Last week, I was fortunate enough to see how iD and Vicarious Vision’s Doom 3 port for the Xbox was progressing, witness the new cooperative mode, and experience multiplayer deathmatch over system link and Xbox Live. For those living under a rock, Doom 3 was one of the hottest selling PC games of 2004’s holiday season, and now console gamers will finally be able to participate in this hell-induced fragfest. The key difference between the PC and the Xbox version of Doom 3 is the introduction of two-player cooperative single player. This will even bring the jaded PC-only gamers firmly rooted in their righteous keyboard/mouse WASD-centric lifestyle over to the “darkside” of the Xbox. Hosting and joining a game is a few simple button presses away. The host selects the level based on what they have unlocked, and after a short loading screen, you are spawned in the world together. Activision assured us that the monster AI and ammo pickups were re-tuned for two players, and from what I have witnessed, they delivered. If one player is attacking a creature and the second player fires a shot off, the creature will react and switch targets. I know what you're thinking, you could just juggle the enemy back and forth between players and not get attacked. Well, I tried this tactic and failed miserably, usually getting attacked right before they went for my friend. You will also notice that in many places, pickups will be double to accommodate your partner. Another thing you will notice is when you die, you will spawn a new item, the backpack. As your friend attempts to clear the room (hopefully they are still alive), you are sent back to the last checkpoint with absolutely nothing, except your pistol. When you have managed to catch up with your partner, you will see your glowing backpack where you died. Snatch it up, reclaim your gear that you had previously, and make your way to the next area. Co-op by far has me the most excited, and is easily worth the price of admission alone. Single player hasn’t changed too much from it’s PC counterpart. Graphically the game holds up exceedingly well on the Xbox, with all the bump-mapping goodness of the PC. The only thing that really differs is the way the levels are broken up. Vicarious Visions had to factor in the Xbox’s low memory footprint by chopping the levels and removing some of the more tedious hallways and non-action areas. You will hardly miss it. Also, some of the game seemed a bit brighter, but I seriously doubt that will bother anyone, as most people complained that the PC version was too dark (read: no duct tape mod necessary). Multiplayer deathmatch maps felt a tad bit smaller to me on the Xbox version for some reason. When playing the Tomiko Reactor map, I felt like the level did not have the same size and scope of the PC version. It wasn’t a huge deal, and the general feel of the other Deathmatch maps I played remained intact. Framerate was running at a consistent 30fps, which was great. Many of you might wonder how the controls were transferred from PC to Xbox. The control scheme I was using maps WASD to the left analog stick, mouse look on the right analog stick, switch weapons up and down with Y and B, jump with A, reload with X, toggle flashlight with the white button, run with left trigger (I prefer to have auto-run on for multi), and right trigger to fire. If you are a champ at Halo 2 right now, the controls will feel right at home after a few minutes of fragging. There will be two versions to choose from: the Limited Collector's Edition and the vanilla version. If you are a fan of the old Doom games, you will most likely salivate over the Collector's Edition, as it contains both Ultimate Doom and Doom II, which can be played over splitscreen, and are loads of fun. If you are a newbie and don’t even remember your 386, you might want to skip it. Watch out for that Hellknight and check back soon for a full review. April 4th cannot come soon enough! Questions or comments about the upcoming release of Doom 3 for the Xbox? Talk to us! [ E-Mail Seth Kleinberg ] [ Comment in our Forums ]

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