Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil Review

Overall, however, none of these game additions make as big of an impact on the gameplay as the Grabber gun. The fact that the excessive use of physics and physics-based combat was practically one of the trademarks of Half-Life 2, does leave the player wondering as to what the hell id was thinking when they decided to 'borrow' this idea from Valve.

What do you think, should we insert the power cell? Do we have any other options in this game?

I offer this artifact to the god of flames - Derek Smart!

On the bright side, the implementation of the Grabber gun did add a lot more fun to the Doom 3 fights. The way it works is that you catch the fireballs that hell's minions throw at you and hurl them back at them for maximum effect. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that the whole thing works like a more elaborate, full 3D version of Pong. The only downside to this is that the physics model in Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil is highly disappointing in the sense that heavy objects feel too light and there is never that same fluidity and feeling that each object has its proper real life weight assigned to it as you might get in Far Cry or Half-Life 2. Another thing is that the environment is not nearly as interactive as it was in Half-Life 2. The thing is it feels like id hastily tried to implement some of the features they saw in Valve's shooter, and so the end result was never to be as good or inherent to gameplay as it is in Half-Life 2.

Another thing is that the human AI in Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil needs a lot of additional work. I mean, I've had possessed marines get stuck on doorframes, and their combat and path finding routines seem primitive at best. From a purely technical standpoint, I've expected much more from the expansion. Sure, it looks beautiful, but looks are not everything.

Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil comes at a retail price of 35 bucks. This is by no means cheap for an expansion pack, and if we factor in that you can easily finish the expansion in one day of active playing, the only redeeming factor that is left for it is the multiplayer mode.

Luckily, the addition of new modes of play, 8-player multiplayer, and jump pads does deliver the type of fun you'd expect from an id game, and we all know that Nerve is very good at designing addicting multiplayer games.

If you're big on id style multiplayer action, the game just *might* be worth the steep price tag, but only if you're a Doom 3 fan to begin with. And I emphasize might.

I guess it all comes down to the matter of choices. Being a jaded bastard that I am, I'd probably give this one a miss, but that is just my horribly skewed opinion. I did get a lot of fun out of it, but I'm not sure I'd spend my money on it, and that's my honest answer. Doom 3 fans should definitely check this one out if they're craving for more Doom gameplay seasoned with whatever id though was neat in Half-Life 2.