Years after the Doomguy saved Earth from the demonic forces of evil, he is sent back to Phobos base to investigate an anomaly deep within the complex... what starts as a routine mission quickly takes a disturbing turn when he learns that the demons who fell on Phobos so many years ago have been revived by the dreaded Mother Demon!
Doom 64 is a game I've played numerous times and I truly believe, especially with the rerelease worked on by Nightdive Studios, that it deserves to be talked about in a similar vein as its predecessors.
The game is slower than Doom II and even Doom '93, this is likely due to the original hardware limitations of the N64 but it uses this slower pace to it's advantage, making the atmosphere of the game slightly spookier and giving a bit of weight to the seminal Doomguy, something that would be expanded upon in the reboot trilogy. The levels are also slightly more puzzle focused this time around and are designed well and due to the unique properties of the modified engine it runs on, levels can now shift and change in interesting ways that were perhaps not possible back in Doom and Doom II.
The gunplay has weight to it, sound design is punchy and there's a hint of camera shake to give those big effin' guns a real sense of power.
The game also features far more dynamic lighting and an entirely different visual style from previous titles in the franchise; demons are more detailed and have undergone a redesign to fit the somewhat grittier aesthetic 64' attempts to achieve.
It doesn't innovate in the ways 93' did and it doesn't refine like II but what we have here is a solid FPS experience that doesn't need to do those things, it's just a really fun game and if you're a fan of Doom or first person shooters in general and you haven't played it? You're doing yourself a disservice.
8/10.
