Would you recommend Doom 3 & 64?

[Vlakabaka]

Thinking of grabbing these 2 bad boys from the current sale, since i remember them well & love to replay them.

But for someone here who never played Doom 3 or & 64, im wondering if they are worth picking up too?

Any feedback is appriciated.

[Space Detective]

DOOM 64 is worth a look, for sure.

DOOM 3... I really couldn't get on with that, though some people love it to death. I should note that it's quite a different experience from other games in the series, and liking DOOM does not necessarily mean you'll like DOOM 3.

[Seamus]

64 is a good game. Though, you may want to check a guide for where the important secret levels are, as doing the final level without having done the secret levels can be a little rough.

Doom 3 is divisive and you've also got to take into account regular vs bfg edition. BFG updates the game and... not always in good ways. Like the removal of doom 3's signature shadowing, making the game easier, cutting out part of the expansion, and including bar none the worst ports of doom 1 and 2.

But, hey. You get a flashlight stapled to your chest in exchange!

The original version is, to put it simply, oppressively dark at times. People will say "just turn up your brightness", but that does quite literally nothing. Anything outside the beam of your flashlight in some areas is just black. Not dark. Black. You can take a screenshot, put it in paint and use the bucket tool on any black pixel and it'll just fill the entire thing.

Also, the shotgun kinda sucks because the cone is massive.

Base version has better modding support though so that's easy enough to fix.

[Electric Cupcake]

Were the Lost Levels ever ported to Absolution?

[Space Detective]

Originally posted by Electric Cupcake:

Were the Lost Levels ever ported to Absolution?

The Doomsday port from back in the day? Not as far as I know, but why would you want to play that?
I mean, if you want to play Absolution for what it is, sure, but if you just want to play DOOM 64 there are several far better and less janky options now.

[domuinor2]

I agree with all sayd now, Doom 64 is more classic.
Doom 3 is more like a Doom "movie the game" is a different game, linear, with cutscenes, an incredibly stupid story and that's about it, let's say that Doom 3 didn't aged well since its focal point was the incredible graphic(for the time) not really the gameplay like the old Doom games.
But you can give it a try, since most of the time on Steam is pretty cheap.

[angstlicht]

d64 is a good time, maybe not quite on par with things like goldeneye or turok but it's enjoyable and comparatively easy.

doom 3 is in that weird zone of quality where it's not bad but invites comparison to a lot of things i'd rather play, like system shock 2 or even prey 2006. or half life 1. or chronicles of riddick butcher bay. or fear. or...

[Devilloc_Raf]

DOOM 64 is absolutely outstanding.

[Captain n00by]

Grab all the games, they're all worth a try.

However, to me, DooM 3 is a little boring, but still a solid "exploration shooter" - it's actually more "Aliens" or "System Shock" than DooM, but without the puzzles or RPG-ish elements of SS.

DooM 3 also has a MP component, which had the potential to be really fun, but it is sadly underdeveloped (the community made their own upgrades of it) and somewhat abandoned today.

And DooM 64 is a unique DooM game made exclusive for the N64, unofficially ported to PC later on ("DooM Absolution" PC port) and a few years back officially ported by Night Dive to modern systems.

It's also somewhat different to OG DooM and DooM II, as it has more focus on atmosphere, including the soundtrack, which is not the rocking D1/DII one, but a type of industrial dark ambience (which was also in the PS1/PSX version of OG DooM).

I don't consider it to be as good as OG DooM and DooM II, but it's a interesting version of DooM and worth grabbing, especially when it's on a sale (it costs peanuts when it goes on a sale).

[Defective Dopamine Pez Dispenser]

In the case of Doom 3, I would say yes but with the caveat that it's much slower paced and much more about atmosphere and at times even jump scares, than the rest of the series. It's a bit of an aberration from the mainline Doom games in that regard, and may not be to everyone's tastes. I loved it, though. Replayed it not too long ago.

In the case of 64, I would say yes but with the caveat that if they go into it just expecting classic Doom and Doom II or something, they may be either confused or disappointed. It's still classic style run and gun Doom, and feels mechanically very much like the originals. But it's an entirely new campaign, is much darker (both thematically and literally, in terms of gamma, though the remaster brightens things up considerably,) and has creepy (imo awesome) atmospheric ambient sound design instead the sort of Doom tunes they may be accustomed to.

64's difficulty balancing is a little different feeling too, because it was made for a controller with a single analog stick originally, and is in some ways designed to only be really challenging when using that interface. With a modern dual analog config or mouse + kb a good chunk of the difficulty is eliminated. That said, at the same time, it also is a little more willing to subject you to devious traps and tiny rooms full of tough enemies with almost no room to maneuver sometimes, so it balances out imo.

Doom 64 is actually my favorite Doom personally, believe it or not lol.

Also, side note... if someone enjoys Doom 3, and if they never played Quake 4, I would recommend that as well. It's basically Doom 3, but bigger, darker, even more horrific, and leaning into the Quake 2 Strogg stuff in a much more creepy way than Q2 did. I had kind of skipped over Q4 back in the day, and not long ago finally played it immediately following a Doom 3 replay and... yeah. Good stuff imo, if you liked Doom 3. If not, you will find it slow, plodding, and probably dislike it for some of the same reasons one disliked Doom 3.

[Vlakabaka]

Thnx for all the feedback, sounds like i should pick them all at some point, def think i can enjoy them.

Gonna start out with Doom 1 & 2.

[mdesaleah]

Depends.

Doom 64 is like Doom 1 and 2, but a lot darker. Less focus on just action, and more on having a tone for each level.

Doom 3 tries to go more horror, but its a little too long, and it plays very differently from the usual Doom. Normal Doom 3 is much better than BFG Edition though.

[Inquerion]

Originally posted by Vlakabaka:

Thnx for all the feedback, sounds like i should pick them all at some point, def think i can enjoy them. :monstertrainyay:

Gonna start out with Doom 1 & 2.

Maybe try these retro games in that order:

"Classics":
1. Wolfenstein 3D (1992), Add EcWolf mod for modern PC support.
2. Doom 1/2 (1993/1995). So DOOM + DOOM II from this thread.
3. Doom 64
4. Quake 1/2.
5. Quake 4.
6. Doom 64
7. Doom 3

Modern games:
8. Doom 2016 and Eternal (2020).

These "Classics" are all similar (more or less), but each game brings new improvements to the formula. Wolfenstein is like a father to Doom and Doom is like a father to Quake.
If you try Quake or Doom first, it will be harder for you to enjoy Wolfenstein 3D (and you certainly should try it, at least that Hitler Episode 3 level) or original Doom's.

[Captain n00by]

Originally posted by Inquerion:

Originally posted by Vlakabaka:

Thnx for all the feedback, sounds like i should pick them all at some point, def think i can enjoy them. :monstertrainyay:

Gonna start out with Doom 1 & 2.

Maybe try these retro games in that order:

"Classics":
1. Wolfenstein 3D (1992), Add EcWolf mod for modern PC support.
2. Doom 1/2 (1993/1995). So DOOM + DOOM II from this thread.
3. Doom 64
4. Quake 1/2.
5. Quake 4.
6. Doom 64
7. Doom 3

Modern games:
8. Doom 2016 and Eternal (2020).

These "Classics" are all similar (more or less), but each game brings new improvements to the formula. Wolfenstein is like a father to Doom and Doom is like a father to Quake.
If you try Quake or Doom first, it will be harder for you to enjoy Wolfenstein 3D (and you certainly should try it, at least that Hitler Episode 3 level) or original Doom's.

Wolf 3D he will probably beat only the first episode and try out the other ones but not beat them, due to the maze-like level design where it's easy to get lost (a modern remaster could tackle this issue with an auto map feature and way points/markers).

DooM + DooM II is a good package, and he has a lot of stuff to play here, especially if he tries out (or even beats) all the episodes.

DooM 64 is certainly a good game to try out/beat.

Quake & Quake II, absolutely, the new remasters are stellar and add new content (including new episodes and Quake 64 and Quake II N64, where Quake II N64 is a totally different version of Quake II).

Quake III Arena, if you want a SP campaign, you will not like it, but I still recommend it because it's fun to frag the bots and there's a SP mode in there (although it consists of bot death matches), but be sure to read some guides to set it up on modern hardware (there's a stand-alone upgrade, Quake Live, but that is wholly MP focused, although it also has bots).

DooM 3, eh it's a fine game, but not everyone will like it. Original is better than BFG edition, but needs some tweaks to run well on modern PCs.

Quake 4, I had fun with it, honestly, it's not nearly as bad as some people want to paint it, but you need to tweak it so it will work well on modern PCs.

Rage, thisone is a bit of a "outsider", but it's also part of the id Soft line-up, and I quite enjoyed it, even though it's different to there other games, but there were some technical issues with it (i.e. "megatexture" tech didn't work properly at release time, resulting in ugly pop-up issues).

DooM 2016 reboot, this is a good game, but it feels more like "Brutal DooM x Halo" than the traditional DooMs.

DooM Eternal, funilly enough, I haven't played it yet, although I have it in my library, but apparently, it features more platforming elements and new settings.

EDIT: oh yeah, forgot "Return to Castle Wolfenstein", that's certainly a must buy/must play, and there's a really good mod for it too, "Real RTCW", it's even on here on Steam.

[Seamus]

Yeah... don't suggest people play Wolf 3d. It aged terribly compared to Doom. Mazes upon mazes, uninteresting enemy list and weapon lists and a sometimes painful palette.

Quake 4 is good for laughs for having like nine characters voiced by Steve Blum. And that's about it, imo.

[Captain n00by]

Originally posted by Seamus:

Yeah... don't suggest people play Wolf 3d. It aged terribly compared to Doom. Mazes upon mazes, uninteresting enemy list and weapon lists and a sometimes painful palette.

Quake 4 is good for laughs for having like nine characters voiced by Steve Blum. And that's about it, imo.

IMO, for every "id Software fan", Wolfestein 3D is a must buy/must play, but I agree it's quite archaic today.

But we have to understand it was a pioneer of the FPS genre, it was threading new grounds in it's time, it was actually the game that put PC (DOS) gaming on the map

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsADJa-23Sg