DOOM is one of the founding game series in the first person shooter genre, helping to establish networking multiplayer and popularising the genre to its current level. Does this latest release of the 2004 game DOOM 3 set the same standards?
DOOM 3 was a reboot of the series and not relevant to any previous storylines in past games, and takes place on Mars in the year 2145. Humans have expanded to space and global organisation UAC (the Union Aerospace Corporation) seem to have monopolised the military (Including weapon development), energy research and even biomedical advancement. For this reason they are the primary presence on Mars for the human race at Mars City leading onto the UAC Base. This is where you come in. You arrive on a transport vessel from earth as a replacement marine about to join up with the troops here at Mars City. A high up UAC board member and his well informed bodyguard are also seen leaving the vessel discussing problem with leadership at the base.
During the initial tasks, you take a small walk around the area getting used to the controls and getting introduced to the communication system here on Mars. The PDA device, which gives you access to emails, videos and other people’s personal data found throughout the course of the game. These act as an aide to the story and help you with finding locations for weapon caches. Not too long after you arrive you are sent to investigate an old communications relay things start going a bit crazy. The game almost instantly changes into a survival horror feel, where you have to use your fight or flight initiative to battle through the hordes of beasts and demons that have infested Mars City. Coupled together with a progressive story your aim is to meet up with Bravo Team and kick ass to secure the base. DOOM 3 was released with some amazing graphics for its time (using the id tech 4 engine), something that myself and others felt that it was way ahead of its time. Here we are a whole eight years later and they have taken a stab at giving it a re-skin and brush up with a bunch of new features in the all new BFG Edition. But what does the BFG edition give you?
DOOM 3:
The original hit that took this series to new heights has been revamped and thrown at us again. The game comes with 3D support now to give the game a more immersive feel. I managed to play on a Demo of DOOM 3 at Euro Gamer 2012 in London and a lot of players didn’t really take to the 3D element stating that either “it was too intensive on the eyes” or “It didn’t add much to the game play”. I myself found it a fun option but something that game doesn’t need and for this reason have played it through since without 3D support on.
The game has indeed been bumped up visually; however, only slightly. The most notable changes are to do with lighting and colours, with details added to skin that weren’t present before due to the resolution of the game. The most notable character change was Sergeant Kelly, who has had a re-colour on his armour and hair. I imagine this is down to him looking familiar to Jack Campbell the counsellor’s bodyguard who is seen a lot through the game as well. The best visual feature to this game that deserves a mention is the addition of a motion blur. When you swerve in real life things become very slightly blurred or obscured, somehow the people at ‘id’ have managed to perfect this technique so when you’re playing it really gives you an honest feel somewhat when moving about. I would like to point out that I didn’t find this an irritating feature in the slightest, I felt as if it brought the game out more and kept me immersed for longer. Last but not least the game gives support for up to 120 frames per second on PC. That’s right, one hundred and twenty. Try getting a smoother, faster reaction then that! Oh and now it features trophies and achievements for all you hoarders out there (This certainly got me excited).
DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil:
This expansion to DOOM 3 has also been included with the same visual bump ups (Resolution/3D Support/Motion Blur etc). It is included on all versions at no extra cost and also has its own set of achievements as well. What more can you ask for? As it happens I have never thought the expansion was really up to par with the original. It felt drawn out and a little dull. It does give you some more enemies and a nice double barrelled shotgun, and more references to the original games than you can shake a stick at. It is just a mediocre expansion all in all but it does give you a slightly deeper view to how the events in DOOM 3 came to light, so it works really well for the narrative.
DOOM 3: The Lost Mission:
Now this was a surprise. A previously unreleased expansion you say? Why yes. They have thrown this in as well and it is built for hardcore gamers. This expansion was hard and gives you two to three hours of gameplay in the DOOM 3 universe. You follow one of the Bravo Team members around six hours after the invasion, straight through the backdrops of Mars City and into hell. One thing to note it does re-use a lot of scenery and enemies from DOOM 3, so it may feel a bit repetitive if you have just gone through the main story. It has thrown us a new boss *Minor Spoiler Alert* but alas that was one of the easier parts of the expansion.
I thoroughly enjoyed this expansion; it gave an even better background to the universe than the original expansion (RoE). I liked how difficult it was and I enjoyed the fact that you saw things from one of the Bravo Team member’s eyes. I feel like it wasn’t too long and it kept me on the edge of my seat leaping from one place to another with a bunch of bad guys who have been altered to look even more fierce and creepy. Again it comes with achievements! Very good.
Ultimate DOOM & DOOM II:
Last but not least they have given you the first two games in all their splendour. One thing that has to be said is that sadly PC players or any players – cheats have been cut. No IDDQD, no IDKFA, no god mode. This is you and the game, nothing else. But this might be because it comes with even more achievements. Xbox 360 players may already be used to this as these seem to be the ports directly from the Xbox Live Arcade, either way they feature multiplayer so maybe it is time to go back to the origins and use our BFGs?
If you haven’t played the originals I would say they are worth a shot, although dated graphically they are both still a lot of fun. Giving you challenges and puzzles with a nice long gameplay why wouldn’t you want to blast pixels all the way to the end of hell? Hmm?
Is the package worth it all together though? I would say yes in short. DOOM 3 is a brilliant shooter that has a good horror feel and keeps all the true elements to an action first person shooter. With this new bump up and all the extras that are included I would say you get much more than you pay for. With DOOM 4 on the horizon this could be your last chance to have a go with the horror feel in the series as game producers hinting that the next game will be more like the originals and much less horror based. Even if you have the original DOOM 3, I feel like I enjoyed the Lost Missions enough to constitute this purchase and the added achievement support to everything was very tempting. It’s not perfect but it is a very good collection.