DOOM 3 Review #1
| Posted by Assassin on 04-Aug-2004 10:45 |
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It would be hard to imagine how present day games, especially the First Person Shooter genre, would have been like if it weren't for Doom. Released in 1993, a year after Wolfenstein 3D, Doom was critically acclaimed for its excellent graphics, the blood filled single-player and the incredible horror feel. But the extreme violence of the game caused it to be banned in some countries. Nevertheless, together with the sequel Hell On Earth, released in 1994, Doom assured id Software a place in the history of game developing. They later were to confirm their status by bringing Quake into the gaming world, the first game that showed the usefulness of a LAN card in a 486. Seven years later, at QuakeCon 2001, id Software announced Doom 3, which is later declared Game of the Show during E3 2002. But the years still passed, and after countless screenshots, trailers and an illegal alpha version, id has finally released the most anticipated game of the year.
"Doom 3 will forever change gamer's perception of PC games [...] Prepare to be frightened once again". These were the comments of CEO Todd Hollenshead regarding Doom 3, back in 2002. I'm glad to say that the singleplayer atmosphere is the main selling point for Doom 3. Nevertheless, during the game's 26 levels, I was scared on plenty of occasions, up to the point were I would jump of my seat and curse the monster that just startled me. The effect is guaranteed if you play late at night, using a headset and with all the lights turned off.
One of the main reasons for the atmosphere being so good is the Doom 3 engine, which was greatly advertised by the developers. As we all have come to expect from id game engines, Doom 3 also takes it's toll on PC resources, with only the latest gaming rigs being able to run it at 1600x1200, with high details and anisotropic filtering and antialiasing activated. And although id declared that only a 512Ram video card can handle Ultra High Quality, that doesn't necessarily mean that the game looks bad on medium or high quality. Although I read the [H]ardOCP [H]ardware Guide that came out last week, I was pleasantly surprised to see the game running with 16 to 40 fps on my XP 2200+, GF4 Ti 4200 with 128 VRAM and 512 MB RAM, on medium quality, with no AA or anisotropic filtering. But I was only able to do so after I stopped all unnecessary services and made some tweaks to my Windows XP.
"Doom 3 will forever change gamer's perception of PC games [...] Prepare to be frightened once again". These were the comments of CEO Todd Hollenshead regarding Doom 3, back in 2002. I'm glad to say that the singleplayer atmosphere is the main selling point for Doom 3. Nevertheless, during the game's 26 levels, I was scared on plenty of occasions, up to the point were I would jump of my seat and curse the monster that just startled me. The effect is guaranteed if you play late at night, using a headset and with all the lights turned off.
One of the main reasons for the atmosphere being so good is the Doom 3 engine, which was greatly advertised by the developers. As we all have come to expect from id game engines, Doom 3 also takes it's toll on PC resources, with only the latest gaming rigs being able to run it at 1600x1200, with high details and anisotropic filtering and antialiasing activated. And although id declared that only a 512Ram video card can handle Ultra High Quality, that doesn't necessarily mean that the game looks bad on medium or high quality. Although I read the [H]ardOCP [H]ardware Guide that came out last week, I was pleasantly surprised to see the game running with 16 to 40 fps on my XP 2200+, GF4 Ti 4200 with 128 VRAM and 512 MB RAM, on medium quality, with no AA or anisotropic filtering. But I was only able to do so after I stopped all unnecessary services and made some tweaks to my Windows XP.
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