Doom 3 Review

Overall Rating

Great Graphics
Best use of lighting and shadows in-game so far!
Scary!

Frame rates do dip into -20 in fights
Enemies not placed in "good hiding places"
You might need a beefy PC if you're looking to have all the Top graphics
Scary!

So far, I've managed to get my hands on the Doom 3 Beta V2. And as this game looms half way through its beta stages, I think it looks beautiful but the dynamic shadows do eat up a lot of graphic memory. I don't think I need to say how dynamic shadows look like but.. it's not like normal shadows on games, these look REAL, shadows cast behind the character and shadows are also cast on the characters body. Light effects are effectivly used in Doom 3, the lighting effects is what will spook you the most.

What is Doom 3 Beta like? Well, I completed Doom 3 in around 1-2 hours, there are 3-4 maps I believe, there is no story line input yet seeing as beta is inputted just for the gameplay factor. The Beta plays incredibly well, all bugs have been solved in Beta V2. There are 3 weapons in the Beta, a pistol, a shotgun, and a machinegun. And talk about graphics, this is what impressed me the most - the fact that you can shoot a Demon/zombie and a bullet hole will appear where you shot him, I think that in the full game (well hopeing) that once you shoot through a zombie, a ray of light can be seen through him. To sum it, I think its the best beta game I've played, its quite intense in the fights and the lighting is great.

As for the sound effects, such as the background noise - it just adds more to the intensity and insanity to the game, mostly metal clanging echoing though the passages..

Is the game scary so far? Well, the first time I played it.. yes.. very.. unbelivelably scary! I won't pass out too much info but in the toilet cut-scene its start of Level 3, well just after that go look in the mirror go close to the mirror I should say, in between the 2 sinks, and look at your character on the mirror..

Mohahahaha!

Doom 3 Beta is very tricky to get playing if you don't know the commands to turn of those graphic eating shadows, so keep in mind there is a command .txt in the game download.. or type in to the console "r_shadows 0" Either way the frame rate will increase up to 30+ fps. I would suggest that a 64mb graphics card is the very minimum but you would have to turn off some cool video options, AND make sure its direct x9 compatible, dx8.1 minimum!

And finaly, how would I rate this against Half Life 2? :-P

Well I'd say that Doom 3 (in my opinion) is more appealing to me, I love the scary games (old fav AVP2) and I think Doom 3 will be my number 1 game, how-ever the zombie AI isn't all that great (just after watching Dawn of the Dead '04). But I think that HL2 has an incredible graphical engine and the AI is very, very, very intelligent but if your a AVP 1-2 player Doom 3 has surpassed its "scaryness factor" and is bringing more evil surprises lurking in the dark, it's a must buy!

And as for the multiplayer aspect, I have placed a "NO" there IS a multiplayer but is very unstable, but in the final Doom 3 there WILL be a Multiplayer option.

Members' Comments onDaed's Review

• Jackalite on 18th Aug 2004

  Doom 3 is a stepping stone for game technology and is a brilliant game, only brilliant due to the graphics and sound but still ace.
  I think this but I think Half Life 2 is going to beat the hell out of Doom 3 (literally) because Half Life 2 has it all! Gameplay, graphics, etc.