Doom 3 is an intense, atmospheric shooter, but some major flaws pull this game down to the ground!
As you can expect, some corners have been cut in order to bring the game to the Xbox (from PC). Despite a reduction in lighting and geometry of the models (from what I have seen), the end result is a faithful recreation of the PC experience. You would really have to go through and make an effort to start putting down the visuals in comparison. Vicarious Visions has also included progressive scan and widescreen support which has the game running at a solid, smooth 30 fps that rarely dips even in the heat of action. The Xbox version certainly excels when it comes to audio. Doom 3's usage of Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is easily some of the best usage of positional and ambient sound to date in any game. The audio is loud, clear, and makes great usage of the discrete channels to help create the atmosphere and keep you on your toes. I can't stress enough of how impressed I have been with the audio in this game. It sounds amazing on the Xbox 360! Doom 3's controls are spot on and responsive enough that you can easily aim exactly where you want in the heat of battle. They should be familiar to anyone who has played a FPS before, but there is one addition that I thought was extremely useful in the control scheme; the addition of a quick save button. I can't express how nice it is to be able to hit a button to do a quick save rather than having to navigate through menus in order to save your game.
One of the biggest complaints is somehow you have the inability to hold a flashlight while holding a gun, let alone find a way to attach one. Since the game has a rather dark setting, you will find yourself switching between your flashlight and weapons constantly. In fact there are times where you will swap, see your target, and then swap back to shoot in the dark. While this may have simply been a design decision to make the game more intense, it seems rather silly. Another issue is that the game doesn't have a whole lot to it as it is mostly a straight up shooter with minimal straying and a little variation. Some might find that this can be rather repetitive and uninteresting especially when compared to other games in the genre. With all that being said, Doom 3 is an excellent port of a solid shooter set in a great atmosphere. Sit on your couch with the lights out playing on a HD TV with amazing audio, playing it on the Xbox 360 can even be considered worthy enough of an experience even if you have played it on the PC.
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+ Superb audio
+ Great atmosphere and graphics
+ Solid controls
- Some visual, design problems
- Some framerate issues
- Some control problems