I will admit that Doom 3 was not my favorite title of all time. Released about the same time as Half-Life 2, I found the HL world to be much more intelligent with a better plot and much more varied gameplay.
I liked Doom 3, but there were too many dark levels wandering around with a flashlight, and I hated the marine main character for not duct taping the darn light to the end of his gun.
However, with Resurrection of Evil, I kind of made my peace with Doom 3. It seems the developers have listened to the major complaints with the original title and fixed them.
The game takes off where Doom 3 left it, and this is an expansion pack so you will need the original game to play. The expansion adds more multiplayer levels, new weapons, new monsters and some new single player gameplay.
One of the best additions to the game is the double barrel shotgun. This weapon is very functional and much more powerful than the original combat shotgun. When you are being charged by groups of monsters, especially mid to low level ones, a quick blast from the shotgun will take them all down.
Ammo is also much more prevalent in the game. You still cant be doing stupid stuff like drawling smiley faces with bullets, but you likely won’t be running out of ammo at the wrong times either. In the original, you had to solve puzzles to open up locked cabinets just to get a clip or two.
To compensate for extra ammo, there are more monsters in the game. It is still nothing like the original Doom or Doom 2, but you won’t spend long periods wandering around without running into a pack of monsters.
There are also two special additions to the game. The first is called The Grabber. The Grabber is technically a tool and has unlimited uses. It lets you catch those fireballs that the imps toss at you and throw them back. This results in a one shot kill against imps and most other non-boss monsters. It is kind of difficult to use, but once you get used to it, your level progression will be much easier.
Also, there are now artifacts in the game, which kind of makes it more like Quake. These artifacts let you produce extra damage or slow down time. They have limited charges, but you can replace the charges along the way. You can also use the artifacts in concert with one another. So for a seemingly impossible room, it opens it up for an easy conquer.
Where the original Doom 3 was mostly an atmospheric horror type game, the expansion pack makes the game more like the original titles in the series. You have plenty of ammo, but more monsters. There is also less in the way of dark areas where you have to use the flashlight. In this manner, it is more like a traditional shooter.
You also learn a bit more about the daemons in the game, what they are after and what their plans are. While this is a bit of a spoiler, I found it helped explain the entire Doom world a bit better.
In all, I actually liked the expansion pack better than the original game. It did add some new elements to the shooter genre without sacrificing gameplay. If you liked Doom 3, you will like the expansion pack. If you did not like Doom 3, then there is a chance you might like the expansion pack anyway. It’s certainly worth the money. At only $20, its really a steal if you own the original game.