looks stunning. The CG-like effects are jaw dropping at times, and the real-time lighting is phenomenal, at times when you're looking at just the indoor scenery it sometimes seems even photo realistic, it's amazing. The player models are by far some of the best I've ever seen, but curves don't seem to be a high point here; take for instance if you're looking at a bald person, you can see how jagged his head is, and the same goes with barrels and the such. It's not a big deal, but still. The engine also tries to reduce strain on your system by using a different gibbing effect from the past iD games that you may be used to, other than having to sheer overkill an enemy to have his body blow up into a bloody chunky mess, you simply have to shoot the humanoids once or twice once they're dead, and the demons you face up against dematerialize and ash away as soon as they're killed (a reasonable explanation for this is that the demons are being sent back to hell, but it also reduces the amount of polygons your system has to draw, so it's considerate for iD to think of that). When you gib a zombie, it looks downright fantastic, their skin dissolves, and then the exposed skeleton dissolves into a bloody gib-tastic mess. The masterminds at iD did a great job on optimization of the game engine, if I do say so myself. From what I've been hearing, people are actually capable of running this game at an enjoyable rate with rigs like 1.5GHz 512MB Ram and a GeForce 4 video card. However, the customization you get within the game isn't as varied as say, Far Cry. In DooM 3 you only get to choose between Low, Medium, High and Ultra High as your video settings, you can choose your resolution and a handful of advanced options (such as shadows, bump mapping, and a couple other things), but Far Cry gives you WAY more customization, with details such as water customization, environment customization and the like.
The sound in this game is great, although limited. The only options I get as far as audio goes is if I wanted surround sound on or off, if I wanted to reverse my speakers or not, and of course-- the volume. Although these options are very limited, if you have a surround sound audio system or surround sound headphones, you'll be in bliss. The only gripe I have with the sound is that it makes certain weapons not seem as powerful as they should be, the rocket launcher sounds as though it has a SILENCER of some kind added onto it, and the health pick-up sound was the same one used from Quake 3. However the atmosphere added with the sound is fantastic, hearing enemies behind you, only to turn around and see nothing there, hearing footsteps and clawing above you, hearing a voice whisper to you and having it spin in all directions. It's very well done.
The multiplayer options are also somewhat limited, being as there is a four player limit by default (which modders have quickly increased to 16), and the four multiplayer modes available are all in essence a rehash of deathmatch. It's sad to see that there's no co-operative mode in DooM 3, considering they were high points in the original two. Although iD never focussed much on DooM 3's multiplayer, and only really concerned themselves with the single player, it's nice they added it-- even as an afterthought. Modders will have plenty of fun with an engine such as this.
Overall, DooM 3 has its ups and downs. The gameplay remains strictly old school, it's pretty much the DooM you're used to playing, except with a graphical make over. The sound, while limited in configuration, is very well done and adds great atmosphere. The graphics are also way ahead of anything the competition has out available right now.
Included with this post I've added a picture of a corpse hanging upside down which I smacked around with the butt of my flashlight. I think I appropriately named it the "sadistic piñata".
EDIT:
I've added four other screenshots, doom32.gif being a general screenshot of an area, doom33.gif is my character being slashed by an imp, doom34.gif is an imp spawning, and doom35.gif is a graphic display of what gibs look like in this game.
