Doom 3 review

It isn't often that one gets the opportunity to review a sequel to one of the most legendary games in a genre. Wolfenstein 3D is widely regarded as the grandfather of 3d games, both 1st and 3rd person. Doom is the father and no doubt saved the genre from fading back into obscurity in a world which was still very much dominated by arcade games. Doom 2 was released not long after, but didn't make much of an impact, largely due to the arrival of two other very prominent games called, of course, Duke Nukem 3D and Quake. It has taken about ten years for the third game in the series to arrive on the scene and reclaim the hold on the genre it's predecessor once held. Does it succeed? In some ways yes, for a short while at least. While Doom 2 was a true sequel, Doom 3 is essentially a remake of the first game. Graphically, Doom 3 has the best looking indoor environments, animation and character detail available. At the time of writing, however, the release of Half-Life 2 is only about 2 days away, so it remains to be seen if this will continue to be the case. Weapons and level objects also look really good, but what really impressed me were the shiny metal surfaces on various objects. The sound effects lend an extra dimension to the overall creepy atmosphere and a good set of well-placed surround-sound speakers is an absolute must. You have a PDA which you can use to download information from computers and other PDAs. You can also talk to other characters you encounter throughout the game and acquire information in other ways as well. There are some sentry bots scattered around the locations, which can escort you around certain areas, this lets you have some breaks from the fighting, which is very useful if you're low on ammunition, just hang back and let the bot take them out. The storyline is very good and you often get to make choices about which path to take, which is obviously cool. Anyone that's played the first Doom will also pick up all the little nuances in level design etc. Unfortunately, the AI is not that great, there is way too much "charge-till-it-drops". This would be fine if it was done in context, for example you would expect it from the less intelligent or more agressive enemies, but when each and every creature charges at you through a hail of bullets, it's not what you'd expect from a game of this stature. The only time they don't do it is if they're high up on a platform somewhere, but even then there is precious little in the way of evasive action from them. Another issue is that I came across one or two instances of a computer without a side panel having the internals represented by a 2d texture. It was probably just an oversight or something, but I don't think that kind of thing is acceptable in a major game like Doom 3. What the developers do well, they do very well indeed, but it seems they focused heavily on some aspects of the game to the detriment of others. One thing that really impressed me though, was the effort put into the animation, it is practically flawless. I would recommend that other developers take a look at an imp walking across a wall or ceiling or climbing up a railing to see what should (not could) be done with in-game graphics. Doom 3 is not a masterpiece, it's literally just the original game with cosmetic surgery and some fancy new clothes, but it is a lot of fun and definitely worth a look. Apart from the different skill settings, there are two ways you can play this game. The first way is with the default (or darker if you're a sucker for punishment) brightness setting, for all the creepy atmosphere and frights. The second way is turning the setting up to see all the awesome detail of the levels and enemies. © Action Girls 2004.

Featured Action Girls: A handful of UAC employees.

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