Doom 3 for PC

cloud · 10-04-2005, 08:10 PM

The original doom was released in 1993 on pc and was basically about a one-man assault on the forces of hell and it was one of the first fps games to be made and become hugely popular. Since its release it has been re-released not just on pc but on various other formats ranging from gameboy colour to playstation. The extent of its popularity has now finally after 11 years been given a worthy sequel in doom 3.

In doom 3 you play the roll of a marine working for the UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) sent to mars base but things are not as they seem. As you arrive you start hearing rumours of strange goings on and then end up fighting the forces of hell once more.
Doom 3 is not a revolutionary game and is actually more like a remake of the original doom but nonetheless is still brilliant to play. The game actually starts of at a decent pace and gives you plenty of time to get to grips with the controls and you�re environment. Even the first meeting with an enemy is over easy and laughable although things do get faster paced with more numerous and ferocious enemies to do battle with. But of course where there are faster more powerful enemies there are also bigger more powerful weapons to slaughter them with including machine guns, rocket launchers, the amazingly fun and powerful BFG and of course what fps would be complete without a shotgun. There are also some melee weapons in the form of you�re fists and the highly powerful but short ranged chainsaw as well as being able to smack an enemy with the flashlight although this is not recommended.
Altogether there are 12 weapons you can use to defeat the forces of hell which can all be powerful if used in the right circumstances such as the handgun to take down the odd zombie and the shotgun is always useful in heated moments. there are also exploding barrels to shoot and one of my favourite things in the game are the little bug-like sentry bots who escort you around the base from time to time and kill anything that gets in you�re way with a machine gun.

Of course every now and then you will get hit so you will need to cure and on doom 3 there are 2 ways to do this which are to use med kits or to use the medical stations that are scattered around the base. Armour will also need to get hit and need recovering and can be done so by finding security armour or armour shards.

To help you around mars base you also have a very handy PDA which can be used to view and listen to log entries as you find them also you can listen to entries as you�re exploring the base which is very time saving. These logs don�t just give you background information on what�s been going on but also some give you codes to give you access to valuable items from different cabinets.

The enemies in this mainly comprise of original creatures that have had a fantastic makeover with the new graphics engine and range from several different types of zombies to imps, pinkies, revenants and the brutal hellknight. A downfall of these creatures is that their movements are easily predictable and this can make fighting creatures a little too easy and boring after playing it for awhile. The bosses are highly creative the first one being a hideous half human-half spider creature and the second a cool looking half human-half tank hybrid which makes for some interesting fights but yet again their movements can be a little predictable..

Graphics: Doom 3 has some of the best graphics to date in both background and foreground although it is mainly dark and grey industrial styled scenery is perfect for a believable futuristic colony but you will be glad when it comes to taking some short walks outside the base as it�s a change from that same old grey and black scenery.

Sound: The audio soundtrack is possible the best part of the game. Every part of it from creature sounds to background noises it all adds to create a perfectly eerie scenario which is defiantly best heard through headphones so your can totally immerse yourself into the game.

In all doom 3 is an excellent game with cut scenes that are both brilliant graphically but also give information to what has been happening. Some of the best cut scenes however are the ones that introduce the creatures themselves. It does also have multiplayer compatibility for up to 4 players via internet or LAN connection. Although it has lots of good points doom 3 unfortunately has several bad points including the fact that unlike many new first-person shooters doom 3 hasn�t moved with the times and has no vehicles to take control of which is a let down for people who wanted a game similar in style to halo or half-life 2 although this wouldn�t be a problem for many hardcore fps fans. Another major downfall is that it can get extremely repetitive after short periods of play because of the constant shooting. The scenery can also make you feel a little claustrophobic although the game play can be improved by simply playing it in the dark.

Paralert · 10-04-2005, 04:50 PM

Doom 3 is a game engulfed around the fact that you are playing to be scared. At the same time, you enjoy yourself gunning down �monsters� and panicking through dark corridors, trying to predict what is going to happen next.

To start off, you have just landed on Mars where the UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) has been created. You know that this is where the most scientifical advances are taken place from being outside of natural law. As you make your way through reporting where needed, you notice that workers are not of the normal they should be. They perform their assigned tasks with fear lingering around them like annoying flies. As you finally locate the man you were looking for he begs you to let him finish sending a message, but then suddenly crashes and explosions occur on the monitor. As you turn around, orange lights come through the floor and a skull passes through the man next to you. You are still baffled by all this and as music catches up with you, you realize he is no longer human! (See A1). Immediately, a superior on the radio orders everyone to come back as you hear a bunch of yelling and suffering and you begin to wonder what the hell (pun implied) has been going on in this place. You immediately take off after shooting down the person, that you were suppose to retrieve, and find that mostly everyone you met on the way down there has also turned against you. As you make your way back through this "maze of darkness," you discover that the music and constant lights flickering, will either intrigue you further in or literally make you jump from your seat!

The closest game that I can think of that resembles Doom 3 is probably Resident Evil (See A2). Both share the sudden "turn around the corner, sudden burst of explosion and/or shatter of glass" type of surprises. Of course, Doom 3 has better graphics than this horror classic, but putting you through the eyes of the pour soul that you are controlling is probably 2-3 more times scarier than a "camera" floating behind your character. Overall, I found this game very fun and exciting and hope to one day actually play and finish the full version. I strongly recommend it to people who have a thing for horror films and for people who would just like to try something new. Oh and by the way, you will probably need a good graphics card to fully appreciate this game (I needed to turn my resolution all the way down and still didn't have it playing smoothly).