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The original Doom was not the first 3D shooter to hit the market, but its astonishing graphics and game play
quickly captivated gamers.
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ID Software Doom3 |
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Fear and loathing pt. 2 - the sound
The sound effects in Doom 3
might not be as revolutionary as the graphics, but they do more for the overall
experience of the game. The majority of the game is played out in dark,
claustrophobic metal corridors lined with pipes and odd machinery, and the
ambient sound truly brings the environment to life.
Machines grind, thump and whirr
everywhere, adding to the sense of panic as you strain to distinguish the
footsteps of approaching zombies. The majority of the game has a kind of
boiler-room ambience, loud, dark and heavy. The feeling of being in an
environment where machines are more important than their human operators really
comes through. Once things go pear-shaped and the base comes under attack, the
sound effects get even more involving and distracting. Howls, distant screams
and gunfire, random clangs like something is rhythmically banging on the pipes
above… They all serve to keep your nerves constantly on edge.
The almost complete lack of
music in the game seems like a sensible choice, as it would mostly seem out of
place. The title screen music is appropriately heavy and metallic though. Spot
music is used to accentuate certain dramatic situations, as is the sound of your
heart pounding in your ears after a particularly intense firefight.
The creatures themselves have
some fearsome and appropriate sound effects. Zombies groan and shuffle in a
convincingly zombie-like way, and the more mutated abominations you face have
their own particular blood-freezing howls and shrieks. 5.1 surround sound
becomes essential as you strive to determine which direction that menacing growl
just came from.
Issues and problems
Though we enjoyed our
experience with Doom 3 immensely, there were a few things that brought us down
to earth slightly.
Many of the creatures are
capable of scuttling across walls and ceilings Alien style, and bursting through
doors, floors and stares to startle you. This is used to great effect at many
points during the game. Unfortunately, all these behaviours seem to be specially
coded in rather than part of the creature's own bag of tricks. Once you start
exchanging fire with the nasties they resort to a fairly typical pattern of
shooting, dodging and charging which becomes easy to deal with after a few
encounters. Given that the engine is clearly capable of it, it would have been
nice to see the monsters take more advantage of their environment.
In the same vein, the game goes
to great pains to set up sequences that will get your adrenaline going. You will
be wandering through a room and the lights will suddenly dim to red, evil
laughter echoes in your ears and a door drops open in front of you to reveal a
horrible nasty screaming and roaring before it charges... Then you whip out your
plasma gun and drop it in a couple of seconds. Somewhat of an anticlimax.
It seems to me that Id went to
a lot of trouble to make you jump, without creating many enemies that are truly
fearsome. While there are 'special' monsters in the game that are tougher, it
would have made for an even better game experience if the demonic monsters were
rarer to come across and much, much harder to kill.
The environment could also be
more interactive. It's very pretty, as we mentioned, but rather static. Yes
there is a physics engine at work, and occasional boxes and objects will tumble
out of your way and react to gunfire, but on the whole your surroundings don't
react to the all out warfare taking place. Most objects and terrain do not react
or deform from gunfire. We couldn't help wishing for a level of interaction more
like that seen in Max Payne 2, with debris and bullet holes graphically and
satisfyingly illustrating the results of a big fight.
Your marine's jumping ability
is feeble, an annoying little hop that makes the few jumps you need to
accomplish in the game more trying than they should be. Makes sense, since the
original Doom marine never left the ground.
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