Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil Review

Resurrection of Evil is a stand alone expansion to Doom 3 (which was released just six months ago) and gives you new levels and some new weapons to get your demon killing freak on. The gameplay is pretty much the same as it was in Doom 3, but considering what all you are getting in Resurrection of Evil for just $30 makes it a pretty solid purchase even if it is just more of the same.

Features

Resurrection of Evil takes place a couple of years after the events of Doom 3 on the planet Mars. A team of marines discovered a mysterious artifact and when one of them touched it, the gates of hell once again opened on Mars and the planet is crawling with demons once again. You play as a different marine than in Doom 3, but your mission is much the same: Stop the demons, seal the portals to hell, and save the world.

Resurrection of Evil packs a new single player campaign that will take about 6-8 hours to beat. You also get some new multiplayer maps, which is cool if you liked Doom 3’s style of deathmatch, but sadly the online co-op mode was not included in Resurrection of Evil. RoE also comes with a special bonus of the original Doom, Doom II, and Doom II Master Levels that you can play in single player as well as splitscreen co-op and deathmatch. This is a nice bonus for sure, but it makes the Collector’s Edition of Doom 3 for Xbox pretty much worthless now which is a major bummer for those of us who spent the extra $10 for the CE.

Gameplay: What's New?

As far as the gameplay goes, it is pretty much more of the same from Doom 3, so check out our Doom 3 review for a basic outline of how the game plays. There is some new stuff for Resurrection of Evil, but it doesn’t change the game too much. First up is that you have a couple of new weapons: A double barreled shotgun and a rip-off of Half-Life 2’s gravity gun called a grabber. The grabber is sort of fun and you can grab fireballs and rockets enemies fire at you and throw them right back at them, but you are limited in the things you can pick up so it isn’t all that hot. The double shotty, on the other hand, is absolutely devastating and is more than enough to take out most demons in just one shot. You also get to use an evil artifact that lets you slow down time, among other powers. Another change is that the game throws a lot more enemies at you this time around. Some sections will throw 8-10 enemies into the same room and spawn more just as fast as you kill them which is an absolute thrill to play through. You are still constantly searching for the next PDA or keycard, but you are shooting a lot more stuff along the way so overall it is more enjoyable.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics were Doom 3’s strongest point and Resurrection of Evil is no different. This game is flat out gorgeous. It also isn’t quite as dark as Doom 3 so you actually get a chance to see more of the beautiful game world beyond the limited range of your flashlight. That is another change in RoE, the flashlight has been attached to the pistol so now you aren’t completely defenseless when you are exploring a dark room. Another plus in the presentation is that the game loads up your PDA a little quicker than in Doom 3 which keeps the pace of the game flowing nicely. Unfortunately, there are some framerate issues in RoE that weren’t present in Doom 3. It doesn’t make the game unplayable, but when there are more than a couple of enemies all firing balls of glowing ooze at you the game gets pretty choppy.

The sound is also well done overall. There is more music here than in Doom 3 and it is all very moody and perfectly suited to the game. The sound effects for all of the weapons as well as the demons and environmental sounds are all top notch once again.

Bottom Line

Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil is a solid game overall that is pretty easy to recommend. It isn’t all that different from Doom 3 and it is only about a third as long, but for just $30 you are getting a fun single player game along with decent Xbox Live multiplayer and full versions (complete with deathmatch and co-op) of Doom, Doom II, and Doom II Master Levels so it is pretty hard to say you aren’t getting your money’s worth. If you are a fan of Doom 3 this is definitely worth a purchase. Or, if you haven’t played Doom 3 yet but would like to, Resurrection of Evil is a good place to start because of the increased focus on action and the bonus games are just the icing on the cake. Just like Doom 3, Resurrection of Evil doesn’t change the classic FPS formula too much, but it is a fun, scary, and satisfying game at a value price tag that is worth owning so I highly recommend it for a purchase.