"The best thing this game's ever done to me is making me buy my Nintendo 64."

When I was nearing my fifth birthday, I was finally going to buy my first system. After seeing Sonic the hedgehog on the Genesis, my choice seemed made. But I happened across a demo of this game on the N64, and was interested, seeing how much I loved the original. I always played through with cheats, and it was taken away from me for a few years due to it's violence. Warping ahead a few years I'm finally given it back, so I can finally play the Doom experience again. I popped it in, and after a few days, my thoughts were: "What the heck was I thinking?"

The story takes place sometime after Doom 2. From what I remember, the UAC STILL haven't learned their lesson, and are playing around again with the hell portals. I'm sure it's more complicated than this, but they try to exterminate the demons within. One escapes their detection though, and it reaks havoc on a base I can't remember where it is. You are sent in to destroy the hellspawn...again. The story was great and original at the time, with it actually moving at points, but this game's story is stale, with the only time the game goes anywhere is after level 8, where you enter hell.

This game's graphics are pretty good for being one of the earliest N64 games, with everything detailed nicely. Unfortunately, the graphics have one fatal flaw: It's way too dark. The original Doom series had a way of being dark and light at the same time. Even when outdoors in this game it's hard to see where you're going. A true example of how poorer graphics can be a plus.

About the music...there's almost none. Other than the title, there's almost nothing music wise in the game. Apparently what passes as music in this game is windy sounds and background noise. The few actual tunes aren't even anything special. The sounds are alright, but they have no feel to them. It sounds too realistic for it's own good.

The controls aren't even that great. The control stick moves you around rather jerkily, the Z button fires, and I forget the rest. The Nintendo 64 controller just wasn't built for Doom.

The game is the same as all other Doom games. You go through the level killing enemies and solving puzzles. What bothers me is how much they cut corners in it. The game in terms of getting through isn't so hard, it's the puzzles. They require you to go around the levels, which look a lot alike the last, and find a switch, and then press another before it closes. There are also many instances where you are hopelessly trapped and have to die. But even this could be overlooked if it weren't for one thing: YOU CAN'T SAVE. The only time in the game when you can save is at the end of a level. Some of the levels are very long, and the aforementioned levels with the hopeless conditions can really take a toll on your patience. It's due to this that I've never beaten the game. I'm on level 23, 2 more to go. I'm at the end, needing to throw one last switch. I throw it, I'm on my way out, a cacodemon blows me into the lava, with no way out. It really isn't fun. The game also removes several enemies from the game. No more Revenants, no more Arch-viles, no more Heavy Weapon Dude, Spider Mastermind, or Icon of Sin. The only thing added is an imp that blends in with darkness, and the Queen of all demons which brings up another point. To defeat her in the last level, you almost HAVE to find the 3 secret levels, and collect artifacts to strengthen a new weapon, or you don't stand a chance. All of this proves that this is not as good as the rest.

Like I said, it's not the game itself that's hard, it's the fact you can't save. It brings out a bad, hard difficulty. The replay value is also nil, due to the boring levels and such.

In conclusion, although with a few changes it could be good, it still wouldn't match up to the phenomenon that is Doom.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/06/05