14 DAY TRIAL // 
Graphics: 10 Audio: 9 Gameplay: 8 Concept: 8 General impression: 8
SOFTPEDIA MARK: 8.5
If there's a chance of things going bad, you can rest assured it will happen! This is how the Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil motto should sound like. What are the odds for a marine, sent in an exploration mission two years ago when all hell broke loose, to start playing with the objects he finds at hand?
According to id Software pretty high, and now, the brave and fearless marine has a new reason for sending to kingdom come legions of monsters.
If you are expecting an elaborate story with a complex plot you will be disappointed. After all, you are dealing with the expansion pack of an action game, not the Arabian Nights.
Therefore, you don't have a lot of time to think that the irresponsible toying with a strange artifact - a word of advice, never touch strange objects shaped as a heart, unless being told so by the producer - lead to the destruction of the whole team you landed with on Mars. So, arm yourself and set course to hell.
When weapons have the bad habit of migrating from one game to the other
The major innovations from Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil regarding single player are: the arsenal at the brave hero's disposal, some new species of monsters and a series of more illuminated levels.
Hey! I said more illuminated, so don't think the flashlight will cease to be the main weapon and you'd better not have lost the ability from Doom 3 of rapidly switching weapons to kill the monster that just got out of the closet.
And since monsters become more and more powerful as the game goes on, let's get back to the weapons that kill them.
The first innovation from Nerve Software, the developers of this expansion pack, is the Grabber Gun which looks a lot like the Gravity Gun from Half Life 2. The resemblance is not perfect because in Doom 3, Grabber Gun will be used to catch all sorts of things the monsters throw at you, like fire balls, plasma balls and to send them back. Hence, the Grabber Gun, unlike the Gravity Gun which is used more for moving objects or for throwing them at your enemies, is used more for fighting. The problem is that after two or three levels, the fight will look like a ping-pong game, spectacular at first but dull later on. The Grabber Gun will prove extremely useful to solve certain puzzles from the game, but Half Life 2 is still the indisputable champion at the implementation of this weapon.
Much more spectacular is the double-barreled shotgun which although fires one shot at the time, it is much more efficient against monsters from the first levels. Blowing them away requires only one shot and soon you will want more ammo for this weapon. The double-barreled shotgun will make an impressive hole in anything you manage to hit and the combination between it and the Hell Time effect, (which will be discussed later on) will really make you admire the graphics of the game.
The third new weapon is the artifact that triggered the madness and will gain new powers as you defeat the three Hunters from Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil. The first upgrade of the strange artifact, which you have to take back to hell to finish all 12 levels of the expansion, will be Hell Time, a sort of beta version of the Bullet Time from the Max Payne series. Everything around you will slow down and you'll have the chance to admire the elements of the scenery Nerve Software so abundantly provided. As you have guessed, Hell Time is vital to finish certain levels, but also fun to use in ordinary situations. The second power of the artifact is Berserker, which gives the player an attack force that will make an angry fundamentalist look like a child and will help you to get out of complicated situations. Towards the end, the artifact will make you temporarily invulnerable, giving you the possibility to face the demonic creatures.
Basically, these are the new weapons proposed by Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil and perhaps more would have been better, but who knows, maybe in the next edition there will be more novelties.
The linearity of chaos
Doom 3 was highly appreciated for the way it succeeded in telling the story through bits of e-mail conversations and audio recordings stored on PDAs. Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil maintains the same style, only this time the objective is much clearer and the story much simpler.
Sarge's role is taken by Dr. Elizabeth McNeil who will guide you through the hordes of creatures by providing precise directions, but once again the feeling that the team from Nerve Software played too much Half Life 2 is present (especially the level where Alyx guides Gordon Freeman to cross a complicated level).
Regarding tactic, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil looks divided in two parts. Until you reach UAC Phobos Labs, the options available to fight monsters will be flexible; after that point, everything will turn into "one mistake and you're dead", hence, if you want to make any progress, you'll have to save often.
Doom 3 has made a reputation of replacing monsters in zones you've already been to, so you shouldn't be surprised if you return to a certain place and you find yourself surrounded by creatures spawned out of nowhere.
Even if Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil was added a few puzzles, it's still the same run and gun type of game, even more than its predecessor. The fights with the three Hunters will be unique and complicated, so you'll need to load a few times to find out how to defeat them.
As you go through the game, be careful to take all the health kits and weapons available, even though you might not need them at that moment.
Being an expansion pack, it's normal to look predecessor, but Nerve Software managed to make their contribution present by creating interesting levels, which take a step further the graphical capabilities of Doom 3. This aspect is completed by the audio component: new voices and weapon and monster sounds.
Mars online
Although focusing on the single player, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil hasn't forgotten that there are players whose sole reason to install a game is the multiplayer component. Therefore, aside from new 4 maps for the Deathmatch mode, the game was added the Capture The Flag mode which supports 8 players and was developed by the same team involved in Quake's mode.
As for the multiplayer action, it is as alert as any other from an id Software game, and in the end, it gets down to who has the Rocket Launcher first. The obsession for this weapon tends to become a trademark and if you don't find it in the first 30 seconds, you won't make for long. Not even the powerful double-barreled shotgun, which does such a splendid job in the single player mode, can match this weapon.
Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil is an interesting sequel for those who appreciated the original game, and for those who didn't have the opportunity, it can be an extra reason to it. If Doom 3: Resurection of Evil was intended just as a continuation of the story, then it has achieved its purpose, otherwise ... the producers have a lot to work.
