Doom 64
Reviewed by Michael Hernandez
As far I can see, the N64 does it again! Doom 64 is by far the BEST
version on Earth. It's a completely different game from the ol'
traditional Doom as we know it today. Yet, it is the same game, at
least in playability. The graphics, sounds, eerie music all add up to
the most incredible Doom experience!
GRAPHICS: What could one say but...WOW! Light sourcing galore and
real-time light sourcing on your weapons. Moving into differently
lighted areas affect the light that falls across your weapon, i.e. move
into a blue room, blue light reflects off your weapon. Moving down a
dark corridor and suddenly moving under a pool of light, your weapon
moves with you from darkness to light. The best thing about Doom 64 is
the natural darkness that shrouds EVERYTHING. Even in well lit areas,
the game still has that dark, scary feeling. The mood is set
perfectly. The player could always butt up the brightness in the
options menu, but this ruins the "essence" of Doom. Since the game is
naturally dark, you HAVE to play it in low light or complete darkness.
This way it really gets creepy. Of course, there is NO pixelation to be
seen. YEA! Finally! All walls are textured beautifully with lighting
going up the walls, down the walls, green lights, red lights and even
black fluorescent lighting which is so realistic! Even regular white
fluorescent lighting is here! At one point there's even an indoor
lighthouse style beacon in the middle of the room throwing a pool of
light in a circular motion. Great effect!
SOUND: Eerie, scary, creepy, and frightening! The faraway or close
sounds of Imps' gurgling is perfect. Large monsters' cries and howls
actually echo down the corridors. All sounds of doors (which sound very
similar to the doors in the movie Aliens), weapon and health pick-ups,
etc. are all improved and match the game's mood. The music alone is
completely weird. Could one call it music? I call it musical noise.
It's like a weird, metallic, unearthly kind of tune that after a while
starts to really engulf you the further you get into the game. In past
Doom versions, I always had shut the music off, but this Doom 64 tunes
is perfect for this type of game. I really can't describe it perfectly,
one would have to hear it to understand. It's just totally different
and non-derivative of the normal Doom. Very non-traditional Doom music
and sound.
MOVEMENT: Smooth and FAST! This includes the movement of yourself and
all edifices and crushing ceilings and doors. No slowdown anywhere to
be seen. No jittery or choppy animation here when it comes to running
down corridors or wide open areas with 10 demons after you. Even when
using the gatling gun, the entire screen shakes up and down adding to
the effect of metallic shooting power in your arms! All perfect N64
antics! You won't be able to look up nor down, but the game is...Doom!
MONSTERS: Now here is where you MIGHT be disappointed. As in
regular Doom, the sprites are in fact made from raster graphics rather
than polygon. Were these sprites in polygonal form, as in Turok, the
programmers would not have been able to put, say, 50 Cyberdemons on
screen at once shooting at you. This would slow down the game's
movement. So, with raster graphics they could put as many monsters on
the screen as they like. BUT, when up close they still don't pixelate.
Oh, they do blur, but this is much more accepted and realistic than any
obvious blocky pixelation. The raster graphics also affect the animated
frame rate of each monster. Being a veteran Doom fan, I'm so used to
the low frame rate of the monsters in regular Doom, that Doom 64
monsters don't disappoint me personally. They are VERY tough to blow
away still. Of course, there will be, ahem, DOOM SAYERS, who will
promote Doom 64 as horrible because of this, but still it does not
affect gameplay in the least.
CONTROLS: The controls are simple: Analog (or joypad) to move, Z to
shoot, and the C buttons to open doors, strafe, see the map and to run
faster. The A and B buttons run through your weapon inventory.
All in all, Doom 64 is the most phenomenal version on any system and,
yes, this includes the all powerful Playstation. I've had many a PSX
fan try to tell me that their Doom is the best, but eyes do deceive.
Doom 64 kills all other versions, chews them, spits them out and stomps
on them. Although I don't think this is better than Turok, it is a
definite classic to own in any N64 library. Who knows, with the advent
of the 64DD, we could be buying EXTRA LEVELS to add to the Doom 64
cartridge!