Chances are good that if you owned a PC in the mid 1990's, you had played id software's stellar Doom series. Building upon the claustrophobic killing of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom pitted you against even more evil bastards than the Nazis: fiendish demonspawn straight from hell. The recipe seems simple to us now- FPS, add guns and chainsaw, a dollop of demons and a garnish of deathmatch goodness- but at the time it was a revolutionary series. Now, just shy of ten years since Doom 2, id are reinventing the wheel-of-death for a new generation with their latest title, the thoughtfully named Doom 3.

Vicarious Visions, the well known game-porters who brought Xbox owners Jedi Knight 2 and 3 are responsible for this gory and glorious Xbox incarnation of Doom 3. It must've been a grisly change of pace for the team responsible for porting things like Shrek and Shark's Tale to various platforms, but they've done a bloody good job, if you'll excuse the pun. For those of you somehow missed the hooplah surrounding the PC release or just didn't have the powerhouse rig required to run it, Doom 3 is the follow up to the aforementioned id software classics, but takes the series in a much darker direction. We mean that literally too: Doom 3 is one of the darkest games you'll ever not see much of, but then, you're not afraid of the dark, are you?

The story isn't a radical departure from the ab-norm; evil corporate wage-slaves unlock the gates to hell while experimenting with nasty technology, and the demonic hordes of Hades are only too pleased to accept their day-pass into daylight. It sounds simple, and on one level it is, but Doom 3 is at pains to flesh out the plot by providing heaps of ongoing back-story discoveries and other information to really immerse you in the world. Purists of the Doom series may be a little put off by this departure from the mindless massacre mentality of the previous games, but it actually helps Doom 3 to become a much stronger game.

Rather than just being another action FPS, Doom 3 has a survival-horror edge to it that makes for a fairly unique experience on Xbox. Admittedly when you boil it down to basics, the gameplay is still about big guns and bloody battles, but id and Vicarious Visions have done a great job of adding a whole lot of tension and terror to the experience. The darkness helps a lot, but you'll constantly be discovering new things via in-game PDA entries that usually aren't that far from the mangled remains of their previous owners. Thoroughly exploring the audio and text on new PDA's isn't really a game requirement- simply scanning them will get you through locked doors- but it adds a lot to the experience and can open up various locked cabinets and areas, as well as fleshing out characters and telling stories that you'd otherwise miss.

Mainly though, it just contributes to the sense of horror that permeates the game; these mutilated corpses aren't just sanguinary scenery, they're actual people with jobs, friends, family and lives. Prying through their final thoughts and moments is a macabre reminder that it's just you against the multitudes of Hell, and when you do occasionally stumble across a living soul, there's a feeling of relief, no matter how short lived it usually is. Most of the real scares come from jump moments- pipes exploding, doors banging open, or more commonly- evil creatures spawning in from Hell itself or bursting out of the darkness. It's an effective design at first, and the earlier levels of the game are truly some of the scariest few hours you'll experience in front of your Xbox (or behind the couch if that's where you end up!)

The problem here is that it becomes repetitive and predictable fast; after a few tense levels, you'll come to expect something to jump out or a loud noise, and it becomes commonplace rather than fear-inducing. This is more pronounced with item pickups- you know that if you go for that full suit of armour, a bunch of bad stuff will happen, but you do it anyway. It becomes a sort of reverse Pavlov's dog effect, and while it never ruins the game, it does get a little tiresome. Not only that, but as you get bigger and better weapons, enemy encounters become less difficult as well, although the larger foes will always give you a run for your money.

On the plus side, all your favourite weapons have returned for Doom 3, so expect to carve it up with the chainsaw, punch holes in your foes with the shotgun and of course vapourise your foes with the BFG. All the weapons have a use in the game, and while ammo isn't always abundant, it's never so scarce that you'll have to conserve it like a miser. All up there's around a dozen weapons, each with their own pros and cons, and experimenting with them is a lot of fun! The controls have translated quite well to a hand controller, the only complaint being that the PDA access button is right next to the torch, so it isn't too hard to press the wrong button at potentially lethal times. Other than that though, the responsiveness is good and the layout is intuitive.

Fans will be happy to see a lot of familiarly ugly faces, but there are plenty of new surprises too. The enemies look fantastic, and so does killing them, which usually results in copious arterial sprays and litres of blood staining the level. The graphics are simply stunning- from the enemies to the architecture you will be amazed that you're playing this game on Xbox and not a $3000 gaming PC. Half-Life 2 on Xbox is going to have to work damn hard to be able to trump this conversion! That said, it's an extremely dark game, so playing it in a well-lit room or during the day can be a nuisance that requires bumping up the brightness, which really spoils the effect.

The darkness is a crucial aspect to the game, and the shadows are rich and opaque, requiring some pretty heavy use of the torch. Unfortunately, the PC modification that allowed the pistol to be used in tandem with the torch didn't make it onto the Xbox, so expect to be switching between the torch and weapon a frustrating amount of times. The only noticeable change from the PC is that the torch doesn't cast real-time shadows, which is a shame, but you'll hardly notice.

What you will notice is that if you strip away the story elements, Doom 3 is a pretty straightforward game. Exploration is limited, and while the game doesn't feel totally linear, it does come across as quite restrictive. This is enhanced by the claustrophobic indoor environments that make up around 90% of the game. There's a decent variety of locations at least though, so you shouldn't get bored of your surroundings, and you'll always be on your toes scanning for concealed enemies or waiting for the surprise attack that you *know* is just around the corner'or the next one.

Doom 3 is a solid experience though, and should take most players around 15 hours of hair-raising play to battle their way through to the end. The Normal difficult provides an alright challenge, while easy is an absolute cakewalk, but thankfully Nightmare difficulty can be unlocked and that is one Hell of an experience! It's worth revisiting the singleplayer game just to try out this insanely challenging difficulty mode, but being a fairly linear game, you shouldn't expect a whole new experience the second time around.

One of Doom 3's biggest drawcards is the inclusion of co-operative play for the campaign mode of the game. Co-op can be played via System Link, and more importantly, online via Xbox Live. It's a great addition to the title, although the game loses a lot of its scare-factor when you team up. Thankfully this isn't replaced by frustration, because co-op works extremely well over Live. Voice-chat is crystal clear, and on your average 512/128 broadband connection, there's virtually no lag or slowdown, which is a huge plus. Nor is co-operative mode just the singleplayer game with a second marine; certain areas have been redesigned and trimmed down to provide a more action-oriented experience for partnered pugilism. It's significantly shorter than the solo campaign, but flows much better as a result: there's less reading, less back-tracking and the game even acknowledges that there are two people involved, which is a nice touch. On the whole, co-op provides a very different experience to singleplayer, and is definitely worth a few runs through with your Live buddies.

Of course the game that popularised the phrase 'deathmatch' simply has to include such a mode, and it feels pretty alien compared to the normal game. You'll move much faster to begin with, but the four-player maximum makes even the smaller maps feel a bit empty at times. Naturally, slow suspense and lurking horror goes out the window in favour of speedy action and adrenaline pumping versus play. Still, it's good fun with a few mates to kill an hour or so, or just warm up for an all-nighter with Halo 2, but Doom 3's adversarial mode won't really hold your attention for long. There's only a small range of maps though, but they're well designed and filled with traps and places to hide. It's a nice inclusion, but it does feel like a bit of an afterthought.

What isn't just an afterthought are the great extras packed into the Collector's Edition of the game. Most notably, Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 have been included for nostalgic benefit, and both play out as good as they did all those years ago. Using the Xbox controller is simple, and the original sound effects appear to be replaced with their meatier, higher quality Doom 3 counterparts, adding a bit more bang for your buck. What's extra cool is the ability to play both titles in multiplayer split-screen, which also works well. Unlike most super-limited-collector's-ultimate edition fluff, these are excellent additions, making the Limited Edition of Doom 3 well worth picking up.