Huh, TNT or Doom Sixty - Doom 64. Two console games in a row? What happened to you Civvie? You used to be cool. I was never cool. We're not playing on an N64 emulator anyway. We're using Doom64 EX, because of course we are. I thought about getting one of those USB N64 controllers, but, ya know. The N64 controller, even if you're playing as something as simple as Doom, is not ideal. Mouse and keyboard does make it a little easier. I've played it on an N64 in the past. Doom 64 is still a Doom game and most of the old rules still apply. You move a little bit slower, the lighting is different and has cool color effects. There's texture filtering if you're playing on the N64 or an emulator. But I turn that off 'cause it's hideous. That being said, a little of the magic is lost with the higher resolution and modern hardware. Everything is brighter and less muddy than if you were playing on a CRT TV in the 90's. It doesn't totally ruin the atmosphere but you guys should be aware. Oh yeah, and the music! That was done by a man named Aubrey Hodges. And it's not the metal riffs and samples from the Aliens soundtrack you're used to. Gives the whole thing an eerie feeling that was really only available for PlayStation Doom at the time, because Aubrey Hodges also did the music and sound effects for that and the sound effects are pretty much the same. The Imp doesn't sound like a camel anymore - That's cool. It looks so different, right? Different enemy sprites, different textures, different sounds. We're not waiting for the official release in March as a pre-order bonus for Doom Eternal, and I assume it will also be sold separately later. I expect they're not that different. It's Kaiser via Nightdive, right? Kaiser made this fantastic port here that I only found, like, one bug in. That's not even bad, I think that's just an issue with the texture itself. Doom 64 wasn't developed by id, but instead by Midway Games with the working title of "The Absolution." I kinda wished Nintendo wouldn't shoe-horn in the number 64 into their games at the time. Firstly, it made it seem like Doom 64 was just a straight port for the console. Which is what I thought it was for most of my life. I ended up playing it in college and was like, "What the fuck is this?" No, seriously, what the fuck is this? What is this?? The game was overlooked, probably, because people thought the same thing and calling it Doom: The Absolution might have helped with that. It's a badass title, right? People argue that this is the real Doom 3. Not that slow, dark, technologically impressive game that's actually okay for the most part but has a terrible shotgun. Nah, this one, when it hit in '97, it wasn't received as well. It was seen as just another Doom game coming after 3D had already taken over the FPS genre with Quake. But most importantly on the N64 - GoldenEye. Don't get me wrong, GoldenEye is... fine. It's very nice for what it is, and the autoaim where you see the gun moving, and you don't have to wrangle so much with this torturous thing. The Tommy Wiseau of gaming controllers in that it's inarguably terrible, but has some kind of alien charm to it? I don't see it. Oh yeah, and a few weeks before Doom 64 came out, you got Turok to sort of show up and steal its thunder. Wow! it's so weird to say a sentence like that without mentioning Half-Life. It's still Doom to the core and it's a damn fine game. Probably a better experience nowadays than Ultimate Doom and most of Doom II, and not as brutally hard as Plutonia. It's visually different. The monsters have all been redesigned. Zombiemen and Shotgunners use the same sprites now. But that's not really important since I shoot on sight anyway. Imps are grey and come in two flavors; Normal and the Nightmare Imp, who's transparent and has a purple projectile. that's faster than the normal one Pink Demons look similar. Spectres have a different transparency effect now that can make them harder to see. Hell Knights are back, again. Similar looking. Barons join them and not only have red coloring, but red projectiles. Considering all the colored lighting in this game, it's important to be able to tell. Cacodemons are kinda funny looking and they have arms with chains on them for some reason? Pain Elementals are horrifying and have two mouths now, and I don't understand why anyone would do something that hideously evil. No, seriously, why would you do something like that you absolute bastards! Mancubi return. Arachnotrons, the old Cyberdemon. Most of Doom's monsters were made from physical models and then digitally captured. These look like they were made form digital 3D models and then captured, so they have this kinda prerendered sheen all over them. That I guess isn't bad? All the sprites are a higher resolution, which is nice. And that's all of them. Did you notice any monsters missing? Well, there's only so much space on the Nintendo 64 cart 'cause Nintendo didn't want to move on to disks for another generation. I think carts were cheaper to produce... maybe? I don't know. I can tell you that having only one sprite for the Zombieman and Shotgunner are probably because of that. Also the exculsion of other monsters. Spider Mastermind? Gone. Chaingunner? gone. Revenant? Gone, but not forgotten. We'll talk about it. The Arch-Vile? Super gone! I can only imagine the nightmares he'd give me if he was in this game. But they kept the Pain Elemental? That would have been my first cut. The weapons are all basically the same with one addition. We'll get to that one. Oh boy, that's the fun one. The chainsaw now has two blades and kills extra quick, possibly too quick, and maybe starting the trend of OP chainsaws in Doom games. The pistol is unchanged, it might be a little faster. I don't know... I never use it. The shotgun and super shotgun have no extra frames for pumping and reloading, maybe related to cart space, and have suitably meaty sounds. The impact of the super shotgun on the Pink Demons in this game, in my opinion, feels better than in any of the previous entries. I think it's the higher resolution sprites and the way the blood pours out of his face? It's cool! I like it! Good job, Midway. The chaingun has gotten an upgrade. Fires significantly faster and has better sound - even if it's the pistol sound, still. The rocket launcher is basically the same except for the addition of some kickback, which we'll discuss VERY soon. The plasma gun fires slower but does a bit more damage. The BFG seems weaker to me, I dunno. And the final one, we'll talk about it when we get it, because the designers made sure to make it special. Story goes: You are still Doomguy, the classified archives are open. The military episodes codenamed "Doom" were not actually completed. A single entity with vast rejuvenation powers, masked by the extreme radiation levels, escaped detection. In its crippled state, it systematically altered decaying dead carnage back into corrupted living tissue. The mutations are devastating. The demons have returned even stronger and more vicious than before. As the only experienced survivor of the Doom episode, your commission is reactivated. Your assignment is clear: MERCILESS EXTERMINATION. Cool! It's a little darker than it used to be. You start off at the Staging Area. You get accustomed to the look of the game; how colorful, yet still unsettling it all is. Pretty quickly, you'll have a shotgun and a chainsaw. you find the chainsaw in a secret; it's right here. And a ton of demons to kill, that creamy Doom goodness. Fantastic. Hope you find all the secrets. So back in the day, I don't know how anyone knew how to do this before internet access was widespread. Maybe in their Nintendo Power magazines they were able to read: "Yeah, so, to get this you have to shoot all the explosive barrels in the level, but not this one here first. I know it's right there, but you're gonna wanna wait on it until you destroy the others, 'cause there's one in the exit room, and once you blow up the very last one, a wall lowers temporarily to show you a teleporter in a room behind the starting area, and you walk into this unmarked teleporter that takes you to Hectic." I would say that Hectic is a dick in the eye for any first time player, but first time players never found this. I didn't know about it until I saw a thing online about a decade after the game came out. And whatever it was, it didn't tell me not to try over and over to get these cool powerups. Fuck Hectic. The only real benefit I can see in this map is being able to get the rocket launcher early. Which is the first thing you should pick up in this level anyway, 'cause you won't get far without it. It'll drop you right into this room with three Arachnotrons where you'll have to run for it. Each section of Hectic has a key and a trap. I suppose the trap right here with the darts is the least evil of these, uh, oh wait, did I mention Arachnotrons shoot two plasma shots at a time now? They're a bit weaker than the shots in the PC version, but still. Not the worst part, no. That would be this here. Doom 64 has some kind of scripting system that previous games didn't have, and it allows for some traps and level alterations that wasn't possible before except maybe in Hexen. This looks fine, right? Until the bridge lowers into an inescapable pit and the walls drop to hit you with four Hell Knights. Just shoot them with the rocket launcher, right? Ah, but the rocket launcher has kickback now and you're on a narrow ledge. This is Hectic's worst trap. So what is the point of Hectic? Just the rocket launcher? It actually unlocks some hidden challenge levels that you can warp to from the menu. We'll do them later, I promise. Back to regular levels, you won't be seeing Hell Knights for awhile, and Arachnotrons for even longer. This is The Terraformer, and Doom 64's a little less focused on making abstract levels than Doom or Doom II. There's cool stuff: this pounding machine here that opens the next part of the level; This room here shows off how cool the lighting effects can be. I haven't played Doom 64 nearly as much as the others, even Doom 3. I was late to the party, but what are ya gonna do? My limited participation in the console wars set me towards the PlayStation over the N64. Look at this chaingun, though. Purple muzzle flash!? Why not. I'm not even sure if the color purple appeared in the Doom palette originally? Oh, no, wait. There's some. The first eight maps take place in an abandoned base on Phobos. They're not bad, they're fine. Pretty good. In map three, you get introduced to the Cacodemons. On this skill, the hardest that was available on the N64 and what I would guess is the equivalent to Ultra-Violence, you face not one, not two, not three, not even five, but eight Cacodemons. Oh yeah, let's go! You'll meet Lost Souls too, who seem more aggressive this time around and have less health. You can take them down with one single shotgun blast. There's lots of them in this game, especially later. The first maps aren't really as interesting as the ones that come after, until you get to map four, "Holding Area," which contains the secret exit with this switch puzzle that requires you to hit them in the correct sequence to raise these platforms, or else get locked out of access to the secret level. Glad I'm not using the memory card saves and password system, which was included in this PC port, I assume for total accuracy. It's a nice touch even if I can't ever imagine using it. Remember how I said I haven't played Doom 64 as much? I didn't even know the Unmaker was in this level. That's why there's an "ish" in the title of this video. I knew about the Demon Key obviously. you'll need that... You. Will. Need. That. You have to do some switch puzzles in this area in order to access it. And the level text at the beginning hints at the presence of something important in this level: That's the Demon Key, not the Unmaker. Since the first Demon Key is only here. Look at this pre-mission text. So much shorter and more to the point than the ones in vanilla Doom games. Pick up a rocket launcher too, since you got a bunch of Mancubi to deal with. This a secret level, they're not pulling any punches. As it should be. The exit is locked behind a yellow key door that's right behind where you start. You could go through this whole level and exit without even getting the Demon Key. Same in the other secret levels. But you're gonna want it. You'll see. Eventually you'll get to the map "Final Outpost". I had to do this a few times cause I didn't save often enough. The earlier parts of the game are pretty easy, but once you cross this room, slay the Nightmare Imps, the Hell Knights, the Barons and enter the portal to Hell... I don't know about that. That was like three times the opposition I had to deal with the last time I was on Phobos. Doomguy's a little edgier this time around. Honestly, the backstory has him having,
like, Hell PTSD that couldn't be treated. I get it. It's still a little heavy for a Doom game. Even if a significant amount of the population of Earth got killed in Doom II. I feel like this is the natural midpoint between grinning lunatic Doomguy avenging his pet rabbit and rampaging anger golem Doomguy in Doom 2016. Anyway, That's the stuff. The title card isn't a gag either. The level is called "Even Simpler" and it's much harder than the original Dead Simple. You might think, "Oh I just kill these Mancubi and the walls open". Nah, get ready for an all out assault from Cacodemons and Hell Knights. You're gonna be seeing a lot more traps from here on in. A lot more, ah... tricks also. The updates to the engine and the scripting allow for more complex ways to surprise the player. I'm not complaining. They're "Doomy" while also being kinda fun and creative, but not just lowering a wall to throw a hundred monster at ya. Next up "The Bleeding" ... The Bleeding. Most of this game takes place in Hell, which is a nice change of pace and an opportunity to cram as many ridiculous map titles in there as possible. We've got such hits as: Blood Keep!? A keep of blood. All good stuff, very spooky. The atmosphere in these Hell levels was the best ever done on the old engine before, like, source port enhancements. But, no. Back to The Bleeding.
*laughing*
The Bleeding. Now this one's cool cause you get the BFG. Hit this guy right here and this platform lowers enough for you to get to the BFG. And then... It works a little different form the insane hacked together behavior of the original. As I understand it, it damages monster in, like, a cone shaped area within the player's field of view after hitting. It just seems like it's doing less damage then it normally would with the original tracers from PC Doom. Ah, well. I'd be upset if we didn't get the Unmaker later. I wanna mention how awesome the skies look in this game. Complete with the parallax scrolling and lighting effects. Good stuff! Next up is Terror Core, which is a fine level, but also so forgettable in comparison to later maps that I didn't write anything in the script about it. It's not bad, but when when you have so many Hell levels, some of them start to run together, ya know. Castle structure surrounded by water... Oh, yeah, and fucking hordes of monsters. I'm down, I'm game. Let's party! Altar of Pain is one of the best levels of the game. A standout. A cool layout.Ascending a citadel that actually resembles a citadel. And this is where I first got the Unmaker. You don't find it often, like three times in the entire game. For some reason, it runs off of cell ammo. Acts like a laser and is decent at killing monsters. I remember the first time I got it, I wasn't impressed. "Oh look, a laser, wow." "What the blank is this?" I dunno, that's only three characters so it's not "fuck". Is it ass? You probably didn't have to censor ass. I know it's a Nintendo. Did you not have enough space on the cart for an extra character? Another secret level exit is here too. After you're done in this room, you'll notice a platform here is raised so you can actually jump on there to get a Soulsphere. If you continue straight ahead through a fake wall. Kill a Baron. You'll find the secret exit marked with this image of the Demon Key you'll need to get in the next level. I say need but you don't NEED to get it, you really should though. Arachnotrons and Nightmare Imps, oh my! And shooting switches to lower this... Wait a minute, what is this 3D floor shit right here? This can be seen every now and then, and for the life of me, I don't know how this was done in this version of the engine. Sure, in GZDoom, you can just do this with a dummy sector and you can tag it and bam: 3D floor. It doesn't really matter. Though you might notice the Unmaker shoots two lasers out now and eats twice the ammo. It's a bit powerful. Dark Citadel is like the point of no return in this game, when it really starts going all out on you. Waves of monsters and a lot less ammo than usual for your energy weapons. You still have the super shotgun and the souped up chaingun. You're gonna be doing the Hell Noble dance a lot. Dark Citadel is full of traps: This hellish room with the blue key; This enormous area full of Cacodemons and later Barons. Save this invincibility here if you suck at video games. Eye Of The Storm is another cool castle level. It's fun. I don't have that much to say about it to be honest. It's got that imagery of Doom 64 that always stuck in my head. The sky and the water and the architecture... When I think Doom 64, this is generally the positive image that comes into my head. Overall, it gets a little repetitive sometimes. Though, in general, Doom 64 does okay with the limited monster variety. Except in the next level, the next level can get in trouble with the mob and end up trapped in a barrel of acid with its family wondering where it went and why it's not home for Christmas dinner. Remember how they took Revenants out of the game? They didn't take them out all the way. It looks like it's the same sprites as the Mancubus attack repurposed, and homing, and fired way more than a Revenant would ever fire them from turrets in the wall. From EVERYWHERE. From the fucking start room! Oh, this is BULLSHIT! Hardest level? Yeah, I think so. Mostly 'cause of this courtyard here that's absolutely crawling with monsters, and I think it's only feasible to kill them all before going inside to get the full health and armor. This part might be the roughest time I had in the game. It seems so closed off. And the player is slower than in previous games.
And there's Arachnotrons. Oh, it's a pain. And you still have to back to the start room with the homing fireball turrets. Jesus! Blood Keep.
It's fine. A little heavy on the Cacodemons, still good. Fun level. Kinda trash ending here with the Lost Souls and the floor falling out from under you. Doom 64 is less inclined to give you a way out of pits than the originals, which is worse than in previous games, because this was designed to be played without mid-level saves. If you died in the last room, ya had to go do the level over. I actually have played most of this game on an N64 with a memory card. I actually remember making it to The Spiral before the memory card got lost. What the hell, it wasn't even my N64. Anyway, now it's time for "Watch Your Step." No, I don't think I will. This map introduces you to the Cyberdemon, and since we're on the highest skill it was designed for, we get two of 'em. So, The Unmaker is a bit overpowered. There's this weird wall shooting puzzle that opens secret rooms with the health and armor that requires some playing with teleporters. I mean, I recommend doing it but eh...? Okay... Doom 64 has less environmental hazards than you'd expect. They're usually more purposeful, less incidentally placed into the level. You have pools of lava that seem to actually be burning. Oof! The third and final secret exit can be found by walking towards the regular one and listening for an opening door that you have to run to to access one of the harder levels, "In The Void." And it was really strange to see this kinda level originally. A lot of Pain Elementals spawning far away; A sense of 3D space that, up to this point, was completely alien to a Doom game. Getting the Demon Key is even more of a pain because it's on a timer. You have to hit a switch, watch it disappear, know that you have to run across the level, and then a step raised so that you can get into this area, and get the Demon Key, and then exit. Because exiting is jumping off into the void itself which is... Okay, sure. Now that you have the third Demon Key, the Unmaker is 50% more overpowered. This one's a bloodbath. It's short too. There's this - Oh Jesus. Before that, there's lots to deal with. This one, I wouldn't want to pistol start. By this point, I'd accumulated plenty of rockets, which is good because I use most of them in this level. *Loud siren*
What is happening? I don't- what? I-Uh? *Loud siren continues*
I'm shaking. Oh no, please NO. Good map. Kinda reminds me of the Living End from Doom II, at the beginning before you get to the maze? You start to notice Doom 64's trick where the levels start shifting to give you access to new areas. It's cool! And if you get overwhelmed, you just hit the Unmaker button. An Arachnotron heavy level with a dark sky with flames, moody, filled with traps. The secret one here. I'm a PC player and I'm ready for this kind of crusher dickery. I'd just like to take a moment to point out how awesome this game looks sometimes. Okay, moment over. This part, I can't exactly explain it. I think whats happening here is a script that raises these walls really fast in order to make it look like the walls are moving towards you. Probably works better if I turn the frame rate cap on. But I'm not doing that. Reminiscent of Altar of Pain, except I hate it. Half the time you round a corner on this building, the level fires homing missiles at ya. There's a lot of monsters. There's a kinda dumb switch hunt where you have to get all the keys before opening the other areas that lead to the other unnecessary switches that will open the exit. It's not the worst. No Escape. That title is a lie, especially if you have the powered up Unmaker. Otherwise, I can understand why it might be a problem. A bunch of Cyberdemons stand between you and the end, which triggers when you kill the last one, instead of having a real exit. Then it's time for...
"The Absolution" Doom 64 has a unique final boss; the Mother Demon, who was behind the demon resurrection that kicked off the whole game in the first place. She's got some nasty attacks, and there's these three infinite monster closets spawning demons. It's... not even remotely hard and I knock it out in less than a minute. And thus, Doomguy stays in Hell to make sure no other demons rise again. And in the minds of Doom conspiracy theorists, this is the part where Doom 2016 picks up if you ignore all that Argent D'Nur stuff which-- None of this makes sense. Roll the extra levels. For some reason, I still have my inventory from the last level even though I warped here. This is a small maze with some Imps in cages and a Cyberdemon chasing you around, occasionally teleporting. It's pretty basic and just included as a challenge level. No big deal. HardCore. Maybe by the standards of 1997. Lot of Mancubi followed by a lot of Arachnotrons. To be honest, these first two levels didn't even kill me, even if they keep teleporting things around. Come on! Okay, this one killed me. I mean, it's not quite as hard as HardCore, I just got caught off-guard by these goddamn Arachnotrons. I had to come back to it and pistol start and rocket duel a Cyberdemon. Lame! Followed by a bunch of Mancubi. Once you're done with that, you'll be sent back to level one and you can experience the magic all over again. That was cool. Obviously, not as well known or well regarded as the others, but it deserves a place in the Doom series; and really only recently has gotten the recognition it deserves. Now it's been rediscovered and is slated for a proper re-release, even if it was delayed. I wasn't gonna wait until March to do this video for fuck's sake. It just makes me so mad that console gamers got a good experience with a Doom port. You know, I actually don't care. Outro theme:
Lee Jackson - How'd I do?
How did this game with sprites have to have things cut due to the 64 but Goldeneye had like 3D models and stuff.
First Duke Nukem Forever, then Clive Barker's Undying, then Alien Resurrection and now Doom 64. Civvie really doesn't want to do TNT.
It can't be that bad a megawad, can it?
I also didn't realize that DOOM 64 was something other than a DOOM port until very recently. I certainly didn't know that there was another weapon! Hope we get to see an Unmaker in DOOM Eternal!
Huh. This is the first time I've actually seen this game played. I had heard about it, but kinda wrote it off as a probably bad knock off. Some interesting level design and I could see it being really fun with a M+kb control scheme.
I had this cartridge back in the day. I firmly believe that if it had 4-way multiplayer it would be remembered as one of the best N64 games of all time.
The game just feels good to play.
At least put that it's Civvie 11 in the title?
This is up to his usual standards. Excellent stuff. Ffs that end boss is disappointing.
Just finished doom 64 ex on pc for my twitch stream, brilliant game with mouse and keyboard. My 2nd fave doom now!