It was the early Nineties when I first stumbled on the shareware (read: free) levels of Doom, a game which by today’s standards is incredibly old-fashioned and in no way gory (’blood’ was a few red pixels on screen) however at the time it was shocking in it’s explicit nature. An 18 certificate was slapped on it, something which my Dad thought was so extreme for a game he loved that he eventually bought it for me and we played for years to come. Doom 2 followed, then on to the collectors packs designed to work under that new-fangled thing called Windows 95 (an operating system which shafted millions of Microsoft fans by providing horrifically minimal support for old DOS programs) and then Doom eventually slipped away with age, a game that none of us could consider playing anymore as a lot of the magic had been lost.
Enter Doom 3. The hype was well known to me, a hardware intensive computer game which was supposed to actually be scary…almost unheard of in games. It was new, I didn’t get it.
A year on and I finally found a bargain copy and started it up. There was the familiar UASC logo, the Mars station and the suggestion that the scientist who worked there were involved in sadistic and dangerous experiments with space/time. Modern technology means you touch down as a Marine signing on to a new posting, the scientists and other crew who work there no longer merely a random mention in the game’s manual but AI controlled beings who interact with you and who have hushed conversations in quiet corners which in the space of a few seconds fills you in on just the type of place you’ve arrived at. The facility is gorgeously modelled using realistic graphics which are actually realistic…which is when it hits you. The story plows into action and you realised you’ve been immersed in a horror movie, quite literally immersed, modern computing technology being such that in the heat of the action you have to use great willpower to remind yourself that you are just playing a game. Creatures crawl from the woodwork, survivors speak to you in desperation, the dead rise and all of this using the same suspenseful atmosphere that Half Life taught us to expect from a horror game.
In short…Doom 3 is scary. It’s a superb game, the narrative abilities of Half Life being drawn upon by some truly warped and freakish minds to create a story you can’t quite break yourself out of and the sofa isn’t there to hide behind anymore.
Just make sure you keep your gun loaded.
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June 1st, 2006 at 7:17 am
you just outgeeked yourself.