by jason - April 17, 2005

Eight months after the much awaited arrival of Doom 3, the folks at id Software finally get around to delivering the �end� of the story that they either A) forgot to tack on, or B) decided to save, in order to renew interest in the nearly year-old third installment of the series. After playing through this �expansion�, I�m likely to believe it is the latter of the two choices. RoE begins nearly two years after the ending of Doom 3, with your nameless Marine being sent this time, to Site 1, a UAC facility that had been forgotten about since long before the denizens of Hell decided to pay UAC�s Mars base a visit.
Typically enough, you�re responding to a �faint signal�, when all hell breaks loose�and we�re off to the races again. Here at GamePlasma, we�ve tried to provide a �Hell� of a review.

To Hell With This.

In Doom 2, when you walked into a room, you saw all the monsters. RIGHT THERE in front of you. And you got to dispatch them�usually in a hurry, preferably before they dispatched you. Seldom did you open that yellow door, to see an armor power-up sitting all by it�s lonesome in the middle of the room. When you did see that green piece of armor, you could be assured of a few Cacodemons or the like being there to stop you from getting it. The guys at id got it ass-backwards this time though�first in Doom 3, then the RoE expansion.
Resurrection of Evil brings back that annoying �If you pick up the armor, 10 more monsters spawn behind you� (well maybe not ten, but you get the idea,) idea from Doom 3. By the game�s midpoint, I simply didn�t bother collecting every bit of armor I saw, because if I had, there was a 90% chance I�d have less armor than I started with before picking up the extra shards because of the damned monsters that kept popping up behind me.
The other niggling issue I had was with the PDA-driven story. The PDAs were even less relevant in RoE because the story was, for the most part, advanced via radio by Dr. McNeil. Even so, id stuck to trying to make everyone else in the base seem interesting (because lets face it, your Marine isn�t) by giving you tidbits, voice memos, and emails from their final days. Suggestion: Try giving the main character a wee bit more personality than that of a turnip next time, and you won�t have to try so hard with everyone else.

Hell yes, it�s pretty.

If not dead-even (heh. Dead. Get it?) with Half-Life 2, Doom 3: RoE comes damn close in the graphics department. Doom 3, was the best looking Doom yet, (and why not, since there was what, 10 years, between Doom 2 and today?) and the expansion pack provides more of that same visual bliss without missing a beat. They were still so nice, in fact, I caught myself staring at the monsters as they attacked me, and admiring the work that went into creating them, instead of happily blasting them to pieces with the newly-returned-to-the-arsenal Super Shotgun (I don�t know why they didn�t call it that in the game). The one-shot-one-gooey-monster-shaped-splatter goodness of the SSG was a welcome addition, considering the other two �new� weapons were a giant, soul-absorbing, �heart-with-a-grip-and-trigger�, and �the Grabber,� a gravity-based tool you can use to catch fireballs or flaming skulls, and lob them in the direction they came. It�s a shame that it�s inclusion leaves the slightest taste of �They went and ripped off HL2� in my mouth, because it�s a very handy weapon, and the air-distortion effect the thing creates is pretty cool to stare at too.

Hell-acious Racket.

It seems that with great graphics, comes great sound. Rarely have I seen one without the other. Resurrection of Evil is no exception to this rule. The roars made by monsters as they spawned behind me, and the footsteps of the little zombie soldiers as they ran headfirst into the thunder of my Super Shotgun (usually followed by an equally nice sounding splatter, I might add), helped to add to the overall creepiness of the game in such a way that made me giggle like�well�a double-barreled shotgun-wielding maniac.

A Hell of a Way to Kill Time.

The first part of the game---before you get to the Phobos labs---is quite the amusing romp, but once you get to the mid-point, things go from a gradual ramping up of hostilities, to Mount-freaking-Everest levels of irritation and replay. Some people like that sort of thing. I�m not one of them.
I could also go off on a long-winded diatribe about how linear, basic, and plotless the game and the expansion are as a whole, but I won�t bother. After all, it�s Doom. Doom has always equaled good, old-fashioned, corridor-dashing, monster-splattering, fun. And provided you don�t expect some epic storyline to go with the pretty graphics and excellent audio, then you�ll be fine.

Aww, What the Hell.

It's the grand-pappy of first-person-shooters, and survival horror. How can I give it anything but a 10?

Hell yes...You should buy this.

In conclusion, I�m going to give RoE a decent mark, for one reason. It�s more Doom. And if it�s going to look this pretty, sound this good, and only slightly annoy me overall, I�ll wander to MY Doom with a smile on.