Spoiler alert, that also getting it's own review coming soon. I am a huge Doom fan for a long time now. I think after officially doing these I only have Sigil and Doom Eternal to review. I got Sigil on Xbox One ports of the first two Doom games. Sooner or later, it will be done. I also want to review both Doom movies within the same blog entry since all of this is well Doom.
1. Doom 64 (1997 on Nintendo 64 and 2020 for several platforms)
Sadly I don't own this on an actual Nintendo 64. But I do own the newer version that's the same price for the first two Doom games on several services. In my case, it was only five bucks. Doom 64 is technically the true Doom 3 that follows the events of Doom 2. Final Doom is now considered non canon for those wondering since there is virtually no mention of those events at all.
Doom 64 is like a perfect mixture of classic Doom & Quake. Yes that includes the traps as well as the puzzles. I felt this game was a bit kinder with them. Although a handful of them do come off being cheap. Speaking of cheap, the final boss shows absolutely no mercy. She constantly sends out fires as well as even faster homing projectile than anything within the entire series.
It doesn't help she stays close by a huge health item. Now throw in a ridiculous amount of demons to really wear down your ammo. I kinda felt The Icon of Sins in Doom 2 was more fair than this. Yes it's true trying to land a shot on him is worse. At the same time, you sorta get a little more help. Also it doesn't actually attack you directly.
When you get close of killing it, chances of a Cyber Demon showing up are high. So I felt the difficulty spike is more leveled here compared to the Mother Demon. Who can even send projectiles after you hiding between walls yes I'm not kidding. It is virtually impossible most of the time to outrun these projectiles too.
The actual audio puts you in the mood in a rather interesting way. Everything in this game looks absolutely amazing even by Doom standards. There was originally the same number of levels as Doom 2 not counting the expansions. The newer version added the lost levels increasing the amount to forty levels.
Oh hell by now the internet already knows this. Doomguy in the newer Doom games is in fact the classic Doomguy. There is a loose connection to tie things together. In my mind, I kinda knew before it was confirmed officially. I felt most levels are well designed for the most part. You also can get the Unimaker, you still need to find three pieces to complete it.
This weapon is the most effective against the final boss yes that does include the legendary BFG itself. Doom 64 is a true sequel that had some interesting ideas. I am well aware this is a rather mixed reception game. Which means you either love it or hate it, honestly I loved it. Doom 64 also allows passwords including the cheat menu code.
The achievements/trophies if you cheat can be done in a surprisingly fast way. The only reason I chose to do so is because I already knew I was going to do a full no cheat playthrough following it. Yes that does include the lost levels too. Midway made this game under the supervise of ID Software. This game almost was a port of the original Doom on the console.
Thank god it is it's own Doom game. I kinda felt the look of some enemies are among my favorites by far. Yes I felt the same way about the weapons too. Doom 64 is a solid, underrated experience that more people needs to play. This game is aging well enough despite going a long time without getting a port until recently.
2. Doom (2016)
I originally wanted to do this during when I was playing games through Game Pass. Honestly, wow this game blew my mind in a great way. This blows away the same team's Wolfenstein games I played. I absolutely love everything about this game. There isn't many new enemies but all of them works.
The weapons are done just right for this kind of experience. What's better is you can not only upgrade em. You also can switch between weapon mods that greatly effects how a particular weapon works too. There is also an upgrade system you find chips from dead space marines. You can increase one of three categories.
Either increasing your overall health, armor or ammo. I also like you can find small Doomguy figures as collectibles. Not only that, if you look closely enough you can find these out of place levers. Then you got to search nearby for parts of a classic Doom level. Yeah you can actually replay classic Doom levels with some stuff from this game is in itself mind blowing.
I really love how they handle the chainsaw this time. Usually it is a melee weapon that does damage while putting you at risk. They made it an instant kill weapon for some enemies. Some of them you need to weaken down first before using the chainsaw. Now you do need to find gas for the chainsaw. Which brings me to another point, along with the BFG, both aren't present on your weapon wheel.
Instead, within the controls a particular button represents em. Honestly I kinda liked they did that since I didn't like losing it in Doom 3 games. The killing animations are absolutely brutal. There is no question in my mind that Brutal Doom mod was a major impression for this. In a way this comes off a Doomguy doing his own Mortal Kombat game lol.
I believe this is a long game I would say a hour or two longer at best then Doom 3. To clarify, many levels within Doom 3 aren't long to begin with. Some of them can be a bit tedious. I actually had an easier time in Doom 3 figuring what to do or where to go. Now yes I am aware about Doom 2016's map.
Let's be honest, a few key changes would've made it the perfect map. I still say it works in a few ways. Doom 2016 is a truly solid game that deserves all the attention it received. I felt this is hands down one of the absolute best Doom games I ever played. Personally not to piss anyone off, there's just something about Doom II: Hell on Earth I love so much.
3. Doom (2005)
Doom is loosely based on Doom 3. They took the sarge concept from that using The Rock. Maybe not one of his best movies but he has done worse than this. I kinda liked right up to the end, we didn't know which person was Doomguy. Now yes, a few major changes does derail the actual purpose of this.
In the games, Doomguy had to take on demons from Hell. Sometimes being force to go there to stop an invasion from happening. But here, the monsters are a result of mutated martians that's selects a person's DNA to infect. They reference John Carmack whose a major reason as a deceased scientist. Without question, the best scene in the movie was a full recreation of classic Doom in a short scene.
I felt some of the actors were well picked for this movie. They also introduced an experimental mixture that could make you superhuman. Our Doomguy of this movie was saved from dying because of it. The story might not seem like it's obvious at first. Well oh okay compared to what's coming next, the story does stand out in a weird way.
Doom movie is sorta in the middle of video game movies for me, I got plenty reasons to like it as well as dislike it to a degree. I will say this out of respect, this movie didn't hold back from the concept they did use. I also got to respect them for using Pinky. I know from some Doom games, it was simply called Demon until 2016 game.
4. Doom: Annihilation (2019)
To clarify this isn't a good movie. Yes the story ends up being very predictable. This was a low budget movie that got rushed out. Although it does show, they actually took more direct things from the games. Yeah the one thing I didn't expect to see. Like an exploding barrel or the famous BFG meme or even the different colored key cards.
Yes, the demons are from Hell in this movie. I can argue at least they didn't move away from that. Even The Rock from the previous Doom movie spoke against the very movie. ID Software wasn't happy about that statement. I watched this abomination through Netflix. Now that's two bad video game movies with Annihilation in the title.
I actually can say this is better than Mortal Kombat: Annihilation by miles. Despite that movie had a bigger budget, personally it's a legendary piece of crap that shouldn't exist. This movie did make one major change that I kinda liked. They made the character a woman this time around. Honestly when she starts taking charge, I figured she had to be it's take on Doomguy.
I guess for this review, I'll call her Doomchick why the hell not lol. She ends up being one of a handful characters worth talking about. I should mention Dr. Betruger is in this movie. He's a scientist that became a powerful demon in Hell. Not much changed from that, except they played him out like a total dick.
Especially when he starts speaking not pleasant truths about some of them. Keep in mind, he didn't talk to most of them during the movie. We had zombies & imps for the most part. I mean come on, in the last Doom movie. We got Sarge as well as a Pinky minus the zombies of course. The ending is more or less maybe expect another movie to follow.
The previous Doom movie got to theaters while this was more of a direct to video release. A huge number of those are small budget, rushed and you can tell sometimes what's not present. Sometimes, they have it to indirectly remake a movie despite having a title of a sequel. Yes this is a real concept that to me is absolutely criminal.
Doom: Annihilation is surprisingly a better Doom movie. Yeah the previous Doom movie had a better cast as well as usage of special effects. But they actually pulled more direct things from these games. Yes I should mention, they used a deceased scientist to reference John Carmack. Oh ok we already had it done like that once why not try something else damn it.
I also liked how Hell looks in the movie, trust me it looks better than you're expecting. The main portal you'll see in this movie looks like crap. It is difficult to describe to the point I would have to rip off The Nerd himself to do it justice. Let's put it this way, it looks like smooth human waste that's sorta reddish that isn't fully together on a few areas.
Doomchick does get some bad ass moments in this movie. She once dated the scientist among her squad. Trust me, on and off you will be hearing about it. One particular lady could've been a stripper before this movie. On an unrelated note, a stripper played in The Return of the Living Dead movie. To me, she just looks like one I apologize in advance if she isn't a stripper.
Honestly now I think about it, this movie kinda reminds me of another not bad space theme horror movie called Leprechaun 4: In Space. Except I actually could bring up a few scenes I actually liked. My favorite line was from the captain after the scientist said something to make his squad felt more uneasy.
Overall, this low budget Doom movie is closer in several ways to the source material. How the squad operates is more accurate than the previous Doom movie. I can actually say Dr. Betruger does more villain stuff than Sarge. Speaking of him, was I the only one laughing at that face before he got blown up lol.
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