DOOM 3 Articles - Life After DOOM

Life After Doom

By: Nick P.

Oh wait, the game has that. I guess that proves my point.

With that, I say we delve into weapons territory.

Let’s face it, the Doom 3 shotgun simply didn’t pack enough ‘oomph.’ Well, actually it did, but you’re getting something more powerful anyway. Yes, I’m talking 12 gauges of double-barrel goodness! Now, why they’re bringing in this gun, which is traditionally a powerful weapon with wide spread, is a mystery to me, because that’s pretty much how its single-barrelled counterpart behaves. I guess enough fans whined about it. A more sniper-like shotgun (like in the very first Doom) would’ve been better, in my honest (and humble) opinion, but I don’t program games for a living and I don’t have a Ferrari in my garage, so who am I to critique. Still, it boggles my mind how powerful this weapon is going to be. The standard Doom 3 shotgun could take down a Hell Knight with as little as three shots, so perhaps this is a bit of a stretch, but it makes no difference. As long as it makes that ‘ka-LUNK’ sound that made the original a classic, I think I’ll be happy.

Then you have the grabber, a brownish thing with a green housing on top that has a HUD on it. What it really is, is your standard gravity gun. Although nothing original, it should be interesting to have a weapon that you can use to play around with Doom 3’s physics. No move word on it, but it’ll probably keep me busy a weekend or two.

Doom 3 was a game that did not rip-off The Matrix, and now Nerve Software want to change that. This is where The Artifact comes in, an alien object (don’t we already have one of those?) that can slow time, makes you invisible, and allows you to deal out more damage. Basically, it’s like the Berserk power-up times ten. No word on how it’s used, but it’ll probably be like an upgraded soulcube, allowing you to use it after killing a number of monsters with your other weapons. It probably could be interesting, if done right.

And lastly, those environment suits you loved so much from the original Doom (OK, maybe not) make a return. If you think they’re not worth the trouble, the flashlight they now come with will make you think twice.

But I’m thinking that one of its main selling points will be the multiplayer aspect. Although nothing that can’t be modded in by the community, it still improves upon the rather bland deathmatch that comes standard with the game. The player limit bar has been bumped up to an amazing 8 (that was irony, by the way) and maps, varying from the Martian ruins to hell, are now bigger. I’m not saying its gonna be bad, but I can tell you from now that critics are going to bitch about ‘bland multiplayer’ for this expansion, too. Unless they make some slightly larger maps, bump up the player limit to 16, and throw in some vehicles, it will remains so (and yes, computers will be able to handle such levels, as long as designers don’t get carried away with map size and use light sources wisely). Things will definitely be spiced up by the ability to mess with time and the new power-ups and weapons being thrown into the potpourri of tools of destruction.

Still Not Convinced?

And of course, there’s the inevitable. Before you rip Doom 3 from your hard drive, consider the number of mods being made. As if you didn’t see this coming: there are a numbers of teams working on remaking original Doom levels for Doom 3. No big surprise there, but should be worth a look. I’d wait a big and see which ones are best received by the community, so then I can download the best one. There are also mods remaking the Doom 2 levels for the game, if that’s your thing. One mod to keep your eyes on is the Doom 3: Hell on Earth mod, which, made by fans, remakes Doom 2 in the way Doom 3 remade Doom 1. This ambitious project promises interesting environments, drivable vehicles, and all the goodies you can think up from the original. So if the expansion is, to put it mildly, a piece of junk, we can still look for promise here. Oh yeah, and you don’t have to chuck away twenty bucks for this one.

Other modifications fill in multiplayer gametypes absent from the vanilla Doom 3 disk. Namely, we’re talking CTF. Capture the Flag is a brilliant gametype, adding spice to the otherwise boring deathmatch. The professionals may have failed to deliver, in some people’s minds, but the fans are sure to add interesting multiplayer aspects to the game to keep the most demanding gamer happy. The internet has already been swamped by fan-made maps (partly because the game editor is fairly easy to use. Oh, and no more compiling lightmaps, thanks to real-time shadowing). The Doom 3 engine offers a lot of flexibility and possibilities that, I felt, were not fully used by id. But the out-of-the-box software that ships with the game is sure to change this.

And then there’s game improvements like packs with improved effects. I would count the numbers of mods that keep demons from burning away, keep zombies from gibbing, and keep bullet marks on walls, but I don’t have enough fingers. So if that pissed you off about the game, it shouldn’t be too hard to find this.

We’re talking physics and rag-doll effects used to their fullest!

And if you were not to limit ourselves to the Doom universe, then you’d find a load of other interesting creations under development. Id announced that they had considered porting Quake 2 to the Doom 3 engine, upping visuals here and there, and releasing it, but decided not to. As you might’ve guessed, fans have started doing that, too: remaking Quake 2 from scratch using the brilliant new id engine. And then, of course, you have the usual map-packs that will start coming out, and the usual Matrix-mod that simulates things like bullet-time, running on walls, etc. (honestly, what game doesn’t have a Matrix-mod for it?). Though perhaps not original, I love playing them and I’ll definitely get the Doom 3 version. Then again, perhaps I shouldn’t be talking, for Doom 3 is currently not installed on my machine. But with modded weapons maps, conversions, updates, and tweaks, I’m definitely digging my Doom 3 case back out for a second run through the demon-spawning, zombie-filled, bullet-strewn, nightmarish battle-torn halls of the Martian facility. And hopefully you will too.

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