Doom 64
By id Software and Midway - 32 Maps
Format: IWAD (technically)
[Download N/A because I'd rather not go to prison]
Started: October 6th 2026
Finished: October 8th 2026
Status: Abandoned
Note: Doom 64 EX sucks ass, use the remastered Steam port instead if you for some reason want to play Doom 64. The Steam port still feels kinda ass to play, but it's at least slightly better.
Finally, the last of the official classic Doom releases! There's a reason I didn't play this one until now. Unlike many other games with the naming scheme of "XYZ 64", Doom 64 is a fully original game built off the foundation of Doom 1 and 2. It retains the same guns, most of the same enemies, and none of the vibes. Doom 64 is missing several key enemies from Doom 2's roster (no Chaingunners, Archviles, or Revenants) and combined with much more cramped and blocky layouts renders the moment to moment gameplay kinda unsatisfying. There's several instances of unmarked switches and weird annoying backtracking-ness that make these maps drag a bit, and holy FUCK is that first secret map just absolutely abysmally stupid. The reskinned guns and enemies are eh, but the Super Shotgun completely lacks the classic reload animation which leaves it feeling super flaccid and makes the slow firerate feel really frustrating since there's no longer a visual of the reload time between shots. Then the ultimate downside, the music. Much like Quake 1, Doom 64 goes for a horror-y ambient soundtrack over the cheesy midi rock of the originals, and much like Quake I think this makes the experience significantly worse. The droning ambience gives nothing to latch on to, and horror is nowhere near close to happening while you're Doomguy running around with a backpack of guns and tons of ammo, so the lack of music makes the repetitive gameplay even more repetitive. Originally I meant to use Doom 64 EX for this, but after needing to download a mildly sketchy file to fix the mouse inputs and then the game crashing randomly before I even finished Map 1, I said screw it and forked over like $2 for the Steam remaster, which despite being the best way to play is still clunky as hell. The controls feel weirdly sluggish and imprecise, there's no option for vertical mouselook, you can't press the interact key to reload your last save on death (you either have to manually load a save via the menu or load your one quicksave slot with a separate hotkey, both of which have to waste time fading back in), and navigating the menus for anything is slow as hell because they have to slowly fade in and out whenever you click anything. The lack of fun gameplay combined with the janky bootleg-feeling experience of playing it made me very much aware of the many things I'd rather be doing instead of this. I earnestly would almost rather play through the Master Levels again than slog through the rest of Doom 64. Maybe I'll go check out Doom 64 for Doom 2 instead, hopefully that's better.
Rating - ⭐⭐½
Favorite/Least Favorite Map skipped because the WAD wasn't completed.