November 21, 2005 - When DOOM 3 was released for PC (and later for Xbox) it caused a giant rift among DOOM fans and FPS lovers in general. DOOM had always been about one man taking on wave after wave of monsters. It was action personified. But with DOOM 3, many expected the series to evolve beyond that by borrowing from Halo and Half-Life. Many wanted dual-wielding weapons, working vehicles and vast open-ended areas with loads of shooting. In the end, DOOM 3 used none of these trappings, but still proved to be a moody yet slick run and gun action title that also just happened to look impossibly amazing. There was still a story being told, but we didn’t have to deal with branching paths or cut-scene after cut-scene. DOOM 3 was a throw-back and innovative at the same time. An instant classic. And as with all things Quake, DOOM, Diablo or Warcraft related, an expansion pack was inevitable. Unfortunately, id/Vicarious Visions did not have a hand in designing this and so, what DOOM 3 painstakingly set forth, Resurrection of Evil (and Nerve Software) completely ignore and instead try to give gamers an action-fest without too much substance.

Whereas DOOM 3 had a decent enough plot, memorable PDA voice messages and moments of shear exhilaration, RoE has a throw-away story, text-based messages and few moments of shear joy. Luckily, the game isn’t as long either. It’s now 2 years since the incident on Mars and wouldn’t you know it, there’s a distress signal coming from the site. You guessed it; you’re another nameless marine going back into the fray, this time as part of a massive research and security team led by Dr. Elizabeth McNeil. Is any of this starting to sound familiar yet? Remember the brilliant intro to DOOM 3, where you were given time to get your bearings and look at all the amazing textures and graphics for a bit before the action started? Remember how that really set the pace and mood for the entire game? Moments of unnerving quiet with quick flashes of intense violence. Well, RoE tries something different by throwing you to the wolves right off the bat. The effect is disorienting and feels very canned. There’s no sense of setting either and I wondered for a long time if I was even on Mars to begin with. The pacing this time around is horrible and the game feels more like DOOM 2 than the brilliantly conceived DOOM 3.

Alright, here’s some good news and bad news for everyone: The good is simply that The Marine has finally figured out how to use duct tape and attach his flashlight to a weapon. The bad news is that he’s picked the handgun which has the stopping power of a bean-bag thrown by a 70 year old. So, the general mechanic hasn’t changed: Use flashlight to establish your bearings, change to a valid weapon to dispatch monsters. Unfortunately, where DOOM 3 used this mechanic to effective and dramatic (and intense) effect, RoE uses it as a gimmick. There are lights almost everywhere and rarely will you find yourself in the dark wondering if you’re in any real type of danger. In RoE there are flashing lights everywhere, sirens blaring and monsters spawning out of nowhere behind you when you least (and most) expect them. When it’s quiet and dark, you just have to remember to turn around since there’ll be another “spawning” soon. And it’s not that RoE does anything blatantly wrong here, it’s just that after playing DOOM 3 and expecting more of the same, RoE feels different.

Resurrection of Evil does try to bring some new toys into the mix and these are what make it interesting enough to play through. The first and possibly most talked about is the Ionized Plasma Levitator or “The Grabber”. When you first see this one, you’ll have a moment of blissful realization; with the grabber, you can “grab” almost any loose object and hurl it where you like, anything from barrels (including those lovely flammable ones), boxes and oh yeah, fireballs that the Imps through at you. It’s a clever way to make fighting the same monsters seem fresh again. The only problem is that “The Grabber” is overly finicky against hurled fireballs and needs almost perfect timing to catch them. The other downside is that if you fight more than one Imp at a time, forget about catching anything... you may as well resort to the crappy handgun for stopping power.