PC Review Reviews Gaming Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil

It can be said that DOOM 3 was one of the best action games of 2004. Years of waiting was finally paid off with a straight forward action-packed shooter that scared the hell out of us. With the ending of DOOM 3 being left slightly open, it came as no surprise when we first heard word of an expansion pack in the works at Nerve Software. DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil lets you go back to the hell-driven Mars and once again offers up the same old run'n'gun type of gameplay. As you'll soon see, this may or may not be a good thing for this expansion.

Resurrection of Evil takes place roughly about one year after the events of DOOM 3. The Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) facility has been left abandoned and desolate on the surface of Mars, and the events of the previous game are now all covered up. It is at this point that a strange beacon starts emitting from the surface of this red planet. Of course, the UAC wants to figure out what it is, and they even want to rebuild their facilities on the planet. A small team of scientists and marines are sent down to find out the source of this strange beacon.

This is where you pick up the game as the new unnamed space marine. This time, however, it seems to be your fault that the gates have reopened into hell. The strange signal seems to have been emitted from another artifact beneath the Mars surface in some alien ruins. Upon touching the artifact, not only do you open the gate to hell, but all of your squad mates in your area disintegrate into dust. Now, left alone with this strange artifact, you must fight your way through the ruins and into the abandoned facility. Oh, and it's really dark along the way, so bring a flashlight.

It's very interesting to see that the main difference between DOOM 3 and its expansion pack is in the way that the story is told. In DOOM 3, the story was mainly unraveled through the use of emails and videos which could be accessed in your PDA. This brought a sense of exploration to the game and slowly revealed detailed parts of the story line. The problem with Resurrection of Evil is that not only does the story lack the depth of the original game, but it doesn't rely on the PDA system as heavily as DOOM 3 did. You can still pick up emails and videos for your PDA, but they don't really reveal any mystery behind the story of the game as they did in DOOM 3. The story also doesn't seem to be as in-depth as DOOM 3, leaving it rather dull. So if the story isn't mainly revealed through the PDA, than how is it revealed? Well that would mainly be through your contact that talks with you throughout the game over your radio transmission. Dr Elizabeth McNeil serves as your main informant throughout the game: she directs you on how and where you need to take the artifact in order to close the hell gate. Dr McNeil serves as the team leader of the whole expedition and always remains in contact. The story is also revealed through some nice looking cutscenes, but it still feels like the story is one of the weakest points in this expansion. This was rather disappointing, as the story was one of the best parts of DOOM 3 and really drove the game further.

The story is very important in a run'n'gun style game in order to keep things interesting. Now this style of gameplay is quite old and is often looked down upon when compared to other action games. We did say that in our DOOM 3 review this type of gameplay works perfectly for this game, and it really wouldn't be the same without the pointless shooting. However, even DOOM 3 became boring quite fast as soon as more unique titles like Half-Life 2 and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay were released. This type of gameplay of course returns in Resurrection of Evil, but unfortunately too much of a good thing can be bad. In other words, it's all been done before, and it's getting really very quickly.