For those of you who have been taking a break gaming civilization for the past few years, Doom 3 is a remake of the classic game Doom. The premise is the same - You are a nameless marine assigned to a space station on Mars, and an experiment gone wrong unleashes the forces of Hell onto the base. It is up to you to become an army of one and single-handedly beat back the evil before it has a chance to spread.

As a game that has reached almost legendary status, launching a huge wave of first-person shooters to come, it has always been said that Doom should be remade with the latest technology. Finally, here it is. Let it be known that Doom 3 sports some of the most stunning graphics of any game like it on the market. This is truly a next generation game, and its extensive use of lighting and shadows proves that. Everything from flickering fluorescents to creatures crawling past a low light sources and casting gigantic silhouettes onto the wall turn up the scare factor. Monsters look menacing and fierce, some with eyes that glow in the pitch darkness. Sometimes the fireballs from Imps are the only things you have to illuminate a room. Much of the scare factor comes from things leaping at you unexpectedly from the shadows, causing you to jump in surprise.

The first few hours of this game are intense. As a player, you're getting you're bearings and learning your way around the base. Your first assigned task as a new arrival to the Union Aerospace Corporation's base is to find and retrieve a missing scientist. You'll quickly figure out that not everything is right with the base, and that severe mental illness is spreading among the staff like a nasty cold. But it is when you reach the scientist that things, quite literally, go to Hell. The scientist turns into a zombie right before you, and then it is up to you to get off of Mars alive.

The plot has been reworked and solidified in comparison to the first game and is told primarily through data recordings that you pick up along the way. Overall, Doom 3 does a pretty good job of telling a story. You carry a PDA with you, where you can download access passes, emails, and video discs onto. Having voice recordings on a PDA is hardly a new concept. To be honest, Doom 3 doesn't quite reach the level of suspense that System Shock 2 did when it released back in 1999 as the first FPS to use voice logs as a means of storytelling. For the most part, the PDA's are only useful for gaining access to new areas and codes for storage lockers. The PDA itself doesn't seem terribly futuristic for a game that's supposed to take place in the 22nd century. It reads email, play voice files, and plays video, but it doesn't do the things you'd want a standard issue military PDA to do, like display a map. Instead, you are left stumbling around dimly lit hallways looking for rooms that aren't always clearly marked. This is where linear level building comes in useful. You only have one direction to go, so if there are still things to kill, you can be confident you're heading in the right direction.

The developers, id, focus so much on the "remake" mentality that the final game lacks the depth found in many shooters that have been released since the old classic. The player must battle his way from point A to point B, shooting everything that gets in the way while looking for access keys/codes, health, ammo and armor. The base's faulty electrical system doesn't help matters either. Monster are often lurking in the shadows and respawn in places you thought were safe. There is the persistent feeling that no place is safe and that a nasty surprise is hiding in every shadow and behind every door. The game detects exactly where you shoot each monster, so unless you're good at getting headshots or making the most out of explosive barrels, ammunition could soon be running scarce. There are only a few monsters that drop ammunition, but there are plenty of storage rooms and healing stations to keep average players well stocked. With the exception of basic zombies, monsters will disappear into ash after they are killed, removing the old classic scenes from Dooms gone by where it was possible to cover a room from wall-to-wall with gore and corpses from slain enemies. The heavy graphics limit how many creatures are in the room at a time, leaving most confrontations fairly short against small groups instead of taking on a full battalion from Hell's Army.

You'll also figure out, as many people did in the first Doom, that the pistol is a fairly useless weapon except against slow, lumbering zombies. There are nine different weapons in the game, most brought over from the original games. Each has different firing rates and ammunition limits. While some weapons might be more preferable by some players against specific monsters - the machine gun is effective against small targets like Lost Souls, and the plasma rifle is the only thing that will stop rockets fired from Revenants - players will generally stick with the gun that either has the most ammo or packs the biggest punch.

All these factors boost up the intensity of the gaming experience throughout the beginning of the game, then plateaus. Soon, it becomes clear that you're facing the same monsters over and over again, and they never improve their tactics. Though many will chase you down should you run away, they generally follow the same movement patterns. Even the undead soldiers, who are supposed to be "smarter" than your average zombie, become very predictable. Some are content to shoot at a wall or closed door for hours at a time. The biggest challenge comes from being surprised by creatures leaping at you from the darkness, being overwhelmed by mobs, and being ambushed by creatures teleporting in. Expect the "quicksave" key to become your second favorite button besides the trigger. It won't be long before you learn to quickly dispatch of your unearthly foes by dodging their attacks, look over every corner with a flashlight before moving, and look behind you whenever you see or hear a teleportation. When hit by a monster, your vision becomes red and blurry and your aim is thrown off, which adds to the cool effects.

In addition to the emails and voice recordings, there are a number of NPC's who managed to survive the hellish onslaught. They work to give a little more insight into what's going on. Switching between using a weapon and interfacing with a person or console is made very simple. Run your crosshairs over an ally or computer terminal and your character will automatically lower his weapon. There is no chance to become attached to any of these characters, however. You only speak to most of them once before they either meet an untimely demise or prefer to be left behind.

Like we stated before, the bulk of the story is told through logs and emails, which soon become quite distracting. It covers up critical sounds like zombies moaning around the corner or imps hissing behind doors. Those people who are equipped with 5.1 surround sound gain a deeper experience and an extra edge, because they will know when things teleport in behind them. Doom 3 doesn't make much use of mood music. For the most part, you'll be wandering with just the sounds of machinery, footsteps, and your own beating heart to keep you company. That is, when the ghostly voices aren't calling out to you.

The emails do, however, answer a couple of burning questions from the first Doom games such as why there are chainsaws on Mars and why supplies are hidden in obscure places all over the base. They do not answer the questions raised in Doom 3 itself, like whether Imps ever get bored of waiting inside closets for prey. How can the Doom Soldier instantly switch to breathing from an oxygen tank when he is clearly not wearing a helmet? Most importantly, how can a marine be tough enough to fend off the forces of Hell not be smart enough to duct tape his little flashlight to his shotgun? Or hold a pistol in one hand and the flashlight in the other? None of the guns have any kind of light enhancing technology, unless you count the glow given off by the plasma rifle. All the weapons, except for two energy-based ones, seem very old-school for the 22nd century (one of the weapons are your own two fists). They are largely projectile-based with all with excruciatingly long reload times.

The rocket launcher doesn't have any kind of target tracking, and the erratic bounce from grenades will have players hurting themselves more often than they will enemies. Strangely, there is no grenade launcher on either the machine or chain guns. In fact, there are no secondary modes of fire on any of the weapons - not even an option to bash enemies with the butt of your rifle (however, you can try to beat them with your flashlight). The physics are also a little off in regards to splash damage. There is something innately wrong with seeing a monster take cover behind a small crate and avoid damage from a rocket launcher. Cardboard boxes are not only bulletproof, but chainsaw resistant too! Other than these minor woes, the physics are generally very impressive.

The gameplay becomes monotonous for much of the game, livened up by occasional non-interactive cut-sequences (which are done very well) and the introduction of new monsters. Other than graphics, Doom 3 offers nothing new to the FPS genre. Eye-candy aside, this is as basic as shooters get. There is never a sense of urgency. Characters are always urging you on your radio to get a move on, but you always know that nothing will happen until you arrive, and that any team you're meant to meet up with will be dead before you get there. The final levels, starting from your arrival at Delta Labs, become more interesting and lead to a fantastic finale, but that is after hours of trudging through corridor after blood-splattered corridor.

Finishing the game once unlocks the "Nightmare" difficulty level, which is the same game except your health is constantly going down. We're still trying to figure out why anyone would want to play in this mode. In truth, Doom 3 has very little replay value, unless you're absolutely intent on opening up every storage locker and seeking out every cache of armor and weapons.

The multiplayer, which sustained the original Doom games long after gamers had completed the single player game for the fifth time, is a huge disappointment here. Out of the box, the game only supports a maximum of four players and has just a few maps. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the lack of cooperative multiplayer in the PC version, which is an odd omission, considering it was one of the best things about the original two games. There is only one character model (the Doom Soldier) differentiated by different colors. All modes of play are some form of deathmatch, which isn't terribly exciting when only four people are involved. The game fully supports mods, and the community has already come up with ways to significantly improve the multiplayer experience. Relying on the community to improve the game is one thing. Using it to essentially finish the multiplayer mode is another.

The graphics engine is incredibly fantastic and intense, and will run relatively smoothly on systems that meet the games minimum requirements. Upgrading will be necessary for those who currently own lower end systems but want to get the full experience with every graphical enhancement turned up at resolutions of 1024x768 or higher. In the end, Doom 3 inherits a lot of attributes that may have been acceptable in the original game years ago, but makes the gameplay shallow and monotonous now. This fault is offset by the incredible graphics, excellent use of lighting, and the nostalgic joy of seeing monsters from years ago remade using tomorrow's technology. This might not be a game that you'll want to return to again and again, but playing through it for the first-time is definitely worthwhile experience.

Our Final ScoreGood

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