There have been several releases of Doom through the years; however, Doom 3 is certainly the most amazing of those releases. I’m going to try to write the next sentence without sounding as if I’ve been paid off by id software; Doom 3 is simply the most amazing looking game I have ever played, and the gameplay is certainly top notch scripted fun. Now I have to admit that after about 20 hours, the gameplay started to get repetitive and my eyes really started to hurt as I was squinting to see in the dark most of the time. I played the game on Veteran level (the 3rd highest difficulty setting). I regretted that decision about halfway through playing, though I was determined to beat it. And beat it I did. With the high level of graphic attention put into games these days, I’ve come to expect games like Doom 3 to last eight, maybe 12 hours. A sad fact when you realize you’ve paid 50 or 60 bucks to get a copy. I was pleasantly surprised that it took me over 30 hours to finish Doom 3 on Veteran difficulty. And my nerves were completely shot by the end of the game as well. It reminded me of the time I moved my family from Houston, Texas to Minneapolis, Minnesota during one terrible winter blizzard in a U-haul truck with our car in tow. I couldn’t drive for weeks after that.

Doom 3 is little more than the typical run and gun, button mashing, bunny hopping, find the key to open the door - gameplay we’ve come to expect from id Software. But here’s the thing; it is what it is. Play the game with that in mind, and you’ll have hours upon hours of fun. The story is pretty much the same from the original Doom. You’re a space marine on Mars and all hell has literally broken loose. The game takes place primarily within the tight corridors of the UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) base. The foes range from zombies early on, to full fledged, vicious demons as you progress. Your job is to pick up weapons, ammo, and health power-ups as you navigate through the darkened halls, trying to survive. Trying to survive requires that you kill pretty much everything you see. That’s the gist of the game. There are cool little video discs and audio journals from the facility employees that you can pick up, but those things are typically not required to beat the game. What makes the gameplay fun is the fact that the monsters tend to jump out at you when you least expect it - at first, anyway. After a few hours you’ll start to “sense” when you’re about to be attacked. id really likes to turn the lights out on you too. Those are some nail-bitingly tense moments. Especially considering the fact that despite being a futuristic marine, you don’t have any sort of night vision goggles. Nope. Just your trusty flashlight, which you can’t even hold at the same time you’re holding a weapon. The only real puzzles involve figuring out combinations to utility cabinets which hold weapons and ammo. This usually requires finding an employee journal nearby and reading it; nothing special.

I found myself using the shotgun 90% of the game. It’s a very effective weapon when you’re right up in a demon’s face, and not too shabby at range. I reserved my better weapons for the tougher critters. The range of weapons you can use include everything from your fists (yeah right!) to the legendary BFG, to the mystical Soul Cube, a very powerful weapon that can kill just about anything with one hit and regenerate your health when it does.

The graphics engine of Doom 3 is nothing less than a work of art. Advanced pixel shader technology allows for the most amazing graphics I have yet seen in a video game. I played Doom 3 on my brand spankin’ new 52” DLP widescreen TV plugged straight into my ultra-fast gaming box via VGA cables. I run an ATI x800 Radon 256 Meg video card with 1 gig of ram on a 3 Ghz processor. I ran the game at 1024x768 at the highest performance settings and my gameplay was nearly lag free. You’ll need a rig at least as good as I ran it on to truly enjoy the next-gen graphics of Doom 3. Every surface appears more complex than it really is thanks to normal mapping. Writhing demonic tendrils appear slimy, and fires glow with hellish insanity. The game also has some of the best shadow technology I’ve yet seen. Everything from the monsters to the environment create shadows in real time that move with the lights. Glass really looks like glass, and rocky surfaces almost feel rocky just looking at them. John Carmack has been quoted as saying that graphic technology is nearly to the point of looking like real life video. He expects the next generation of consoles to be able to handle graphics that might as well be live action footage. Doom 3 is certainly a giant leap in that direction.

To be honest, 30 hours was (believe it or not) a little too much for me. About 20 hours+ into the game, I found myself wishing it were over. The gameplay, while fun, got very repetitive at that point. And the constant darkness was hard on my eyes. But, hey, in id’s defense, I played the game on Veteran difficulty and I played the full 30 hours in two sittings. Yeah I’m just that addicted to video games.

Doom 3 isn’t a game for children. The ultra graphic violence and subject matter are completely inappropriate for most adults, much less their kids, in my humble opinion. But if you want a thrill ride of a game that darn near looks like live action video and might just scare your pants off, Doom 3 is the game for you. Even though it’s a year old now, it’s worth going out to the store and picking up a copy. I plan to beat the current expansion (Resurrection of Evil) soon. I’ll let you know how that one goes!