Review - Doom, a game so influential that it basically created one of the most popular genre first on PC and now even on console.

The principle was simple: endless corridors, horrible mutants, and you, a space marine armed with a shotgun, a chainsaw or whatever else. The result of that? Millions of PCs across the world with their hard drives infected by the Doom Mania. To this day, Doom is still regarded as an all-time classic so with this in mind I decided to give a go at Doom3 and its expansion pack. What to say? Doom 3 takes the Doom franchise in new, uncharted waters as it's not so much about you against a million monsters but rather you against the dark.

Corridors are as claustrophobic as ever and the lighting is poor. So very damn poor that even brain-dead zombies will make you literally jump out of your chair. An ugly, slow, fat and idiotic enemy suddenly becomes the scariest monster you ever fought against. Because you can't see him, because you see him only when you shoot, because you have to toggle between your flashlight and your weapon to locate him. Humakind has colonized Mars and weapons with mounted lights on them are still not available? Yes they aren't and you know what, I'm glad they aren't because otherwise this game could have never had that same terrifying atmosphere!

About the rest of the game, the graphics are excellent, everything is basically in-door so locations look great but tend to repeat themselves a lot. Outdoor areas are few and far-between and it's not like when you go out, you go camping because the atmosphere in Mars is unbreathable and all around, you'll just see an extremely hostile rocky barren wasteland. A desolate place indeed, in which you'll constantly hear the sound the howling wind, a razor-sharp wind that stings and your only companion will be the sound of your breath coming out of your spacesuit. Better get quickly inside!!

So if you can bare the claustrophobic environment and the levels which tend to look samey, Doom3 is one of the best experiences you can get out of your PC. Rarely has a game stressed me so much as this one and never stress has felt so good :) In the end, this is a game everybody should try at least once. This is what PCs excel at doing, so grab a copy of it, your mouse and your keyboard and sink deep down into Doom's gloomy universe. It will make you wish you never installed it in your hard drive but would you really back out from a harmless ride into hell if you knew you could always get back into the warmth of you bedroom just by pressing ESC?!?

About the Doom3 Resurrection of Evil expansion pack, it is a worthy addition to the core game as it feature tons of cooler-looking and definitely brighter levels with more variety, and a few new weapons which even influence gameplay (like some sort of gravity gun which allows you to grab enemy fire and…fire it back at the source, or some other pulsating heart-thing that allows you to slow down time for easy carnage). This expansion is of course aimed at the people who enjoyed the original game (and it requires it to run) so there's plenty of Doom3 action to get out from this package!

To conclude, Doom3 isn't as genre defining as its prequel but it provides a very solid playing experience.

Bottom line: dark, violent, scary and fun! 8/10