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Good: Beautiful graphics and sound, cool new weapons

Bad: No co-op, blah multiplayer

Better than: Doom 3

Doom 3, both on PC and Xbox fared well in sales and oddly in critical acclaim. Of course, we gave it its due justice. Resurrection of Evil, the standalone expansion for the PC, was developed by Nerve who proved they could make a more interesting version of id's own game. Now Xbox gamers get to enjoy the better half of Doom 3. Well, most of it anyway.

More hellish terror erupts at the UAC after a couple years and more heroes are sent in to stop the oncoming evil. Only this time, cheap scares are traded in for better-paced and more interesting gameplay.

Two new weapons really do make all the difference in RoE. You'll be able to take a hold of the heart artifact and use it to suck the remains from dead bodies. Once the heart sucks enough, it can be activated to slow down time. Sure, this may sound a lot like the overused bullet-time, because it is. The difference here is that it's actually designed to be useful. When things get to frantic and hairy, it truly will get you out of said situations.

The next weapon is the Half-Life 2-inspired "Grabber" that can gravitationally suck in and throw objects:or projectiles. When fireballs are tossed your way, you can catch them and throw them back for better damage to your enemy. This is not only novel but becomes a downright mandatory mechanic in order to progress through the short campaign.

The game looks as beautiful as Doom 3, but trumps it with better, more varied environments, although compared to most games, the levels repeat too much. The campaign is also pretty short and you won't be able to go back through with a friend. Co-op was axed. Blah.

Also suffering from a bit of blah is the multiplayer component:again. There are a decent amount of maps, but you can still only frag with four players at a time. Plus, what happened to CTF? Wasted opportunities my friend.

The sound is just as eerie and wonderful as its predecessor, with beefier weapons sound this time through. Few presentations match the two Doom 3 games.

Resurrection of Evil isn't the standalone expansion it could have been with its lack of multiplayer breadth. The single player experience holds up to the improvements made from its PC counterpart, though. It's still a game that any FPS fan should play at least once.

Graphics: A-

Sound: A

First Play: B

Last Play: C+

Gameplay: B+

Overall: 85% B