"Welcome to Mars Marine." : Extra Marine Character
Those of you whom have been around since the early MS DOS and Windows 9x era of PC games no doubt know, or at the very least have heard of the Doom series of games.
Made by id Software, Doom and it's direct sequel Doom 2 follow the story of a Space Marine going up against demons from Hell following a teleportation experiment gone very wrong.
As for myself, I never have played the original games for a few key reasons...
1) I was too young at the time they came out. Even if age were not the factor, these games would not have been allowed in my house.
2) Lack of hardware to play the games on.
With that back-story out of the way, let's get into Doom 3.
Doom 3 is essentially a re-imagining of the first Doom game with more emphasis on "BOO!" events and making creatures that are, well, icky.
Your character is an un-named, silent, slow, Space Marine whom has just been transferred to Mars to provide security for the UAC complex.
The UAC complex is where various scientific experiments are being performed, including a recent breakthrough in teleportation.
Aside from getting grumbled at by your CO for being "slow", your first task is to go find a scientist in the lower levels of the complex that hasn't been reporting in.
Sure enough, just as you have the missing nerd in your grasp, Hell quite literally breaks through into the Mars UAC Base, and thus your adventure takes a new turn into a fight to get out.
Artistically, I think the game looks pretty good for an old xBox game. It's not on par with Halo 3, or Gears of War, however it's not that far behind.
I'd actually put it above Halo 2 in terms of graphics. The machinery looks like something you'd see out of the Aliens film, and the environment (when it's not covered in gore) looks like a newer tech complex. The enemies look detailed, and well the disgusting body parts look, well, disgusting.
This is the perfect time to talk about the one major gripe that I heard when the game came out, and have now experienced first hand. ... The lighting.
Apparently in the future, they think it's alright to have dimly lit hallways. Now while I can give a partial pass on this due to the cataclysmic event that occurs, what I cannot give a pass on is the fact that the Military in this game have evidently done away with L-Flashlights that clip onto vests, or other equipment, and have instead decided to go with a standard Maglite that doesn't run out of power, but must be held in one hand at all times. Yes, also gone are lights that attach to the barrels of guns.
To make matters worse our slow, silent protagonist space marine is not MacGuyver, and cannot rig any of his guns with his light.
... Granted in my entire journey I did not see a single role of Duct Tape in the facility, so perhaps I should be a little more forgiving to our hero.
To sum up that last paragraph, you have to choose between lighting your path, or shooting the bad guys.
In a dark room, you cannot do both.I understand why the developers did this. It does forcefully add suspense to various areas of the game where you really need to make the call, do I walk down this dark hallway unprepared, or blind. The problem I have with how they did it is the fact that here in our time, there is plenty of technology to prevent such a situation from happening. In a dark hallway, our Marines can have their cake and eat it too. (Walk with a light, or at least Night-vision goggles, and shoot too.)
The story for all intents and purposes isn't much to gawk at. It's good in that it supports the game.
You get to read various e-mails, and listen to various audio logs that explain plenty of the facility's past & current situation.
In the end your Marine is the only voice any of these people will ever have to get out of the facility.
The music set's the atmosphere whether you're in a safe area, or involved in a boss battle.
In the game there are various events that occur that are meant to startle / scare you. It's hard for someone like me whom doesn't watch horror films to predict when these events happen, so I'd say that they were a good startle factor.
Overall, I do not feel like I've wasted my time with this game. It presents a good challenge on Normal Mode, and I do have plans to eventually play it again on the hardest difficulty setting. The ending gave closure, and a sense of accomplishment.
The Good : Decent Story, ok controls, the ability to save constantly, decent art, and the sense of accomplishment at the end.
The Bad : Lighting in the future, the lack of flashlights on weaponry, the lack of clip-able L-Flashlights, and no Duct Tape.
The Ugly : (This isn't a bad point, they're just ugly.) The villains. They're creepy and some are unsettling.
If you're bored and have some money to freely spend, I'd recommend this title as long as you don't mind the whole lighting thing.
I do not recommend this game
for anyone who's under 17. Ever. At all. No questions asked.
In fact if I had it my way the discs would vaporize the instant a child got their hands on it & tried to play it.
Finally, you'll only be able to get this game either through Steam or you'll have to visit a used game store to get it. It was released back in 2004.
That's all for now!
Author
