Ten years is a long time in this industry. It was ten years ago that Doom was first unleashed to an unsuspecting public, at a time when the gaming world was just clawing its way out of the bedroom coding dark ages and into the multi million pound industry it is today. A lot has happened since; gaming has become bigger than Hollywood, technology has increased to allow far greater freedom for developers to make even more beautiful looking games and we've been treated to many groundbreaking games that have evolved ideas and shaped the industry into what it is today. Doom now is looking like a slightly older grandparent, something that's still got good stories to tell but doesn't have the influence it once did.

What makes Doom the classic it's since been remembered as, is that it was one of the earliest first person shooters to push the boundaries of the genre [And arguably giving birth to it - Ed]. The graphics, the tense atmosphere, the excitement; it showed everybody what could be achieved when developers took risks and broke away from routine. This second sequel has been a long time coming, with the Doom franchise since being superseded by a variety of newer, younger games, and rightly so. It seems appropriate that Doom 3 should be released now, at a time when the FPS is as big as it's ever been. Appropriate perhaps, but this venture will doubtfully be remembered as the classic its predecessors were.

Let's start with the blindingly obvious first; the graphics. Yes, even if you've not been up to speed on Doom 3 news and previews, chances are you'll have at least seen its stunning graphics in some form or another and, yes, they are as impressive in the game as they are in screenshots and video clips. It should be no surprise, as the first showing of the game was to demonstrate the power of 3D cards some two or three years ago and surprisingly, despite its age and increasing competition from games like the recent hit Far Cry, Doom 3 still manages to be the most impressive game of the year. Near flawless in its presentation, this game never fails to look visually stunning.

You're greeted from the outset with blindingly smooth textures, with no flaws, glitches or hidden faults that are the usual bugbear of many of today's games. Here the graphics are fluid, flowing throughout with nary an out of place joint or off-putting anomaly. It's amazing how good these graphics look and it's obvious that id have spent a long time creating, nurturing and improving the visuals since the games first appearance. What will impress you the most however, are the amazing shadow and lighting effects. Lighting is something Doom 3 takes in its stride, not even more recent efforts that have impressed in this field come close to the realism in the lighting effects here. This in turn produces some amazing shadows of objects that happen to find themselves in front of a light source, something that is used frighteningly well in creating scares later in the game - a common occurrence being a great big hulking shadow from around the corner, only for it to turn out to be a creature half the size.

Character models also bustle with fine detail and though the human models can appear a bit leathery (particularly the zombies) they look and move with the exact same gusto we've come to expect from these next generation first person shooters. It's the creatures that will impress in this area however, not only in the way they are designed but also in the way the move and interact with the surroundings (more on this later). But stunning though the graphics are, Doom 3 still manages to be one of the darkest, most claustrophobic games to be released this year.

Like a direct opposite to this year's Far Cry, instead of having wide open, lush looking greenery, Doom 3 puts you in a science base, with corridor after corridor of pipes, grime and metal. It's for a reason though, as the levels have been designed in a way to make you feel uncomfortable, trapped in an environment you can't possibly escape from and with no hiding places for you to sit and wait until things quietly blow over. One of the first big advancements you'll notice is that Doom 3 isn't merely just a shooter; it's also a part horror game that plays with your fears like a cat plays with a terrified mouse.

Though officially a sequel, there is a lot here that reeks of remake. The game is again set on a science research base on Mars, owned by a multi billion-dollar corporation called UAC and you are yet again put in the shoes of a lowly space marine who has to fight his way through all sorts of nastiness. To keep up with the ever-changing needs of gamers, Doom 3 this time comes with a proper, fully-fledged story, based loosely on the events that took place in the first game. Here UAC seem to have been involved in some shady goings on, causing many strange things to happen in the base, which has in turn caused a lot of problems with employees, many of who seek to be transferred away from Mars. You play as a nameless, voiceless marine, sent to the base to replace other personnel accompanied by a sinister looking senator and his Schwarzenegger type bodyguard.

Id have obviously been paying a great deal of attention to the FPS genre for many years, seeing as the game doesn't just plonk you straight into the thick of the action as soon as your feet get off the dropship; instead things start slowly, with an introductory level not too unlike the beginning of Half-Life. You can chat to fellow workers, eavesdrop on conversations and generally just do a bit of exploring before everything goes to hell. Even in these early stages of the game, there's an uncomfortable atmosphere about the place. Scientists mumbling to themselves about missing personnel, stories shared about strange voices and noises; it's clear from the outset that what you're listening to is something you'll eventually have to face head on and very soon. Once you are assigned to your first mission (find a missing scientist in an old part of the Martian Base) things take a turn for the worst, as the UAC's experiment into teleportation technology somehow taps into hell, spewing out all kinds of demonic creatures that quickly turn on the human inhabitants.

Story wise, plot details aren't forced down your throat; there are no mammoth twenty minute cut scenes here, merely short, minute-long segments that introduce new creatures or the next section of the game. Doom 3 isn't driven by a story, it's an action game and one that doesn't have time for Hollywood scripted sequences. But a story is there, one that is presented to the gamer in a way that they can explore themselves.

The PDA, the next new introduction to the Doom world, is your portal to not only the listed objectives, but also a storage area for other people's PDAs that you'll find littered around the base. These little devices give you a great deal of insight into the events that lead up to the catastrophe you are now caught in, giving you access to video logs, e-mails and audio recordings that go into detail about the UAC's many nefarious deeds. These however provide a more practical function concerning secrets.

Onto big addition number three. In the old Doom games, secret rooms containing all sorts of goodies where hidden in the walls, leading to many an hour spent walking alongside corridors, tapping the space bar in the hope that one such room would present itself. Now for this modern re-imagining, secrets are put into big lockers, always in plain sight and easy to spot, but just so you're not given all the advantages, each locker is sealed with a key code. Quite brilliantly, key codes are stored in the personal e-mails and audio logs of peoples PDAs, forcing you to go listen, read and pay attention to the plot while trying to keep an eye and ear out for those hidden combinations. Is this a cheap way to get people interested in the story? Maybe, but it's a vast improvement on the old method and is perhaps the only area of the game with consistent puzzles.

Yep, you heard me right, finding key codes for padlocks is about as complex as puzzles get in this game. In keeping with its roots, Doom 3 is every bit the shooter its granddaddy was ten years ago. From the offset you have one method of survival - kill anything that moves. The opening is suitably chaotic, as the slow paced exploration becomes a full blown invasion, screams from other marines can be heard over the radio, workers you passed a few corridors back now come to hunt you down in their undead form, while all kinds of strange noises and paranormal sights invade spaces that where only a few minutes ago calm and peaceful. In the fine tradition of 'things that go bad', this is a situation that gets a whole lot worse before it starts to get better.

And it does get worse; the slow trickle of slow moving zombies and undead marines is a precursor to the bigger, nastier creatures that make an appearance later on. Again, many of the creatures are recycled from the first Doom and while you'll recognise certain things about each one, some have been given a complete facelift. Take the Imps for example, once merely a human-sized goblin type creature that threw fireballs at you is now a six-feet tall insect like being with ten eyes. It has the same attack, though it moves frighteningly faster and also has the tendency to jump great distances to rip chunks of health off of you. Zombies are now varied, from the slow moving undead scientists who skulk in the shadows, pouncing on you when you get too close, to faster marine zombies who use cover and weaponry. Other familiars that make an appearance include the rocket-launching Revenant, the flame-throwing Archville, the Cacodemon, Lost Souls and the Mancubus.

The Hell Knight is another returning creature to get a complete face lift, once a foul looking demon who occasionally came in invisible form, the Hell Knight now is a huge, lumbering beast with a gaping jaw and fearsome attack. It makes an appearance later in the game, thankfully due to its strength and powerful attack it is perhaps the biggest change to Doom's enemy roster and also perhaps one of the scariest. But we aren't just treated to re-emergence of past foes, there are some fresh faces added to the mix as well, such as the spider like Trite that attack in swarms and hide in all sorts of small places, just waiting for you step by, the Pinky Demon, most recognisable from early videos of the game, is now a huge four-legged bull like creature that shakes the screen as it runs and has a powerful charge attack, and then you are treated to the truly freaky creatures such as the half-cherub, half-insect monsters that sound as spine tingling as they look.

The Doom games were always part horror; scary at the time, the games had an unsettling atmosphere together with perfectly placed sound effects and creepily designed enemies to fight, so it's no surprise that Doom 3 plays as much as a horror game as it does a shooter. From the beginning, the game sets up a chilling atmosphere, whether it's from stories muttered by science staff about ghostly goings on or the darkly lit corridors of the UAC base. Two types of scare tactics are used in the game; the first is the most noteworthy because it's the one that frightens the most, namely the atmosphere.

The most important aspect of creating a horror game is to create a tense atmosphere - it's no good trying to scare people if you haven't built up the right kind of atmosphere - and thankfully it's something that Doom manages with great effect. The game mixes the use of sound and playing on your fear of the dark to create some truly nerve-wracking moments. The sound of zombies you can only hear, creeping out of the dark corners of the room you just entered is a prime example and it's made even worse by the fact that the game doesn't allow you to carry a torch at the same time as you carry a gun, meaning if you want to see what's lurking in the dark you have to disarm yourself for a moment. Noises and voices are a thing that genuinely do send a shiver down your spine; the faint whisper of someone calling out to you, or the scuttling of creatures you can hear just around the next corner, Doom is a game that likes to play with your fears, though as scary as the game can be at times, it's not quite a successful horror game.

This is due mainly to the other scare tactics used, namely the cheap shots. If it's not creeping you out then the game is more likely making you jump and jumpy scary is in no way as effective as psychological scary. Unfortunately this tactic is used far too often. Opening doors to have an imp suddenly pounce on you and chew a huge chunk of health off of you, yes you do jump but you also tend to get annoyed that after replenishing your health from a few medic packs in one room, you then have half of it taken away again by a monster hiding behind the door.

The more you progress, the more the scares become less effective at picking at your nerves. The game is fairly mechanical and the constant spawning in of creatures that you have to kill quickly diminishes any sense of foreboding. There are some nice touches here and there, such as the way some creatures interact with their surroundings, imps clawing their way over railings or smashing through floor panels and crawling from underground vents, though the fact that such events feel scripted and that it only appears to be imps who are capable of this, means that seeing such things isn't common and eventually just feels like another way for enemies to attack you.

Still, Doom was primarily about killing hell spawn more than it was about being scary and Doom 3 certainly doesn't stray too much from this. It's a shooter and a sequel to a game that practically invented the genre, so it's no real surprise to find that the game is heavy on the action and light on the puzzles. Repetitive? You'd better believe it; the game follows a predictable pattern of walking through calm corridors before killing groups of creatures that have an unwelcome tendency to spawn in all around you. This is the only disappointment in the entire game, not so much in the way you are forced to kill waves of enemies, as recent FPS are certainly not shy of that, but it's the way they constantly spawn left, right and centre.

There is no consistency either, as enemies are either placed in specific locations or beam in directly to your location, again and again. It's not uncommon to be faced with one particularly nasty creature and in an attempt to retreat by running backwards and laying down covering fire do you run into yet another that's appeared behind you. Later, as the spawning becomes more frequent, the fear of the unknown, the strange noises and the dark atmosphere are replaced by a fear of not knowing where and when the next batch of monsters is going to appear. The game becomes less of a fight for survival and more of a hide and seek campaign, with you cowering in the corner because what little health you have left will surely be taken away by the increasing number of creatures spawning in.

You do have plenty of tools to defend yourself with though, again in keeping with the game's setting and enemies, Doom 3's weapons are mix of returning oldies with one or two new additions. The pistol, shotgun, pulse gun, rocket launcher and the BFG 9000 all make a welcome return, all fully remodelled and lacking in modern attachments such as secondary fire and the obligatory sniper rifle scope. While some weapons are fairly useless - the pistol, the hand grenades and even the rocket launcher pale to other more effective weapons - some are perfect for the constant monster killing. The shotgun is the weapon that was invented by Doom, so it's no surprise to find that it's the most effective at taking down Lucifer's minions. The tight corridors mean that this mid range weapon is more than capable of handling even the biggest of enemies, even though it's saddled by slow reloading.

Other weapons like the chain gun and pulse guns are excellent long range weapons that unfortunately don't get the same generous helping of ammunition as the shotgun, though their power makes them formidable combatants against Doom 3's bigger, more powerful creatures. And you can't mention a Doom game without mentioning the unique weapons. The BFG is back, the most powerful weapon in the game that has a devastating attack and huge range, bogged down by ammunition that's very hard to come by. The chainsaw also makes its appearance here, a surprisingly effective close range tool that's an absolute riot to use against zombies, some of who use the chainsaw themselves against you. The only other big new addition to the arsenal, aside from the slightly inaccurate machine gun, is the Soul Cube, something that comes very late in the game and whose attack can only be used when it signals you to do so. It's odd but very powerful.

Many of the weapons work best because of the tightly designed corridors of the levels. Here the recent spate of wide-open, go-as-you-please environments are replaced by levels that are as linear as you can get. Endless corridors, darkly lit rooms and small air vents; at first it's quite a sight to see Doom 3's graphics in action but after a while you begin to take things for granted as you pass through samey looking areas with the similar basic designs. But the level design is far from boring, as there are areas that never fail to impress; huge automated machinery doing who knows what, complicated in design, it's simply amazing to see such equipment in action, with huge reactors, giant lasers, robotic arms collecting samples for some unknown research purpose, they are impressive sights and show the game's graphics and lighting to their fullest.

As you progress the levels become less predictable and more creative. While a little late in the game, certain areas towards the end are visually stunning, if a little morbid. It's not a pretty sight seeing hell consume the doomed UAC base, with giant bloodied tentacles reaching into the base as if hell itself is pouring into the real world. There is even a short field trip to hell, which admittedly has a few too many similarities to the final sections of Half-Life (long since considered to be the weakest parts of that game) but it a showcase for some of the game's most impressively designed levels.

Doom 3's multiplayer is fairly basic, a little bit unsurprising seeing as much of the game is essentially the same as the original, and the original Doom was one of the earliest FPS games to have multiplayer support. Here you get the basics of Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Last Man Standing and Tournament modes, none of the new-fangled vehicles many online shooters get these days, here it's about quick combat where the emphasis is on fast-paced, one-on-one skirmishes. Maybe not the most comprehensive of multiplayer games but those who were there in the beginning, or those who proffer smaller, more confined online fights, should find this area of the game to be more than adequate.

So there it is. Ten years of advancement for a game that feels and plays very much like its original did ten years earlier. Those looking for something new, or something that pushes the boundaries that the original Doom did all that time ago, will be disappointed. Here is a game that doesn't try to be anything groundbreaking and it was never hyped as such; it's just a beautiful looking shooter that provides the same addictive, gung-ho game that made the original so much fun to play. In this day and age maybe that's not enough; it really depends on what you look for in your FPS. Doom 3 is a furious, fast paced action game with an intriguing story, gorgeous graphics and some excellent level design. If you crave more than that, wait for Half-Life 2; the rest however can lap this one up. It'll doubtfully be remembered as a classic but it's a fun, scary ride while it lasts.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).