DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil (RoE) is the first expansion pack to last year’s DOOM 3. RoE picks up the same storyline as the original, but a year or so after the events in DOOM 3. The Union Aerospace Corporation base known as Mars City has been off-limits since its near destruction at the hands of hell-spawned demons. However, the UAC has established an archeological dig at the site of the ancient civilization discovered by the previous scientific group sent to Mars. You are once again a marine sent to investigate strange goings on at the site, and no sooner do you get there than you unwittingly grab an alien artifact that once again unleashes the demons of hell. Making matters worse, a demonic Dr. Betuger wants the artifact and has sent three demonic hunters to track it down. RoE assumes that you know the full story behind DOOM 3 and so there’s not as much set-up and background as in the original. There are a few video disks and PDA entries to be found, but story is not as big a component of RoE as it is in DOOM 3. You can pretty much just concentrate on killing demons until there’s no more left to kill.

Once again you find yourself moving through a dark science facility, shooting demons that materialize out of thin air … so what’s new with this expansion? First of all you have access to a couple of new weapons. The first is a double-barreled shotgun that may be slow to load but carries quite a wallop. Many demons become one-shot kills when you’ve got this baby in hand. The real star of the show though is the grabber. This is more of a tool by design than a weapon, but it becomes deadly in your hands. Basically the grabber uses a force field to pick up and throw objects around. Aim it at an object, pull the trigger, aim, and the release the trigger to send the object flying. You can grab ammo and armor that sits out of reach, pick up an exploding barrel and fling it at a demon, or even, and this is one of the coolest features of the grabber, catch fireballs thrown by demons in midair and send the fireballs right back at them. The grabber is also a way to show off the game’s graphics and physics engines. The grabber causes a warp shimmer when turned on in an effect that makes it look as if you are looking through very hot air. The physics engine comes into play as you release objects and send them bouncing off the floor and walls. It’s so cool that once you get the grabber you’ll just want to play with it for a bit and not be bothered by annoying demons.

Remember that artifact that caused all of this trouble in the first place? Well, it’s got a few cool features of its own. Each time you defeat a hunter the artifact grows more powerful and gains a new power. The first of these powers is Hell Time (aka Bullet Time) which lets you slow down time for everyone except yourself. The net effect is that everything moves in slow motion while you continue to move and fire at normal speed. The next power is Berserker, which pumps up your offensive power, and this is followed by Invulnerability, which makes you impervious to enemy attacks.

The new powers and weapons make RoE play differently than the original game. In the original DOOM 3 survival was a matter of simply firing enough shells into each demon as it made its way right for you. Now there are other ways to dispatch the demons and this opens up a range of tactical options for each fight. Do you fire the machine gun, use the grabber to fling an exploding barrel, or use hell time to slow a demon while you blow him away with one shot from your double-barreled shotgun? By opening up your tactical options, RoE injects more excitement into the game and cures DOOM 3 of its occasional bouts of monotony.

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