Image for illustration only

Best Of: Doom 3 (PC)

PC

R 49

eB490

Average rating: 4 out of 5

Rate it

Supplier out of stock

When do I get it?

Sorry, this product is currently not available to order.

Description
Product Info
Reviews

Description

DOOM 3 - id Software's terrifying battle with the forces of Hell. A massive demonic invasion has overwhelmed the Union Aerospace Corporations' (UAC) Mars Research Facility leaving only chaos and horror in its wake. As one of only a few survivors, you struggle with shock and fear as you fight your way to Hell and back, in an epic clash against pure evil. Built on id's revolutionary new 3D graphics engine, DOOM 3 draws you into the most frightening and gripping 3D gaming experience ever created.

Features:

The most intensely realistic and visually stunning game ever created; with graphic fidelity never before seen in video games outside pre-rendered CG movies.
Dripping with atmosphere and changing the look of 3D games forever, DOOM 3 features realistic physics, 6-channel surround-sound, and real-time dynamic lighting and shadows that create an environment of ever-changing fear and uncertainty.
Compete in vicious multiplayer action where light, shadows, and a totally dynamic world can be used to your advantage or peril.

NOTE: Be sure to checkout HardOCP's detailed DOOM 3 Hardware Guide.

Doom 3 System Requirments:

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000/XP

Processor: Pentium IV 1.5 GHz or AM Athlon 1.7 GHz processor or higher

RAM: 384MB RAM

CD-ROM: 8x Speed CD-ROM drive (1200KB/sec sustained transfer rate) and latest drivers

Hard Drive: 1.7GB of uncompressed free hard disk space (plus 400MB for Windows swap file)

Processor: 100% DirectXR 9.0b compatible 16-bit sound card and latest drivers

Video Card: 3D hardware Accelerator Card Required - 100% DirectXR 9.0b compatible 64MB Hardware Accelerated video card and the latest drivers

Supported Video Cards:

ATI Radeon 8500
ATI Radeon 9700
ATI Radeon 9800
ATI Radeon 9500
ATI Radeon 9600
ATI Radeon 9000
All Nvidia GeForce 3/Ti series
All Nvidia GeForce 4/MX series
All Nvidia GeForce 4/Ti series
All Nvidia GeForce FX series
Nvidia GeForce 6800
ATI Radeon X800

Product Info

Categories: Action / Shooter

Barcode

5030917036026

Country

South Africa

Platform

Rating

Screenshots

doom3_pc_1.jpg
doom3_pc_2.jpg
doom3_pc_3.jpg
doom3_pc_4.jpg

Studio

Activision

Product Reviews (5)

Jonathan, Durbanville. 29 July 2005

The day id's Doom 3 was released, the gaming world stood still. After four long years of periodically being fed titbits by John Carmack and his team, was the game actually going to be up to scratch? Everyone knew the engine was going to rock, and it most certainly does � looking great, and scaling wonderfully to run on older hardware � but the jury was still out with regards to the actual gameplay.

Now, over two weeks after getting my grubby mitts on the game, and playing through certain stages several times over, I must admit that I still have mixed emotions regarding sections of id's masterpiece.

On the one hand, as I said, it looks absolutely superb, even on lower-end rigs, and the sound combines with the eye-bleedingly good visuals to create an experience that will not soon be forgotten. On the other hand, the action is more than a little bit repetitive at times, boiling down to something that resembles Serious Sam indoors in quite a few areas, with scores of daft enemies being hurled your way.

The first couple of hours are absolutely enthralling, with several nods to Valve's classic, Half-Life, along the way, as you witness everything going to hell (bad pun, I know), but then things go off the tracks a bit towards the middle portion of the game. The incredibly irritating spiders make an appearance, and attack you in absolute droves, as do the lost souls (a.k.a. flying skulls), and at times your screen just won't stop shaking (an effect that pissed me off more than anything else, to be honest), as the bigger, badder members of Hell's army join in on the assault. This approach may've worked wonders in the original DOOM games, but it doesn't really come off here.

The AI isn't the smartest, especially in comparison with that in Crytek's Far Cry, so I guess this is the only way id could think of really challenging the player, but it only succeeds in transforming your fear into irritation, and provided you can avoid being attacked from all angles, you won't find the game that tough anyway.

If you're willing to sit out this section, though, you'll find yourself breaking into a cold sweat again soon enough, as the action returns to its previous survival horror mould. Believe me, when it works, Doom 3 is absolutely terrifying. With headphones on and the lights off I regularly had to take breaks, which isn't something I had to do whilst playing Resident Evil Zero. Respect.

Of course, it wouldn't be nearly as pants-wettingly scary if everything wasn't so damn dark, and I've heard countless complaints about the implementation of the flashlight. You see, when equipping the torch you holster your weapon, which many people think is �unrealistic' and �stupid', carping on about how there must be at least one roll of duct tape in a complex this size. Seriously, what the hell (argh)? Yes, this element of the game is most definitely unrealistic, and I'm also quite amazed that Mr Marine doesn't have the mental capacity (not that I'd expect much from someone who doesn't even speak) to find some way of attaching the flashlight to a weapon (isn't the blood of demonic hellspawn supposed to be sticky?), but it just makes everything that bit more entertaining and tense, which is most definitely a good thing in my books.

The story, whilst essentially a retelling of the events in DOOM, is leaps and bounds ahead of anything id have produced before, and quite a bit better than many other developers' efforts. Other than some great scripted events, the player unravels the plot by reading downloaded emails and watching video clips on the marine's PDA, and this works to superb effect. The unsettling cutscenes are brilliantly woven into the gameplay, and feel completely spontaneous, further disturbing the player and detaching him/her (�it' in ArcticWolf's case) from reality.

As I mentioned above, your marine character doesn't say a single line the entire game, and at first this felt a bit out of place to me, having just finished playing through The Chronicles of Riddick for the zillionth time. You get used to it after a while, but I still reckon it wouldn't have hurt to give this guy some personality, even if only in the shape of an animated portrait � la previous DOOM titles and the Wolfenstein series. Ah well, I can live with �silent but deadly', I suppose.

Music most definitely plays a background role in Doom 3, which isn't what some people were expecting. This was a great decision on id's part in my opinion, as screeching guitars and heavy drums would've done nothing more than detract from the wonderful feeling of immersion the player enjoys. Occasionally a short piece will kick in � for instance, when you acquire a particularly powerful new weapon, and prepare to kick some ass � but other than this, music is restricted to the title screen.

Where sound effects are concerned, with the exception of a few weak points, Doom 3 raises the bar for all future titles in this genre, or any other genre for that matter. The roars, grunts, and menacing growls of the monsters that you face perfectly match their demonic appearance, and there are plenty of eerie ambient noises that help keep you on edge at all times. The voice acting is also well above par, and it's a good thing it is, seeing as all sorts of little plot details (as well as pass codes and the occasional clue) are revealed via the audio and video clips you download to your PDA.

Unfortunately, one area that is a slight letdown in the aural department is the sound of the guns. The developers seem to have gone for realism over �oomph' here, which is unusual for an id game. In fact, with the exception of the mighty chaingun (which doesn't really slow you down, unlike that in Riddick), the weapons sound decidedly flat, and firing off the shotgun or BFG is nowhere near as impressive as it should be because of this. Not exactly game-breaking stuff, but id have always excelled in this area, and the original DOOM double-barrelled shotgun still sounds good today.

While I'm on the subject of the audio, it's interesting to note that Doom 3 doesn't make use of Creative Labs' EAX technology, which means that those of you with older soundcards can still enjoy the game in all its glory.

Anyway, I feel it's about time I went back to the visual side of things and, as I've mentioned already, this one looks gobsmackingly good, and screenshots really don't do it justice. Most of the game is set in dark, suffocating industrial corridors, where light sources cast fantastically realistic shadows. Each new area looks absolutely unique, thanks to cramped crawl spaces, grates, flickering lights, jets of flame spurting from damaged pipes, and a vast array of foreign mechanical contraptions, complete with lots of throbbing pistons. Oooer.

The graphic design and artistry on display in the earlier portions of the game, magnificent as they are, are absolutely blown away by what you'll see towards the climax of your adventure, with some grotesque, mind-warping, yet truly brilliant artwork in the last few levels (ooh, pulsating growths� yummy). It's the kind of thing that really gets under your skin and stays with you long after you've completed the game, making you feel almost dirty. Which is a good thing in a way, I guess�

Most of the action is set within the confines of the complex, but occasionally you do get the chance to venture outside (don't dawdle, your oxygen is limited), and these portions looks just as good as the indoor areas, with a fine, dusty red mist casting a blanket over your surroundings. The engine handles these sections rather well, although they obviously put more strain on your CPU and graphics card, so I believe it's quite possible that we'll see titles featuring expansive outdoor areas based on the Doom 3 engine in future, which is something I initially had my doubts about.

Of course, it'd be an awful shame if the superb-looking levels were to be let down by unimaginative creature design, but fortunately this isn't the case. Each monster type moves in its own distinctive way, with some crawling or scuttling, some leaping around, and some lumbering ominously towards you. Animation is fluid, and many of the creatures possess deceptive grace and speed that makes them all the more frightening. In particularly dimly-lit areas, you may only be able to make out the evil, gleaming, yellow eyes of your hunter as it stalks you in the dark, and it's touches like this that help make this one a visual masterpiece. Oh, and the fact that a shotgun blast from close range takes off half of an enemy's head � can't forget that.

Before the release of Doom 3, the majority of gamers were stressing about whether or not their systems would be able to run the game, but it turns out that id's baby actually works alright on a lowly Pentium 4 1.5Ghz, GeForce 4 MX 440 configuration, provided you're willing to turn the settings right down, and even then it still looks phenomenally good. This is pretty damn incredible, seeing as many people thought that anything below a GeForce 3 (the GeForce 4 MX is essentially a souped-up GeForce 2) would render the game unplayable. Mad props to Mr Carmack.

Anyway, moving on� By now you're probably wondering about the multiplayer component, so let me put you out of your misery. Unlike other id releases, the emphasis in Doom 3 is on singleplayer rather than multiplayer action, but the game still provides a pretty solid deathmatch experience.

The pace is considerably slower than in Quake 3, and bunny-hopping has been chucked out of the window, leaving this one feeling very similar to Quake 2, which is hardly a bad thing now, is it? In fact, Q2 junkies are already employing many of the tactics they made use of in that game in Doom 3, with a fair degree of success. In short, playing Doom 3 online or over a LAN should make for a nice change in pace from the frantic action of other recent titles, and there are already plenty of positive messages coming out from the modding community (the 4 player limit has already been circumvented, for example), which suggests that this one is here to stay.

Verdict

In many ways, Doom 3 has exceeded my expectations, and the narrative element is certainly a lot more accomplished than I anticipated. Understandably, though, in other ways I'm a bit disappointed.

As I stated earlier on in this review, the game starts off brilliantly and completely immerses you in the action, with lots of very sweet scripted events, but then drifts off course around the 6 � 10 hour mark (depending on how good you are). At this point, combat becomes repetitive, as you're simply swamped by enemies (gnaaaaargh, spiders!), and I really didn't enjoy 3 or so hours of the game because of this. The latter stages of the adventure are even better than the opening few levels, though, and there are some images in here that will really get under your skin and stay with you long after you've completed the game. This is actually a good thing.

The AI isn't incredibly sharp, especially in comparison with that in Far Cry, but it does its job, and zombies and demons aren't exactly meant to be super-intelligent, are they? Experienced gamers should be able to complete the game fairly comfortably on the veteran difficulty level, provided they conserve the heavy stuff for when they really need it.

Even if you play on easy, you should clock in between 15 � 20 hours' total game time (about 12 � 17 hours of gaming bliss, and 3 hours of boredom), so the general ease of progression doesn't stop this from being one of the lengthier first person shooter experiences in recent memory.

Whilst the multiplayer component is supposed to be a bit of a bonus on the side, with id hoping that the modding community will help to expand and improve this side of things, it certainly doesn't feel tacked on or cheap. In fact, in its own right, it delivers a very enjoyable deathmatch experience out of the box, with a slower pace to the action and what seems like slightly more strategic gameplay than in Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament 2004. I've yet to try it with more than four players, and I fear that lag might pose a problem when you exceed this limit, but it's great for small LANs.

With regards to the graphics and audio, I feel that I've already sung this engine's praises enough, but it really does look spectacularly good. I'm not sure if I'd choose id's new tech over the Cry Engine (Far Cry), but they're both phenomenal pieces of work, and I've only seen them put to use in two very different games.

I still wish the weapons sounded a bit more potent, but that's just a minor gripe, and the rest of Doom 3 sounds absolutely fantastic, from the voice acting to the growls and groans of the demons that are after your marine's skinny white ass.

At the end of the day, Doom 3 is a very fine addition to the first person shooter genre, with surprisingly strong narrative elements and some truly tense survival-horror type action, coupled with brilliant visuals and sound. It doesn't really bring anything new to the table, and has some very repetitive sections towards the middle, but overall it's as polished as they come. If you're a first person shooter fan, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up.

Review source: http://www.nmlnetwork.net

Alexander, Bergvliet. 12 August 2004

Yip, its a classic.

After putting in a couple hours of Doom3, I can honestly say that this is one of the best FPS games made, ever.

Oh, it's also extremely scary, has great graphics and awesome sound.

Johan, Naudeville. 11 August 2004

This is absolutely going to rock my world. I remember playing shareware Doom way back in std 4 ( grade 6 ? ). It was the first game I heard with real digitil sound( what an experience ). I'll never forget my first encounter with a Pinky. He was standing around a corner waiting. He did not see me, so guess what I did, I actually leaned ( physically ) over to try and see around the corner. It was scary as hell!! Hehe! My mother used to hate the game and the hours I spent playing it.

Anyway, Doom 3 is an amazing game, its not even that expensive and I'll be able to play it without upgrading!! Yippee!!

Rock on dudes ... you're going to be scared out of your minds!!