XboxGamers
Member
by Matt Leone
08/01/2004
At Saturday night's G-Phoria awards show, we had the opportunity to play through an hour or so of Doom 3 on PC, and while the game is scheduled to hit stores on Tuesday, we couldn't wait that long to bring you our initial thoughts on the game. Put simply -- it's one of the most gorgeous and well-scripted games we've ever seen.
The section of the game we started with is apparently the second level, though it would have made a great opening area if the developers placed it at the beginning of the game, so it's easy to see why Activision chose to display it at the event. As you enter the area, a man behind a glass wall tells you to find a missing scientist, so you head off to explore the area in search of this person. The level is extremely linear for the most part, though since the majority of lights go out partway through, you don't exactly feel comfortable moving quickly down this path.
As you make your way through, you'll see quite a few people wandering around and working to repair damage at the research base. You can approach and talk to many of them, and they all look fantastic, with well-textured faces and amazingly realistic clothing.
The voice acting, as well, is quite impressive, at least on a few of the NPCs. We approached one guy who was hunched over inside a small area of the base, and when we clicked "talk," he uncomfortably stood up and sarcastically told us he couldn't help us. If all the voice acting in the retail release matches that quality, the game looks to be a huge step forward in that area.
With another NPC, as we were talking to him, we got a bit fidgety and started moving around, only to notice the NPC's head follow us wherever we went, until we got far enough away that he went back to what he was doing. These little interactions are extremely polished and significantly improve the story progression.
Between NPC discussions, you are also required to pick up PDAs that you find around the base and search through them to find codes you can use to open certain doors. We imagine these will be a bit more difficult to come across later in the game, as the one we spotted early in the level was placed literally two feet from the door it opened. Still, it did take going through a few menus to find the code, which then opened a door to reveal an armor power-up.
More here!
08/01/2004
At Saturday night's G-Phoria awards show, we had the opportunity to play through an hour or so of Doom 3 on PC, and while the game is scheduled to hit stores on Tuesday, we couldn't wait that long to bring you our initial thoughts on the game. Put simply -- it's one of the most gorgeous and well-scripted games we've ever seen.
The section of the game we started with is apparently the second level, though it would have made a great opening area if the developers placed it at the beginning of the game, so it's easy to see why Activision chose to display it at the event. As you enter the area, a man behind a glass wall tells you to find a missing scientist, so you head off to explore the area in search of this person. The level is extremely linear for the most part, though since the majority of lights go out partway through, you don't exactly feel comfortable moving quickly down this path.
As you make your way through, you'll see quite a few people wandering around and working to repair damage at the research base. You can approach and talk to many of them, and they all look fantastic, with well-textured faces and amazingly realistic clothing.
The voice acting, as well, is quite impressive, at least on a few of the NPCs. We approached one guy who was hunched over inside a small area of the base, and when we clicked "talk," he uncomfortably stood up and sarcastically told us he couldn't help us. If all the voice acting in the retail release matches that quality, the game looks to be a huge step forward in that area.
With another NPC, as we were talking to him, we got a bit fidgety and started moving around, only to notice the NPC's head follow us wherever we went, until we got far enough away that he went back to what he was doing. These little interactions are extremely polished and significantly improve the story progression.
Between NPC discussions, you are also required to pick up PDAs that you find around the base and search through them to find codes you can use to open certain doors. We imagine these will be a bit more difficult to come across later in the game, as the one we spotted early in the level was placed literally two feet from the door it opened. Still, it did take going through a few menus to find the code, which then opened a door to reveal an armor power-up.
More here!
Don't want to spoil anything more, though, I've already seen probably all of the enemies