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Platform: Xbox
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Doom 3Score: 8.8 / 10 |
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Pros: - Amazing graphics are some of the best ever on any current generation console game - Can literally scare the hell out of you: perfectly captures the heightened sense of danger just waiting around every corner - Great online maps with plenty of shadows to stalk and sneak up on opponents
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Cons: - Story still really isn’t very plausible: Hell on Mars? - Too much vertigo-inducing movement and graphic stuttering issues during online play
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"But while drop-dead looks and sweeping sound are high points, the game isn’t without its blemishes." |
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As the game that practically invented and definitely revolutionized the first-person shooter game, Doom is one of the most influential games in the history of gaming. After a second Doom title, legendary game developer id concentrated its efforts on the Quake franchise. Fans of the FPS granddaddy Doom franchise have had to wait nearly a decade for the next game to appear, and it came back with a vengeance with the incredible Doom 3 last year for the PC. While it wasn’t a big leap in gameplay and innovation, it certainly was an absolutely amazing-looking game worthy of the Doom moniker.
When the game was announced for the Xbox, many thought that the gameplay would be the same as its PC counterpart and few expected the Xbox version to come anywhere close in the PC version’s graphical quality. But lo' and behold, console developer Vicarious Visions not only matched the gameplay of the PC version, but incredibly pushed past the limit of what was thought possible on the Xbox or any console visually and have come extremely close to a dead-on duplication of the PC graphics. Doom
3 isn’t without its faults, but those that laughed at the notion that
any console game could match the raw power of a top-shelf PC video card
won’t be laughing after playing Doom 3 on the Xbox. When discussing Doom 3 for the Xbox, the talk begins with the graphics. Without reservation, I can safely say this is the most impressive graphical performance on a current-generation console, even considering the Splinter Cell series and Chronicles of Riddick Xbox title. Truly unbelievably detailed environments and creatures, awe-inspiring lighting and particle effects, and downright scarily-rendered hellish creatures are an overwhelmingly beautiful sight. Developer Vicarious Visions has done such a great job, it’s |
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nearly impossible to discern the PC Doom 3 visuals taking advantage of a high-end PC graphics card and processor from the Xbox version. Doom 3’s graphical abilities are something I didn’t expect to experience until the next console cycle comes, starting with the Xbox 360 (or whatever they end up calling it) later this year and the PS3. This easily is one of the best looking games that will appear on the current crop of console hardware.
Accentuating
the stunning graphics of Doom 3 is the excellent sound and music that
the game uses. Sound effects of the weaponry are very good, and one
extremely realistic touch is the way that sound changes depending on
your placement to |
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a sound source.
For
instance, when you go to a TV monitor where someone is communicating
with you, if you are facing the monitor, you can hear the sound as if
you were really standing there. But if you turn from the monitor, the
sound becomes less audible, just like it would if you were actually
right there, moving away from the monitor. The growls and shrieks of the
hellspawn (most of which are updates of classic Doom monsters) you’ll
face can definitely send a shiver right down your spine and back up
again. Music is used nicely, especially the climatic, tense tunes
that play during frightening and tense battles against
hellacious adversaries. It all comes together to create a truly creepy
and scary gaming atmosphere that will have the hairs on the back of your
neck continually raised. But while drop-dead looks and sweeping sound are high points, the game isn’t without its blemishes. The game’s story hasn’t changed from the original Doom. And that can be considered a disappointment, because the perception on my part is that the story was treated as an afterthought to the graphics and gameplay. Who really buys into a portal to hell is opened in an archeological dig on Mars? Sounds kind of far-fetched, doesn’t it? Unbelievably, the somewhat questionable storyline of Doom will become the basis of a Doom major motion picture, hitting theaters nationwide in August. But if someone could hammer out a movie script based on Mario Brothers (that movie, in large part due to the awful script, was an absolute atrocity, and may be the worst video game-to-movie ever) hell, why not Doom?
Doom
3 fares better with its gameplay, but even that treads the familiar ground
of its predecessors and particularly online can practically induce
vertigo and motion sickness with a much-too-fast gameplay speed. The
gameplay follows the same modus operandi of the original Doom: run like
hell through level after level, fight off the demons, find weapons, ammo
and health, and get to the next “switch” to advance to the next
level, where more of the same ensues. The high difficulty of the
original shows up here, too. I can honestly say the only way I got
through the entire game to write this review was using the god mode
cheat. Without it, I still wouldn’t have completed this insanely
challenging, sweaty-palm inducing game. This
all happens at an accelerated pace that is just too fast to handle at
times. Doom 3’s game speed will remind many of another Xbox title,
Unreal Championship, which hit the pedal to the metal at an insane rate.
Doom 3 would have served itself better to model its game speed after
Halo 2, which has perfectly-paced FPS gameplay that every FPS game from
here on out would be served best to imitate. I’m
not kidding when I say that anybody that has any issue with vertigo may
want to think twice about playing Doom 3, because of the incredible rate
of speed you’ll be flying around the levels, especially when you are
playing online, when the blazing gameplay is really noticeable. The
gameplay speed also has a distinct effect on the ability of the game to
handle without glitches. You’ll notice that graphics may stutter and
animation may suffer slowdown, which can cause the gameplay to suffer.
Still,
if you aren’t susceptible to vertigo, like extremely fast gameplay ,
and can deal with a bit of glitching, Doom 3’s online play has enough
high points to create a game that’s a viable alternative to Halo 2 for
FPS Xbox Live gamers. The whole online package isn’t without flaws,
especially the problems you may encounter actually trying to find a
match to play without having to connect to the match menu over and over,
hoping that the game you just attempted to join is still available. The
weaponry available online is the full Doom 3 arsenal, including
chainsaws and rocket launcher. The best advice fro online supremacy I
can offer is always find and use the rocket launcher. It’s by far the
best weapon to rack up round-winning kill counts. But don’t get too
comfortable with your rocket launcher facing off against another player
and his gun, because many Doom 3 online players are so adept at using
guns, such as the machine gun and chaingun, that they can take down you
and your much more powerful rocket launcher. Doom
3 stumbles a bit in its online play, but it still offers a
great alternative to Halo 2 for FPS online gaming, although it won’t
exactly make anybody forget about Halo 2’s much better online package.
It’s not a groundbreaking game, but it is one stunning beauty to look
at, pushing the envelope of console visual and sound presentation to a
previously uncharted region. Don’t expect an instant classic, but Doom
3 still gives a hell of a performance. -
Lee Cieniawa (May 10, 2005)
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