When I saw yesterday that the Doom 3 demo was out, and that it was available at my friendly Australian mirror, AusGamers, I was naturally intrigued and so 5 minutes later, thanks to the whopping 400+ KB/s download, I managed to whet my appetite with a taste of this long awaited game.

The verdict? I think it is very well done, and it almost brings a tear to my eye to think how far games have progressed over the years. When I think back to playing the King's Quest series some 8 years ago..wow, what a change, eh? Once all hell breaks loose in the game, the atmosphere is quite scary (then again, I am easily scared). Yes, maybe it's a bit cliched at times, but hey, those cliches really get me. Like when you enter a room and all the lights suddenly go out, and you're forced to put down your gun and instead take out your flashlight to see...and then you hear a noise coming from somewhere around you (usually behind you)! I usually lose it at this point and then take out my gun and start running, and if I see anything I begin wildly firing and screaming "DIE!" (well, not quite, but you get the picture).

Admittedly, the plot and atmosphere does feel like it was influenced by Half-Life. When you start off, everything's normal, but then all too soon things begin to go horribly, horribly wrong. But what's wrong with being influenced by one of the greatest FPS of our time, hmm? Gosh I loved Half-Life. Maybe I will install it once again and have a spin.

Unfortunately, the demo is not enough to judge whether the full game is worth it or not. For starters, I think it's ~20 hours of gameplay, which is not enough for today's greedy gamer (like me). Also, I am not sure whether the whole "there's something in the dark, but I can't see it!" feel wears thin after a while. But ya know what, I think this game is good for the industry. The way you can interact with computers seamlessly is neato, as is the PDA with video logs and emails. Of course, the pretty graphics are also a bad thing in some sense, because they may promote the idea that graphics = gold, which is quite an unhealthy attitude. Give me Ultima 7's isometric graphics and rich gameplay anyday!

Unfortunately for Doom 3, I think I shall purchase Half-Life 2 instead, just because I have a feeling it will have more depth. I could be wrong though (as always)!