I have now finished the Doom 3 expansion. There’s not a lot to say here that I didn’t already say about Doom 3, as the technology and the game design are virtually identical. Sure, the storyline has differences (it’s 2 years from now instead of Doom 3’s now, and, um… oh, the industry wanks are less of a hindrance to your Marine mission than in the original), but the part where you wander through seemingly free, open spaces that are actually carefully laid out rat mazes is the same. The monsters are sporadically different from anything you’ve seen before, but they look more or less identical, give or take a spine ridge or differently colored energy ball of death. Despite consistently updated video drivers, the red sparkles have not ever gone away for the long haul. The only real innovation, the unimaginatively named Grabber, was apparently stolen wholesale from Half-Life 2.

So, was it good? If you liked the last one (which I did), it was definitely good enough. People always complain about games being too short. These are people who haven’t yet progressed beyond college age, I maintain, because a game that lasts only a dozen or so hours feels just right to me, these days. Also, I’m pretty sure this marks the end of Doom 3 as a franchise. At least, it would seem to be impossible to progress from where this one ended without a storyline reboot (not unlike the shift from Doom 2 to Doom 3, so there’s certainly precedent). As for me, though, I’ll keep mostly looking forward to a real HL2 expansion. Or another Farcry, or maybe Halo 3, or that F.E.A.R. game I’ve heard so much about.