The "Revolution" hits the Xbox...
Gameplay: The lowest part of this game is the actual gameplay. The Marine’s movement seems slippery and not as fast as I’ve become used to in FPS of this type. On Mars, you are limited to corridors more often than not. The enemy A.I. is rather disappointing as well. Most of the time they will jump out from behind cover, take a shot or two at you, and then jump back behind. If you can get the timing, you can beat almost every adversary. The A.I. is not all bad however. Some of the enemies know they are tougher than the norm and will attack you accordingly. The giant worm-blob monster in the mechanical wheelchair for instance will go through any barrier to get its jaws on you. The gatling gun undead also have little to no fear of you and your puny arsenal. These add a nice challenge to an otherwise simple game. There are no major platforming elements to speak of, so you shouldn’t die much. But if you do not conserve ammunition, you might find yourself repeating the same scenario over and over again before returning to a previous save point and planning ahead. This turns out to be more annoying than cool and adds a certain repetition to the game as a whole.
Graphics: Wow, at the time these were the best anybody had ever seen. They lost very little in transition to the Xbox as well. While fuzzier due to lower resolutions, at 480p the game looks just as sharp as the PC. Up close, the textures do suffer a bit, but most games from this generation suffered the same problem due to lack of hardware capabilities. The environments look great though. You can read the small writing on computer screens and see the pores on some character’s faces. The character models are superb. The skin does look a bit rubbery by today’s standards but this game is almost 2 years old now. At the time these textures were at the bleeding edge of graphical development. The real treat about Doom 3 are the environments and the atmosphere they unleash upon you. I had to play this game in 20 minute intervals because I became so frightened. Mars City is very much deserted and devoid of all friendly life. Occasionally you will find a friendly face, but they are more often than not frightened into insanity, striking even more fear into you. A particularly nice feature that made me jump was the inclusion of a fully functional mirror in the restrooms. I found myself turning to the side and emptying a full clip into my own reflection the first couple times I saw it, not thinking that videogames were capable of this level of detail.
Sound: Adding to the fear that the graphics inspire is the sound. Doom 3 is a technical masterpiece on every level. There is plenty going on around you. Get into a firefight in the main lobby of Mars City and listen to a monitor talk of the benefits that the UAC are reaping out of research of Mars. The irony runs thick in this game. The characters are all well acted and the weapons sound great. The only gripe I have is the Demons. They could have sounded a lot deeper and more frightening, as it stands they have very high pitched roars. Once you get a chainsaw, run it constantly and learn bliss as you saw through enemy after enemy.
Value: Doom 3 re-wrote the book on many things. Graphics, sound, everything technical about the game is new and fantastic. However, the gameplay just feels like a rehashed and reused FPS from the Id archives. They obviously thought that the graphical flair would mask any other shortcomings the player might come across. To a degree they were right, for the first part of the game I did not care, I was having a blast. Then, after the fear began to wear down, the problems began to stand way out to me.
Tilt: Doom 3 scared the hell out of me. That is enough to make it a lot of fun and well worth the recommendation. The gameplay elements might not be for everyone, but I truly believe that everyone should give this wonderful title a shot. If anything, you will get a good scare that will leave you with something to talk about for quite some time. Online Co-op and Multiplayer add some replay value to the game, but playing through the campaign with a friend watching your back is robbing this game of what makes it fantastic, that feeling that you are all alone, on a far off planet, and very well may die as you turn the next corner.
Doom 3 for the Xbox is a great game. Not as good as the PC version, but right up there. It remains today a solid example of how good a PC to console port can be at accomplishing the mission that its older brother tries to.