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Hell hath no fury like a zombie scorned
SINCE Half-life 2 shows no signs of being released before the end of this year, Doom 3 has been launched with much aplomb, giving gamers around the world one more reason to celebrate new-year’s with heightened enthusiasm.
Hugely popular among bona fide gamers, Doom 3 boasts of stunning visuals, making it one of the hottest and fastest selling games of 2004. For those of you who haven’t been following the progress of Doom 3, let me tell you that, the story is more or less similar to the original Doom (which enjoyed it’s tenth anniversary on December 2003).
Story
It is 21.45 and you take the role of a marine on a mission to Mars. After successfully performing a simple mission of finding a scientist you are plunged into action as you watch all hell break loose on Mars. Save a few people,all other personnel on Mars are either dead or have been turned into frightening zombies. It is now up to you to fight the hordes of hellish monsters and find out what happened.
Graphics
The game manages to blow you away with its magnificient and unparalleled graphics. From monsters, to guns and the surroundings, this game’s graphics aim to please. In fact, they are so wond
erfully done that the creators can easily claim that Doom 3 has the best graphics made to date. Unfortunately, your computer must be considerably powerful if you intend to experience these graphics in all their glory.
The game-play is where Doom 3 lets you down. Anyone who enjoyed playing Deus Ex, where you can interact with the environment and have to solve puzzles will be dissapointed with Doom 3, as it has minimal interaction with the environment and absolutely no puzzles.
The game-play is truly a remake of the original Doom. For some people this type of game-play may be welcome change from all the “thinking-shooters” available nowadays.
The effects of this game are simply mind-blowing. From watching the monsters being unleashed, to your rocket’s impact, the effects are magnificent.
Lighting: The creators of this game have gone the extra mile to make sure that the lighting is sublime. Doom 3 may be the first game that makes good use of darkness. In this game, using flashlight to get through dark areas is an absolute necessity; should you decide not to use it, you will in all likelihood end up being dead much before you are half-way through.
However, one of the main problems with flashlight usage is that you have to holster your weapon and then take out your flashlight and vice-versa which means that there can be plenty of “blind-fights” (firing your weapon aimlessly with no knowledge of the enemy’s position) in eerie darkness.
Sound: Doom 3’s sound is also worth talking about. Each of the characters’ vocals is true to life. The monsters’ hideous bawl and laughter in the background are some of the sounds which cause uncertainty and fear to linger in every corner.
Sadly, our character has no voice of his own and throughout the game and so gamers will often find themselves wishing that it did.
AI: Last but not least is AI, which is phenomenal. The enemies duck for cover when you fire and wait for you to reload so they can come out.
They leap in your face and creep up behind you to attack and move cautiously so that you are unable to detect and destroy them. Your allies’ AI is also top-notch as they cover your back and kill enemies with alertness and accuracy.
Conclusion
Doom 3 lives up to its hype and expectation and will prove to be a refreshing experience.I hope that it will live in the hearts of gamers for a long time to come.
Verdict:
Graphics: 10
Sound: 8
Lighting: 9
Effects: 9
AI :8
Gameplay: 7
Overall: 8.5
My machine specs:
AMD 3200+
ASUS AX800
512 MB RAM
Windows XP
40 GB HDD
DirectX 9.0b
Minimum specs:
Windows 2000/XP
256 MB RAM
Pentium 4 1.5 GHz
DirectX 9.0b
2 GB HDD space
Geforce 4 or above/ATI 8500 or above.
The writer
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