Doom III

Profile · Posted 2003-08-12, 11:12 AM

Yes, I know its a long way off. Yes, I know some of this is old news. I dont care, I cant wait for this game to come out. The video links are pretty cool.

Doom III (id Software/Activision)

Doom.

The granddaddy of the first-person shooter genre (no, Castle Wolfenstein doesn't count - Ed.). One of the top PC games of all time. One of the first PC games to enter the mainstream. It was famous, infamous, violent as hell, and always controversial. It was the anti-Mario in an era when cute Italian plumbers and furry hedgehogs ruled living rooms across the world. It made millionaires of John Carmack and John Romero, and spun off countless imitators in the first-person shooter genre, ranging from sheer brilliance (Half-Life) to utter garbage (Armorines).

While the game didn't take itself seriously (Doom II's manual has an introductory paragraph that refers to victory in the first game being won by "killing, killing, and killing"), politicians around the world did. Doom and its clones were banned in several countries. Canada produced a documentary entitled First Person Shooter, trying to understand exactly how id's masterpiece had changed the gaming world. Senator Joseph Lieberman and Lt. Col. David Grossman, a former army psychologist, swore the game off as everything from the latest incarnation of Satan to the reason behind the Columbine shootings.

Regardless of how you look at it, Doom had a major impact on the gaming world. With sales of well over a million copies, not to mention thousands more illegally pirated, Doom has broken into the mainstream. There are rumors of a movie flying, and even Chandler Bing on Friends admitted that he bought a new laptop to play it on the go.

The sequel to Doom did even better than the first, with exponentially greater sales. But since its release in 1994, much has changed in the gaming world, especially in the first-person shooter genre. Halo, Half-Life, Counter Strike, Dark Forces, Max Payne, and Red Faction have all added something to the genre: Mind-blowing graphics, scripted events, incredible AI, a Star Wars license, Bullet Time, and Geo-Mod technology. When Doom ran amuck with gamers' wallets, it used pixels instead of polygons, had mushy sounds instead of samples, and didn't let players jump or shoot on the Y-axis. Using a mouse to aim on both the X and Y axis wasn't incorporated into Doom II, either.

id Software revealed Doom III in a playable form over a year ago, which was displayed as either a pre-taped intro to the game or an in-engine demonstration. While the entire video demonstration remains unavailable to the public, below you can find a video with a lot of in-game scenes from the game. There's no mistaking that id's big bad voodoo daddy is out to crush all that have come before it. But will it be able to live up to its own hype? We take a look below.

The plot isn't a complicated one. Scientific experiments on Mars lead to very, very bad things, by which we mean demons from Hell running amok and either killing or transforming into the undead every living thing at the ol' lab, with the exception of one lone, tough-as-nails marine. Which is you. Survive by killing, killing, and killing. Enough said.

Actually, that's not entirely fair. Learning from their mistakes in their previous titles, id is hoping to deliver a little more narrative and a little less nailgun. In the latest demonstration we saw, non-player characters talked to one another and the player is able to use computer panels to access information. Whether this makes it into the final game remains to be seen, but based on the visuals so far, in-game cinematics seem to be making their first appearance in an id Software game. Of course, we fully expect the plot to take a backseat to the action, but it's nice to see that we won't have another arena-style combat game in this id sequel.

Regarding the much-lauded graphics, let's face it: Only Half Life 2's visuals can match what id is putting out. Doom III makes Halo look like it was rendered on a dot-matrix printer. The visuals are mind-boggling. Everything looks like it has come straight from a CGI flick like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, instead of from a videogame. Characters cast shadows on walls, floors, and even themselves. Spinning fans in front of lamps give the title a sense of depth that has never been seen before. Titles like Resident Evil birthed the notion of creating a "horror game" with the use of mood lighting, creepy music and grotesque monsters, but it was always limited (some would say held back) by a fixed camera point of view. Doom III plans to change all of that. Think other first-person shooters have scared you in the past? Think again. Imagine running down a corridor, being chased by zombies, only to turn a corner and see a pack of Hellhounds staring you in the face, dripping saliva. Or not learning of a giant monster by hearing him approach, but by seeing his shadow on the wall looming larger and larger as he shambles toward you. Or a shadow that's being cut by a spinning fan. With the power of the technology under the hood of Doom III, the developers at id have only their own imaginations to limit them.

Trent Reznor, the lead singer for the band Nine Inch Nails, was brought in by id to create the soundtrack for Quake. Fans of the game's score and the title's, "Oh my god, it's right behind me" sound effects probably already know that Reznor has been asked to work on Doom III. As Reznor himself puts it, "We want [the world of Doom III] to sound like an unpleasant place to be." The game will feature Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound, so while you're at the store upgrading your computer, you might want to buy a new set of speakers.

While running around and giving demons a faceful of chainsaw sufficed for gleeful fun in 1993, a lot has changed in the decade between Doom and the expected release date of Doom III. As id software CEO Todd Hollenshead puts it, "Doom III is about fear instead of action." Gone are the days when players will simply hose down a room full of enemies, move to a narrow corridor, and repeat until total annihilation has been achieved. Doom III is more along the lines of a horror movie that's taking place on your PC, with you as the hapless hero. In other words, expect anyone watching to shout, "Don't go in there!" for ninety percent of the game.

To better facilitate the feeling of terror - and to let players get truly freaked out by the monsters id has created - Doom III's gameplay will be noticeably slower than that of the two previous titles. Instead of being able to blast through a room just looking for the door, players will find each battle intimate and interactive. You will have time to see blood dripping from fangs of imps, or cybernetic attachments coming from Spider Masterminds while backpedaling for all you're worth. It's basically what Carmack and Romero had in mind when they created the first title, only without the limited PC technology that existed at the time.

While no official announcements have been made, it's safe to assume that hallmarks of the series like medkits, armor, and an arsenal the size of Kansas will return (Yes, there will be a BFG - Ed.). And what's most impressive is how your equipment interacts with the environment, due to an equally impressive physics engine. Allow us to describe it in this scene: A large, bloated zombie comes lumbering down a flight of stairs towards our character. Not only did several shots to the head leave him lifeless, but he also came realistically tumbling down the stairs, landing in a crumpled heap at the bottom. Other neat effects include shooting boxes off shelves, seeing them bounce on the ground, and slowly teeter to a stop. Or what resonates in our mind the most, spraying bullets across a room and watching as each projectile affected the environment in some way, shape or form (pipes burst and spray steam and a cover falls off an electrical station).

The single-player game is going to be the cornerstone of Doom III, and it looks like gamers will get their first taste of mutliplayer at this month's QuakeCon, so there should be nothing to keep the slobbing FPSers at bay. However, a lot of the game itself is still unknown, but from what we can tell already, Doom's back. So tell your wives and girlfriends to be afraid. Be very afraid, because we're thinking that by the middle of next year, you won't be seeing much of them.

Video: Watch in-game scenes from Doom III

High http://www.ugo.com/channels/games/vi...videoWidth=640

Low http://www.ugo.com/channels/games/vi...videoWidth=320