Developed by: id Software;
Published by: Activision;
Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, Xbox
Released: Aug. 3rd, 2004 (Windows), Apr. 3rd 2005 (Xbox)
Rated: M for Mature
***
Doom 3 starts you off in Mars City, the main access to UAC's Mars base. Everything around looks both polished and awe-inspiring. Outside of the windows, you see a red-tinted landscape with winds whipping up the sands against the glass with the sunlight piercing through the debris. You're on Mars, a long way from home. Inside of Mars City, the environment is well kept with data kiosks in almost every room and a nice video monitor that explains a bit about the purpose of the UAC's base on Mars. You get used to the controls and are soon sent to look for a scientist in the Delta Labs who has gone missing and upon recovery of the scientist, you figure out that he's actually warning anyone who will listen about Dr. Malcolm Betruger's, head of the UAC's Delta Labs division, crazy teleportation experiments. As the poor scientist attempts to get through your mind about what Dr. Malcolm has been up to, another teleportation test goes awry and a huge shockwave is sent throughout the entire base turning everyone into...well, zombies.
Welcome to Hell. You are now given instructions by Master Sergeant Thomas Kelly for the first portion of the main campaign to trek through the base and retrieve clues and meet up with other survivors to not only find out what exactly has been going on and tell someone about it, but to also get the hell out of the base. The game just caught your interest and is able to sustain it for so long before you find yourself going through task after task without much of an advancement in the storyline. And that's my biggest gripe with the game.
The graphics looks great and have admittedly aged well as it gives off an "early Xbox-360 title" look, but back when this game was initially released, the graphics set an unbelievable standard in visuals. And that's when you actually have a chance to relish the in-game graphics because much of Doom 3 has you playing hot-potato between your weapon of choice and a flashlight. That's right, you can only wield one at a time. Spoiler Alert: There are levels where you are enshrouded in darkness making the choice between gunfire and artificial light that much more critical. What makes this mechanic work is the fantastic lighting engine throughout the game that takes every corner and bump on the wall into consideration. It's this extra step forward that gives most people nightmares following a four-hour session with the game.
Now for the negatives, this game is very finicky with its pacing. The first-third of the game has fantastic pacing as it introduces you to not only the environment and its surrounding mechanics but more importantly the story. In about the next third of the game, Doom 3 decides to take a step back, a huge step back, and leaves the player to do seemingly mundane fetch-quest after fetch-quest. At one point, I could very clearly put the past three missions side-by-side and note the 100% similarity each task carried with each other. It made me realize just how much time I've lost in my own life doing nothing but filler. Not even the biggest or baddest weapon could hold my interest for long and I felt like I was chugging along just to get to the end. Thankfully, by the remaining third of the game, the game picks up a noticable pace but it never really reaches the bar set in the first part. While I accepted the "Hell has taken over Mars" storyline for the brunt of the game, the almost random plunge into Satanic worshipping and lay-out almost seemed unwarranted late in the game. The game took a huge nose-dive for me creatively when it went from a realistic "lost in space where no one can hear you scream" vibe to a "hey look monsters and Satanic pentagrams and lots of fire" feeble approach.
There are even levels where you venture through Hell itself to get a "soul cube" to help take down the final boss. If it weren't for the suspended belief that I had to force myself to give up for Doom 3, I might not have made it throughout the remainder of the game. Another thing that irked me was the fact that there are no subtitles in the game. Now, this might just be me being picky but the game sometimes breezes through its dialogue and if you're too far from a person to hear him or her speak, you're missing out on potential story-driving tidbit that you'll never get back. The small downloadable drives of dead or missing members of the former workforce do help to set the imagery of what exactly was happening before Hell took over, but much of it is rendered pointless when you consider that some are just used to gain clearance and advance through the level.
Overall, Doom 3 is a mighty-fine horror game that shows that id really know what they're doing when they 're presented with the right tools speaking for its amazing lighting effects, the heavy atmosphere, the clear sound and frantic but tight gunplay, but I really feel upset story-wise when they, more often than not, drop the ball. Hopefully by the next go around with Doom, more of these grievances can be rightfully addressed to set-up a big-budget yet 100% satisfying horror experience but until then, there's a better space-themed horror game and that's Dead Space.
Ruling: 3/5
