Doom 64
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Doom 64 is a 1997 first-person shooter video game for the Nintendo 64 developed and published by Midway Games. It is the fourth entry of the Doom series originally developed by id Software.
Why It Rocks
- A new weapon is added to the arsenal called the Unmaker. It is of demonic origin, inscribed with a pentagram, and made up of parts of the spine and rib bones of a demon. It fires powerful red lasers by consuming cells as ammo. It's also the only weapon that can be upgraded with the Demon Keys that can be found in secret levels.
- The first key increases the laser speed, making it a rapid-firing weapon.
- The second key adds a second laser, slightly spread out.
- The third key makes the weapon fire three simultaneous lasers, greatly spread out for coverage.
- Despite being released on a Nintendo console, the game wasn't forced to censor the violence and gore.
- The game features unique sprites and the sounds of the PlayStation version of Doom.
- Great graphics that stretch the Doom Engine to the limit for its time, even exceeding the capabilities of Hexen in some respects. Textures and sprites are smoothed out to eliminate pixelation, level geometry can now be scripted into intricate special effects, the skies can be smoothly animated and even display thunder and lightning, and levels can be made to fool the player into thinking they are more 3D than they are. The levels in the second act of the game and the latter stand out with their castle-like designs and well-animated skies, and the entire presentation wasn't quite like anything else on the N64.
- A good soundtrack that, while very different from those of the first two games, does a great job of establishing a dark, tense atmosphere, and unlike the similar soundtrack replacement for the PSX port of the original, the music fits this game's darker and more sinister style like a glove.
- Like previous editions of Doom, there are multiple secret levels to be found. This time, however, the three secret levels in the main campaign provide tangible rewards found nowhere else. Each gives one of three Demon Keys to power up your Unmaker weapon, provided you solve a puzzle in each level. You can also find significant perks, such as an Unmaker as early as the first act of the game. Each Demon Key also reduces the difficulty of the final level significantly by allowing you to close one demon portal per key.
- The game was a free bonus for pre-ordering Doom Eternal.
- The 2020 re-release brought the game to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC with higher resolution visuals, runs at 60 FPS on consoles (and up to 1000 FPS on PC), controller rumble support, various graphics settings (such as a recreated N64-styled three-point filtering and anti-aliasing), and an entirely new episode added that bridges the gap between the classic and modern Doom games.
Bad Qualities
- Redesigned monsters are hit or miss and are not well-liked by the fanbase.
- Some of the secret exits are cryptic.
- Finding the exit to the secret level "Hectic" in the first level is perhaps the biggest example. In the first level, upon blowing up all the barrels in the level, a wall concealing a teleporter will open up in an already secret area, for a very brief few seconds before permanently closing for the rest of the level (which means a player will have no chance to get to the secret exit unless they save the very first barrel in the level near the secret exit for last, let alone knowing about it in the first place). No indication blowing up the barrels will do something (nor are barrels ever used as a trigger for something at any other point in the franchise), and the only hint in-game that the secret exists is a seemingly inconsequential small blood stain on the floor in front of the wall concealing the secret exit. Hectic is this hidden for good reason however, as the level puts the player up against incredibly unfair situations with minimal resources and has a load of instant death traps while rewarding a player who manages to clear the level with access to the "cheats" menu, which grants the player things such as god mode, unlimited ammo, and the ability to warp to any level (including three secret "for fun" levels that cannot be accessed by normal gameplay).
- Accessing the secret exit in the "Holding Area" (Level 4) is also not obvious. There is a balcony where you can exit the level normally, but also a combination lock with four switches, one at each overlook, and a teleport pad to take you to the secured door after inputting the correct code. If you are refraining from consulting a walkthrough, then the combination appears to be a guessing game. Brute force isn't practical because the level only allows one combination attempt per session and there's no save scumming allowed on the Nintendo 64.
- The Sister Resurrector boss fights in The Lost Levels. She is essentially just a rematch with the Mother Demon, but due to the level's layout, puts her at a major disadvantage. The Unmaker is immediately available in the beginning, and you need to collect the 3 required Demon Keys in the level to open her door, which also powers up the Unmaker at maximum power. There are also 3 Invulnerability Spheres in the level; you can use one or two of them to clear most of the area out (in case you fear the Cyberdemon) or speed run it, and then save one at the end for a free win against her.
- The game has much more difficult levels than what was seen in Doom or even Doom II. This is mostly a convoluted design of many levels and enemy placements.
- "Level 6: Alpha Quadrant" is where levels start causing easy deaths. What makes it painful is an abyssal room with severe darkness, populated with specters in the pit that can corner you easily, and Barons of Hell impeding your progress from across the room. Much time can be spent, trying to clear a safe path through this room to hit the switches you need to access the final key.
- "Level 9: Even Simpler" can be very fun, but get ready to be barbecued after raising the elevator in the center of the arena, your first time through. The rest of the level is certainly "not simple" due to the nasty assortment of monsters, including Pain Elementals, and you don't have the BFG nor the Unmaker powered up beyond level one yet. Despite all of the above, the level may give one a sense of triumph once they complete it due to how intense it gets.
- "Level 16: Blood Keep" has a layout that is fairly complicated to figure out, and is a fairly long level. What makes it frustrating is that the exit room has a cheap death trap if you're unfamiliar with the map: Some Lost Souls assault you and are easy enough to deal with, but after they die, the edges of the room (2/3 of the room) lower into an inescapable death-pit that kills you, which means that if you happen to wander here at the wrong time, you go back to the beginning. Note that Doom 64: Absolution, a game mod that recreates the game on the PC, has an alteration of this trap, that is not to be confused with the original, where the sides lower right away, and the safe zone is even smaller, with the player surrounded by hell-knights.
- "Level 21: Pitfalls", oh...damn. This level certainly has pitfalls with plenty of lava to swim in, and a treacherous layout somewhat like "The Chasm" in Doom 2, only you're more tense about dying because of the "no save scumming" limitation. The castle-like halls in another section of the map also contain some nasty traps, and there is a confusing point where you must backtrack to the beginning to flip a switch you probably forgot about, confused as to why you're stuck.
- "Level 22: Burnt Offerings", while not the most outright difficult level has a dirty trick that feels poorly thought-out. At one point, you need to progress by picking up a Rocket Launcher, but if you happen to be a full-on Rocket, then you may become stuck as you can not progress without picking up that Launcher. When you do take the Rocket Launcher, you are lowered into a shallow pit and four dart launchers start firing at you which can lead to your death if you are unprepared and running low on health. Replacing the Rocket Launcher with a Mega Sphere would be a simple fix, preventing a cheap death and providing a challenge to get through the sequence with as much health as possible.
- "Level 23: Unholy Temple", which combines all of Doom 64's hallmarks; long levels with complicated layouts, nasty ambushes by high-level monsters in tight situations, death traps, and mandatory puzzles (with the one here spanning across the entire level), all rolled into the game's ultimate Marathon Level.
- While a great addition to the arsenal, The Unmaker, once you find two or three secret artifacts, becomes the most powerful weapon in the game. It goes from an unspectacular laser beam to a powerful, rapid-firing spread shot that decimates enemies in no time while completely unlocking them. Even the Mother (the final boss) can die in a few seconds from it at level-3 power with little chance to retaliate, and the Pain Elementals with all their Lost Souls can be destroyed within a second by it without any retaliation. The scarcity of plasma ammo prevents the player from being able to rely on it as their primary weapon however, preventing it from eliminating the game's difficulty, but as long as its ammo is adequately conserved, it can get the player out of pretty much every tight combat spot in the game.
Trivia
- The ending screen of The Lost Levels in the 2020 rerelease has one to the Slayer's Testaments from DOOM (2016).
Reception
Doom 64 received positive reviews from critics. Critics agreed that Doom 64 was by far the best-looking Doom to date, exceeding even the PC version. They were enthusiastic about the level designs, deeming them imaginative and much more challenging than those of the original Doom.
A Next Generation critic remarked that "even the most skillful Doom fans will have their hands full. And pushing door switches often causes whole rooms to rearrange and fold out into new shapes."
Shawn Smith of Electronic Gaming Monthly instead regarded the lack of advancements in the basic Doom gameplay as a positive: "Some of you may want to see your space Marine jumping around or swimming underwater. Purists wouldn't want these features added because Doom wasn't about that stuff. I'll have to agree with the purists."
In the following years, Doom 64 has garnered a cult following from fans, who have created multiple fan-made PC source ports for the game to make it compatible with PC WAD files. Most prominently 2003's Doom 64 TC, a massive collaborative PC fan port that added numerous enemy variants and levels, and later 2008's Doom 64 EX, a fan port meant to re-create the original experience made entirely by developer Samuel Villarreal, who previously worked to develop Doom 64 TC and made a working Nintendo DS port of Doom 64. Others praise the game for having some of the most unique level designs out of the series as well as for its darker, more sinister tone in contrast to the intense and aggressive action that the original Doom captivated and succeeded upon
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