Hands-On: Doom III
Doom 3 makes its multiplayer debut?new screens and hands-on impressions inside!
Doom 3 made its multiplayer debut at QuakeCon in August 2003, and while screenshots were few, the energy was plentiful?and so was the carnage.
Only one map was active for the event, but four-player matches were up and running smoothly. The game was set for the most basic mode?straight-up deathmatch, every player for himself. Weapons in Doom 3 include a pistol, a shotgun, machine gun, plasma rifle, rocket launcher, and good old-fashioned fists. Other weapons listed but not active in this demo were the chainsaw and something called a SoulCube; nobody was willing or able to elaborate on exactly what that is. There's also a flashlight, which can be used as a weapon as well as to illuminate dark corners?and there are lots and lots of dark corners.
Players can turn off the lights in some rooms; a large square switch on the wall handles those duties, and toggling the light makes ambushing opponents evil fun. Shadows are especially impressive?they're all real-time, based on the actual models. If you reload a weapon in front of a light source, you'll see your shadow do the same. As you move, so does the shadow?and this is especially freaky when you're looking for any movement in the room anyway. Hanging or swinging lights will play further havoc on the room's illumination and the player's shadow. It's a distraction, but a fun one.
The level of detail is simply insane. Remember those screens from a few months ago that looked too good to be true? They're true, and they move. This is mostly due to John Carmack's latest engine, which enables all kinds of new interactions and special effects. Curved surfaces abound, and the dynamic lighting and distressed metal walls give the game (or at least this multiplayer level) a strong Aliens feel (appropriate enough for a space Marine setting?back in 1992, id wanted to do a licensed game, but it didn't work out with Fox). There are areas that have been warped by the dimensional portals, so you'll find yourself walking through a UAC corridor that suddenly evolves into a fire-red hallway of Hell. Just to show off the physics with a twisted sense of humor, there's a Marine's corpse suspended upside-down from the ceiling in unspeakable red goo; shoot it, and the rag-doll physics set in, causing the dead body to writhe and sway. Nice and disgusting. The rag-doll physics apply to all other bodies in the game too. The green player?s Marine model only looks like Master Chief through the lens of recent history; really, it's a higher-poly update of the original Doom armor. The coolest power-up?and the only one on this demo level?is called Berserk. The icon is located at the bottom of a large cylindrical pit, with rotating platforms. If you can navigate those and avoid the enormous lava spew that sometimes issues forth from the center, you'll grab a power-up that doubles your speed and damage?and makes any weaponless punch an instant kill. More disconcerting is the sense that you are actually possessed by demon energy. The screen swims and warps, and a truly disturbing scream issues forth the entire time that you're powered up. Others can hear it too, so they know you're raging and should be avoided?but it only serves to increase the tension even higher, especially when you're looking for someone to destroy during the powerup's limited time.
Doom 3 won't be released until some time in 2004, and this multiplayer-only preview is as much a quick bug test for id as it is a sneak preview for the company's most loyal fans. But even as an early peek, it's a strong indication that gamers will be rewarded for their patience?and that id is not to be underestimated.
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