Reviews - Razumen

AndrewMRX did a fantastic job of going through all of Hexen's textures and upgrading them to modern standards along with other added effects in the accompanying mod. My only real criticism is that the strength of some of the parallax maps are a bit too extreme. But other than that I believe this is a must have mod for any Hexen fan.

Doom 3 Phobos feels like it could be an official expansion, if Doom 3 had more of a focus on narrative. Though the story doesn't quite make much sense, even after 2 episodes, hopefully the next one(s?) will be much more enlightening.

The voice acting is decent, though nothing to write home about. Some of the lines seem akwardly delivered, and there are a few dialogue exchanges between characters will make you scratch your head. Still, above average for a mod.

Gameplay wise, it's made a few improvements to the weapons. The shotgun is a real beast here thanks to it's tighter spread, and the chaingun rips through ammo with a satisfying rate of fire.

On the downside, some of the enemies are made worse as a result. Anything above skill 1 turns chaingunners and shotgun gaurds into annoying enemies that will chew through your health with little you can do about it as you have little to no chance to dodge their attacks. The devs need to learn from other Doom titles that give the player a second dodge hitscan attacks, and give bonuses to players that are on the move. As it is you have to resort to corner peaking if you want to stay alive at higher difficulties. Not fun at all.

There's also a few new monsters, but I'll leave that as a surprise. They're fun to fight and well done.

Level wise is probably where Phobos shines the most. The levels are large, quite nice to look at and well detailed, with many paths that often interconnect and lead back on themselves, making exploration rewarding. There's also a good emphasis on environmental puzzles, and while there could be a few more secrets here and there, it's hard to find faults with any of the levels in particular.

Probably my biggest criticism at the moment is that the story sections and the Doom sections feel very disconnected at the moment. Both are interesting, but even after 2 episodes it's not clear at all how they're connected, besides the fact you supposedly play the same person in both.

Still, I'd definitely recommend this to any Doom fan. It's clear that they've put a lot of love and hard work into this, and it shows in the final product.