History YMMV / Doom64

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The Doom engine really stretched to the limit for its time, even exceeding the capabilities of ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}}'' in some respects. Textures and sprites are smoothed out to eliminate pixelation, level geometry can now be scripted into intricate special effects, the skies are able to be smoothly animated and even display thunder and lightning, and levels can be made to fool the player into thinking they are more 3D than they really are. The levels in the second act of the game and latter really stand out with their castle-like designs and well animated skies.

** '''"Level 16: Blood Keep"''' has a layout that is fairly complicated to figure out, and is a fairly long level. The potential issue is that [[https://youtu.be/Bxjpc9gSf4o?t=467 the exit room has a cheap death trap]] if you're unfamiliar with the map: Some Lost Souls assault you and are easy enough to deal with, but after they die, the edges of the room (2/3 the room) lower into an inescapable death-pit that kills you, which means that if you happen to wander here at the wrong time, [[WebVideo/AngryVideoGameNerd you go back to the beginning]]. Note that Doom 64: Absolution, a [[GameMod game mod]] that recreates the game on the PC, has an alteration of this trap, that is not to be confused with the original, where the sides lower right away, and the safe zone is even smaller, with the player surrounded by hell-knights. This game engine is built on [=JDoom=] and allows SaveScumming unlike on the N64, lessening the likelihood of redoing the level.

* GoddamnedBats: The Lost Souls are much less durable then in the previous games, but are now far more aggressive. If you fight enough of them at once they can easy reach DemonicSpider status.

* ThatOneBoss: The [[BigBad Mother Demon]] is a killing machine, especially on the hardest difficulty [[HarderThanHard Watch Me Die]]. She possesses the Revenants' homing missiles, fired in quads, as well as a flame trail that is fired in all four compass directions. Without the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Unmaker]] powered up at least twice, she is nasty opponent to fight. Also, your resources are partly spent from TheWarSequence that must be fought in this instance. However, if you find the secret levels in the game to assemble your aforementioned ultimate weapon it becomes a breeze. Find all three artifacts and you can seal off the demon portals and proceed to the final battle immediately. The Unmaker acts like a [[GatlingGood laser gatling]], easily [[StunLock stun locking]] her and [[GameBreaker leaving her dead in seconds.]]

** Unsurprisingly, this also makes the BFG land in this. You find it on Level 10 though you can obtain the Unmaker from a secret level via Level 4 and also gain your first Demon Key to upgrade it. Being the BFG, it's so strong that it would invalidate all your other guns if it weren't for finding enough cells to fire a mere three shots on a good level. Plus there's fretting about whether you really need this much firepower against a horde and if it's better to save cells and use your Rocket Launcher to get the job done.

* BreatherLevel: Map 20, "Breakdown". The level has a remarkably ominous atmosphere and an infamous music track that is generally considered the game's creepiest track, but the actual combat in the level is rather light, with you mainly just fighting small groups of Formers and Imps in tight quarters with some Hell Knights and the occasional Baron, while you're armed with plenty of all types of ammo and get way more than enough health and armor (including a Mega Armor near the beginning, a secret Soul Sphere, and then an outright excessive Megasphere). The only tricky spot is the Red Key ambush that surrounds you with Pinkies, but that's easily manageable by using some rockets to quickly clear one side room of Pinkies and then huddling in the corner of the cleared side room with the Chainsaw or Chaingun to safely clear out the rest of the Pinkies. This level is additionally in the middle of the game's last third of levels, leaving it sandwiched between ''Doom 64's'' generally hardest levels and making the breather more apparent. The atmosphere of the level though still tends to leave an impression on players and makes it one of the most memorable maps despite its easiness.

** Unsurprisingly, this also makes the BFG land in this. You find it on Level 10 though you can obtain the Unmaker from a secret level via Level 4 and also gain your first Demon Key to upgrade it. Being the BFG, it's so strong that it would invalidate all your other guns if it weren't for finding enough cells to fire a mere three shots on a good level. Plus there's fretting about whether you really need this much firepower against a horde or you can save cells and use your Rocket Launcher to get the job done.

** Unsurprisingly, this also makes the BFG land in this. You can get it much sooner than the Unmaker at level 10 as opposed to much later with the Unmaker (which can only be upgraded via the keys near the end of the game), and being the BFG, it's so strong that it would invalidate all your other guns if it weren't for finding enough cells to fire a mere three shots on a good level.

** ''Doom 64'' does a nice job taking advantage of the Nintendo 64 hardware despite being TwoPointFiveD, and smooths out the textures nicely with the hardware's 3-point filtering capabilities. Scripting was added to the system, allowing some cool tricks like the illusion of 3D bridges, dart & homing-rocket turrets, and conditional triggers on geometry as well as monster spawning. The engine was also upgraded with subtle features like the ability to display 3D support beams without the skybox obstructing visibility up on top.
** "Level 23: Unholy Temple" is like a tech demo for engine tricks, with very convincing 3D bridges, a combination lock puzzle, and some nicely detailed citadel walls around the central temple. The visuals have aged pretty well for a UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 game thanks to using pre-rendered sprites rather than potentially-blocky models, and using good quality world textures with bilinear filtering to correct pixelated textures up close.

It's somewhat more useful in ''The Lost levels'' and prior to finding the BFG, as the player doesn't get the Unmaker or any keys until the final level. That said, most players will save their cells for the {{BFG}} once they get one (a secret one can be obtained as early as the second level). And for those Pistol starting every level or otherwise accepting the penalty of losing everything for dying instead of reloading a save upon death, the Plasma Gun will find good usage as a stronger, higher-tempo rapid fire weapon than the Chaingun (each plasma ball deals 5-40 damage vs 5-15 for bullets). Also, the Unmaker only appears in four levels (five with The Lost Levels counted), while the BFG is also uncommon and difficult to find in most maps.

It's somewhat more useful in ''The Lost levels'', as the player doesn't get the Unmaker or any keys until the final level. That said, most players will save their cells for the {{BFG}} once they get one (a secret one can be obtained as early as the second level). And for those Pistol starting every level or otherwise accepting the penalty of losing everything for dying instead of reloading a save upon death, the Plasma Gun will find good usage as a stronger, higher-tempo rapid fire weapon than the Chaingun (each plasma ball deals 5-40 damage vs 5-15 for bullets). Also, the Unmaker only appears in four levels (five with The Lost Levels counted), while the BFG is also uncommon and difficult to find in most maps.

* TierInducedScrappy: The addition of the Unmaker, will eventually turn the Plasma Gun obsolete, due to the Unmaker using cells. Once you've upgraded the Unmaker only once, there is no reason to even bother using Plasma Gun; the Unmaker will have a greater rate of fire after the first upgrade, and regardless of upgrades, each laser shot deals up to twice the amount of damage a single plasma shot will deal, and despite the lasers looking like projectiles, it's a hitscan weapon, meaning it'll hit its target instantly unobstructed with full accuracy. Get the second and third upgrades, it'll shoot two and then three laser shots at once, giving it an incredible rate of fire that can stunlock even the Cyberdemon and Mother Demon to death, leaving the Plasma Gun hopelessly outclassed. The Plasma Gun also got nerfed, fires 1/3 slower than the original version of the weapon, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking emits an annoying loud buzzing noise at idle]]. The {{BFG}} still remains powerful and can clear out large hordes faster and more efficiently, while having a greater DPS at optimal point blank usage, but can't match the Unmaker's ease of use and ability to stunlock anything to near-instant death. It's somewhat more useful in ''The Lost levels'', as the player doesn't get the Unmaker or any keys until the final level.\\

That said, most players will save their cells for the {{BFG}} once they get one (a secret one can be obtained as early as the second level). And for those Pistol starting every level or otherwise accepting the penalty of losing everything for dying instead of reloading a save upon death, the Plasma Gun will find good usage as a stronger, higher-tempo rapid fire weapon than the Chaingun (each plasma ball also deals 5-40 damage vs 5-15 for bullets), as the Unmaker only appears in four levels (five with The Lost Levels counted), while the BFG is also uncommon and difficult to find in most maps.

* TierInducedScrappy: The addition of the Unmaker, will eventually turn the Plasma Gun obsolete, due to the Unmaker using cells. Once you've upgraded the Unmaker only once, there is no reason to even bother using Plasma Gun; the Unmaker will have a greater rate of fire after the first upgrade, and regardless of upgrades, each laser shot deals up to twice the amount of damage a single plasma shot will deal, and despite the lasers looking like projectiles, it's a hitscan weapon, meaning it'll hit its target instantly unobstructed with full accuracy. Get the second and third upgrades, it'll shoot two and then three laser shots at once, giving it an incredible rate of fire that can stunlock even the Cyberdemon and Mother Demon to death, leaving the Plasma Gun hopelessly outclassed. The Plasma Gun also got nerfed, fires 1/3 slower than the original version of the weapon, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking emits an annoying loud buzzing noise at idle]]. The {{BFG}} still remains powerful and can clear out large hordes faster and more efficiently, while having a greater DPS at optimal point blank usage, but can't match the Unmaker's ease of use and ability to stunlock anything to near-instant death. It's somewhat more useful in ''The Lost levels'', as the player doesn't get the Unmaker or any keys until the final level. That said, most players will save their cells for the {{BFG}} once they get one (a secret one can be obtained as early as the second level). And for those Pistol starting every level or otherwise accepting the penalty of losing everything for dying instead of reloading a save upon death, the Plasma Gun will find good usage as a stronger rapid fire weapon than the Chaingun, as the Unmaker only appears in four levels (five with The Lost Levels counted), while the BFG is also uncommon and difficult to find in most maps.
* TooAwesomeToUse: The Unmaker. Yes, it's a powerful GameBreaker when upgraded with demon keys and will trivialize any combat in the game even without having all three of the keys. However, it also uses the same power cell ammo used by the BFG, which is additionally ''very scarce'' in Doom 64 (you'll be lucky to find more than 100 cells in any level, and they're often hidden in secret areas too that you can easily miss). And, the Unmaker burns through ammo quite quickly if you just hold fire to spam it instead of carefully using as much shots as you need to kill each enemy (while being less ammo efficient than the BFG against sufficiently large hordes of enemies). So if you rely on it too much you'll easily run out of ammo and be left unable to use it at all for quite the while. You might find yourself wondering if you should use it or not on large numbers of "pest" enemies (like Demons/Spectres, Imps, Cacodemons, etc.) ''if'' there might be a more urgent use for it later (i.e. a Pain Elemental ambush or a Cyberdemon).

** '''"Level 16: Blood Keep"''' has a layout that is fairly complicated to figure out, and is a fairly long level. [[https://youtu.be/Bxjpc9gSf4o?t=467 The exit room has a nasty surprise]]: Some Lost Souls assault you and are easy enough to deal with, but after they die, the edges of the room (2/3 the room) lower into an inescapable death-pit that kills you, which means that if you happen to wander here at the wrong time, [[WebVideo/AngryVideoGameNerd you go back to the beginning]]. Note that Doom 64: Absolution, a [[GameMod game mod]] that recreates the game on the PC, has an alteration of this trap, that is not to be confused with the original, where the sides lower right away, and the safe zone is even smaller, with the player surrounded by hell-knights. This game engine is built on [=JDoom=] and allows SaveScumming unlike on the N64, lessening the likelihood of redoing the level.

** "Level 23: Unholy Temple" is like a tech demo for engine tricks, with very convincing 3D bridges, a combination lock puzzle, and some nicely detailed citadel walls around the central temple. The game also has aged pretty well for a UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 game thanks to using pre-rendered sprites rather than potentially-blocky models, and using good quality world textures.

* TooAwesomeToUse: The Unmaker. Yes, it's a powerful GameBreaker when fully upgraded with demon keys. However, it also uses the same power cell ammo used by the plasma gun and BFG. And, the Unmaker burns through ammo quite quickly. You might find yourself wondering if you should use it or not on large numbers of "pest" enemies (like Demons, Spectres, Arachnotrons, etc.) ''if'' there might be a more urgent use for it later (i.e. a Cyberdemon).

* ItsShortSoItSucks: The new episode included in the 2020 re-release, "The Lost Levels", contains all high quality maps, but there's only six of them plus another bonus "fun level", whereas the size of a traditional Doom episode has typically been eight or more maps long, and it's not like the maps are especially big. If you like Doom 64 you'll certainly enjoy the new episode, but after finishing it you might be left yearning for more.

* TierInducedScrappy: The addition of the Unmaker, will eventually turn the Plasma Gun obsolete, due to the Unmaker using cells. Once you've upgraded the Unmaker only once, there is no reason to even bother using Plasma Gun; the Unmaker will have a greater rate of fire after the first upgrade, and regardless of upgrades, each laser shot deals up to twice the amount of damage a single plasma shot will deal, and despite the lasers looking like projectiles, it's a hitscan weapon, meaning it'll hit its target instantly unobstructed with full accuracy. Get the second and third upgrades, it'll shoot two and then three laser shots at once, giving it an incredible rate of fire that can stunlock even the Cyberdemon and Mother Demon to death, leaving the Plasma Gun hopelessly outclassed. The Plasma Gun also got nerfed, and fires 1/3 slower than the original version of the weapon, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking emits an annoying loud buzzing noise at idle]]. The {{BFG}} still remains powerful and can clear out large hordes faster and more efficiently, while having a greater DPS at optimal point blank usage, but can't match the Unmaker's ease of use and ability to stunlock anything to near-instant death. It's somewhat more useful in ''The Lost levels'', as the player doesn't get the Unmaker or any keys until the final level. That said, most players will save their cells for the {{BFG}} once they get one (a secret one can be obtained as early as the second level.)

* TierInducedScrappy: The addition of the Unmaker, will eventually turn the Plasma Gun obsolete, due to the Unmaker using cells. Once you've upgraded the Unmaker only once, there is no reason to even bother using Plasma Gun; the Unmaker will have a greater rate of fire after the first upgrade, and regardless of upgrades, each laser shot deals up to twice the amount of damage a single plasma shot will deal, and despite the lasers looking like projectiles, it's a hitscan weapon, meaning it'll hit its target instantly unobstructed with full accuracy. Get the second and third upgrades, it'll shoot two and then three laser shots at once, giving it an incredible rate of fire that can stunlock even the Cyberdemon and Mother Demon to death, leaving the Plasma Gun hopelessly outclassed. The Plasma Gun also got nerfed, and fires 1/3 slower than the original version of the weapon, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking emits an annoying loud buzzing noise at idle]]. The {{BFG}} still remains powerful and can clear out large hordes faster and more efficiently, while having a greater DPS at optimal point blank usage, but can't match the Unmaker's ease of use and ability to stunlock anything to near-instant death.

** ''Doom 64'' does a nice job taking advantage of the Nintendo 64 hardware despite being TwoPointFiveD, and smooths out the textures nicely with bilinear filtering. Scripting was added to the system, allowing some cool tricks like the illusion of 3D bridges, dart & homing-rocket turrets, and conditional triggers on geometry as well as monster spawning. The engine was also upgraded with subtle features like the ability to display 3D support beams without the skybox obstructing visibility up on top.

** ''Doom 64'' does a nice job taking advantage of the Nintendo 64 hardware despite being TwoPointFiveD, and smooths out the textures nicely with bilinear filtering. Scripting was added to the system, allowing some cool tricks like the illusion of 3d bridges, dart & homing-rocket turrets, and conditional triggers on geometry as well as monster spawning. The engine was also upgraded with subtle features like the ability to display 3d support beams without the skybox obstructing visibility up on top.
** "Level 23: Unholy Temple" is like a tech demo for engine tricks, with very convincing 3d bridges, a combination lock puzzle, and some nicely detailed citadel walls around the central temple. The game also has aged pretty well for a UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 game thanks to using pre-rendered sprites rather than potentially-blocky models, and using good quality world textures.

** '''"Level 23: Unholy Temple"''', which combines all of ''Doom 64'''s hallmarks; long levels with complicated layouts, nasty ambushes by high level monsters in tight situations, death traps, and mandatory puzzles (with the one here spanning across the entire level), all rolled into the game's ultimate MarathonLevel. The visual design of the temple however, is a great example of SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming on the ''Doom 64'' engine, easing the pain of this level with VideoGame/{{Quake}}-like 3d illusions, and a neat demonstration of the game's scripting capabilities in general.

* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler: The sister Resurrector, who wants revenge against you in The Lost Levels after you have killed the Mother Demon. She fights just like the Mother Demon, but due to the level's layout, it puts her at a major disadvantage. The Unmaker is immediately available in the beginning. You need to collect the 3 required Demon Keys to open her door, which also powers up the Unmaker at maximum power. There are at least 2 Invincibility items in that level; you can use one of them to clear most of the area out (in case you fear the Cyberdemon) or speed run it. Once you open the door, you can immediately fire at her effortlessly before she enters the portal because of the small pillar gap where your Unmaker's shots are small enough to go through. If she decides to fight you before entering the portal, none of her 2 attacks can hit you because the pillars are blocking her attacks. Even if she were to teleport in the main battling area, there are so many side walls that can block her homing missiles before it directs against you.]]

* TierInducedScrappy: The addition of the Unmaker, will eventually turn the Plasma Gun obsolete, due to the Unmaker using cells. Once you've upgraded the Unmaker only once, there is no reason to even bother using Plasma Gun; the Unmaker will have a greater rate of fire after the first upgrade, and regardless of upgrades, each laser shot deals up to twice the amount of damage a single plasma shot will deal, and despite the lasers looking like projectiles, it's a hitscan weapon, meaning it'll hit its target instantly unobstructed with full accuracy. Get the second and third upgrades, it'll shoot two and then three laser shots at once, giving it an incredible rate of fire that can stunlock even the Cyberdemon and Mother Demon to death, leaving the Plasma Gun hopelessly outclassed. The Plasma Gun also got nerfed, and fires 1/3 slower than the original version of the weapon, and emits an annoying loud buzzing noise at idle. The {{BFG}} still remains powerful and can clear out large hordes faster and more efficiently, while having a greater DPS at optimal point blank usage, but can't match the Unmaker's ease of use and ability to stunlock anything to near-instant death.