Together the team that makes up Just Adventure + is an unstoppable death machine. We've destroyed dragons, battled werewolves and gone head-to-head with all manner of evil, despicable nasty things... Superman hasn't got anything on us. But unlike most other superheroes we don't use brute strength or special powers - we've got the mighty power of THE FINGER. Yes, with the finger we are gods, saving the world again and again with a few swift clicks of a button! Dracula? Pah! We scoff at your infinite power and smite you with our incredible logic-based puzzling skills!

The only problem, as I'm sure it is with most of you, give us a gun and a couple of extra control keys and we're done for – a whimpering mass of jello. Which brings me neatly into JA+'s review of Doom 3. Yes - the game that started it all, or at least made teenagers lose interest in our beloved adventure genre in favor of straight-forward gunplay and all manner of advanced weaponry. Doom was a pretty basic game, but there's no denying its impact. 3D action gaming had been done before, some might argue better, but Doom brought it all to a head. The story, if you could call it that, pitted one marine on Mars against the entire legions of Hell.

Which, as it happens, pretty much sums up the plot of the third game in the series.

Now, this is going to be a little tricky. An adventure-centric review of Doom 3? CAN IT BE DONE?! Well, I'm going to attempt it – we at Just Adventure are, after all, known for deviating from the standard - and I'll begin by stating that I actually really enjoyed it.

"BUT WHY?!" I hear you all scream as if possessed. Surely I should be slagging it off for being so damn basic? Because basic is really what it is, as Doom 3 is possibly the least original shooter released this year. The enemy AI is standard but effective, the guns are big and beefy and it's basically a case of running around and pulling the trigger. The enemy spawn left, right, center, above, below - always keeping you on your toes and, somewhat annoyingly, always after you've picked up a much-needed item...

"AHA!" You cry. "A health pack! Well, no-one's here so..."

*Sound of Hell Spawn arriving behind you and slashing you to ribbons*

...pretty much sums it up. Some gamers will find it extremely annoying. Others will be gripped to the screen. I was pretty much halfway between the two, stalking the corridors in bursts of an hour or two, which I found broke up what could possibly get quite tedious.

More extraordinary, is that despite the nearly-inadequate gameplay, I was gripped. Doom 3 drips atmosphere from every oozing pore. The enemies are incredibly designed and animated to a tee and initially the backgrounds are really quite amazing. The amount of detail astounds - the first time I went to a monitor to have my cursor change into a pointer onscreen made me gasp. Hey, that sounds pathetic, but its really quite something when you remain in the same view and interact with a monitor in 3D without a cutaway.

The acting, voiceovers and character models are very detailed and the initial half-hour truly gives you the feeling that Mars City, your starting point, is very much alive. Droids scuttle around beneath your feet, spacecraft hover in the air and animated monitors bombard you with information. You feel as though you've stepped through your monitor into a science fiction movie.

Then the Hellspawn hits and you're thrown into the core of the game with some jaw-dropping visual effects and a swift kick up the jacksie by a zombie....

As you go along, the environment hardly changes for the first half of the game beyond grimy industrial tech corridors. That sounds pretty boring and it could be... but luckily it's broken up by panicky moments outside in Mars' atmosphere, some clever yet disturbing in-game cut-scenes and some absolutely incredible machinery. Doom 3 proves how scenery can be brought to life and if anything invites ideas as to what kind of interactive adventure it's engine - developed by id software - could create. The levels set in Hell are even more amazing - scenery wraps around itself, walls collapse and reform, seas of fire swirl with heat haze and mysterious shapes curl around each other into the sky. I just thought - sod the gameplay, this is what its all about. Showing off... and really, that's pretty much what kept me going.

What also helped were the PDA messages, a system pretty much directly ripped-off from the superior System Shock 2. The world of the Mars base is brought to life through mundane emails, PDA-based puzzles (which I found surprising in a Doom game, but more on that later), company-created commercial videos and very-well handled voice diaries. The one that stuck in the mind the most was coming across a message from a soldier trapped in Hell. It made me feel really quite lonely, and it's effect was such I had to stop playing for fear of freaking out.

Yet despite that one moment, the main problem with Doom 3 is its unwillingness to sustain tension. Even though the atmosphere is very well created, with pulsating fleshy sores poking into hi-tech rooms filled with macabre imagery, the constant bombardment of enemies breaks up what could be a really scary game. Compared to the Silent Hills, or better yet System Shock 2, it just doesn't really dig in. A couple of misplaced in-jokes also serve to break up the immersion.

I got the feeling that Doom 3, strangely, would work better as an adventure broken up by action rather than an all-out action game. Its cinematic style would suit a more sedate horror title, the amount of detail put into the (very) basic story being nearly as much as your average adventure. The fact that your main character has less charisma than Michael Winner and never speaks doesn't help either - it almost comes off as an "action Myst".

Which got me thinking... Ubisoft, license this engine for the next Myst title after Myst IV: Revelations and I'm sold. The interaction of the machines and monitors, through the odd puzzle which breaks up the combat (don't get excited, they're very basic), reminded me of the eponymous series and I found myself lamenting the lack of truly serious noggin-scratchers. Much as adventure titles with actions sequences are often seriously misplaced, Doom 3's cerebral efforts felt very half-hearted and only served to point out its gameplay inadequacies.

Yet despite my problems with its repetitive nature and basic gunplay, I found Doom 3 had a lot to offer for an adventure player willing to dip their toes into an FPS - but only through the atmosphere and detail. If you can put up with endless enemies spawning in flames behind you and just take your time through the quiet bits absorbing it all, then it is a really impressive title. It showcases what can be done in 3D through its in-game cinematics of creatures busting, crawling and clambering around, crazy industrial machinery and how the promise of interaction and a lot of backstory can keep you going.

If you can handle graphic imagery and action and want to see what can be done when 3D is utilized correctly, with its clever graphical tricks and impressive direction, then Doom 3 is highly recommended. If you can't, then don't bother. It should also be noted its minimum specs are really quite low for what it is and even on its most basic settings the games atmosphere oozes through.

Should you think you can manage it then I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised. Just don't expect much from the gameplay, savor the detail - and Doom 3 will take you on a nightmarish journey to Hell and back.

Just don't forget the marshmallows.

Final Grade: B-

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