The soundtrack

A cold, punishing, synthy hellscape.

It was weird because…

Ever since the first iteration of Doom appeared in 1993, id Software's first-person shooter had been synonymous with one sound - raucous, stomping, MIDI metal.

Doom's gung-ho music was always a guilty pleasure (particularly given the tunes’ suspicious similarities to certain commercial metal tracks of the day), but its bouncing, upbeat anarchy was the quintessential soundtrack for chainsawing demons' heads off. Changing this was surely unthinkable…

But it worked because…

But the unthinkable happened. Of course, swapping metal for ambient could've been a disaster but Doom 64's new Tangerine-Dream-go-to-boot-camp synthscapes offered fans a whole new level of aural sophistication.

The power of the Nintendo 64 had taken the franchise to a whole new visual level. That improved realism and visual design would have shone a harsh light on the throwaway Pantera knock-offs of the past.

Change was the only option and, reimagined for 1997, Doom 64’s icy, abstract horror realised the genuine fear and isolation of the series’ concept like never before…