Any gamer, at least those who play FPS games, should be familiar with Doom. It seems reasonable that after ID returned to Wolfenstein, Carmack's first title, for Return to Castle Wolfenstein that they would also go back to Mars for Doom. While PC gamers have been able to pick the game up for a while now, Xbox finally gets a nice taste of hell.

I Hear Dead People
The first thing that you will notice when you put Doom 3 on is the sound. I was about to put graphics but the sound on the start/main menu actually start setting the tone for the game. My subwoofer was getting a work out with the bass and you can hear some creepy sounds already. Getting into the actual game, the sound is terrific. Horror games need to be like horror movies and put emphasis on sound, and that is what Doom 3 accomplishes. The game just has lots of sounds and voices. Considering this isn't a survival horror game, we don't hear silence through all of the corridors and have creepy sounds suddenly come out from your speakers (like in Obscure). That's not to say that it doesn't happen, as they do that to add to the tension and make you get paranoid that some demons are going to appear in front of you. Voice overs are also well acted and came out nicely to complement the rest of the audio.

Hell is just a word...
Going along with the great sound, it's impossible to not notice the wonderfully creepy, gory graphics that Doom 3 has going for it. While not everything is equally good looking in Doom 3, this is one of the best looking console games. Since the game is so different graphically from the original, I found myself thinking about the movie Event Horizon rather than Doom. You really do need to play the game yourself and see how nice the game looks. But as I mentioned, there are some things lacking in the visuals. There are some flat textures found in the game and some things that aren't up to par with the top-notch graphics in the game, but these are overlookable. One thing that I would have liked to have seen is some more environmental destructibility. Shooting at a computer screen or vending machine will leave bullet holes like it was a wall.

Flashlight Problem Rant
One of my biggest gripes with Doom 3 is with the flashlight. To make the game tense and scary, the use of lighting is used effectively...with one problem. It appears that they tried to take things up a notch by forcing you to switch between flashlight and weapon. To begin with, it doesn't seem reasonable. They should either have a helmet that has a light on it (or even the shoulders of their armor) or have a light on their guns. Apparently tape is non-existent on Mars or in the future. I can easily look past the reasonability part, but the annoyance part is harder to. I totally understand why they wouldn't put the lighting on their helmet/armor because they wanted to the small light source that must be directed by the player to add tension. Having to switch between the flashlight and gun, however, just adds annoyance. When in a really dark place, you switch to your gun and hope the demon is still in front of you when you shoot. Then you may need to switch back to flashlight and make sure the demon is dead. The aiming reticule doesn't light up or change when it is on an enemy but rather when you fire at the enemy. That doesn't seem to make sense to me and does not help the flashlight problem. After all, attaching the flashlight to the gun would still require you to move your light to all parts of the dark areas to check for monsters.

Head-to-Head or Side-to-Side
While the single player campaign is a great run through, Doom 3 also features nice multiplayer action. You are able to go on Live and play team deathmatch, deathmatch, last man standing, tournament or Co-Op. Deathmatches only allow 4 people and is not available offline (with the exception of system link), but is definitely a great addition to the game. Co-op is limited to 2 players online and has some minor changes but is still nice for those that have been waiting for this feature.

Overview
Doom 3 looks and sounds amazing and even plays really well. The game does have some minor problems and annoyances, but for the most part is enjoyable. While playing the game for the first time, I found myself a little disappointed but later found myself hooked. Maybe it was because I've been waiting for the game for so long. I do know that in the end, I was enjoying the game. Doom 3 makes a great addition to an FPS fans collection.

SCORE: 9.2/10