Doom III

The sound system and picture quality in this preview booth was considerable which went some way to intensify the experience. The action continues - a metal object falls and hits the ground, before a monster bursts through the wall. They don't just shoot at you - they run at you, kick and beat you, and try to attack you in a whole range of ways. A short cut scene cinematically shows one of the first landmark demons, who spits, "I smell fear..." - he was not wrong, everyone in this booth was cacking themselves by now.

The demon we just saw in the cut scene comes down some metal stairs, and begins to shoot with a revolving automatic - as our man wins the gunfight, the demon falls ungracefully down the remaining steps, with one leg remaining positioned half way up the first two steps and the revolving automatic taking a couple of seconds to stop spinning. The environmental physics on show here are astounding.

We continue to crawl the area and some doors slide open. It's quiet for a few seconds, with no sign of bad guys - that can't be a good sign. We see our reflection in a window - and then something else emerging behind us - quickly turning around to deal with the monster that appeared from nowhere. As we enter a new area the camera pans for a few seconds showing the factory-like scene with moving parts and machinery. The whole area is totally animated.

By now, there are monsters coming from all directions, and they are getting harder to make out either with vision or sound, because there is so much else going on in this large room - steam rising from beneath the metal flooring makes it harder to navigate. We pass through a few more areas, and enter a new place with a swinging (and squeaking) light fitting. The realism in the way it lights up the corridor (which itself is extremely detailed) has a film-like quality that has not been seen in any game before - and this is just a fairly basic effect.

We're in a lavatory-style room, and a new cut scene starts. These cut scenes begin and end seamlessly, there's no waiting. We see a seal-shaped monster with a robotic attachment to its hind legs, oversized teeth and a truly disgusting appearance. It is dragging an almost-dead human body around the tiled floor, smearing the pool of blood around. It starts to rip apart the body's stomach and eat it's entrails, standing on its back legs to throw and gulp back all the guts down its throat. We see a close up of the almost-dead body's face, as some of this is happening. The pool of blood seeping from behind its head thickens.

The cut scene breaks and we barely have time to pick up our jaws, before the self same monster notices us (the main character, back in first person mode) hiding in the shade. It takes several heavy-duty shots to take the monster out. By now some of us are wondering if we should leave the room in case the rest of this twelve minute trailer ruins our life forever.

Continuous, relentless environment effects make the setting more and more believable - flickering lights, steam bursting from a broken pipe, whirring air ventilators, dirty door panels and metallic reflections - it all has a gritty, tangible and dirty-looking realism. It really is like we're there. All the monsters are equally real-looking... it is so frightening. Monsters to continue to attack, and the range and style with which they attack is truly original and startling. The camera IS our head, so if we get attacked, the camera movement is like a lump of meat being viciously knocked. We really feel it.

The maneuverability of the main character appears to be fluid and lifelike - we can turn 180 degrees quickly and effortlessly and move around as much as possible. We're constantly turning, moving and looking around - a lot more like how you might deal with this situation in real life, instead of a constantly forwards-looking fixed-eye-level camera perspective and such.

"The maneuverability of the main character appears to be fluid and lifelike - we can turn 180 degrees quickly and effortlessly and move around as much as possible."

Horrifyingly, we enter the room in which we're about to meet our maker. At first we can't see it. But then we hear it stomping towards us. It takes steps closer behinds us but slowly - almost like it knows it's already won the encounter. It has a large, wild cat-like, yet demonic appearance, with saliva gushing from its sharp teeth. It's so ugly and terrifying you can just about make out the deformed features on its face. Some feeble shots are not enough to take it out. Before long it takes a might strike to our face, and we fall to the ground with a painful moan. But we're not quite dead yet.

We can see exactly what we'd see if we were lying, dying on the floor. Bear in mind all this stays in first-person - right through to the end. The view is rotated about 110 degrees and our arm outstretched on the floor. Totally out of it. But we can hear the monster still walking, and approaching our dying body from behind as we lay helpless. It beats our head relentlessly, growling. The monster then turns over our dying body so that we can see its revolting face in our last moments. It says something in a human-beast hybrid fashion that is truly disturbing, like killing us is not enough it wants to finish us of with ultimate evil. Then, still in first person perspective - it picks us up with its mouth and we se our OWN DECAPITATED BODY fall to the ground. Our head is in the monsters mouth and it's eating it. We black out and die. And even then, we have one last nightmarish vision of the beast as we descend to hell.

"This may have been a twelve minute trailer, but if an indication of the final game, Doom III will redefine what people expect from a PC gaming experience. "

Now I have to say, this is the most disturbing and jaw-dropping thing I have ever seen, in any videogame, or any movie. It took a further twenty seconds or so for people in the room to react, move or speak as we all picked our mouths up from the floor. This may only have been a twelve minute trailer, but if it was any indication of what the game is going to be like to play, then DOOM III is, as its creators say, going to redefine what people expect from a PC gaming experience.

You are going to need a seriously powerful set-up to get the kind of gripping play experience we sat through. We're talking very top end to match this - but the way the visuals and loud, powerful sound all came together to make such a believable environment was truly startling. I spoke with other journalists at the show and they agreed that this was really something else. The entire trailer was definitely completely realtime as on one occasion only, when we went back in to see it all again, the system crashed and they had to restart the demo.

This is one to watch very closely. I'll be buying a new high-spec PC to run this breathtaking piece of gaming entertainment, before the Xbox version arrives sometime afterwards, in winter 2003/4.

Video Coverage (Latest Videos & Video FAQ)
PLEASE DO NOT DIRECT LINK TO ANY MEDIA FILE ON KIKIZO
Description	Dur.	Size	Details
Direct-feed video sequence showing some of the nasty surprises in store for you in the new DOOM.	1.48min	12.2MB	MPG