Video games
Doom 3
Xbox, PC
Did I hear something? I pause a second and scan the area with my flashlight. The ray of light cuts into the darkness, showing me what the room looks like. Blood covers the walls and I can see several bodies littering the floor. Out of the corner of my eye I see a box of shells for my shotgun sitting by several rounds for my pistol. I put the flashlight away, surrounding myself in total darkness, to load my shotgun. Then I hear the burning sound of a demon straight from Hell. I turn to find the only source of light radiating from the demon itself as it throws fireballs from its claws. I fire at the demon. It screams as my shoot hits the mark. I'm in complete darkness. Should I run? Should I pull out my flashlight and hope I can find the demon
before its claws find me? I shoot randomly in the direction where I last saw it. The flash from the barrel of my gun illuminates the darkness for a millisecond and I see the demon right in front of my face lunging at me. I luck out: My random shot hit it in the face. I hear footsteps. I turn my flashlight back on and from across the room I can see two more imp-demons. Now it's time to run.
Doom 3 is that good. For those console gamers who have been waiting for its release on the Xbox, you won't be disappointed. All the nerve wracking, alone in-the-dark moments have been flawlessly transferred.
Along with this port of the singleplayer game comes a new multiplayer option. You can use system link or Xbox Live in a straight death-match or a cooperative mode.
The only disappointment comes from the co-op. You can't use headsets, so trying to figure out what your partner is doing is like having a conversation with your computer.
Luckily for me, I rented two copies and played with a friend over LAN. After five
Luckily for me, I finished two couple played with a friend over LAN. After minutes of frustration, a primitive signal system of banging flashlights on the ground became a form of communication. It worked for a while until we figured out that dying comes with no consequences except you get all your life back and you leave most of your weapons where you died. Then the game became a run-and-gun race to finish the level.
Even with these flaws, I've never been so freaked out while playing a video game. I've never enjoyed
fighting demons so much and I couldn't ask for a better single-player experience. The multiplayer may be flawed, but the single-player is worth the A+ on its own.
Grade: A+
—Dan Hoyt
All images courtesy games.yahoo.com