Doom 3 is the most sexual collection of zeroes and ones to be written onto your hard drive. Thanks to the awkward brilliance of John Carmack, id has managed to take a game that's over a decade old and not only make it new, but make it as great and nearly as important as the original. And yes, 3D and all, it feels like Doom, only it hates you. It hates you because you're weak, scared, and fragile, and it works its way into your psyche and makes you keep playing, despite the fact, or maybe because, you peed your pants the last time that imp jumped out at you. It's okay, though, because you'll take a lot more away from Doom 3 than an empty bladder and a vivid sense of shame - you'll also walk away with higher expectations for every video game from now on.

There's a lot to be said when every detail of a game has been designed to sink into your skin and make it harder for you to leave the game behind when you step away from your PC. The developers don't want you to stop playing. They want to keep you for their own, and they will. Aside from the long loading times before each major level of the game and short ones before sublevels, the rest is seamless, so there's no really good time to stop playing. Not that you would want to.

Apart from the Half-Life-derived opening, this is all Doom, baby. You'll know it when you're in Hell and you'll know it when you kill an imp or a Lost Soul. Most of the sound effects are redone straight out of the original, and it's those kinds of touches that will make anyone who spent a lot of time with DOS smile. When you walk against the wall and hear a familiar grunt, you'll be a believer.

The rest of the sound is all ambience. No music, no bullshit. As you walk around - and you will walk, because you'll be afraid of what you might run into, you'll be pulled in more and more by the crashes of debris narrowly missing you and the wails of unseen women begging for help. The moan of distant enemies and the cries of babies will rip you further from your sense of reality until you're inside the game and it's inside of your head.

In a Doom sequel, you could easily get away with skimping on the story and relying solely on the atmosphere and gunplay. That crutch is absent here. The developers give you as much background as you could ask for. The story is hidden in other people's e-mails, audio logs, and small cut scenes. As you progress, you can pick up the PDAs of the dead and use them to further understand what's going on around you. You can learn as much as you'd want about your situation or skip it entirely and press forward, blissful in your ignorance.

Those are enough reasons already to own Doom 3. It's immersive, frightening, and it's Doom. I don't really need to mention how gorgeous it is to encourage you to buy the game, or at least by now, I shouldn't. It is visual silk, though, taking your eyes out of your head and gently stroking them with its bit mapping and blessedly effective lighting. Every small part of the Mars facility has it's own personality, as do each of the other beings you encounter, alive or dead. The lip-synching in particular is quite impressive. As for Hell, it's Hell, and probably one of the scariest, most unsettling imaginings of the down below to date, in game or on film.

I think I've mentioned it, but you have to buy Doom 3. Right now. However you justify buying the game, do it, as long as you aren't thinking multiplayer. The multiplayer is pretty limited as of right now. Only four players can deathmatch it out, but you can be sure that mods will open it up far beyond that as the days go on. Still, you should have taken it home a week ago. It has a BFG in it. Yes, the BFG, the most notorious gun in gaming history, and it's as cool to use as it should be. Shoot off one charge and destroy everything in the immediate vicinity, or charge it up and shake the foundations of the building you stand in. A tip though: don't charge it for too long, or the only thing dead will be you. Sound too intimidating? Use the shotgun to see brains, spines, and blood fly, or use the mini gun to cut everything to pieces. Then again, maybe you should just stick to the chainsaw. It's there too. What is a chainsaw doing on Mars, you ask? Mixup with the shipping company. It says so on my PDA. There's a rocket launcher, too - but hey, it's Doom, you already knew that.

You've played Silent Hill and Resident Evil and Fatal Frame and every other game that promised to scare the life out of you. They had their frightening parts, but Doom 3 makes them look like Mario Party. They were all warmups, getting you ready for true fear. The fact is, Doom 3 is a work of art, and should be owned by anyone with a respectable PC, and anyone who doesn't have one of those should update it right now. The best game released in the last few years is out, and you should be playing it instead of reading this. Seriously. So go, pick it up, and let yourself slip into the gentle embrace of a bloody legend remade.

· · · Derek Durham