Doom 64 (1997)

March 1, 2023

Doom 64 was a game that I never thought I would get around to playing, but with the recent remaster and re-release, I was able to get it on Xbox Live. Which is great, because I was never going to buy an N64 or sort out an emulator, let us be honest.

Doom 64 is markedly different from the other Doom offerings from the 90s, but is a canonical release and continues the loose story on from Doom II. It looks more like Quake, I guess, and focuses more on puzzles and exploring creepy as fuck levels than it does on intense gameplay. Which is great for me, because some WADs are so insanely difficult that I just get a bit fed up. So it is a nice change of pace.

Atmosphere is big here – gone are the gore drenched tech halls of classic Doom, instead, sterile and cold industrial complexes take up the majority of the levels (even the “hell” levels kind of have this theme). The monsters are all redesigned and the whole thing just hits differently. Aubrey Hodges brings the TOTALLY different vibe musically from Bobby Prince, where Doom’s soundtracks began to go off the cliff completely into absolute terror.

I’m glad I played this, but I doubt I’ll ever go through it again.