The first thing that happens to a fan of the Doom saga when this game is played is that they keep addicted and there is actually nothing else to comment. The player is hooked to the game until this ends (erm, the basics as eating, sleeping, work and friends are respected, but all the free time which one has is dedicated to this marvel).

I developed a sceptic feeling about the games which belong to this generation of consoles -XBox, PS2, Gamecube- because already since PS1 and Saturn I observed that there were too many remakes of old games in those new consoles. This gave a big amount of sales to the companies that almost did not innovate and which were successful with the same ideas that made them be famous years before. The list of redundant sagas could be endless to name. There was a particular saturation of superfluous racing and fighting games in the 32 bits, and also of 3D adventures like Tomb Raider in systems as Xbox, Playstation 2 or Gamecube. The last one was contagied by Sony as regards this marketing tactic and it did not show such an useful way to make less but great cartridges like the ones available for Nintendo 64. Users enjoyed this system in the system of 64 bits but sales talked later about the failure of Nintendo. And I will not mention systems like Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS as they can not be equally compared to the rest. They released only the good games which were previously successful in the big consoles.

I already knew the good levels of Doom 1 and 2, so I started to play Doom 3. I checked soon that it was not a simple conversion or continuation of the saga with a beautiful name. As soon as I picked up the pad I observed a quick reply to my movements like the old Doom games. Nothing similar to the slowness present in Resident evil; however this game also frightens you every step you take.

The plot takes place in a Martian base pervaded by darkness, this motivates some repetition of scenarios at the beginning. But it is not the fear of the darkness what makes us turn pale. It is a good mixture of level design, an adjusted level of difficulty and a gradual presentation of the old but renewed graphically Doom creatures, as you can observe in the game and probably in some of the screenies on this webpage.

The environment (graphics, items, situations, musical instruments or sound effects) reminds us to films like Alien 2.

Details like the PDAs from the dead personnel which we camn pick up and the videos of the company played here and thereby around the base where the plot occurs in, those commercials that are played while we splash demoniac creatures, everything arouses a realism increasing all our tension and fear.

40 levels, 4 levels of difficulty, a few weapons and a respectable collection of awful enemies. Only zombies are redundant in the first levels. The rest of demons are hard to kill and real challenges in many cases. But spliting hairs, the special details are like these ones: to keep advancing on a scenario while the screen turns into a blood filter and

the pad shakes like crazy, to hear the whisper of a devil coming close to you while you are stepping a flood full of blood and all the walls are also in blood but you cannot see any enemy; to talk to scientists that after a while are being devored by a giant spider which jumps at you and kill you before you notice... The action of a Doom with the fear of a Resident Evil, both together perfectly mixed here in this its own genre game, Doom 3.

Doom 3 has some negative points. They make Doom 3 not be a masterpiece but a game among the best of its generation of consoles. The only step above Doom 3 is the one which the best games ever in any system are on. So summarizing, Doom 3 is just excellent!

Doom 3 has not many weapons, to be sincere. This is only a detail in such a meticulous game. Most of enemies are, as I said before, old but superbly renewed, and we can also see a few awful new ones.

Bosses are not too spectacular but they are hard to kill. However, all the context which surronds them is very brilliant: the cutscenes, the intro before, how to reach them, under which circumstances, the pressure that we can feel when we play.

But let's point out some negative aspects now, as we said.

For instance, the variety of the scenarios at the early beginning. And unfortunately, the disappointing and the ending, a little bit short as well... but hey, in normal mode! The game is huge, 40 levels are not easy to finish! Th is just about the feeling that you do not expect the end when it is finally reached.

It deserves a special mention the fact that Doom 3 is a game for history, because a year after its release there were only a few people among all the people who wanted to play it that had been actually able to play the game, since Doom 3 required a modern graphic card. A pity.

The final feling that Doom 3 leaves

at the end is of an absolute satisfaction, except the ending cutscene itself.

Oh, I did not mention it, but Doom 3 includes a cooperative mode where two players can start blowing up brains and grey material to paint the different rooms of the levels!

It is that whisper which poisons the surroundings, the noise of infernal material which is in the living room of your house what makes Doom 3 be the best of a generation together with Burnout 3 Takedown and Wario Ware for Game Cube -Not forgetting the glorious Mario Party 4 for the same Nintendo system-... Those details like the opening of a door and how it vanishes suddenly, everything turning into dark red and then into deep black with some flashing rays that illuminate the sight of a room full of diabolic creatures; the sight of how they start to eat you when you realize that the corpses on the floor are smiling of horror...

It is a gore game, supossed to be enjoyed by 18 years old players as minimum!

What if that ending is only a part of what we can see if we finishthe game in a higher level of difficulty? What if that was preparing the arrival of a fourth Doom?

Which 40 levels, which maps! The levels are neither endless nor too brainiac, we only feel frantic fear and brutality where the enemies in Doom are: the most terrifying beings in the world. The hell is waiting for the main character, who goes into it itself while we just want to bring him back of that nightmare plenty of lava ... Voices that whisper our death. Bravo ID...

The best of Doom 3: The experience that gives us a shoot'm up with all the well known elements from the classic Doom but with a very strong horror filter... which makes us be scared s... hitless.

The worst: Some levels after this game start to look like really endless, although they finally end. Argggggh this single aspect would be BRILLIANTLY removed from here if after one finished the game in a higher level of difficulty there was something else... I will have to finish the game again!