Recent reviews by Peanut Arbuckle

The main selling point for this remaster is that Nightdive fixed the lighting.
Ahem. Allow me to explain.

Rumor has it that Midway San Diego developed and play-tested this game in near total darkness on the CRT monitors of the time. Problem with this approach is that the game, when played in your well lit living room was too dark to see anything. It wasn't unplayable by any means, and in a way it gave the game a pretty creepy mood. I still prefer the new lighting, it makes the game play better, especially on higher difficulties.

With that out of the way, here are some other things to consider.

The gameplay is identical to the original Doom and Doom 2. Any changes to the gameplay are minor, (its missing a couple of enemy types, and they added a new weapon.) Aesthetically it also bears striking similarities to the original Doom engine games, key differences here are the fully polygonal levels , and very N64 looking spritework (I've heard it called claymation looking.) In the sound department, it borrows heavily from the PS1 version of Doom in that it has a creepy ambient score by Aubrey Hodges. Unlike the PS1 version which was a recreation of the first two Doom games on a custom PS1 engine, Doom 64 has a completely unique level design which is more or less on par with levels designed by the original team at id Software. I should mention that this release has a new six level episode, which I have not played at the time of this review (from other reviews, it seems pretty good). The game is for all intents and purposes, a very well made level/texture pack for Doom. Not a bad package at all.

A vocal minority of fans call Doom 64 "the real Doom 3." If I remember correctly, Doom 64 was the reason why Doom 3 turned out the way it did. While Doom 64 is an excellent game, it was dragged at the time of its release because it shipped a year after Quake, and months before Goldeneye, and looked dated as a result. The following year, some heavy hitters were released, SiN, Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, Unreal, Half Life, all cutting edge polygonal titles that put the final nail in the coffin for the "Doom clone" sub-genre. These were industry trends that really had nothing to do with Doom 64, but the game reviewer hacks of the time still dragged it. That's why Doom 3 was released a decade after Doom 2, and was a completely different gameplay style. Doom 64 really is the last of its kind, and the pinnacle of the OG Doom style. You should play it.

The WWI game series is a labor of love by the developer Blackmill games, and in purchasing it you will be supporting a team of developers who have painstakingly created a true to life WWI experience. That being said, their ambition has them in a bit of a pickle. A small, yet dedicated community is now spread thin across two, soon to be three games. In all honesty, I don't think that the Steam ecosystem has enough WWI buffs to populate three WWI shooters, and countless other genre competitors like Hell Let Loose, and Holdfast.

I'm still recommending Tannenberg. The bot AI is good enough that the game remains entertaining should you find yourself in a quiet server, and if you play with friends the game is a blast. I hope Blackmill figures out a way to unify the WWI game series into one package, perhaps make Verdun and Tannenberg a single product.

Intense tug of war style game play. Rifles typically kill in one shot as they should, grenades are devastating and automatic weapons are very limited. Different squads have different weapons and abilities. Some of the squads and roles are situational, after a while you'll know what works and what doesn't. I suggest starting as a Landser squad and a non-NCO role to learn the basics (Entente equivalent are the Tommies & Poilu.)
Look for a match with at least 30 players for best results. Some of these servers are full of bots, which gets boring after a while. I play in a full squad and communicate with my squadmates, as this game is meant to be played.
I recommend it. Don't even wait for it to go on sale, just get it. It's that fun.

Listen here Jack. This game is old. If you didn't grow up playing games like this, then you are going to have a hard time. What do I mean by this? Well the quality of life improvements in newer games are missing. In layman's terms, it is janky and unforgiving.

No regenerating health for starters. No medkits either, just kevlar vests that function as a second health bar. If you get shot in the head, that kevlar vest isn't doing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and your health is going to go down real quick.
Your guns have random spread. This is typical of games by the developer IO Interactive. If you played Kane & Lynch 2, you'll know what I mean.
No quick saves, and the checkpoints are useless in a game like this. Press Shift+ESC and restart the level.
The controls are weird. Run and walk are mapped to separate keys. You'll get used to them.
This game was programmed for Windows 95/98, so unless you haven't upgraded your operating system in the past 20 years, then you will have to patch the game to work on your modern PC. The patch is posted in the community hub, and applying it is simple.

For the most part, none of these gameplay gripes matter because you are supposed to play as an assassin, not Rambo. Quiet kills with the piano wire, knife and silenced firearms, and clever disguises will get you far and keep you off the radar of the guards. If you find yourself getting shot up by guards, or running around with an AK-47, then you are playing the game all wrong.
However this becomes an issue in the series of missions set in Colombia and the final mission of the game. These missions play more like a third person shooter. You will get smoked by guards who don't miss a shot, and you will be frantically running around with a Kalashnikov.

This might sound like a lot of complaining, but I still recommend this game. The missions that let you silently infiltrate a large compound and assassinate your mark are some of the most satisfying moments in the stealth game genre. If you don't like the hand holding in modern games, the waypoints, the X-ray vision, the intentionally dumb guards, then this game is for you. If you can tolerate goofy early 2000s graphics with weird controls then this game is for you. If you like your games slow paced, and with minimal direction given to the player, this game for you. If you want to support a top notch developer that still makes these kinds of games for the people who play them, this game is for you.

If you like the number 47, then this game is for you.

If there was a Mount Rushmore built for classic PC first person shooters, Doomguy would be front and center, with BJ Blazkowicz to the left and Duke Nukem to the right.
Buy this game, kill demons, repeat. When you get bored of Doom, buy Doom II.

New faction - the Chinese really opens up gameplay to a lot of new options. They have a lot of easily spammed units, which makes them the new kings of early rushing. Game is also a bit more balanced than I remember it. Back in 2003, the Greeks had a very limited ability to heal, and the Vikings were helpless against flying units. Looks like the introduction of several new units repairs these glaring imbalances. Egyptians get some love as well, their new Khopesh swordsman units are some fast goons that are super effective at killing villagers. Savage mate. I played this game nearly a decade ago, when ensemble studios was in charge, and I'm glad to say that forgotten kingdoms has carried on the torch of ensemble. Hope that there is new content in the future, the community is really looking forward to it.