The end of the OG trilogy !

With doom 64 coming to an end comes as well an end to my first playthrough for these classic games. Overall the first 3 doom titles are very fun , peaking with 2 but as well landing with a somewhat goodish landing.

What did I think of 64?

I honestly really loved how the game looked, its colors and enemy models all looked great. Furthermore, the weapons all sounded good and I really liked the edition of the unmaker, it is a very fun weapon to use. The game feels like doom still and that is a good thing since you know you will be getting high action with very tense moments but sadly I do have issues with 64. Overall I enjoyed my time with 64 and feel about the same with this game as I did with 1 which doesn’t really mean that much since I still think both games are good.

What are my issues?

To start the in-game map is horrible, almost making it pointless to look at. To elaborate I loved the map system in doom 1,2 where you would always pop up the map to see where you haven’t gone and where certain color cards would be used.In doom 64 the map just looks terrible and confusing as it doesn’t show these small indications on the map so I barely ended up using it. Furthermore, they took out some enemies which is very disappointing and even more disappointing that they decided to replace them with literal copy cats of other enemies. And just like doom 1 I loved the first half but grew very annoyed with the second half when the game started having stage traps and hell even a final door trap making you just straight up die at the end. In addition the levels of course became more confusing as the levels progressed which I never enjoy lol. All these little nuances were just annoying to deal with but do not overall hinder the experience of the game.

End thoughts.

This game felt like Doom 1.5 with better looking graphics and that is 100% okay with me. I still had an overall good time with this title despiste my issues with it and I very much recommend giving it a playthrough as it's very cheap AND even on gamepass if you have it.

I first played this quite a long time after it released.
I didn’t like it.
Years later, I got it on my Switch and it sat there for months. Then BAM, I started it up after getting annoyed with DOOM 3 (that’s another story) and at first wasn’t impressed, then about level 3 it hooked me. The levels are really fun and the “new” graphics are good.
Would recommend to any DOOM nut.
I think it’s better than Final DOOM by a wide margin

A step back for the Doom franchise. The levels are longer and require frequent pauses to fight large groups of enemies. Everything about this game has changed from Doom One and Two, including the graphics, guns, and enemies.

There is no story to speak of, but the gameplay is decent. However, the keys required to progress through the game are annoying and frustrating. The final boss, the mother of demons, is a worthy challenge, but ultimately just involves shooting her. Overall, if you're a hardcore Doom fan and want to beat every game in the series, then go for it. But otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it.

I never spent much time playing boomer shooters prior to 2022, but I think you could say I'm pretty well initiated by now. Playing Duke Nukem 3D and PowerSlave nearly back-to-back will do that to you, though Doom - a game I played for the first time last December - has unsurprisingly become the criterion against which I judge other games in the genre. If you asked me a few months ago whether it would be possible for any other boomer shooter to top it, I would've said it was possible but very difficult. Even Doom II, while great, didn't manage to connect with me in the same way as the original, partly due to the uneven nature of its maps, which at times were too labyrinthine and confounding. Sometimes I see Sandy Petersen in my dreams, laughing at me, mocking me.

"Design better levels!" I shout.

"No," he cackles as I dissolve into thousands of cockroaches. I wake up drenched in sweat and tears.

Needless to say, I was not expecting my benchmark to change less than a year after playing Doom, but Doom 64 is good. It's really good.

The switch to fully-3D environments adds so much to the Doom formula. Maps have a greater sense of physicality and scale, and progression feels more complex without ever becoming so obtuse as to require a guide. The puzzle-centric approach of some of Doom II's levels is made more coherent in here, and the ways in which the structure of your surroundings change - whether by pistons beating the ground to open a new path, darts flinging from walls to keep you moving, or the ground dropping out to confine you to a tighter space during a combat encounter - results in levels that are more actively hostile, but never in a way that slaps of being clumsy or mean-spirited.

The rendered nature of these levels also allows for some interesting lighting choices. The desolate UAC facilities that open the game and even Hell itself is characterized by sickly fluorescents and gaudy bright neons, and while Doom 64's lighting effects are of course very rudimentary, it is such a look. The lack of a proper hard rock Doom-ass Doom soundtrack in favor of more ambient music, wails, and demonic groans is another strong choice that helps give Doom 64 a more unique identity. Flipping switches and picking up keys introduces new waves of demons to rooms you and your super shotgun previously made safe just like in the last two games, but the constant growl of demons just beyond your surroundings produces an atmosphere where you know there's always something else out there waiting to throw a fireball at your face.

This version also contains The Lost Levels, which thankfully does not involve replaying the same tight platforming sequences over and over until I scream and get Mad For Real on a voice call. Rather, it's a small set of additional maps that bridges the narrative gap between Doom 64 and 2016's DOOM. If you didn't tell me that and just tacked them onto the end of Doom 64, I probably wouldn't know any better. Their design is so authentic to that of the game they're built off of that it just feels seamless. Romero's bonus episode for the original Doom, Sigil, showed that he clearly still had "the touch" for designing maps, and the same is true of the team that worked on The Lost Levels.

I don't really have anything negative to say about Doom 64. The shotguns could maybe do with like, three or four extra frames of animation, I guess. That's it! This is such an easy 5/5, but at the same time I feel pretty strongly about liking this more than the original Doom, and that's also a 5/5. One way of looking at this is that Id put out some truly impressive games in the 90s. Another is that my entire rating system is fucked and must be thrown out and now I need to relog every single game I have ever played.

Отвратительный дизайн уровней. Я не знаю какой мудак их проектировал, но это просто ужас. Почти в каждом уровне одно и тоже - нажимаешь на кнопку в одном конце локации, чтобы что-то произошло в другом и иди ищи, что поменялось. Иногда изменения происходят блять без твоего ведома и это мне сносит башню от злости даже сейчас. Я уж промолчу про то, что почти все уровни крайне тесные и нередко возникали ситуации, когда пространства для манёвров тупо нет.
Финальный босс - это нахуй пиздец. Он запускает в тебя менструальные чаши от которых нельзя убежать и почти невозможно замансить. Лучше бы двух кибер-демонов выставили. Единственная рабочая страта против него - сохранить пару зарядом для БФГ, встать перед ним в упор и затанчить весь урон от него, с надеждой убить его первым. Тупо рандом.
Враги и оружие по сравнению с предыдущими играми - так себе, но это лично моя проблема. Хотя бы радует атмосфера.
Игра для фанатов. Если это ваш первый "старый дум", то даже не запускайте этот кусок дерьма. Даже для N64 есть шутеры получше (Turok, Golden Eye 007, Perfect Dark).