while back, we brought you a preview of Activision’s upcoming FPS Doom 3. Well, today we finally got some hands-on time with the highly anticipated game and thankfully, we happy to report that the game plays just as good as it looks.

While Activision only had one portion of one level playable, I managed to play my way through the entire thing. At the beginning of the level, you receive word from your commander that a strange growth has taken over part of the ship that you’re marooned on. Your mission is to locate that growth and prevent it from spreading any further than it already has. So, with nothing more than your trusty handgun, you’re immediately thrown right into the action. Along the way, you’ll face off against zombies, zombified soldiers toting around high-powered machine guns and shotguns, as well as fireball throwing demons and spider-like monsters that scurry around on the floor and attempt to take you by surprise by jumping at slashing at you with their powerful claws.

While the enemies were both terrifying and impressive, I was most eager to tinker with the game’s controls and get a better feeling of how Doom 3 actually plays, not just how it looks. So far, the game follows the pretty standard formats for FPS titles on home consoles. Moving was mapped to the left analog stick, while aiming was mapped to the right stick. Pressing the right trigger served two functions, firing your weapon and activating things like switches and doors. Switching weapons proved to be easy, as all weapon switching was mapped to the Y button. Since the game utilizes darkness to a high degree, you’ll need to whip out your flashlight constantly, which was made easy and simple thanks to a quick press of the white button.

Overall, the game controlled pretty well and surprised me with its fluidity and responsiveness. While I did notice that overall character movement speed was a bit slow, it did fit into the overall game since much of the gameplay is slower and more methodical. That was perhaps the most surprising aspect of the game to me. While Doom has always been about running and gunning, Doom 3 seems to be more heavily geared towards careful exploration. Enemies have the wonderful habit of bursting out of nowhere when you least expect it, so the game’s somewhat slower controls and pace lend well to that fact.

While my actual Doom 3 hands-on time was pretty short, I came away from it both anxious and optimistic. With some responsive controls and a visual flair to die for, I’m eager to see how Activision pulls the game’s storyline together. If they can manage to put together an engaging and deep storyline, Doom 3 could end up being perhaps the most immersive FPS since Halo.