Not content to put out just two of the most influential games in history with Wolfenstein and Doom, id went all-in with their first foray into true 3D- and knocked it out of the park.

Quake feels like a more restrained companion piece to Doom's confident carnage. The combat here is slower and more methodical- Ranger isn't the human bullet Doomguy is so you have to play more carefully. Enemies do more damage- Shamblers, Fiends and Spawn are significantly more dangerous than your average demon, and they're a lot tankier. Quake is definitely the tougher of the two, even with health kits and ammo everywhere I found myself dying more than I would in Doom. It's not as much of a showcase of the player's power, but the harder difficulty means that even small encounters can feel like a huge triumph once you kill the last monster. Quake is full of those little moments of satisfaction.

Quake is also a lot less flashy and showy than Doom, which leaves the player focusing on the technical marvel for the time- it was released not even 3 years after Doom, which was already groundbreaking for the time, and feels like it belongs to an entirely different generation of gaming.

The lighting is dark and foreboding instead of bright and visceral, the music is ominous industrial groans (by fucking Nine-Inch Nails, how cool is that?) instead of roaring guitars and banging drums. Your enemies are deep browns instead of saturated reds, greens and white and even their blood is murky and oxidised instead of bright crimson. The most powerful gun is simply called the Thunderbolt instead of the Big Fucking Gun. The final boss is a puzzle, not a beef wall. The halls you stalk are brown and grey brick, not fleshy corridors. It's almost understated in its approach- apart from the fact you're still blowing ghouls into paste. But even then, it's not as loud and bloody as in Doom.

Despite all of these comparisons to Doom, Quake stands firmly on its own merits, and the contrasts to its sister game only serve to strengthen it. It's a landmark in game design and graphical fidelity, and that's not even mentioning its shadow looming large over pretty much every multiplayer shooter since its release. It's aged surprisingly well.

Super mixed feelings on Doom 64. On one hand, I love the murky, muddy aesthetic and the spookier atmosphere, but I don't think it matches with classic Doom gameplay and the level design is a massive downgrade.

Compared to Doom I and II, 64 is a much gloomier game. Gone are the rip-roaring synthesised guitars and vibrant designs of red, yellow and white levels- in their place are grinding atmospheric tracks and deep greens, purples, greys and browns. I actually really like this change, it makes 64 feel distinct from its predecessors and makes it feel almost like a transitory game between the confident bloodbaths before and the grimy horror of Doom 3- but the gameplay is still the same as 1 and 2, which feels like a bit of a mismatch to me.
Doom 3's commitment to horror aesthetics is paired with much slower, tenser gameplay that lets both pop more, complimenting each other. In contrast, 64's gunplay is the same lightning-fast ballet of bullets that preceded it, but its aesthetics don't quite match. The dim lighting and the rumbling, eerie soundtrack are disconnected from the frantic killing sprees you've been accustomed to and I think if they went all the way in one direction it would have been good- as it stands, 64 is tonally confused.

The level design has also taken a massive hit. Levels are significantly longer than in previous games and loop back in labyrinthian fashion frequently. Now, Doom is no stranger to levels winding in on themselves, but it was mixed with shorter, more linear levels that had more action- compared to 1 and 2, 64 has much more wandering about looking for the next leg of the level, which is a real bummer. If you know where you're going in Dooms 1 & 2 you can wrap a level up in a few minutes, tops. Not in 64.

I really appreciate Doom 64 not wanting to be cookie-cutter in its aesthetics, but I think its level design falls flat compared to its legendary predecessors. Still alright, though.

I've played through Doom (and more specifically, Knee-Deep in the Dead- the other two chapters are a lot more varied in quality) more times than I can even count, and every time the timelessness and slickness of it surprises me. The movement is great, the level design is mostly excellent and the soundtrack is phenomenal. Suspense, Sign of Evil, I Sawed the Demons, Nobody Told Me about ID- the list of great Doom tracks is pretty much just an OST list. It's an all-timer.

Early, influential games don't always hold up. I LOVE the first Resident Evil, but the door animations and fixed camera angles haven't aged great- I don't mind them personally but they're a huge turn-off for most people, which is fair. The first Zelda game, the first Metroid game, the first Devil May Cry, all were very influential for their respective genres but none of them hold up all that well. Doom does. It's timeless in a way that even other all-time greats like Ocarina of Time aren't. Just phenomenal all-round, and I can't wait to play it for the thousandth time in a couple of days.