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| reviews - games - Doom 3 |
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Doom 3
we have all heard about it (barring maybe the astronauts in the ISS, cause they are living under a rock the size of the moon), and a good few of us have played it, me included. So what is the good, the bad and the ugly? I am here, having beat down the insane doctor’s hordes, to tell you just that.
Doom 3’s list of good is long indeed. The games graphics shine, and are surprisingly manageable, provided you had the proper hardware. A good card is a must, which is probably why on my (AMD XP2700+, 1024meg DDR400, and an x800 XT PE,) I got solid frame rates, even at 1600 x 1200 resolution and the “Ultra Detail” setting. My suggestion is to increase the resolution to remove the dreaded jaggies, as the impact on frame-rate is much lower than turning on the Anti-Aliasing, which will quickly suck the life out of your machine.
The normal-mapped textures look awesome at a distance, and when your moving, but seem remarkable normal, and even a little grainy up close. But seeing as most of your game will be spent running from the all to common fire-ball slinging, ten-eyed monster, you probably won’t notice. Blood (decals) apply to walls nicely, making the spatter from that shotgun look like it belongs there. All in all, Doom 3’s graphics shine.
While I found The Suffering higher on the freak-out scale than Doom 3, the game is not without it’s heart-stopping moments. Having a body fling itself through the air at you while being bombarded by scary monster noises in a dark basement, while an insane doctor cackles will most certainly raise the hair on your neck. A portable defibrillator may be a wise addition to your basement, during some sparser parts of the first levels, during which you may turn around and be face to face with some nightmarish demon.
The scare level tends to ramp down, however, as the progress meter (there isn’t an actual progress meter, but you get the idea) goes up. This is mainly due to the frequency of the monsters, which begin to Zerg at you later on. That and the developer’s tricks for monsters coming out of wall begin to become predictable. I found myself more than once turning corner and discharging my shotgun into it, killing a zombie that I hadn’t been sure was going to be there. It isn’t all that bad though, and you will still jump occasionally.
A unique feature (at least in my experience with FPS games) is the PDA which Doom 3 utilizes heavily. Your PDA is your FRIEND! Use it often, and read every stupid email on all the dead guy’s PDAs that yours absorbs. Nearly all of the emails contain something important like a locker combination, or other useful things. Most of the puzzle element in b>Doom 3 consists of finding so-and-so’s PDA to get proper security clearance to enter Area B from Area A. Oh, and watch the videos, their wacky humor lightens up the grim atmosphere of the game.
One frustrating thing about this game was the constant shortage of ammo, even in the easier difficulty settings. I was using the same shotgun to kill the big-ass demons at the end of the game I had used to dispatch their brethren at the beginning. Rather than being difficult, as was the intention, I am sure, the shortage gets extremely annoying. Having to hide behind a pillar and shoot my shotgun ten times at a demon armed with a mini-gun sucks. I once had to resort to chainsawing, and even fists for high-level demons. Good thing that our Space Marine packs a good punch
One thing that truly sucks in Doom 3 is the downright wussy noises of the weapons. I mean, my .22 rifle makes a more menacing noise then the shotgun. The machine gun sounds not unlike a person hitting metal bars at high speed against metal tubes.
Another annoying aspect is the fact that the user has to switch between flashlight and weapon. This is fine for the effect on the atmosphere, but the shadows in Doom 3 are sharp, and taking out my flashlight to look in a dark corner in a hall with nothing in it cause the light is casting an odd shadow is annoying to the extreme.
Thankfully for us, Doom 3’s mod community has already blasted out fixes to all of these bad things, downloadable in seconds and easily accessed from the main menu (Thanks ID!).
Mods include (but are not limited to, as the collection grows daily):
The Ducktape mod: which assumes that there is a roll of ducktape somewhere on the mars base, and puts a flashlight on the machine gun and shotgun (but not the pistol.) This light is narrower, to preserve the awesome atmosphere, but eliminates the stupid corner look dilema.
“Old School” Mods: mods which add the flavor of the originals in the form of music, skins, and sound effects.
Flashlight Mods: mods which take the default spotlight and replace it with new images, from a scare inducing pentagram to a “Hello Kitty” flashlight. Lighted Mortal Kombat symbol is optional.
Bloody Mess and Beefy Sounds: mods which explain themselves.
Ungibabble mod: mod which keeps the dead demons from dissolving into the ether.
Many of the mods are found in “mod packs,” which are collection of mods incorporated (often in slightly altered form) into bigger mods with more effects.
The Multiplayer in Doom 3 is barely worth a mention because by the time the modding community is done with it, the popular version most likely will share very little with the version ID released.
Do you think that Doom 3 is worth your greasy, much palmed greenbacks? With this many ways to extend its life, and with a robust engine, I see it being around for a long time. I am having a blast with it without mods, and intend to try the one’s on the list as soon as I finish writing this.
A posible download for this game is HERE.
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