This review contains spoilers
So I'm not the biggest DOOM fan out there, but I do really enjoy what I've played of the series. Never beat DOOM (1993) and DOOM 2, but I highly respect them and have played through most of the levels in those games. I find the core formula a lot of fun, but certain annoying parts of DOOM 2 and DOOM (1993) prevented me from taking the time to beat them. DOOM 64 is one game I have been curious about for a while, so over the past few days I went ahead and actually beat it. I have been playing through the whole series after finishing DOOM (2016) a while back before I had a Backloggd account, but now 64 is the only classic DOOM I have actually beat. I may revisit the other two to finally finish them, but I imagine I will not review them here when I do since I feel like I would have nothing of real interest to say about them.
When I was playing through this game, one of the first things I noticed was that the tone is quite different from DOOM and DOOM 2. Visually, it carries a lot of that similar energy to the original duology, with the sprites having been recreated to fit the N64 while still being very faithful to the original designs. I really enjoy how everything looks, it feels like a natural evolution aside from how ludicrously dark it can get (good thing this version of the game has a brightness scroller). However, this time around, the atmosphere feels more horror focused. Not to imply DOOM (1993) and DOOM 2 didn't have horror elements, of course, but 64 seems to lean in a lot more on those elements with specific parts of the game, mainly the music. DOOM and DOOM 2 had a wide variety of music with a good variety of feelings they're meant to convey, from the catchy metal tunes of "At Doom's Gate" (E1M1) and "Kitchen Ace & Takin' Names" (E1M4), the almost orchestral sound of "Suspense" (E1M5), the atmospheric electronic vibe of "Demons on the Prey" (E1M7) and "Dark Halls" (E1M3), the masterful combination of hopelessness and disappointment found in "Sign of Evil" (ending theme of E1)...all of those were purely in the first episode of the first DOOM, its not even counting the more strange music DOOM 2 had in store, like the almost groovy sound of "The Healer Stalks" and the borderline silly vibe of "Between Levels". 64's music is overwhelmingly focused on a dark ambience intended to carry a persistent feeling of dread, with every single song in the OST being designed to carry this feeling. Spooky low-tone instruments playing in the background and a whole lot of distracting sound effects are what you'll hear if you have the music turned on in your playthrough. I respect that this game wanted to do something different, but I can't help but feel the soundtrack sucks away the personality this one could have had if it just kept doing what DOOM and DOOM 2 were already doing so well. Honestly a lot of it just blends in with each other.
The gameplay of DOOM 64 is pretty much the same as its predecessors. You don't need to reinvent the wheel when DOOM was the game that popularized the genre to begin with, so I got no complaints about that. All the same weapons from DOOM and DOOM 2 return: Pistol, Shotgun, Chainsaw, Super Shotgun, Chaingun, Plasma Gun, Rocket Launcher, and the always iconic BFG9000. This game does introduce one new weapon, though, and that's the Unmaker. Amusingly, the Unmaker didn't get an actual name until Eternal. When you get it in DOOM 64, you get some flavor text that reads: "What the !@#%* is this!" The Unmaker makes for a cool addition to the classic DOOM arsenal, but I didn't really use it a ton. One interesting thing about it is that it can actually be upgraded to be stronger. As far as core level design goes, it does feel like more of the same classic DOOM stuff with big rooms and exploration to do. I did notice some differences, though. For some reason this game absolutely loves Hell Knights and Barons of Hell, it throws them at you all the time and its a bit odd since I remember them not being all that common in DOOM's episodes (aside from Thy Flesh Consumed which I never beat) and most of what I played of DOOM 2 (never beat that game either tbh). I guess it's to make up for the game lacking three of the enemies from DOOM and DOOM 2: the Archvile, Chaingunner, and Revenant. Also, some enemies seem to be a bit stronger here than they were in the classic DOOM games. Biggest example is the Lost Souls, which were more of a minor annoyance before but are an absolute pain in the ass here. I could just be seeing differences where there are none but I do know that Lost Souls are much more irritating in DOOM 64. The change makes Pain Elementals one of the most annoying DOOM enemies I've ever encountered, and fighting a room full of them is a nightmare. This game does have one new regular enemy and a new boss. The Nightmare Imp is just an indigo imp visually but it attacks faster and runs quicker, and the Mother Demon is the final boss of the game. There's nothing really nightmarish about the Nightmare Imp and the Mother Demon is a tough boss fight. Another thing I noticed that's different here is that DOOM 64 is quite fond of just spawning enemies in once you interact with something, which can be irritating. They fade into the world out of nowhere. If you don't know where and when they spawn ahead of time, you can easily accidentally end up in arm's distance of a demon or just get destroyed. On the plus side, I noticed I actually used the Chainsaw this time around. I hardly ever used it in the first two games, but here it was a great tool for taking out Mancubus so long as there aren't too many ranged enemies around for you to mow 'em down. That's still a pretty niche use case, though. Unfortunately other enemies with a melee attack make it very tricky to use the Chainsaw without getting smacked for a chunk of your health in return. It's possible to kill plenty of stuff with the chainsaw, especially since it seems to have been given a damage boost, but its too difficult to be worth doing over just blasting demons unless you're out of ammo. Also, another quirk about the game is that sometimes enemies can just shoot you through the walls, which I noticed mostly in a specific segment of Spawned Fear (Map 18). Not a big deal, but its weird. You know what is a big deal? That final level. Apparently the only way to make it not insanely hard is to find all the secret levels, since you need keys from those levels to be able to shut down the portals. The secret levels are also the only way you can upgrade your Unmaker, which helps a lot in the fight. Honestly, that's just not fair to players like me that don't want to go out of their way to search every nook and cranny of a level and I've never had to find secrets in an FPS to make the levels not torture to play through, but hey it is still possible without the keys. I actually didn't die quite as much as I thought I would but it still sucked. I felt no guilt taking advantage of an exploit on Mother Demon because that fight is so dumb.
Overall, I feel like DOOM 64 is just "more DOOM", but the core formula of the series is so good that I see no real issue in that. I have a bunch of nitpicks about this game - nearly all of which I already mentioned here - and only a few genuine problems with it, but I feel it is great nonetheless and I did have fun with it. DOOM 64 gets a rock solid four stars from me.
When I was playing through this game, one of the first things I noticed was that the tone is quite different from DOOM and DOOM 2. Visually, it carries a lot of that similar energy to the original duology, with the sprites having been recreated to fit the N64 while still being very faithful to the original designs. I really enjoy how everything looks, it feels like a natural evolution aside from how ludicrously dark it can get (good thing this version of the game has a brightness scroller). However, this time around, the atmosphere feels more horror focused. Not to imply DOOM (1993) and DOOM 2 didn't have horror elements, of course, but 64 seems to lean in a lot more on those elements with specific parts of the game, mainly the music. DOOM and DOOM 2 had a wide variety of music with a good variety of feelings they're meant to convey, from the catchy metal tunes of "At Doom's Gate" (E1M1) and "Kitchen Ace & Takin' Names" (E1M4), the almost orchestral sound of "Suspense" (E1M5), the atmospheric electronic vibe of "Demons on the Prey" (E1M7) and "Dark Halls" (E1M3), the masterful combination of hopelessness and disappointment found in "Sign of Evil" (ending theme of E1)...all of those were purely in the first episode of the first DOOM, its not even counting the more strange music DOOM 2 had in store, like the almost groovy sound of "The Healer Stalks" and the borderline silly vibe of "Between Levels". 64's music is overwhelmingly focused on a dark ambience intended to carry a persistent feeling of dread, with every single song in the OST being designed to carry this feeling. Spooky low-tone instruments playing in the background and a whole lot of distracting sound effects are what you'll hear if you have the music turned on in your playthrough. I respect that this game wanted to do something different, but I can't help but feel the soundtrack sucks away the personality this one could have had if it just kept doing what DOOM and DOOM 2 were already doing so well. Honestly a lot of it just blends in with each other.
The gameplay of DOOM 64 is pretty much the same as its predecessors. You don't need to reinvent the wheel when DOOM was the game that popularized the genre to begin with, so I got no complaints about that. All the same weapons from DOOM and DOOM 2 return: Pistol, Shotgun, Chainsaw, Super Shotgun, Chaingun, Plasma Gun, Rocket Launcher, and the always iconic BFG9000. This game does introduce one new weapon, though, and that's the Unmaker. Amusingly, the Unmaker didn't get an actual name until Eternal. When you get it in DOOM 64, you get some flavor text that reads: "What the !@#%* is this!" The Unmaker makes for a cool addition to the classic DOOM arsenal, but I didn't really use it a ton. One interesting thing about it is that it can actually be upgraded to be stronger. As far as core level design goes, it does feel like more of the same classic DOOM stuff with big rooms and exploration to do. I did notice some differences, though. For some reason this game absolutely loves Hell Knights and Barons of Hell, it throws them at you all the time and its a bit odd since I remember them not being all that common in DOOM's episodes (aside from Thy Flesh Consumed which I never beat) and most of what I played of DOOM 2 (never beat that game either tbh). I guess it's to make up for the game lacking three of the enemies from DOOM and DOOM 2: the Archvile, Chaingunner, and Revenant. Also, some enemies seem to be a bit stronger here than they were in the classic DOOM games. Biggest example is the Lost Souls, which were more of a minor annoyance before but are an absolute pain in the ass here. I could just be seeing differences where there are none but I do know that Lost Souls are much more irritating in DOOM 64. The change makes Pain Elementals one of the most annoying DOOM enemies I've ever encountered, and fighting a room full of them is a nightmare. This game does have one new regular enemy and a new boss. The Nightmare Imp is just an indigo imp visually but it attacks faster and runs quicker, and the Mother Demon is the final boss of the game. There's nothing really nightmarish about the Nightmare Imp and the Mother Demon is a tough boss fight. Another thing I noticed that's different here is that DOOM 64 is quite fond of just spawning enemies in once you interact with something, which can be irritating. They fade into the world out of nowhere. If you don't know where and when they spawn ahead of time, you can easily accidentally end up in arm's distance of a demon or just get destroyed. On the plus side, I noticed I actually used the Chainsaw this time around. I hardly ever used it in the first two games, but here it was a great tool for taking out Mancubus so long as there aren't too many ranged enemies around for you to mow 'em down. That's still a pretty niche use case, though. Unfortunately other enemies with a melee attack make it very tricky to use the Chainsaw without getting smacked for a chunk of your health in return. It's possible to kill plenty of stuff with the chainsaw, especially since it seems to have been given a damage boost, but its too difficult to be worth doing over just blasting demons unless you're out of ammo. Also, another quirk about the game is that sometimes enemies can just shoot you through the walls, which I noticed mostly in a specific segment of Spawned Fear (Map 18). Not a big deal, but its weird. You know what is a big deal? That final level. Apparently the only way to make it not insanely hard is to find all the secret levels, since you need keys from those levels to be able to shut down the portals. The secret levels are also the only way you can upgrade your Unmaker, which helps a lot in the fight. Honestly, that's just not fair to players like me that don't want to go out of their way to search every nook and cranny of a level and I've never had to find secrets in an FPS to make the levels not torture to play through, but hey it is still possible without the keys. I actually didn't die quite as much as I thought I would but it still sucked. I felt no guilt taking advantage of an exploit on Mother Demon because that fight is so dumb.
Overall, I feel like DOOM 64 is just "more DOOM", but the core formula of the series is so good that I see no real issue in that. I have a bunch of nitpicks about this game - nearly all of which I already mentioned here - and only a few genuine problems with it, but I feel it is great nonetheless and I did have fun with it. DOOM 64 gets a rock solid four stars from me.