Following the GZDoom port of Doom 64, BD-64 revitalizes the old Doom 64 with new special effects, particles, lightning, gore, new sounds, more weapon animations (shotgun reloads, smoother minigun barrels, etc.) and monsters and stuff cut from the original Nintendo 64 version. Works on GZDoom and Zandronum in OpenGL mode. (Zdoom and Zandronum Software mode are not supported.) No downloads available yet. Mod still is very early WIP.
Good mod, but, currently, in my opinion, it's missing a lot of what made Brutal Doom enjoyable. Alt-fires, reloading, interactive dead bodies, taunts, fatalities and other features. Apparently all of them were removed "because it makes the game less atmospheric", but ironically, the ending of the game is actually pretty over-the-top for a "horror shooter". I won't spoil it for anyone, but do know that the ending pretty much reminds you that you're playing a Brutal Doom mod and not just Doom 64 with gore. The ending is also a small reference to Doom 2016, so if you played that game and listened to Doomguy's background story, you'll know what will happen. It isn't a lot but it's definitely a small giveaway that reminds you that you're not really just another helpless space marine but actually a professional demon slayer. The mod really isn't sure what to be; either an over-the-top action shooter or a horror shooter, and actually suffers a lot of inconsistencies in that department. One moment it wants to be Brutal Doom, the next moment it wants to be Resident Evil. Really, really not sure what's going on.
Moreover, the mod suffers from serious balance issues. Since the weapons are pretty much vanilla-esque (with not much accuracy and very few buffs to make the weapon stronger/more useful), the enemies are HARDCORE in this. Brutal Doom on Ultra-Violence isn't hard (actually, it's a pretty standard experience), but this mod on Ultra-Violence pretty much makes Doom 1 Episode 1 on Nightmare seem easier. The enemies mostly share the same code as Brutal Doom, except they also have some other additions which makes them harder. In the end, having classical weapons against Brutal Doom enemies really doesn't work, since Brutal Doom'e enemies were redesigned to fit with the weapons sandbox. The result is that you get underpowered weapons against enemies that are way faster than they should be.
Doom 64's gameplay clearly wasn't this way and was actually more balanced than this mod, so the recreation of the gameplay itself isn't very well executed. A shotgun should be able to kill Lost Souls faster than a Pain Elemental can spawn them, but here, it's exactly the contrary. Pain Elementals spawn Lost Souls so fast that your shotgun isn't able to hit them, so you get overrun really fast. It makes the game hard but in an unfair way. The original Doom 64 clearly didn't have this, and if this is to be a faithful representation of that game, either get rid of all the Brutal Doom AI and recode it all to what it was originally in Doom 64, or revamp the weapons completely and add more features that actually makes the game as "Brutal" as the original Brutal Doom.
What I would suggest? Add more features to the weapons (reloading, alt-fires and more), add kicking back, add optional taunts, balance the weapons so that they are actually useful against all enemies in the game and remove the BFG9000's annoying splash damage, because, right now, you can't clean rooms with it anymore, instead it's more like a more powerful Rocket Launcher.
I'm giving this mod a 7/10. The mod really isn't perfect yet to score a 10/10, so right now, such a score won't come from my end. It needs some major improving, which I know it's coming sooner or later. For a mod to receive a 10/10, it must be perfect in every single imaginable way, something that, right now, it isn't.
Brilliant, just Brilliant.
Has a few balancing issues with invisible imps and some problems with certain maps, but a pretty damn solid start.
Full video review:
Captures the atmosphere from original N64 game perfectly.
this game is just great,the demons,the weapons,the atmosphere and the levels are great,what more can i say? 10/10
Outdone yourself? Maybe just a little...
Brutally Awesome!
Disclaimer:
I am not a fan of the authors original Brutal Doom mod as I didnt not like how it changed the gameplay of Doom
I am however, a fan of this mod, it took the sheer ambiance and awesome gameplay of Doom 64 and dialed it up to 128 so its more like DOOM 128 **** YEAH (okay that lame send me PM's about how lame it was and I will send you a picture of me with a sad face) but everything is better, the shooting, the gore and the beginning prologue will have you hooked.
Awesome. Play it, Love it, murder things.
10/10
I think 10 because it's so much more scarier and it makes me jump a lot, lots of better weapons and I love the lighting look more realistic. Brutal Doom 64 has smashed the original doom 64.
So cool...