Doom 64 - a surprisingly good FPS on N64

As I've said several times, Doom is one of my favorite and most important series. I discovered Doom 64 almost a decade ago when a Polish Let's Player recorded his entire gameplay. I was sick then, just like I am now, so I was thrilled to watch the whole thing. The soundtrack, atmosphere, and additional features that weren't available in the PC versions immediately intrigued me. This doesn't surprise me. While Nintendo hardware (and the skills of its employees) are increasingly impressive, they have their limitations—RAM capacity, hard drive space, etc. In this case, Doom 64 required a 64MB cartridge. The game is developed by Midway Studios, a San Diego-based subsidiary. It was released on April 4, 1997, when I was 7 years old and playing a lot of Doom 1 & 2, Command and Conquer, and WarCraft 1 & 2. I'd heard of the console, even had my own Super Nintendo, but back then I was a hardcore PC Master Racer. Even though "some Doom 64" made a big impression on me, I was playing much more interesting titles on my own rig.

In terms of gameplay, Midway designed some truly beautiful and complex levels. It's clear they were created by another studio, as they lack "id's signature level design formula" (Romero, Carmack, and the core id team tasked new employees with creating a maze with specific rules—that's a sure sign someone understands how to create levels). Despite their technical limitations, they also managed to capture the gameplay of id Software's titles. You can complain about some things in Doom, call it outdated, but the level design and pace of gameplay are still impressive. Players navigate them intuitively, and they're neither too simple nor too complex. They're also diverse enough to keep them from getting boring too quickly. They're just as easy and enjoyable to play as they were at launch. The same can't be said for DN3D or Dark Forces today. Don't get me wrong, these are very good games and they did some aspects better (e.g. Duke has more possibilities in terms of interacting with the environment, a few original ideas, DF in turn had a better graphic engine than Id), but in this respect they are weaker.

I can say the same about the D64, which, despite its limited data capacity, lives up to its iconic predecessors. While it probably wasn't as enjoyable on the target console as it was on the PS5, that's thanks to the controller (which is a thing of the past, as the PS5 plays brilliantly). I felt as if Id Software had ported this game itself, just like Blizzard did with Diablo 3 for consoles. Even firing the super-shotgun is a lot of fun, though slightly less so than its counterpart in Doom 2 or Doom 4. In terms of these mechanics, the D64 reminds me of something between D2 and Q1—I see certain elements that ID didn't consider (either they weren't able to implement them in their own title or they were beyond the capabilities of the computers that dominated the market at the time), and they make the gameplay more satisfying. I explained this in more detail in my review of that title; I'll post the link below. In short, players have more options, and completing the game isn't quite as straightforward, requiring more brainpower and less mindless flight around the map, killing monsters. Of course, it's still a simple FPS, so don't expect anything out of the ordinary, but the two titles are clearly different.

As for the soundtrack, while I love the soundtracks for D1 and D2, the ambient music recorded for (hehe) Doom 64 is probably even better. Or rather, maybe not better, because I think the music from the Id games is more iconic, but the one from the Nintendo console builds the atmosphere better. Like the Quake 1 OST, it's much more fitting for the game's dark, gloomy atmosphere. The monsters' growls and strange, horror-like sounds—even though the game doesn't impress in terms of graphics these days—are still terrifying thanks to the music. Especially when the screen is dominated by dark or gray colors, and that's easy to do, as these dominate most levels.

In short, it's not a must-see title, and I probably wouldn't put it on a list of the best and most important FPS games, but I'd probably add it to my list of favorites in the genre. It wouldn't be a particularly high ranking, but its memory in this context speaks for itself. If, like me, you enjoy old-school FPS games, I recommend buying a D64. Especially since you probably didn't play this game as a child due to the lack of a console.