First the good news. D3: RoE is just as pretty as the original product. Pixel shaders make this expansion simply breathtaking. Now the bad news. The whole time I was playing D3:RoE I felt like I was playing the original game. Don’t get me wrong, that can be a good thing, but when you pay good money for an expansion pack and you end up running through levels that look identical to the original game (one of which really was identical – Delta Labs) with only a few new monsters and two new weapons which I only used half a dozen times … something inside me just says, “No.” No to the high price. No to the fact that it only took me eight hours to beat (with the exception of the final boss – I’ll get to that). No to the fact that the textures were all the same. No to the same old story that gets repeated over and over.

What’s the story? Dr. Betruger’s head (from its cozy resting place on the tip of a demonic dragon’s tongue) has decided to reinvade the Mars base. You, as the Space Marine, must (wait for it) fight your way through the base, ultimately ending up in Hell where you (here it comes) must kill Dr. Betruger. This poor Space Marine must have one hell’uva case of post traumatic stress disorder! I’d be asking, “Um, why don’t all these demons just fly to earth and get it over with?”

The game’s not all bad. A professionally executed product with top notch graphics and sound, but amazing graphics and sound do not a great game (or expansion) make. Those are just icing on the cake - problem is, someone in the industry decided they were the cake too. Part of me was relieved that the expansion only took eight hours to beat, where Doom 3 took over 30. So at least my nerves weren’t completely shot and my eyesight ruined by the constant darkness. But eight hours really did feel a little weak. Sixteen would have been better.

There were two new weapons which I used very rarely. The new grabber gun (an obvious rip off of Valve’s gravity gun, thrown in to show off the tech) felt like an afterthought. I used it three times. Seriously. The Artifact, a fairly powerful demonic weapon and the source of the new invasion, I ended up using maybe a few times more, mostly at the very end and in a few situations where I was overwhelmed by demons. The one new weapon I loved and found myself using all the time was the double-barreled shotgun. It took a while to reload, but firing both barrels into a demon’s face was about the best weapon in the game. I used it maybe 90% of the time.

I’m going to confess something to everyone here and now. For the first time, I’ve written a review without finishing the game. That’s right. You saw it here. Maybe I’m getting too old, but I could not kill the last boss no matter how hard I tried. I got so angry, I deleted the expansion from my hard drive and threw the gosh darn CD away! Well, not really. I did get a bit frustrated. And I’m good at these kinds of games. I rarely give up. But this time I felt like the game was just trying to piss me off on purpose. I won’t go into the details of how you fight the last boss. It's as if this series seems to have a habit of making their boss monsters too hard to figure out, too. I had to actually look on a game FAQ to figure out how to kill a few of the sub bosses. I don’t think I ever would have figured it out if I hadn’t. Am I dumb? That is always a distinct possibility. Is the game too hard? Still another possibility. My wife was watching me jump out of my seat trying to beat the last boss. Her one comment was, “That’s ridiculous.” In the game's defense, I gave up much sooner than I normally would have.

D3:RoE was also much more rail-like than the original game. There were very few alternate paths if any. Not to say the original game was much better. And some of the new monsters were really nothing more than taking one of the original models and cutting the legs off, etc.

I hope I haven’t discouraged you too much. Who knows, maybe this eight hour rail shooter with reused textures and darn near reused levels is just what you’ve been looking for. I for one am glad I got it for free, so I could write this review!