Doomed

No, this is not a post about the lastest in a string of Premiership disappointments for Liverpool, but rather about Doom3.

Over the weekend I completed the Doom3 demo – I’ve had the demo for a while, but my overly darkened monitor (now replaced) and the fan-related problems with my box conspired against me. But now, with a new gfx card to boot, I was ready to rock.

You may remember me saying that Return to Castle Wolfenstein was my favourite FPS of all time. So I was particularly interested to see how Doom3 would fare, in particular because one of my bugbears about RtCW was the zombies, and Doom3 is, well, chocked full of the beasties.

I managed to get the full game cheap on ebay the other day, and it should arrive this week, so I’ll reserve some judgement for when I play (and hopefully complete) that, but for now, here are some first impressions from the demo level.

It feels a lot like a cross between Half-Life and RtCW in gameplay – the plot is similar to HalfLife, but it’s been kept pretty linear in terms of getting through the levels. There were one or two little puzzles and bonuses hidden about too, just to keep things interesting. Being able to talk to characters, and the slightly more interactive feel gave it a Half-Life aura too. As I’ve said before – I _like_ something to be relatively linear. It gives me a feeling that I’m actually getting somewhere, something that I really struggled with in HL.

The graphics and sound are excellent – extremely atmospheric, making it very scary in places. I expect that to get worse in later levels. Let’s hope my heart can cope with the pressure….. Did I mention that it looks fantastic especially with all the textures turned up on my new kit

The weapons on the demo are fairly standard – a wimpy pistol that’s not up to much, and where headshots are the order of the day, a shotgun that kicks ass, and a machine gun that has annoyingly small clips, but useful at times (usually just _after_ you pick up the weapon ). Getting shot is a trial too – lots of movement particularly when being hit by a machine gun makes it hard to aim. But that’s a good thing.

A lot has been said about the use of darkness in the game. Generally, I think it’s been done very well. Using the flashlight is great, although frustrating. I personally think that you should be able to hold a flashlight and your pistol (but none of the two-handed weapons), rather than just the flashlight. (Hark at me! flashlight by which I mean “torch” )

As I mentioned in my earlier writings, I like the use of the PDA. It’s a great way of holding information, but also progressing the story, and providing some backfill to the plot.

So – what of the downsides. Well, there are a couple that I can think of at this point. Firstly, you do get used to the signs that a baddie is just round the corner – lights flickering off, and things like that. You do, however, get scared by an extra one every now and then. Probably the most frustrating thing for me came from a combination of 2 things: good textures and no “use” key.

There are a lot of textures in the game, but it’s not always obvious what is interactive and what isn’t. I kept trying to open panels, and shoot ventilation grills. Worse still, I am used to use the ‘Use’ key from other games (normally F for me) to open panels, which brings out my flashlight – that could get old quickly

More on this once the real thing arrives.

mrBen