The Artifact

The Artifact is the equivalent of the Soul Cube from Doom 3. It is a demonic heart-shaped device that was initially designed to aid the forces of Hell, but is used by the nameless Marine in Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil.

The Artifact uses human souls as opposed to demon ones, When used near human corpses, it charges up by absorbing souls. Once three souls have been absorbed, it can be used.

The Artifact itself has no attack capability, but in some respects is far superior to the Soul Cube. It has the ability to give the player a period in which he becomes super fast, an unstoppable melee attack for a short period of time and temporary invulnerability. These abilities are unlocked each time the player defeats a certain boss monster.

Once more than two are discovered, the player cannot choose which one is activated. Instead, it activates all the powers currently unlocked at the same time, meaning someone with a charged Artifact later in the game has the potential to become a lightning fast, invincible death machine that can rip apart a Hell Knight with his bare hands.