Irony on the rocks with a twist...

I remember the “good old days” when Doom was a free download from the Internet. Everyone I knew was playing it. It was a great game for taking out frustrations on: go blow away a few demons and everything seemed right with the world again. It beats the heck out of solitaire.

Doom was a pioneer in the world of FPS (First Person Shooters), it set the stage for so many more. A version of Castle Wolfenstein would be made using the Doom engine. Games like Quake and Unreal began to show up on the scene. It wasn’t long before we saw a game very close to the Doom premise called Half Life. Slightly more obscure, (but with a very vocal fan base) is the System Shock series. Most of these games owe something to Doom for setting the stage.

The Doom saga was recently resurrected with the much anticipated release of Doom 3. In this updated installment of the game, the player is immersed in a fully loaded back story and game world that is far more fleshed out than ever before. We see our stalwart Marine as he is stationed to a research facility on Mars, where the discovery of ancient ruins has led to scientific breakthroughs in teleportation. The problem? Teleporting doesn’t seem to set well with the test subjects. Repeated exposure seems to create a sense of dementia and fear among them, and then there are the accidents...so many accidents that droves of personnel are requesting transfers out of Mars.

On the transport with our main character is an officer representing the Board of Directors for the research facility along with his bodyguard. They have been dispatched to discover the cause of the recent accidents and requests for transfers. They have no idea what awaits them.

Our main character is indoctrinated and assigned to an older portion of the station, where one of the research team has gone missing. His orders are to find and return this individual, but just as it seems his mission is accomplished, a wave of energy comes spiraling out of the super secret Delta Labs; with it comes a nightmarish horror host of demonic creatures. People are snatched up and “possessed,” becoming zombies that feed on all that lives. Others are rent limb from limb. All hell breaks loose and the overwhelmed Marine security detachment is the first to combat the hoards, and the first to fall victim to it. Suddenly, the man our hero is sent to bring back attacks him, and he must kill or be killed. The rules have changed, now it is up to him to survive long enough to beat back this demonic invasion, lest it consume all of Mars and then...Earth.

The storyline is everything Doom should be. Of course it does not vary much from the original premise, but this is quickly forgotten in the intense game play, the puzzles, and the frightening shadows that conceal enemies from your view. Perhaps the only disappointment with Doom 3 is the puzzling decision to make it so the flashlight and weapons cannot be held simultaneously, something modern police and soldiers have been able to do for some time (I am certain someone on the design team must have known that modern weapons often include mounts for flashlights built right in, and failing this, night vision goggles are pretty much standard military issue these days). While this is a minor annoyance, it does not seriously detract from the gameplay or the effects, which are pretty stunning. The absolute popularity of the game series has already led to a "duct tape" mod, which attaches the flashlight to the gun so both can be used at the same time. The game plays out like any sci-fi horror movie should. The main character must find his way through a maze, battling hellish demonic creatures bent on stopping him, solving puzzles, getting around obstacles, and collecting ever more powerful weaponry, security codes, and access keys.

The designers seemed to have the original in mind when making this version. The game holds true to its predecessors, the arsenal of weapons is extremely familiar, with only one new weapon to add to the list. The monsters pop out from behind hidden panels, and the exits to the next level are essentially the same as the original. Scattered throughout the game are security lockers locked with combination codes that can only be discovered by collecting various PDA’s, which also provide the player with increased security access and information vital to the solution of the game. The PDA’s even have E-mail spam. There are plenty of “Easter Eggs” strewn throughout the game as well.

There is one major disappointment to this version of Doom: multiplayer is severely limited. It is obvious to me that the game designers chose to concentrate their efforts on making the single-player experience as exciting as possible, and this they achieved, but to neglect multiplayer is pretty huge in this age of online everything. I have to say that I am grateful there are still designers out there willing to put PC games out there when so many others are defecting to the world of consoles, but none-the-less, many die-hard gamers will feel Doom 3 is incomplete without a multiplayer that closely rivals its single-player experience.

Doom 3 is an experience that I am certain every battle-hardened Doom fan will want to own and play many times. The increased emphasis on storyline is much appreciated, as is the need for the player to think carefully, solve problems, and, of course, blow demons away. While the game suffers from some minor drawbacks and flaws, it manages to make up for them in the total experience.

And if anyone was wondering, yes, they are making a movie based on Doom, starring The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) as our hero is slated for release Summer '05. More about the upcoming Doom Movie.

TANSTAAFL!