Nothing at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) prepared spectators for Doom III, the latest first-person perspective shooter from id Software. The jump from Quake III to Doom III is no incremental jump; it is a revolution.
The environments in Doom III appear to be a cross between Star Wars and the Industrial Revolution. This is a world filled with iron-sheet walls and industrial winches. It is a world of dark hallways, monsters that would give HR Geiger the creeps, and the kinds of bathrooms you currently find in bus stations.
At one point in the demo, the hero of the game runs into a bathroom and witnesses a huge demonic dog tearing a bite out of the corpse of a fat, bald guy. The corpse is pale and has waxy, scarred skin. But in the world of Doom III, alliances change. Within moments of entering the room, the hero is attacked by both the hound from Hell and its corpulent lunch.