WaKa

Bro was cooking with some of these midis. Amazing work Korp!

I have a love/hate relationship with Hell Revealed, so my "love" side is happy to see more people appreciating the good parts of it. I wouldn't say the wad as a whole is a looker as some maps can be kinda rough. But a few maps are fantastic, I love those pink skies and I think the massive structures help a lot in making you feel like a little ant battling a whole legion of demons. That being said, I do recommend playing the wad again with pistol starts, because most of the maps are designed around them. Last Look at Eden, City in the Clouds, Ascending to the Stars, and Afterlife all play very differently when you have a limited arsenal. ESPECIALLY City in the Clouds where getting those weapons back is the whole gimmick. This is where Hell is truly Revealed (heh) and what makes me have that love/hate relationship. The maps can be pretty fun but also feel like a huge grind as the pacing is not as tight as it could be.

After a good night of sleep and thinking about it I've kinda changed my perspective on the game. I'll admit that that long post was written just after a rage quit for a death that didn't feel fair and was pretty late into the map. It was the point where every little thing about the game bothered me, especially since it wasn't the first time that has happened either. And to be honest, I still think that those flaws still persist, and to say they don't is feigning ignorance. The only non-flaws would be the new art style and the more aggressive Lost Souls and Pain Elementals since those fall more under "opinion". Or maybe the other points shouldn't be considered flaws at all, but just mechanical differences (more on that in the last paragraph). But anyway, the "overrated" part is probably not earned (I would change the title of the thread if I knew how). It came because in my journey to play all the official IWADs, Doom 64 gets brought up a lot, especially since it's so different from the usual formula. A hidden gem is what it usually gets called. That skewed my expectations really hard and I was expecting something amazing, especially after coming from playing a lot of Doom 2 maps. While my perception of it was good at the start, the longer I went the more the little differences were starting to get on my nerves until eventually, I couldn't stand them at all. But the real question is, is that fair? We usually compare wads and mods with the base Doom 2 gameplay because it sort of became the gold standard. But this is completely unfair to Doom 64 which tries to be its own thing. The closest analogy I can think of is The Ultimate Doom. Playing it before Doom 2 is great, there's a reason why Episode 1 is so iconic, but the other episodes also have their fans. They're really great maps and I would argue that the overall map quality is actually better than Doom 2. But then, playing it after coming from Doom 2 is not the same. The lack of the SSG and almost no mid-tier enemies (Aside from the Caco) hurt the experience for me more than I would like to admit. Shotgunning Barons and Cacos is just not engaging enough. BUT, does that mean Doom 1 is automatically inferior to Doom 2? That we should ignore all its merits because "X is better"? I don't think so, and that's a pitfall I fell when I judged Doom 64 too harshly. Doom 64 is Doom 64, and I shouldn't try to make it feel more like Doom 2 because that's what I'm used to. Does this mean that I've changed my opinion about Doom 64? lol no, it's still the Doom game I like the least. But the difference now is that I can appreciate more the other perspective and see why it has a lot of fans. And also appreciate more its strengths! Doom 64 can be a very oppressive game and when everything is silent and you're running down hallways filled with dead demons with the music and the desolate atmosphere grinding you down? That's where Doom 64 shines. Small Note: When I complain about Doom 64 in no way it's directed at Nightdive. I think their efforts to preserve old games are admirable and I love their ports. If anything, it is directed towards Midway since they were the original devs. I wonder where the mappers are now?

Alright, if I got it right next time I want to write a post/review of a wad I should make a status right? Then again, I feel like this could be an opportunity to discuss some of the features of Doom 64. Like really discuss the in and out of game design with Doom 64 idiosyncracies as a starting point. (Or maybe I'm exaggerating and this will turn into another opinion thread lol) - I'll give you the brightness point since at the end of the day you can modify the brightness as much as you want until you reach your desired level. It still kinda bothers me because I had to resort to changing the brightness level of my monitor since the in-game options don't go bright enough (Then again, maybe I'm blind lol) - The hitscanners? To be honest, I mostly bring up this point because I'm reminded of the start of Map 21 where you start in a room surrounded by six hitscanners, with a mix of zombiemen and shotgunners. Your priority is of course kill the shotgunners first, but how can you know which one is one? Is not THAT big of a deal since it's the very start, you can try again many times until you're lucky. But you know, a flaw is a flaw and it's impossible to deny that this is bad design. - I'll admit that the ammo issue may be related to my autism lol. Like I said before, I hate to waste ammo (and health and armor). If I have, let's say... 151 bullets left and I see an ammo box? I'll try my best to not pick it unless I have 150 or less. I've been burned by ammo starvation maps before, I'm not gonna lose a single one. So this little quirk of mine makes me more critical of situations where you can grab stuff at the wrong time. That's why I have an issue with the bullets and rockets boxes being too similar and the shotguns dropped by hitscanners being too small. I know this is an extremely minor issue to most, but hey, every little issue adds up. The rest of your post I'm fine with since different playstyles and all that jazz. I wonder, is the chainsaw issue fixed in the Bethesda release?

Oops, I'm new to Doomworld, I didn't knew that status posts were a thing

I'm not sure how much of a "hot take" this is but I'm currently playing Doom 64 and I have to say... I don't really like it. When I see discussions about it the general consensus is that it's good and basically the missing link between Doom 2 and 3. That the atmosphere is great and it tries some really interesting things. I won't deny that it's a very interesting entry in the franchise and it's definitely worth a look. But the game is flawed, and they are some very glaring flaws that I don't see mentioned quite a lot, so I decided to make a list of them. Note: I don't want to be overly negative because I still think it's worth a playthrough just to see how some things are changed up, but I also won't hold back any gripe I have with the game. For context: I always play in UV with pistol starts, I'm playing on Doom 64 EX and currently on level 23. - The art style Once you start Doom 64 you will realize how dark it is. I know this is for atmosphere purposes but is not fun when you get attacked by an enemy you literally can't see. I had to increase the brightness all the way up and it's still too dark. But maybe the game was made so dark because they wanted to sorta hide how awful the new sprites are. This is probably a matter of preference but I don't really like the new sprites, with the cacodemons being the hit the worst. As an additional note, it really sucks that the Zombieman and the Shotgunner share the same sprites. Before you could quickly prioritize enemies by their unique colors, but now the game lacks that element of gameplay. Is not THAT big of a deal because eventually, you'll get only shotgunners. But for those maps were both are in the same room? It sucks, especially since the shotgunners seem even more deadly than before. The art style goes beyond "a matter of taste" and crosses the "affects the gameplay" territory. I already mentioned the zombie situation but there are some other aspects that seem minor but add up to the list of problems. Look at the original Doom bullet and rocket boxes, they're very easy to distinguish even in the middle of the chaos. Now, look at Doom 64, where both boxes are dark green with gray accents. Of course, one is more of a square and the other is rectangular, but can you be so sure when you're in the middle of an ambush where every millisecond counts? Similarly with shotguns dropped by the shotgunners, why are they so small and dark? It is too easy to not see them, especially with their bodies covering the gun. - The monsters Let's start with the good: The new nightmare imp is a cool addition. It's not terribly different than the original (they both die with a single shotgun blast) but their faster projectiles and semi-invisibility make them slightly more dangerous. I also appreciate that the Hell Nobles can attack each other now, it's a small addition but hey, gotta love infighting. The small changes add a little change to the formula but the basics are still there so the gameplay stays fun for the most part. All the other changes to enemies range from "Ok" to "What the hell". The what the hell is obviously the new Lost Souls and Pain Elementals. Look, everyone hates the regular Souls and PEs, so why the hell did they decide to make them WORSE? The new souls are more aggressive and faster, and while they die more easily they still are a huge threat. Getting ambushed by Lost Souls here can kill you, even if you are at full health, they are merciless. AND THEN there's the Pain Elemental, which now can spawn two souls at a time and their souls explode if they can't be spawned, so now you can't do the trick to prevent them from spawning souls on death. I'm all for a new challenge but I absolutely hate these guys, maybe I'm just salty because I lost many lives to them and I just need to "git gud", but damn, getting surrounded by these is a death sentence. Now instead of the new enemies, let's talk about the ones that didn't make the cut. I can understand why the Chaingunner and the Archvile were cut, they needed to save some space on the cartridge. And you know, I hate them just as much as the next guy, but with their absence, the low-tier enemies are lacking a bit of extra threat and the high adrenaline of an Archvile encounter is gone. The nightmare imp isn't just enough to fill that space and the big encounters sometimes lack a bit of oomph. But the biggest loss by far is the Revenant, and due to the lack of variety with mid-tier enemies, the game relies too much on the Hell Nobles. If Plutonia is known as the Chaingunner and Revenant spam then Doom 64 should be known by the Hell Knights and Baron spam. - The maps First of all, I'm not a mapper, some of the nuances and techniques to make a good map are lost on me. Still, I feel confident enough to call the maps a mixed bag. Don't get me wrong, there are some really good ones that are fun to explore and run around, and others that take advantage of the visuals to set the perfect atmosphere. The problem though is that not all maps are good, and many of them suffer from some common issues. The first one is that many maps suffer from the "Where the hell do I go now?". I don't know why this is and maybe I'm just rusty, but this happens too commonly to say that it's just a me problem. Maybe it's a lack of cues that don't tell you that "Hey, that closed door you saw 10 minutes ago? It's open now". That leads me to my next point: There's a lot of backtracking. And you know, this isn't a big issue, the original doom also had backtracing. But here? It feels like it's taken to the max. I don't know if it was used to save space on the cartridge or what, but you frequently go back and forth around the map, especially the large ones, to the point that it gets annoying to ride the same platform for the tenth time. But the biggest problem with the maps for me is the traps. I know they want to show off their scripts capabilities but good god, I wish they didn't. There are two kinds of traps, we have the "Annoying but nothing serious" with the traps on the wall that shoot darts or missiles when it gets triggered, and then we have the "Bullshit" traps that unless you know about them you'll die. I'll admit that they were my biggest source of rage moments. Like in Map 15 with the homing rockets, if you don't know the best place to hide you're dead. Add some extra enemies to evade when you're almost finishing the map for extra fun. Or how about the sinking floor right at the end of Map 16? Oops, you didn't react on time, have fun watching your health slowly go down with no possibility of escape. There's also Map 23 with a platforming challenge near the end. You failed and you fell? Tough luck, try the whole map again. And those are only some traps, there are more out there. I'm all for a challenge but when you're near the end of a map don't add inescapable situations, is not a challenge at that point, it's utter bullshit. - Nitpicks These are admittedly small issues compared to the main ones, but they have an impact on the experience. To start with: the sound. I'm not talking about the music, because I can dig the more atmospheric bgm, but I'm talking about the enemy sounds. I've grown so accustomed to the original sounds that when I play this game my gameplay is a bit thrown off. Forgive me if I'm wrong but it seems like they mixed sounds from different enemies and even between different actions. It's hard to describe it since I haven't looked too deeply into the exact changes, but I've heard "Waking up" sounds coming from an enemy chasing me. Or if my memory isn't wrong, Pinkie sounds coming from a Lost Soul. On a similar note, I really dislike the GUI. The Doom GUI is very iconic and effective with its job. The Doom 64 goes for a more minimalist style but in the process loses important information. Again, this may seem small but I'm someone who cares a lot about managing his ammo. I always try to never grab more ammo than what my maximum is, wasting it. With Doom, a quick glance to the corner of the screen before grabbing an ammo pack is all it takes to know if I'm good. With Doom 64? You have to switch to that weapon to know how much ammo you have. This also applies in more tense situations where you have to switch to a weapon quickly. It's very possible to switch to an empty weapon on accident in Doom 64, wasting valuable time. Last but not least, there are also some issues with collision. It's common to see enemies getting stuck with geometry, especially Cacos and Pinkies. But it gets worse when you are swarmed by enemies because if they touch you at a specific angle you get stuck to the ground until the enemy is killed. If you get surrounded by Pinkies squeezing away is not a good strategy anymore. Speaking of pinkies, what's wrong with the chainsaw? Sometimes it gets "disconnected" from the enemy and it gives them enough time to react and attack you. This has happened to me more times than I want to admit and now I always jerk the mouse around whenever I chainsaw an enemy to avoid getting disconnected. - Conclusion I hate doom 64 lol

When I started my Doom journey I told myself that I will always try to play in UV, Saveless and with pistol starts. Starting with the ultimate doom I had some trouble here and there, but overall it was a great journey. That was until of course, Thy Flesh Consumed happened. E4M1 was a wake-up call and E4M2 and E4M6 were my personal hell. I managed to beat E4M1 with a lot of retries and a bit of luck, but the other two forced me to use saves. It really sucks to get far only die to die a rocket to the face. It was only after a year or so later, with more experience under my belt, that I decided to try again this time saveless. It was still difficult but a lot more manageable, but it was more like a personal victory than anything else, to prove myself that I could do it, that I improved a lot. On that note, after beating the ultimate doom I went and I tried to beat some of the maps in that old list of "Top 100 Doom wads of all time". I had an easier time and it was a lot of fun, that is until I reached H2H-Xmas. In retrospect that wad sucks lol, but at the time it was the hardest challenge I've faced yet and I felt so good once I managed to beat all of the maps. IIRC the hardest map for me was MAP12.

I use GZdoom since it's the most flexible. Do I want to mod the hell out of the game? Perfect. Do I want to play vanilla maps? It works for that too. I'll usually disable jumping and crouching, only enabling it for newer pwads, and never ever use it in vanilla or old school maps. I'll keep free mouse look on all the time though. Ultra-violence, Pistol start, Saveless, Final destination. I may lower the difficulty if it's a really difficult map, but it usually counts as practice until I git gud and I try again in UV. I also may use saves, but only for wads that are continuous only (as saves at the start of each map of course) or for ultra huge maps, using them as checkpoints. My rule of thumb is: Losing half an hour of progress sucks but you can live with that, anything more than that is insane though. Despite using GZdoom I actually don't care that much for gameplay modifying mods unless they come with their own set of maps designed for them. I will always value good game design over flashy stuff.