Brutal Doom 64

The Game Room
1

I wanted to let people know about Brutal Doom, a quite worthwhile mod for Doom made by 1 guy with as much talent as determination. Especially now that Brutal Doom 64, the Nintendo 64 version turned up to 11, has been brought to PC in time for Halloween.

Here’s some gameplay: Brutal Doom 64 v1 Trailer - YouTube

Here’s the download page, you know what to do: Downloads - Brutal Doom 64 mod for Doom II - Mod DB

I’m curious to know what people think of the following:

  1. What made Doom so great?

  2. How does Doom 64 compare to Doom 1 and 2?

  3. Rip or tear?

2

I would’ve sworn we had discussions on this before, but in case we hadn’t…

Obviously Doom was really the first of its kind (okay, Wolfenstein came first, but Doom added the necessary ingredients to make it really fun, like height variation and non-square rooms) but it still holds up today IMO. One of the big reasons for that is game speed and number of enemies. As the games evolved and graphics got better, FPS’s tended to slow down and have lesser amounts of stronger enemies rather than the hordes that Doom could throw at you. Serious Sam and Painkiller are the only current-gen games that will match the number of enemies. And Doom is fast - both in killing speed and run speed.

Also, the theme is good (sci-fi and hell make a great mashup, lots of possible variation) and the game is very easily modifiable, something else that a lot of current games can’t provide.

I never played Doom 64 but a lot of people will say the general aesthetic/ambience is the best of the series.

3

Doom could use new WAD files to have different maps.
One could play it on a network, or by modem.
When I was courting Mrs. Plant (v.2.0) in New Hampshire from Arkansas, we played Doom II over modem lines while talking over voice phone lines. That was very cool.

4

We have, but if this board can accommodate five new Trump threads a day, it can accomodate another Doom thread six months later!

Agreed. Doom also added variable lighting, a healthy arsenal of weapons with advantages and disadvantages (more powerful Wolfenstein weapons simply shot more bullets) and enemies with differing abilities that required a different strategies to kill.

Yes. To this day, there is a vibrant modding community. To my eyes at least, this is pretty fucking impressive for a 23 year old game.

5

I’m pretty sure you’re right. I wanted to include the original Doom too for the contrast with Doom 64.

You should. It’s 5$ on Steam and perhaps possible to get it for free. The Brutal Doom mods are free.

The aesthetic and ambiance are more moody than the original Doom. In a way, it reminds me of a mix of Doom and Quake.

The better graphics in Doom 64 makes the monsters fall closer into the uncanny valley which is a good thing for that game.

I found myself having more difficulty maneuvering in Doom 64 than in Doom. It was also confusing sometimes.

Yes, the lighting was quite good. The weapons and enemies ere usually significantly different.

I found myself mainly using the shotgun/double shotgun, was that the case for anyone else?

Since the shotguns are close in weapons and have a low rate of fire, I had to dance back & forth when attacking and left & right when dodging projectiles. That’s one of the main appeals of Doom.