This game is genuinely great. A group of guys who didn't like how Half-Life Source turned out went made something better than that game, and even the original to an extent. I don't want to say that its an outright replacement for the original Half-Life, but if you liked that game you'll love Black Mesa. It does everything I think a good remake should; Freshen up the original gameplay and graphics without compromising or removing components of the original. Some "remakes" don't do this, and act more as reboots of the original story like the Resident Evil remakes. But this game ties seamlessly with Half-life 2, and made Xen a genuinely fun romp!

Finally got around to playing through this in full. It's a really weird game to even exist, there were a lot of basic ports of Doom to various consoles, but it's pretty wild how fully new this is. Despite using a lot of the same weapons and enemies, they're all remade from scratch and feel a bit different, alongside an updated engine and a completely new set of levels, this feels more like an alternate reality's version of Doom. I think the feel of the movement and weapons isn't quite as good as the original, but it's certainly not bad (at least playing on pc, can't imagine it's great on an N64 controller). The level design is mostly pretty good, there's a couple I disliked but overall I'd probably put it over Doom 2's levels but below 1's. The updated lighting and different enemies definitely gives it its own style, which I don't think I'd say I like more but it's a nice change of pace. Doesn't really hold a candle to modern WADs but it would definitely be unfair to expect it to, and it's definitely worth playing overall if you're a fan of the series.

This will always be my second favorite Doom. It has the best atmosphere out of the classic series- the beautiful skyboxes and stages with lightning effects being real show stoppers for me. Then there's the unsettling OST which literally features crying babies and distorted groans to set the mood- you really get the sense that you're not wanted in this world. Then there's the demon keys/Unmaker. Going out of your way to complete the secret levels not only aids in upgrading this new weapon, but it'll also net you a trio of keys to seal off some monster gates at the very end and (ultimately) give you an easier time with the final boss. This was a really nice addition to reward exploration even further.

Map design is mostly great with more emphasis on puzzle solving, but the levels never get as massive or convoluted as the worst of Doom II's map. There are a few stinkers and instances of clunky first person platforming (with no jump button, because it's Doom), but I found myself enjoying these stages far more than anything in II.

If you can forgive the handful of overly cryptic puzzles (such as the yellow key in Final Outpost- there's no defending it) then Doom 64 will prove to be a good time.

Is Doom 64 truly 'the real Doom 3'? I mean, maybe. It's a different Doom, but still Doom as far as I'm concerned.

The map designs and frequency of key/switch based objectives therein make me think of Metroid progression (but without the sequence breaking.) These levels are slower, with little to no flexibility with which to take varying routes through. They don't feel as much like they invite speedrunning like the DOS classics.

Combat is still unmistakably Doom, if way too reliant this time on Hell Knights. Variety is the spice of life in Doom combat scenarios, and this game would've done well to remember that more often. I don't mourn for the loss of the Chaingunner or Arch-vile though lmao. Lost Souls were remarkably annoying here, somehow even more so than in either of the originals (perhaps to make up for the enemy types that didn't make the cut.)

I suppose the history of arguing whether or not Doom was intended to evoke fright and horror alongside a heavy metal power fantasy is rich enough that you can come to your own conclusions regarding the aesthetic change for this game. You might vibe with it, you might not. If you'd prefer a more consistent experience to the original forms of the first two games, 'Doom 64 For Doom II' is a mod that may be worth looking into.

What remains unique to this game though is secret levels serving real function beyond novelty. Eternal's Slayer Gates and the Unmaykr as the reward for their completion aren't subtle about being inspired by this game--and frankly don't live up to the legend either. The original Unmaker, especially when buffed by Demon Keys, is ridiculous, and makes a complete joke out of the final boss when all 3 keys are gathered. (The Demon Keys themselves also deactivate the demon spawners in the arena btw, isolating the boss for its absolute destruction even further. It's absurd.)

If nothing else, Doom 64 is definitely interesting and different, and worth giving a go for that reason alone. And who knows, maybe you'll even come away thinking of it as the real Doom 3. I'd say it earns it, all things considered.

this is my favorite of the classic doom trilogy and it's ALMOST perfect in every way. the heavy emphasis on atmosphere really succeeds at pushing doom towards a horror setting without sacrificing its staple fast paced gameplay. the sounds, monster redesigns, OST, and textures used throughout each level really sell the loneliness and danger of being stranded in hell, and it's easily doom at its best visually. level design is generally pretty unique and varied as well...

...but it's also where my one big issue arrives.

death pits :)

trap rooms, ambushes, and pits of lava are a staple of doom, but they rarely ever meant certain death since they'd have an exit you could run to if you were fast enough. this game on the other hand lacks any sort of escape in a majority of those situations, so if the floor suddenly gives way to drop you into a death pit full of lava, it's time to get sent to the beginning with nothing but a pistol! to make matters worse, they're typically present in the latter half of a level or just before the end which is extra frustrating and generally just feels like a cheap way to extend playtime and make players on edge. aside from that (and a questionably designed final boss) this isn't just one of my favorite doom games, but one of my favorite games in general!!

if you're gonna play it i'd recommend saving at the start of each level as insurance for your guns and ammo after inevitably falling into a death pit. personally, i think the highest difficulty is a solid but fair challenge since it's just ultra-violence in disguise. have fun!! (and maybe look up what a demon key is)

My first retro DOOM game and it is mint. DOOM 64 manages to cram an eerie atmosphere, memorable levels, cool little secrets, iconic creature design, and solid gameplay into such a small package. Despite some stages giving me a hard time, nearly every gun being undermined by the super shotty, and some of the enemies being total assholes, I thoroughly enjoyed playing through this all-time boomer shooter. Having not played the original release, I don't know if anything significant was changed, but the movement and gunplay actually felt alright despite the game's age. I can see this being a game I keep on my laptop to be booted up when I wanna just chill out for an hour. Good stuff.

(That final boss is a bitch and a half without a fully upgraded Unmaker, though.)

I really wanted to enjoy Sony's vaguely lewdly titled spin on Splatoon. Was hoping all the negativity being spread around for it online was just the result of angry Nintendo fans getting peeved because there's now a cool new take on their once exclusive series out there for people with other consoles to enjoy, à la Palworld. Unfortunately, Foamstars is a genuinely baffling product with some seriously questionable design choices that I feel are going to make it hard for this to build an audience large enough to make its obvious inspiration even remotely nervous.

The game replaces the weird squid-children and ink with, well, foam and... influencers? The most unique thing it brings to the table is elements of your typical hero shooter, where instead of customizing loadouts to determine your playstyle you select from a group of characters at the start of each match with their own skills and abilities. Not a terrible idea. The problem is that it's difficult to fully relish using any of them when the core gunplay is so odd no matter who you go with. Most shoot in this bizarre arcing fashion usually used for throwing grenades pretty much everywhere else. This means you have to determine where your bubbly bullets are going to land in order to effectively hit someone, which can be tough to do in the heat of the moment causing the majority of firefights to devolve into everyone simply spraying and praying they land enough damage to open up opponents for the surfboard slide finishers. The ones who do shoot in a more traditional straight line tend to have significant range issues.

Slightly awkward gameplay isn't necessarily always a deal-breaker though. In fact, I'd say you're more likely to put this down over the general lack of content instead. There are only three match types right now. One of which, a twist on TDM with lives where the final kill has to be against the opposing team's top player, is constantly available while the other two cycle in and out on a confounding hourly rotation. Why the devs would choose to do this I have no idea, but it merely serves to make the offerings of an already fairly meager package feel even slimmer. There are single-player and co-op PvE missions where you defend generators from waves of pathetic enemies who strictly approach from a single direction and typically culminate in a marginally less pathetic boss battle. The latter does contain some value due to the fact that it can be pretty challenging on the hard difficulty setting, yet ultimately isn't enough to keep either inclusion from being altogether dull and entirely skippable.

It's also worth noting the former features super annoying writing to boot. All the dialogue is incredibly juvenile. I don't mean in a crass and crude sort of way, rather that it comes off as aimed at very young children. Quite at odds with the sexual designs of a few of its heroines. The voice acting delivering it might be the strangest part of this entire package. I'm not convinced about half of it isn't AI generated, because there can't seriously be a reality where they found this many individuals who read that unnaturally even on a first take.

Whether this being (currently) kind of, sort of, but not truly or always going to be "free" depends on how much you're bothered by the microtransactions. They are 100% optional and avoidable so there is NO pay-to-win bullcrap going on and therefore cause me to take zero issue with them. That being said, I will mention the price tags are ridiculous, with a lot of bundles costing nearly the same amount as a brand-new released game, and there's the usual irritating seasonal battle pass junk. The freemium mechanics don't stop there, however. In a downright borderline hilarious move, the perks-esque boost loadouts you can equip the roster with are inexplicably randomly generated by a gacha system, mercifully fueled by in-game currency rather than real-world cash. You can't make this stuff up and that may be the sole aspect more unbelievably peculiar than the voice-overs.

Despite everything I've talked about, the multiplayer can still be mindless fun in spurts thanks to the creative modes. At least when you're winning. My personal favorite sees teams split up into two groups, requiring both halves to coordinate while one is in the fight and the other provides support from outside of the arena. The designs of the current cast are also appropriately striking, eye-catching, and cool in spite of the storytelling portraying them as huge dorks. Originally, I was intending to stick around long enough to unlock the complete trophy list. With such a variety of better games out there these days, I simply can't justify wasting any more time on something this mediocre and flawed, or recommend it to anybody else. Certainly not when you have to start paying for it. Psssh, forget that! Square Enix needs to smarten up and backtrack on those plans IMMEDIATELY!

5/10

Kinda astonishing I hadn't played this one until now, but here we are...

Half-Life, to my mind, exists in a bit of an odd spot in the history of the genre. In a way it feels like the missing link between Doom-clone boomer shooters and the more expansive immersion and worldbuilding-focussed games that came afterwards. I enjoyed finally playing this one a fair bit; the organic storytelling and especially the decision to have almost no exposition dumping in this game honestly holds up pretty well to this day. Black Mesa feels like a real, living place (albeit comically oversized and tropey); it definitely could have done with a few additional NPC models / voice lines, but the environmental storytelling is honestly decent even by today's standards.

Where Half-Life doesn't hold up so well is with its gameplay. The core game is its gunplay. The enemy variety is great and there is a nice selection of weapons on offer, most of which feel satisfying to use, but I feel there may be too many weapons here; the UI is not streamlined enough to make it easy to remember where each of your guns is in the toolbar, and switching between them during combat (which is often necessary) is awkward and imprecise as a result. Also, I played this on PC, and the auto-aim is the most egregious I have ever seen. I understand the need for a bit of auto-aim in games like this to improve the player experience, but there is absolutely no subtlety to it here at all. In fact I often found myself having to actively fight against the auto-aim; for example if an enemy was stood next to an explosive barrel, the game would simply refuse to let me shoot the barrel if the enemy was too close because it would latch onto the enemy instead. The auto-aim also seemed to have a bit of a hard time tracking flying enemies, and I'm pretty sure I would have been more accurate at hitting them without it.

There are also some minor platforming elements to the game, and... yeah they suck. It seems obvious to me that this engine is just not appropriate for platforming challenges, and yet Half Life insists on having them anyway. Freeman moves way too fast for some of the precision needed in this game (even when crouching), and a fair few jumps rely on janky features like 'crouch-jumping' which are never explained to the player, make no intuitive sense and feel more like a bug that was reinterpreted as a feature somewhere in development. The platforming comes to a head in the final couple of areas. Don't get me wrong, Xen absolutely looks the part, but all the platforming in this area make me never want to play it again. Thank god for the ability to make save states at will.

The overall feeling I get is a game that doesn't respect its own limitations. Half Life tries to do a lot of things that the state of technology at the time just wasn't quite able to pull off. I guess the attempt to try new things is something to be commended, but I equally have respect for something like Doom which is incredibly aware of its technological limitations and consequently still stands up as a game perfectly well to this day.

Despite all this, I did still enjoy Half Life a fair bit in the end. A lot of this enjoyment comes from ability to experience a piece of gaming history (see also Doom and Super Mario 64), and honestly the game's numerous shortcomings and dated features weren't enough to put too much of a dent in this. This is probably another one of those games that I'll never replay, but I'm glad to have played through it once and would encourage any gamers who haven't to give it a go.

Well, 2016 seems to be a great year for the comeback of shooters. First Overwatch, now DOOM (well in reviewing order). DOOM could have gone so bad, so quickly. However, id Software went back to its roots, updated it for the 2016 technology, and gave the middle finger to all the rest of the stuff plaguing the genre. DOOM is by far one of the best FPS games I have played in over a decade. It’s fast paced, challenging, fun, full of secrets for veterans, and is just plain old shooting.

The game actually does have a bit of a story and it’s done just right to where it won’t get in the way of the shooting. You play as Doomguy, a UAC Marine, who has to help a robot scientist, named Hayden, stop another researcher from bringing Hell to Earth. Amanda Pierce let the tech and religious aspect of Hell get to her and it overran the advanced Mars facility. Most of the story is told through logs which are actually the best way of keeping the story from getting in the way or becoming a train wreck. There are few cutscenes in DOOM, and when they play out, they are a nice break from the challenging gunplay. It’s light and crisp and isn’t stale ever which is great for the genre. Too many games, Battlefield, and Call of Duty, in particular, try to do this Hollywood sci-fi script of I don’t know what the hell to impress the edgy gamers out there. It doesn’t work, it’s a train wreck, and those stories are a complete mess. The FPS genre is relying too heavily on story and not enough on gameplay.

With that said, DOOM is just like you remembered all those years ago — forget about Doom 3. As soon as I took control of Doomguy I was in heaven. It’s fast paced, controls amazingly well, and the guns feel fantastic. The slow build up of your arsenal makes you smile every time you acquire a new weapon. Seeing Doomguy pick up the shotgun brought a “Hell Yeah” smile to my face. Seeing the chainsaw rip through enemies just gave me a satisfaction in a shooter I haven’t felt in years. There’re a strong arsenal and not all classic weapons return; a majority are new. The chaingun is fun, the heavy assault rifle, and the gauss rifle is just so much fun. DOOM starts bringing the series into 2016 with weapons mods and Praetor Suit upgrades. These seem unnecessary at first, but the way the enemies are balanced and maps are laid out you feel you need them. Each weapon has two different mods which are incredibly helpful. The shotgun can get an exploding buckshot or a three round burst. There’s no reloading ammo in the game so the R key is used for switching between mods. To keep things balanced, there’s a mod switching animation so going into combat with what you want is necessary.

Let’s talk enemies. The game is chalk full of them and all the classics return. Pinkies, Hell Knights, Cacodemons, Imps, etc. They look fantastic, blow up great, and the game is so gory and full of detail. The game isn’t the most technically impressive as some textures are lacking, but the game has incredible lighting, and the games runs at a nice smooth clip at 60 FPS. It does require the latest PC hardware to run at maxed out settings with Nightmare textures needing a GTX 980 or higher as it requires 6GB of VRAM. If you have the rig, you’re going to be in for a visual spectacle. I also have to commend the audio. The explosions, gunfire, enemy sounds and gory splats are fantastic. The game also has the good ‘ol heavy metal soundtrack with a techno twist. This is one of the best video game soundtracks this year.

DOOM’s level design is actually very old school and it works well here. Each level is made up of arenas with linear hallways in between. 50 % of the fun in DOOM is finding all the secrets thanks to the excellent map. Once you find the Auto Map all secrets are revealed, but they are still challenging to find. You might see a collectible floating in the air, but you have to find the right switch or path to get to it. I haven’t had this much fun finding collectibles and secrets in a game in a very long time. It was done right here and not forced. Everything you miss can be reacquired by replaying levels. DOOM also features a new Rune Trial mode which are super fun mini-games of sorts that are quite challenging. I was able to beat them all through the first play through, but a few proved tough. You get timed to complete certain goals such as killing a certain amount of enemies under certain circumstances. They change up the pace and are a warm welcome to the series.

Multiplayer is a bit of a disappointment, but it’s not awful. It’s fun for quite a while, but won’t have you coming back months later like other shooters. You have your classic modes and it’s just plain old run and gun fun online. It just feels like it’s lacking something or something needs adjusting. Hopefully, the next DOOM will address this issue or we get a stand alone DOOM multiplayer suite.

DOOM is a fantastic shooter and one of the best to come out in the past ten years. It does have a few flaws, I forgot to mention Glory Kills which are melee kills used when an enemy is stunned and flashing. Pressing F can launch you towards the enemy to acquire health and ammo, but it’s overused quite a bit. Thankfully it’s totally optional and towards the end of the game the novelty wore off and I only used it for health and ammo. The game does get repetitive towards the end, but not in an overly bad way. It’s just part of the genre and series and is a staple that will never go away. Outside of these issues, the game is worth a full purchase.

"For Super Players" is a more apt subtitle for this game, as its design seems very intentionally off-putting to folks that weren't already intimately familiar with first Super Mario Bros. and willing to put up this sequel's sometimes-questionable sources of added challenge.

However, I grew up playing it a lot with the SMB Deluxe port of worlds 1-8 and the All-Stars version, both of which had a more forgiving continue system and allowed me to master the levels. These days this game is legitimately more fun for me to revisit than the original SMB1, as the SMB1/2j physics feel pretty satisfying when you have command of them, and these levels still give me a fair bit of challenge compared to SMB1's.

I can definitely understand why this wouldn't be most folks' cup of tea, and US's SMB2 / Super Mario USA definitely left a far more far-reaching cultural and series impact, but I appreciate it a lot for what it is.