QuakeCon Report: Doom 3 Hands-On

Our impressions of Doom 3 multiplayer, the new features, and why a change of attitude might help Doom 3 to compete with its rivals.

This week, id Software - possibly the industry's most arrogant developer - showcased Doom 3 in playable form for the first time at their annual QuakeCon show. Showing how ballsy they can really be, the company decided to reveal the multiplayer element of the visually astounding Doom 3 - a slight change of direction, considering the focus with Doom was supposedly on the single player experience.

New Screenshot 1: Quite a lot of red

The new level that was on show was certainly geared towards Deathmatch, which supported up to four players at the convention. Although bearing more than a passing resemblance to the original demo showcased at last year's E3, the level itself offered many new features that complemented the multiplayer experience.

For starters there was an impressive roster of weapons - some of which were previously unseen. The shotgun and the sixty-round machine gun will be familiar to Doom 3 followers who've seen the first gameplay demo from E3 2001. But the new weapons - such as the new-and-improved plasma gun that fires fifty rounds of glowing blue mayhem, and the rocket launcher that blasts out five rockets per round - kept this latest Doom 3 experience diverse. As the one man standing between Hell and Earth, players can also use their fists if you run out of ammo, or use a flashlight to light up the many dark areas of the game.

The focal point of the level - a giant chasm housing a big-mamma glowing red laser beam - is also the area players could find the game's first proper power-up, which did not disappoint - the Beserker offers twice the regular speed and damage, and significantly increases the power of your fists if you want to punch. Kind of like Quad Damage - but instead of the screen turning purple, everything goes a bit blurry. In addition, health and armor power-ups were found frequently around the level.

New Screenshot 1: Even more red.
Stay tuned for two more screenshots next year!

Graphically, this latest build looked impressive as expected - although the screen resolution didn't exactly do the game justice, it still looked fantastic with an overall visual and design quality that puts a lot of pre-rendered CGI to shame. This game just oozes graphical appeal.

In terms of gameplay, the demo being limited to Deathmatch only offered an experience very similar to any recent id Deathmatch experience - but the realism of ragdoll physics, atmosphere created by the astounding visuals and precision of shooting action required, all go to make this really stand out.

This was pretty much just another teaser experience of Doom 3, which really needs to hit shelves sooner rather than later with Half-Life 2 just a few months away. With such stiff competition, it is somewhat confusing - and disappointing - that id steadfastly refuses to use the media to its advantage by showing some of what's really on offer.

Perhaps if less time is wasted on pretentious disputes with all their media partners, and cooking up policies before forcing Activision to eat them, Quake IV won't suffer similar loss of interest. But when stuff gets leaked every other week, it's almost as if id Software enjoy creating more work for themselves.

Click here for more Doom 3 coverage, and stay tuned for all the latest from Hell.

Kikizo Staff
How about some Doom 3 Bink videos then? Oh...