Doom 64
Nintendo 64
Nostalgia Factor:
I originally played Doom 64 back in 1997, the year the game first came out. I remember being completely enthralled by it at the time. The graphics, the presentation, the sound, the atmosphere - everything about this game was much better than what I had seen in Dooms 1 or 2.
I never actually owned the game, however. I had only rented it. Due to the limited time I had to play the game, I fondly remember long nights staying up and playing this until the birds started chirping at 4 or 5 in the morning. I think I ended up having to rent it twice before I was finally able to beat the game and drop it into the slot at Blockbuster Video. Several years passed before I found a used copy of the game at Mega Media Exchange and picked it up for a couple dollars. Even more years passed.. and passed... and passed before I finally got around to actually playing the game again. And that brings us to 2021 - 24 years after the game's initial release. This is the first time I have replayed it since 1997.
Would Doom 64 still hold up, or would it show its age? Time to find out.
Story:
There's not much of a story to be found here. You are a badass soldier and it is your job to kill all the demons that are coming through a portal from hell. Then you enter the portal and you kill all the demons on their home turf. Basically the same plot as any other Doom game. This one differs from the norm in the sense that it is a direct sequel to Dooms 1 and 2, and not an original Doom story. It might as well be though. Let's be real: nobody plays these old school Doom games for their stories. No one.
Gameplay:
This game is a blast to play. It handles well, the controls are easy to remember, gameplay itself is super smooth. I enjoyed it a lot.
If you've never played a Doom game, I'll break it down for you. This is a fast paced, guns blazing first-person shooter. You have a giant arsenal of weapons at your disposal. You race through each level, gunning down an endless number of enemies. Each stage is a maze, with keycards needed to advance to the next section of the stage. There are secrets galore and countless power-ups to help you on your way.
The gunplay is satisfying and a lot of fun. If you are more familiar with how modern first-person shooters work, it may take you a while to adapt. There is less "strategizing" to be found here. There is no ducking, although you can move behind walls for cover. The enemy AI doesn't play around: they see you, they come for you. Your character can take a ton of damage before he is killed, too. Expect to slug it out with your enemies quite a bit in this game. And the action is FAST. I actually prefer games like this to newer first-person shooters like BioShock or Far Cry. I'd use Call of Duty as an example but believe it or not I have never played a Call of Duty game.
Enemies range from simple armed soldiers to projectile flinging demons to flying monsters that shoot fireballs at you. Almost all of the enemies you face are reincarnations of enemies from Dooms 1 and 2. It would have been nice to have some original foes for this game, but at the same time it is super satisfying seeing classic Doom staples like Cyberdemons, Cacodemons, Bull Demons, and Lost Souls (ugh, HATE these things!) make the graphical leap to 64 bit.
When you aren't fighting you are going to be working on this game's puzzles. I say puzzles in only the loosest sense of the word. You aren't going to be rearranging blocks or pushing things around. Almost every "puzzle" in the game revolves around flipping a switch and trying to figure out what that switch does. For example, flipping a switch might open up a door or raise a bridge back towards the beginning of a level. But the game doesn't show you or tell you what happened. You have to explore and figure it out yourself. Other switches are timed. They may only open a door or raise a bridge for a few seconds - and it is up to you to race back and try to find it. Other switches you can shoot from a distance. Sometimes you have to push on walls to try to open them up as if they were doors. Mainly you are looking for keycards which open up the next section of the level, until you can find the stage's exit point. Complete the stage and you move on to the next one.
Admittedly, some of these switches and area puzzles can be a bit obscure or hard to figure out, especially considering the size and scope of some of these maps. I got completely lost numerous times as I played this game, clueless as to where I was supposed to go next. The map system is... okay. It's not great and it doesn't really do much to help. Despite this, I still had a pretty fun time with the game. This did not ruin my enjoyment of it one tiny bit.
Graphics:
I'm surprised at how well this game has held up. It is hard to believe it is as old as it is. Environments are dark and foreboding. Enemies, while flat and occasionally quite pixelated, fit the whole aesthetic of the game perfectly. What really sold me on this game's visual appeal is its atmosphere. Dread and tension fill every step you take as you make your way through this game. The environments are a perfect blend of sci-fi and horror. The lighting effects are terrific as well. There is a level very early in the game that has a dark hallway intermittently lit up by red lights, and I just remember thinking HOW FREAKING COOL IS THIS as I walked through it. It looked terrific in 1997 and it looks terrific now.
Sound:
Sound is great too. The music of the game fits the look and feel of the levels perfectly: dark, foreboding, and ominous. Some of the musical tracks are actually quite scary. One of them sounds like it has babies crying or some shit in the background. It scared the crap out of me while I was playing.
A big part of the game is listening for audio cues. You can hear enemies coming based on the noises they make. When you flip a switch you can listen for the door opening and make a break towards the sound. Really, sound plays a huge factor in this game. I would suggest using headphones as you play. It makes for a quite immersive experience. Even with no headphones, however, the game still sounds really great.
Overall:
To answer the question I posed earlier: yes, the game still holds up. It holds up quite well in fact. I enjoyed it more than I did the 2016 reboot of the series, which I gave a middling score. I enjoyed it more than the old Doom games (which I have yet to review). I enjoyed it more than pretty much every other first-person shooter I have played in recent memory. Heck, I even enjoyed it more than I did the campaign version of Goldeneye 007, which I consider to be an all time classic. It's just a lot of fun to play, and very addicting too. Each of my play sessions lasted way longer than I intended, because I didn't want to turn the game off. Just one more level. Just let me solve this one puzzle. Let me get through this one boss fight. On and on it went. To me, someone with an extremely short attention span, that is an obvious mark of a really good game. I couldn't put it down.
As far as flaws, I already mentioned the game's map. It is pretty useless. I also would have liked to see a wider variety in the game's enemies. Many of the puzzles and their solutions were a bit obscure for my taste as well. And the game is quite short. I beat it in just a couple days.
But that's just me being thorough, as I try to be in these reviews. Really, the game is a lot of fun. I consider it to be the best Doom title out there. Admittedly, I haven't played them all. But of the ones I have, this game takes the cake. It was recently remastered in HD and put on the PlayStation Store, so even if you don't have a Nintendo 64 you can still play this game. I suggest you do. Totally worth it. Great game.
Final Score:
A
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