Doom 3 Review (Phill)
Here is my review for DOOM 3:
Doom 3 is a very atmospheric game. There's gore, blood, and viscera all over the place. Most of the game is incredibly dark. So it is difficult to actually see what you should be aiming at. You got to flip back and forth between a weapon and a flashlight. More so, the game loves to spawn enemies behind you or directly in front when you open a door. It does feel pretty cheap. But at least the game provides you with plenty of ammo and health. The weaponry is where the game shines. You get all the weapons Doom is known for: your Chainsaw, your Plasma Rifle, your Chaingun, and of course the BFG! For the first time in the series Doom 3 introduces vertical aiming! So you have to track your enemies as they fly through the air. Making the Lost Souls, Cherubs, and Cacodemons much more of a threat than before. There's also some outside "no air" sections. But those are pretty forgettable as you just run through them to the next door within 60 seconds.
Story wise, this is a fleshed out reboot of the original Doom. You're Doomguy who goes to the Mars research base. They are researching teleportation technology and have inadvertently teleported to a place that no human should venture. Shit hits the fan immediately upon arrival. The power goes out, screams and torment are heard, and things start exploding. You grab a gun and your armor and set to work. This time you're guided by your sergeant through the Mars base. You got to get to the power station to start up the power, then send out a distress message to the human fleet, then investigate and stop the Hell invasion of Mars. Each area is heavily guarded by demons. So you do what you do best, and mow them down. Each area provides a new enemy and new weapons, each more powerful than the last. Eventually you find your way to the chief scientist's lab... alas! It is a trap and he sends you to hell. Doomguy fights his way out of Hell and back to Mars. When you return you find they have created a gigantic portal under the surface of Mars to invade Earth. Doomguy has to stop this. He ventures down into the substrate to rip and tear his way to the portal. It is guarded by the biggest demon you've seen, the dreaded Cyberdemon! This demon is huge and wields rocket launchers. But Doomguy has something to stop him... your trusty Chainsaw Cube! Sure it's an ancient demon killing artifact deemed the Soul Cube... but it's a flying chainsaw cube! The portal is sealed and backup arrives. Doomguy is the only survivor.
Overall, it's a fine shooter; yet, pretty basic by today's standards. Unfortunately, it doesn't contain the same nostalgia factor of Doom 1 or Doom 2. I personally prefer the game that ripped this off... Dead Space 😄
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Here is my review for DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil:
This is a DLC continuation of Doom 3. Hell is once again breaking through to Mars and it's up to Doomguy to stop it. That's pretty much the entire plot. You find a heartifact (an ancient artifact shaped like a heart) and you have to return it to Hell. This is a much more straight forward run and gun when compared to the base Doom 3 game. It's not focused on tension or atmosphere, you're all about the ripping and the tearing. Surprisingly, it's all new areas and objectives, very little is recycled from the base game.
Gameplay is exactly the same as Doom 3; with a few new things. It adds the heartifact, which grants you the ability to slow down time. As you defeat bosses the heartifact powers up, granting invincibility and beserk(one hit kill punches). You get the super shotgun (renamed to double barrel shotgun) and the gravity gun from Half-Life 2. I consider the gravity gun overpowered so much more in this than in Half-Life. The intention of the gun was to catch enemy fireballs and chuck them back. However, every object is indestructible, so you can pick up your favorite steel barrel, launch it at the enemy, pick it up and repeat. These barrels also block enemy attacks. So there's very little threat unless you're surrounded.
Overall, it's a fine romp if you need more Doom 3 action. I never seen the Doom movie, but now I wonder if this is the baseline of that film.