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though, is a completely different matter. Doom 3 is pretty much the same basic story as the original Doom (which I've never played), although told with the tools available today. While the storyline is only part of the game, the gameplay is perhaps the most important element. I think the game suffers from two major flaws. The first, and most obvious flaw, is the fact you can see practically nothing. You wander around with your torch, trying to find out where to go next. When enemies do appear, you have to switch to your weapon and hope that the ambient light from the scenery or your weapons fire will be enough to be able to track your enemies. The amount of times I died purely because I couldn't see the enemy, are too many to mention and the cause of much frustration.

The second flaw is that the gameplay resembles that of Doom and Doom 2 rather than those FPS games of today. So, in Doom 3 you can expect a fairly linear path through the game, monsters and enemies who spawn all around you, even in rooms which you have just cleared, a lack of logic where monsters apparently spend hours waiting in cramped areas behind walls for you to walk past so they can jump out at you and good old trigger points where nothing will happen until you activate the trigger by "walking" through a certain point or picking up a certain item. The game basically involves shooting anything that moves with little or no variation that you might expect from a modern game such as outdoor levels, driving vehicles, stealth missions etc. There are the odd distractions, but these are so few and so short that they really make no difference to the overall gameplay.

The atmosphere though, is astounding. The use of lighting, while not being terribly good for gameplay, does add huge amounts to the atmosphere especially with the incredibly effective torch effect. The sense of walking around a previously vibrant community where something has gone seriously wrong is always very evident. The introduction where you get to see the research station before THE INCIDENT helps with the sense of doom (no pun intended) and the gimmick of finding people's PDAs, complete with audio logs, emails, security codes providing clues for extra ammo etc. is also a big plus point. When I first started playing Doom 3, I was only able to play it in short bursts such was the fear factor/tension involved. Having monsters suddenly jump out at you with a shriek is not good for the heart. This is definitely not a game for kids!

The overall game itself reminded me of a cross between Half-Life and another old game called System Shock 2. Both games were FPSs and had bags of atmosphere and a decent bit of plot, too. The problem is that Doom 3 doesn't appear to be significantly better than these games except in terms of graphics and sound, despite these other games being the best part of six years old.

I've dipped my toes into Doom 3 multiplayer once, but it wasn't anything outstanding. It's just typical multiplayer FPS gaming with nothing really out of the ordinary.

Doom 3 succeeds on many levels ? graphics, sound and atmosphere mainly, but fails in perhaps the most important area of all ? gameplay. Essentially, it's a game designed by nerds for nerds; the attention to detail is amazing and contributes to the atmosphere, but atmosphere alone does not make a good game. If you like your games to be a bit 'retro', then you might find Doom 3 to your taste, but it wasn't my cup of tea at all. Where I can see Doom 3 succeeding is when third party developers get their hands on the game engine and manage to create something a bit more up to date.

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