Admittedly, I was afraid that the loss of Doom 64's ambiance would disillusion me to one of my favorite games. Fortunately, Doom 64's maps play very well, even with Doom II's textures and sound library. They are mostly recreated very faithfully, and even many of the changes I enjoyed. Being caught off-guard by surprise revenants, chaingunners, or archviles in once-familiar maps was a treat! While base Doom II can't recreate the camera changes to show doors opening, I adored the tiny sector models these modders used as a workaround.
That said, this recreation's strengths are definitely front-loaded. Some of the later maps seemed much less considered (or faithful - I could barely recognize Breakdown), and I have to question the choice of placing the special maps in the regular rotation, especially not at the very end. Their balance was wildly out of sync - either they were made much easier, such as Hectic, or were unnecessarily hard, like Playground or Hardcore.
If you haven't played the original Doom 64 or the recent remaster, then I still recommend those over this. However, if you've played those to death, and would like something that mostly captures the spirit but is different enough to keep things interesting, then this certainly is worth a try.
That said, this recreation's strengths are definitely front-loaded. Some of the later maps seemed much less considered (or faithful - I could barely recognize Breakdown), and I have to question the choice of placing the special maps in the regular rotation, especially not at the very end. Their balance was wildly out of sync - either they were made much easier, such as Hectic, or were unnecessarily hard, like Playground or Hardcore.
If you haven't played the original Doom 64 or the recent remaster, then I still recommend those over this. However, if you've played those to death, and would like something that mostly captures the spirit but is different enough to keep things interesting, then this certainly is worth a try.