How the hell (no pun intended) did Vicarious Visions get DOOM 3 to run so well on the Xbox?
When id Software released DOOM 3 to a hungry PC crowd, I had no idea I would have the horsepower to run it so smoothly. In fact, it ran even better than the overrated Half Life 2. Still, too many whiners complained the game was too linear. What they never could understand was that DOOM 3 was NOT a sequel, but rather a retelling of the original story. These were the same types who complained about the new Battlestar Galactica just because Starbuck was made a female.
However, for those like myself who gave DOOM 3 a fighting chance, it turned out to be an experience in terror that I have never seen in any past shooter. What made the game so scary was its immersive atmosphere: a claustrophobic environment so dimly lit that anything could hide around the corner. The tension is heightened further thanks to the new graphics engine that John Carmack designed, taking full advantage of light and shadow.
Still, that would be expected to run on a 2+ GHz Pentium IV/Athlon XP computer with either a GeForce FX or Radeon X800 video card, but how is it possible that it will run on an Xbox with it’s 733 MHz P3 and nVidia chipset?
Surprisingly DOOM3 on the Xbox not only looks like its PC counterpart, but it actually runs smoother. While the frame rate only goes as high as 30 (compared to 60 for the PC), there is almost no breakup at all. Even when facing the Guardian (with its light-emitting Seekers), a boss which brought my PC to its knees, the battle ran flawlessly on the Xbox.
However, to maintain such an impressive feat, it’s obvious there had to be some cuts in the final PC code. Some stages were literally cut in half, but load times are almost nonexistent, taking only a few seconds as opposed to about a minute on my PC.
In addition, other elements were changed or removed altogether. This can be observed at the very beginning, right before entering Mars City. On the PC the whole sequence is done in real time, allowing you to observe the Darkstar dropship from overhead, as well as looking at the monitors during your bioscan upon entry. However on the Xbox, this whole sequence is executed as a non-interactive cutscene. It does streamline the experience, and those who have never played the PC version will never notice.
Despite the console edits, the rest of the game plays the same as it did on the PC, shooting your way through the Mars complex as you pick up PDAs to obtain security codes and learn about what Dr. Betruger was really up to, and eventually find out the true purpose of the mysterious SoulCube.
While most people will be used to a keyboard and mouse setup for DOOM 3, those familiar with Halo 2 will feel quite at home with the controls. The layout is a carbon copy. A nice addition is the ability to use the D-pad to quick swap between four weapons. The white and black buttons are also used to hotswap between the flashlight and the PDA respectively.
As mentioned, the visuals on DOOM 3 were amazing on the PC, but on the Xbox, they are absolutely mind boggling. Not even the Chronicles of Riddick (which I claimed as a possible idea of what DOOM 3 would look like), can compare to the final result. The fact that Vicarious Visions were able to squeeze so much horsepower into the Xbox is a feat in itself.
And that goes for the audio as well. While the PC version was designed to be the first PC title to take full advantage of 5.1 sound, I was unable to experience it because of my soundcard (an antiquated Sound Blaster Live). But on the Xbox, not only did I experience full 5.1 sound, the effect brought chills down my spine. Environmental audio never sounded this good in the past.
A seasoned first person shooter vet should be able to finish DOOM 3 in about 15-20 hours, but new to the Xbox is the ability to go through some of the areas with a partner on Xbox Live. Just this ability alone, in addition to the basic multiplayer options (Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Tournament, and Last Man Standing), make DOOM 3 Xbox worthy of replay value.
For true fans of the series, there is also a Limited Collector’s Edition available. Not only do you get the full single player game and Xbox Live options, there is concept art, interviews with the creative staff behind the game, the G4 feature about the making of DOOM 3, and PC perfect versions of Ultimate DOOM and DOOM 2: Hell on Earth. Not only are these games PC perfect, but they ran at a speed never thought of before on my old 486. Now if only they replaced Ultimate DOOM with Final DOOM it would be the complete anthology.
I don’t know how they did it, but Vicarious Visions deserves accolades for their hard work. Not only does DOOM 3 equal the standards brought by the PC version, it ranks up there with Halo 2 (despite that game’s horrid ending) and Return to Wolfenstein: Tides of War as the best 1st person shooters available on the Xbox. My only request is that they will also release the recent PC expansion Resurrection of Evil as a possible Xbox Live download. It will be well worth the download cost.