REVIEW:'Doom 3' a Terrifying Experience

AP via The Greenville Sun ^ | August 10, 2004 | MATT SLAGLE

[Skooz]

By MATT SLAGLE AP Technology Writer

Think of "Doom 3" as an extended version of that moment in a haunted house when the monster jumps out from behind a corner. Like some sort of gag reflex, you can't help but instinctively scream in terror.

This new video game certainly has excellent graphics, but it's what you can't see that makes this sequel from id Software Corp. one of the scariest video games ever made.

Darkness hangs like a thick fog in this first-person shooter, shrouding your vision and adding a nearly unbearable sense of dread to a grim mission pitting you against a cast of hell's minions.

You're a nameless marine stationed on a Martian base owned by the Union Aerospace Corp. Somehow, hell's denizens have teleported onto the base and transformed just about everyone else into lumbering zombies. It's up to you to wipe them out before they spread evil to Earth.

What you see in this M-rated game is definitely NOT for children or the squeamish. The vivid three-dimensional graphics, a true step forward for computer games, allow for some extremely gross death scenes involving large quantities of blood and various human and monster guts.

You start out on the base, worming through one narrow, dim corridor after another. Just as it starts getting repetitious, you enter a portal to hell and fight the demons on their own turf.

"Doom 3" doles out monsters in small batches. While they aren't particularly intelligent, there's a steady supply of flying demon heads, oversized spiders, flame-throwing demons and other more sinister foes lunging, leaping and dive-bombing you from all directions.

I only wish there had been another tactic besides shooting first and thinking ... never. By the end, my fear had been a bit numbed by a familiar pattern: enter darkened room, wait for monsters to spawn all around you, kill them all, go to next chamber, repeat.

I enjoyed the game's rich, layered sound effects. The low-frequency hums and high-pitched whirs of giant high tech machinery, when mixed with the grunts and groans of nearby, unseen demons, really added a convincing sense of atmosphere.

The game has a few shortcomings compared to other recent titles in the same genre. You can jump, run and crouch, but you can't lean around corners or crawl. And the only real innovative weapon in your arsenal is the "soul cube," an alien device which automatically devours the most powerful enemy on screen and transfers its life force to you.

One nice touch adds a great deal of tension: you have a flashlight that never runs out of power, but you can't use it at the same time as your weapons.

"Doom 3" is best enjoyed as a solitary experience, with the lights off and sound cranked.

The included multiplayer modes, meanwhile, were quite limited compared to the sprawling, team-focused online battles in games such as "Unreal Tournament: 2004."

The game supports just four players at a time per game (though some gamers have somehow managed to work around that limit and support a dozen or so people).

You can choose from only a few basic multiplayer modes, such as death match, team death match and last man standing, where you simply have to kill more opponents than anyone else in order to win.

On my broadband connection, games frequently suffered from an effect called lag, turning matches into slideshows that were hard to play.

Despite the technical sophistication, "Doom 3" generally performed well on my high-end home computer with a zippy AMD 64 bit processor and a gigabyte of memory.

The basic requirements are pretty steep: You'll need at least a 1.5 gigahertz computer with 384 megabytes of memory, 2.2 gigabytes of free hard drive space and a 3D video card with 64 megabytes. And the $55 price is higher than most games.

"Doom 3" doesn't revolutionize computer games as we know them. Rather, it polishes the horror-themed first-person shooter genre to a high gloss.

It's not going to provoke any deep thoughts or philosophical debate, but anyone looking for a good scare will enjoy this gorgeous nail-biter.

Three stars out of four.

-----------------------------------------

On the Net:

http://www.doom3.com

[Bacon Man]

stabby asparagus things in 'Blast Pit'

I played Half Life and Opposing Force and I don't recognize these from your description. Could you be more specific?

[Skooz]

I'd love to. But I'd also have to buy a new mobo, RAM and video card. That will run about $600 altogether.

Seeing as how I am paying my daughter's tuition, etc this week, I'll have to put it off for a more opportune time.

[Bacon Man]

I'd love to. But I'd also have to buy a new mobo, RAM and video card. That will run about $600 altogether.

Yea that looks right, a few hundred dollars.

Seeing as how I am paying my daughter's tuition, etc this week, I'll have to put it off for a more opportune time.

Understandable.

[Riley]

In a map called 'blast pit' (IIRC) there are these big green stalks that'll stab you if you make any sound. The Blast Pit is where you finally light up a captive rocket engine to destroy them.

http://www.planethalflife.com/half-life/guide/walkthrough/wt5.shtm

[Bacon Man]

I hear November but I'm waiting for that also.

[Bacon Man]

Thanks for the walkthrough link. I remember everything except the tentacles. Weird.

[rmlew]

I think it would make more sense to purchase a new computer.
I'm waiting a bit.

[El Sordo]

November 9th.

I know I will have the will to live until at least November 9th.

[Bacon Man]

Have you seen the trailer with in game footage? It looks cool.

[Right Wing Professor]

I kinda enjoy the chainsaw

Tne chainsaw has always been the tool of choice for that tricky close-in work.

[Shryke]

It's a bundled driver for multiple cards. Thus the size. Plus utilities, blah blah.

[ChadGore]

Re: It's a bundled driver for multiple cards. Thus the size. Plus utilities, blah blah.

Just to undate the thread . . . d/ling the latest driver not only worked, but it changed the whole look of the game. AMAZING !

[Shryke]

I just finished the game on veteran. The game is, as expected, a new paradigm in graphics AND physics. Just mind blowing. Some reviewers, like this one, simply forgot that they were buying a DOOM game - bug hunt. So, they were looking for some Half-Life type theatrics and stuff. Ah well.

I found the game totally engrossing, as well as terrfying at times. Hard, too. Starting Nightmare mode this weekend.

P.S. I'm also glad they stuck with the BFG9k instead of that suck-ass BFG10k from Quake. Good on id.

[Shryke]

There is a VERY important mod to make to the config file to run ultra-high textures on a regular video card. Have you done so?

[stainlessbanner]

d3 bump

[Skooz]

I just finished the game on veteran.

Dang! It was just released! I venture to say you haven't accomplished much else that past few days...............

[ChadGore]

Re: There is a VERY important mod to make to the config file to run ultra-high textures on a regular video card. Have you done so?

No, I haven't. Could you point me in the right direction?

[beezdotcom]

Know anybody that's tried this with a fully-immersive head-mounted display yet? I'm just wondering if your head will go *poof* in a cloud of smoke like the dashboard hula doll in that car commercial...

[Skooz]

I don't know. But I have no doubt it would rock. I think the CPU power needed would be enormous.

[Shryke]

Ofcourse:

Inside C:\Program Files\Doom 3\base open DoomConfig.cfg with notepad.

Default:
seta image_cacheMegs "20"
Set to:
seta image_cacheMegs "128"
Default:
seta r_gamma "1"
Set to:
seta r_gamma "1.2"

Default:
seta r_skipSpecular "0"
Set up:
seta r_skipSpecular "1"

default:
seta net_clientMaxRate "16000"
Set to:
seta net_clientMaxRate "25000"

Default:
seta in_alwaysRun "0"
Set to:
seta in_alwaysRun "1"

Default:
seta in_pitchspeed "140"
Set to:
seta in_pitchspeed "160"
This will boost system performance with a machine that finds intself chugging on 512 MB of ram and an aging 1.47 ghz amd 5700ultra.

Now, depending on your system RAM, it's the image_cachemegs line that is most important to great framerates with Ultra High textures turned on. I jumped mine up to "512" as I have a gig of ram. I went from 1024x768 on medium textures with lots of stuttering when I swung around quickly, to 1024x768 at ULTRA high textures with AMAZING framrates. Let me know what you think.