I know this is very off-topic, but I though I should
share this with everyone here.  Most Anime fans,
contrary to popular belief, are gamers.  If you don't
own a top-of-line PC but you “do” own an XBOX then you
will want to read this in depth game review.

Title: Doom 3
Developer: Id Software
Platform: PC (XBox version is the same game)
Genre: Horror/First Person Shooter

Introduction:
Back in the early 1990's a new genre of PC game
emerged with the arrival of a title called “Castle
Wolfenstein 3D”.  As the title suggests, it was a 3D
game played in first-person view where you fought
against Nazis who were tinkering with experimental
technologies and mysticism.  The 3D graphics engine
for the game, a mathematician's nightmare of complex
Geometry calculations, with what made the game work. 
It drew a fully realized 3D world on your screen for
you to explore.  For it time, the game was
State-Of-The-Art.  Then, a little known game publisher
in Texas called Id Software improved upon this
graphics engine and created one of the most important
game titles in the evolution of the PC Gaming
Industry...”Doom”.  A mix of state-of-the-art graphics
technology and incredible game design, “Doom” and its
sequel “Doom 2” quickly became the hottest selling PC
game titles of all time.  Since then, Id Software
moved on to other things like “Quake”, “Quake 2” and
“Quake 3: Arena”, but they never went back to the game
that made them a household name among PC gamers and
did a remake using the most advanced
technologies...until now.  Earlier this month, August,
2004 the game “Doom 3” was released bringing Id
Software back full circle.  This is an in-depth review
of every aspect of this title and how using new
technologies they have succeeded in capturing and
improving upon the original masterpiece.

Story:
Every game has a story to it, even the original “Doom”
had one.  You are a nameless Marine assigned as
replacement personnel on the Mars based United
Aeronautics Corporation Mars City installation.  The
UAC is a mega-corporation which holds patents to some
of the most advanced technologies every conceived by
mankind, and develop these technologies without regard
to ethical, moral or legal constrains due to their
remote location on the planet Mars.  When you are
assigned your first assignment you begin to discover
that all is not well in Mars City.  There are strange
things happening, people complain of hearing voices
coming from the walls, and personnel are going missing
all the time.  Dr. Betruger, the head researcher at
Mars City and the UAC Alpha Labs, heads up the
experimental teleportation project.  Part way through
your first mission all hell breaks loose, monsters
start popping up, the Marine com channels are
overflowing with different units crying out for
backup, there are explosions all over the base and you
can hear the screaming of thousands of the people as
they are being slaughtered by something...unholy.  It
is later on that you learn that Dr. Betruger's
teleportation technology had accidentally opened a
gateway into HELL itself, and now the unholy forces of
the underworld have come to Mars and hope to make it
to Earth unless you can stop them first.  Its the same
basic story of the original “Doom” but with a lot more
theatrics.
Score: 8 out of 10 (Because few other games have
successfully been able to tell a tale like this one as
well as this game can.)

Graphics:
Remember looks aren't always everything, but when you
make a game with such a high profile name as “Doom”
skimping in this area is a huge NO-NO.  First
impressions of “Doom 3” are, quite literally, WOW! 
The new 3D graphics engine for the game is
State-Of-The-Art using nearly all of the latest
developments in 3D game graphics over the past few
years.  Not to be over reacting, but “Doom 3” has the
most realistic graphics of any game I have ever seen
to date on both the PC and the XBox.

One of newest technologies to emerge in games these
days is Bump-Mapping.  This is a technique of using
very complex mathematical calculations to simulate a
textured surface on an object.  For instance, the
surface of a sheet of metal with grooves running along
it's surface.  The Bump-Mapping feature of the
graphics engine accurately calculates how light will
reflect off those virtual surfaces as you move around
the object making it look like it has depth when its
really a flat two-dimensional object.  Bump-Mapping is
used all throughout “Doom 3” on virtually everything.

Another really cool feature appearing in new FPS these
days is Real-Time Lighting and Shadows.  What this
means, is that everything in the game world casts a
shadow that the game generates using mathematics based
on where a light source exists.  Usually in games this
is done already when the map you play in is being
built by the game designer, but the graphics engine in
“Doom 3” calculates all of these shadows in real-time
so they change constantly as light sources move around
the room.  This adds to the creepy, claustrophobic
feel of the game in certain stages where you need to
rely on your tiny flashlight to make your way through
a pitch black area.  The real-time shadows also help
you see if there is an enemy around the corner because
you can see their shadow, assuming there is a light
source behind them.

Physics Modeling is another new feature in most modern
FPS games like “Doom 3” which uses very complex
mathematics to calculate how objects react when
falling, changing directs at high speed, and also how
flexible objects act when moving around.  If you kill
a zombie Rag-Doll physics control how it calls.  If
the corpse falls half-way off the edge of a catwalk,
in old games it would sit there, but in this game
gravity pulls it down and sends it tumbling to the
floor below.  Also, you can push around or kick most
smaller objects in the game and send them flying and
bouncing all around the room.

Another feature seen in other games is Motion Capture.
 This is where actors wearing suits covered in
reflective sensors perform the movements of different
characters for the game to make them look more
realistic in front of a camera connected to a
computer.  It tracks the movement of the sensors and
stores that information so it can be used to make game
characters move the same way.  “Metal Gear Solid:
Son's of Liberty” on the Playstation 2 used Motion
Capture extensively.

All of these things and older techniques used in past
games are combined to make “Doom 3” one of the best
looking if not THE best looking game ever released
thus far.

Score – 10 out of 10 (you will need a 1.6 GHz speed
computer or faster with an up-to-date Nvidia or ATI
graphics card to play this game, but there will be an
XBox version.)

Sound:
Sound in games is everything, my friend.  You can
create a game with the most realistic graphics that
immerse the player in an ultra-realistic 3D landscape,
but unless the sound is as good as the looks you've
only succeeded in painting just half the picture. 
“Doom 3” is rich with sound effects that takes advance
of Creative Lab's EAX Environmental Audio tool sets. 
What the heck is that?  Well, EAX, allows game
developers to create 3D sound for their games that can
be made to sound 3D on either 2 speakers, or separated
out onto different audio channels if you  are a tech
head and have one of those five or six speaker sound
systems for your PC for real surround-sound.

The sound effects in “Doom 3” are spooky, really
spooky.  You are surrounded by the sounds of the Mars
base machinery on all sides as well as indescribable
noises just on the edge of your perception.  Voices
speaking to you come all directions at different
times, whispered, ghostly voices spoken when you are
passing through dark air ducts or passageways, or the
growl of a monster or moan of a zombie just around the
corner.  The only nitpick about the sound in “Doom 3”
is the annoying click-clack like sound when people or
monsters are walking.  The sound is like from some old
early 1990's game and seems really out of places, but
it not annoying enough to take away your enjoyment of
the game itself.

The Music of “Doom 3” is top notch from the heavy
metal track at the title screen to the eerie ambient
Electronica tracks heard throughout the games many
levels.  The music, depending on the situation,
constantly changes.  When the action gets heated the
beat get faster and more intense.  As you near a
spooky area the music gets slower and more menacing. 
The soundtrack is almost as integral a part of “Doom
3” as the graphics and sound effects and adds to the
spin-tingling factor of the game itself.
Score – 9 out of 10 (That annoying footstep sound cost
them 1 point.  EAX sound is usually found in Creative
Labs Sound Blaster sound cards, but some third-party
companies have licensed the technology for their
low-budget sound cards.)

Game-Play:
Here is where we get to the meat and potatoes of this
game review.  You can have the best eye-popping
graphics, the most intense sound effects, and most
kick ass sound track, but it the game plays like crap
then it ain't really worth trying out let alone
buying.  The game-play of “Doom 3” can be called a
combination of Old School and New School.  A part of
the game, which is most of the game, is Old School
running and shooting, but mostly shooting and usually
at anything that jumps, walks and/or crawls!  This is
the mindless Run & Gun game-play that made the
original “Doom” such a huge hit and fans of the
original will be pleased see that Id Software is
keeping to the same formula for the new game.  

The New School game-play comes to play when you are
trying to gain access to restricted or blocked areas. 
Gamers can approach computer screens or panels and
interact with them.  Your equipped gun will be lowered
and your cross-hairs will turn into a mouse pointer
which you can use to click on buttons to under access
codes, click on buttons to opens doors, turn off
machinery, or anything else you need to do to get
through the game.  One level has you controlling a
rail car system this way by clicking on arrow buttons
the rail car control panel to move in the direction
you want to go.  Important information is stored in a
Personal Data Assistant you carry with you, it stores
emails, video data you can watch, and audio logs you
can listen to.  Your PDA also acts as your key to
access certain doors, and sometimes you have to find
someone's PDA to get the access codes for a storage
locker to get more ammo and health, or to upgrade your
security clearance so you can access restricted areas.
 You will find PDAs all over the place contain emails
to and from other employees at the Mars base facility,
and audio logs made by different personnel.  Most of
this information isn't necessary but adds to the
immersion factor of the game.  The intent of “Doom 3”
was to suck you into the story and experience of the
game so you feel as if you are really there and this
is part of that.  Many times the emails and audio logs
contain important info you need like storage cabinet
and security door access codes.

Score – 8 our of 10 (“Doom” purists will love the
simplistic game-play and new players will like the
ability to interact with consoles.  Two points are
lost because Id could have innovated some more in the
game-play but they decide to keep things simple.)

Design:
Here is the technical part of the review.  I'm
somewhat familiar with what it takes to design 3D maps
for games like “Doom 3”.  I have tinkered with
designing maps for “Unreal Tournament” several times
before and though the engines are different the basic
mechanics of how the levels are build are basically
the same.  All modern FPS are Polygon based graphics
engines.  Polygons are three-dimensional triangular
objects drawn by the computer to make an object. 
“Doom 3” calculates millions of polygons to build the
game levels and thousands of polygons just to make up
game characters and monsters.  The “Doom 3” engine is
polygon heavy generating a staggering number of
polygons, actually several billion per second, to
create the realistic looking maps you walk through,
and that does not include the demons you fight.

The level design remains consistent in each level.  In
other words, each level has the same architectural
look and feel just like an actual building or special
facility would.  Everything has a high level of detail
in the polygon graphics from the design of the walls,
the pipes in the ceiling, and the high tech equipment
mounted on the walls.  Each map was built with
pain-staking detail.  I can easily guess it probably
took a few months just to finish one game level. 
There is more than just the architectural design of
the maps, there is also the scripting involved in
making the computer consoles interactive, doors that
open and close, automated machinery, and etc.  This is
very complex work and suggests that “Doom 3” was
definitely an effort of a large team of programmers. 
At least more than a dozen including map designers,
graphics editors who made the realistic textures that
are drawn onto the polygons, and the people who
composed the music and recorded the sound effects. 
Game development these days has more in common with
movie making these days.

Score – 10 out of 10 (It is clear from the amount of
detail put into each level that Id Software pull out
all the stops when they were developing this game.)

Overall:
Pretty much it is easy to say that “Doom 3” is the
best looking game that is game-play wise a bit behind
the times, but it was deliberately intended to be that
way in order to preserve the feel of the original
while using new technology to make the game look and
sound really good.  And “Doom 3” really does look and
sound awesome.  This game will scare the HELL out of
you as you walk through dimly lighted passages and a
demon jumps out at you from nowhere, or from behind
you, or it breaks open a floor panel and climbs up to
get you from below.  Do NOT play this game in a dark
room at night because it WILL freak you out, and this
is no exaggeration.  For fans of the original or
anyone who is into games like “Resident Evil” or
horror films I highly recommend this game.  Beware,
this game has an excessive amount of blood and gore. 
Each game level is literally bathed in the blood of
the hundreds of Mars City personnel that were killed
in Hell's initial assault on the installation.  There
are blood stains and body parts all over the place,
and it gets even worse when you venture into Hell
itself, but that would be a spoiler!  All of this and
a solid online multiplayer feature rounds out this
title well.  It does loose a few points stealing away
a perfect score due to the fact that Id Software took
out a feature that one of the original game's staple
multiplayer features; Cooperative Mode, where two or
more players on a Local Area Network could play
through the single-player game together.  This feature
is missing, and it was such a huge hit at LAN Parties
(huge gatherings of PC gamers who would play
multiplayer games on a LAN for hours at a time) in the
early 90's.

Score – 8 out of 10 (Looses two points because it is
missing the Co-Op Mode in Multiplayer that made the
original “Doom” a real blast to play at LAN Parties.)

The End

Please email me with C&C about this review.


====
--
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
zorchhaney@yahoo.com
Site where you can find Anime Fan Fics by Me.
My Own Site http://zorchcentral.4t.com/ 
FF.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~michaelthezorchhaney
FFRU http://fan-fics-r-us.com/AuthorPage.php?AuthorNumber=8&


		
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