To fight these foes, you have a larger assortment of weapons than in Doom 3, even though this new release stays true to its roots by not overwhelming you with a huge range of choice in this regard. The chainsaw is sadly no longer available, but my favorites — the BFG (acquired quite late in the game), the chaingun, and the pulse rifle — all make their return. Best of all, you finally have at your disposal the double-barreled shotgun. One close-range shot from this formidable weapon takes out most enemies with a truly ear-shattering blast, wreaking utter havoc on their hideous deformed bodies. Ammunition is scattered about, but it is sometimes kept in lockers for which you must rely on picking up information for your PDA to get relevant access codes. Although this new weapon can hold but two bullets at a time and takes a bit of time to reload, it quickly becomes a weapon of choice for many combat situations. As is typical of this franchise, most of the combat takes place at much closer range than in many modern first-person shooters.

Without doubt, though, the most influential new weapon is the ionized plasma levitator or “grabber,” which you can use to pick up and throw objects (especially exploding barrels) and bodies you find hanging around. This is far more satisfying than your limited ability just to push objects around in Doom 3. You may use this armament to gain access to blocked passages, attack an adversary, or grab hard-to-get ammunition or health pickups. You can even employ this device, which nicely has a targeting cursor showing what you can pick up and a monitor showing whether you have locked on a target, to grab those pesky flying skulls and smash them into walls. Best of all, unlike the gravity gun in Half-Life 2, this new device allows you to catch fireballs and plasma blobs coming at you and fling them right back at those who shot them. Thanks to excellent design and implementation, using the grabber — essential to defeating some of the bosses — turns out to be incredibly easy and fun, enhancing the intense combat still further. Armed with this weapon, I find myself oddly not missing at all the soul cube from Doom 3.

The most bizarre item in your possession is the heart-shaped artifact. You carry this item around with you, and when you use it to defeat the three Hunter bosses you acquire three amazing powers. First you get “Hell Time,” which slows down everything so you can dodge attacks and pummel your enemies; then you get “Berserker,” where your power intensifies and you can kill anything with one punch with your fist; and finally you get “Invulnerability,” where you temporarily cannot be harmed. To keep the heart powered up (it can hold up to three charges), you need to collect the souls of any dead glowing bodies you can find, causing them to disintegrate. There are several battles where victory looks to be virtually impossible without the use of this strange artifact.

Unlike many first-person shooters (and their fans), Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil continues the franchise’s tradition of never taking itself too seriously. One sign of this is the continued subtle humor injected into the PDA messages, particularly the video and audio clips you pick up. But perhaps the best evidence is the inclusion again of some video game booths along the way where you can actually play interactive games. While the original Doom 3 had the cute turkey puncher game, this new release has several special arcade video machines: Sarge’s Big Game Hunt, a diversion buried in the main game; Hellanoid, an excellent Arkanoid/Breakout clone that is actually better than many of the countless shareware ball-and-paddle offerings downloadable on the web; and Martian Buddy Blaster, an Asteroids clone that keeps your attention for quite a while.