Why DOOM 64 Is the Best DOOM For Halloween

Ah October, pumpkin spice is in the air, spooks are abundant, and I even rebrand myself as Spookbringer to get into the season. Things have been a little tougher this year to get into the mood, what with the looming threats breathing down our necks come November, but I decided to do so anyway with two games, Luigi's Mansion and DOOM 64. Now this isn't about Luigi's Mansion, chances are if you're a gamer who owns a Gamecube/can emulate on PC you'll know Luigi's Mansion is a classic so I'm not here to beat you over the head with that knowledge. No, I'm here to tell you about a Halloween classic you may have slept on, one that went largely ignored even in it's own series' fanbase until about, two-three years ago.  Yes, we're talking DOOM 64 for the Panasonic 3DO Nintendo 64, a game that is shockingly not just DOOM but on the N64, it's a wholly original game and a Halloween FPS classic.

Now, DOOM 64 is sort of an inappropriate name, I use it and chances are you imagine a compromised port of the PC classic reformatted for N64. An oddity for collectors of old retro consoles but outshined by the PC original. But nope, this is an original game built using DOOM's engine and gameplay but with all new level design, lighting elements, re-designed enemies, and new weapons, this is technically the real DOOM 3. The plot is even a continuation unlike the actual DOOM 3, focusing on a PTSD stricken Doomguy being tasked to return to the moon Phobos to murder every demon that he had killed before but was miraculously bought back to life thanks to "The Mother of All Demons." It's later revealed that DOOM 64 is the tissue that links Classic DOOM with Modern DOOM. Though that isn't really relevant, what matters is what makes DOOM 64 the perfect game for Halloween, the atmosphere.

Where the first two DOOM games were focused on a heavy metal techno horror aesthetic DOOM 64 focuses on a gothic and and dreadful aesthetic. Where before you had traversed mechanical bases that gave way to technicolor buildings made of flesh and bone, now everything feels like a gothic castle with a more stone like appearance filled with dark halls illuminated by colorized lighting like what Edgar Allen Poe described in Masque of the Red Death. You'll also be spending a lot more time in these castle like spaces too as, unlike in the first two games, puzzle solving and shifting the environment is much more prominent vs straight up demon genocide; you're even encouraged to explore and find hidden levels. Hidden levels had been with the series since the original DOOM but now there's a reward, one that makes the final boss a joke admittedly, but still good reason to explore these creepy halls more thoroughly (Though Hectic can go fuck itself.)

This change in atmosphere is also enhanced by the music, which has seen a major overhaul from the first two games. DOOM's 1 and 2 focused on a heavy metal and in your face soundtrack that felt like a Metallica album on blast encouraging you to murder all in your way to push through to a blood soaked victory. Even DOOM 2016 and Eternal did the same with Mick Gordon's heavy metal industrial tunes punctuating the action and giving everything a chaotic feel. In contrast, Aubrey Hodges, 64's composer, turns DOOM from heavy metal genocide to an ambient creeping terror. Where before the music made you feel like you were going at 30 miles per hour, here it's barely audible, almost like the game wants the silence to permeate the game to make you wary of opening the next door as your death could be just behind it.

So if DOOM 64 is a whole new game with whole new aesthetic and design, why did people ignore it? Because of the name really, it was meant to be called DOOM: Absolution which is a much better name but was changed to DOOM 64 for some dumb reason. A decision made worse by the fact that when DOOM 64 came out there had been a bonanza of DOOM console ports around the same time from the Super Nintendo all the way up to SEGA Saturn. So most gamers at the time just thought DOOM 64 was yet another console port like Starcraft 64 or Quake 64 were. Worse yet it came out in the same time frame as Quake and Goldeneye so it had a lot of competition that outshone it at the time, even if DOOM 64 has aged better than those games. Also, with the exception of DOOM 3 in 2004, DOOM had been on ice from 1997-2016 so DOOM 64 had been slept on hard. But now DOOM's back baby and DOOM 64 has finally seen a proper port to PC and current gen hardware to celebrate the launch of DOOM Eternal in March 2020. 

And it deserves that love because at the end of the day, DOOM 64 is a wonderful re-imagining of DOOM into a spookier game. A truly creepy game that felt like nothing the DOOM series has done before or since, even compared to DOOM 3 which set out to do the same thing 64 did. I don't know if DOOM 3 succeed but I intend to find out with the original PC release soon and round out my personal DOOM experience. Until then I can safely highly recommend DOOM 64 if you wish to get into the Halloween mood with a spooky and more unsettling game than the series is used to. 

(PS: Nightdive cranked the brightness too high with the port so maybe lower that a little to get into the mood properly, not N64 level dark but dark enough to make dark tunnels hard to see in.)