Post by Apollo Chungus on Nov 14, 2020 19:49:16 GMT -5
I consider Doom 64 and the PS1 port "black sheep" because of their moodier presentation and tone, not really in their reception. I'm not entirely sure how to explain it, but most of the Doom games have this fast-paced, boisterous vibe where you're fighting against cool ghoulish monsters at a million miles an hour with pounding metal music playing in the background. By comparison, PS1/D64 are a bit slower paced in their pacing and have the sound design presenting something much more ominous and unsettling. It's the same gameplay loops, but framed in a very different way.
However, despite being my introduction to Doom and what I most associate with the series, it took me years to realize that the "horror action" incarnation of Doom is not what those games are to most people. Doom is mainly playing through a heavy metal album cover in its tone, and that's something the recent games have leaned into and interpreted in their own way. The only game that feels in any way similar to the vibes of PS1/D64 is Doom 3 (a more famous black sheep in the series), but that goes for an entirely different style of horror with the mechanics being changed a great deal to suit that idea.
I hope that's better explained my thought process, and I apologize in advance if it hasn't. (I guess that'll happen when you're writing at 1am for some reasons.)
