E3 2003: Doom 3 Impressions

Tonnes of new screens, and hi-res, direct feed video! Doom 3 was shown at E3 with a brand new trailer. Our impressions plus media, inside.

At Microsoft's conference two days before the show kicked off, the world got its first glimpse of how far Doom 3 has come since last year. With the game officially confired for Xbox, even more gamers are hoping Doom 3 lives up to the hype than before. But aside from a new version of the logo, what else is new since last year's breathtaking showing?

Not an awful lot - but the game still looks completely awesome. Although Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 are both fast approaching, the latter threatining to wipe the floor with Doom 3's visuals, the id title features spectacular production qualities and a general level of character, environment and game design that is going to be tough for other titles to beat.

We've got the whole trailer in hi-resolution, direct feed - so check it out now and read on while you're waiting.

The new trailer starts off on Mars - desolate, misty and uninviting. The id and Activision logos form in the sandclouds and then disperse, before the camera zooms into the secret base in which the game begins to unfold.

Inside the base, first we see inside the labs of the Union Aerospace Corporation, with scientists working away. Outside the base, we see the red planet with human activity evident: a shuttlebus moves along a rail, and the sprawling base itself. The quality of visuals in all these areas is absolutrely astounding - and the environment designs themselves are second-to-none.

A lady's voice speaks: "The Union Aerospace Corporation, an arm of the most powerful conglomorate on Earth, has been performing secret experiments in their base on Mars. Tapping into the very fabric of the universe itself, and beyond. UAC scientists have made discoveries that will forever change human existence. Then something went terribly wrong."

Then we see a familiar scene from last year's E3 trailer: rooms start to shake, and the evil, skull-like spirits burst out of some kind of vault, before flying towards a soldier and posessing him like a mofo. This whole scene looks better than before with new angles and sound effects.

The trailer then cuts straight into action footage: before long we see a monster punching down a metal door as if it was flimsy plastic and pacing towards you; first-person gun action as a monster appears from a loose piece of metal in the ground; a beat crawling down a wall and along the ceiling.

Disturbingly, there's a bit where a soldier is seen hangind from what appears to be nothing, but when the camera shot changes to behind a special observation window, we see it's actually an invisible enemy.

At the end, the hero turns when he hears something, but sees nothing - and then there's a monster with a chainsaw, powering up. The detail in this 'cut-scene' is good, right down to facial expressions. Time to launch a grenade, before one last fit of action...

We see some of the familiar monsters from last year's trailer again. A monster is trapped inside a watertank and starts moving when you approach - there's a tonne of never-before seen enemies as well, such as a demon baby and spider-type monsters. Basically this is scary stuff.

Although this trailer is just under three minutes (compared to last year's nine minutes, with lots of in-game), it didn't dissapoint or fail to excite - but it didn't have quite the same impact as last year. Stay tuned for more on Doom 3 as it arrives (or gets leaked) and enjoy this high quality video.

Adam Doree
Director, Kikizo.com