Project Warlock

I saw a handful of negative reviews on GOG / Steam thrashing this game to high heavens. Too much like wolf3d, no jumping, boring, ugly, buy Ion Maiden etc. And even though most ppl rave about it, I got to say these particular reviews made me hesitate for a good while. But then saw a video review by Gggmanlives on YT and gave it a go. Especially that it was only a tenner. I installed it today and after one sitting I am two thirds into the second world (out of total five). And I have to say, very few games had me hooked in as much as this one. Ever. I don't know why some people put so much effort into slamming this game. The graphics is something to behold. Everything - from sprites, textures, all the way to the balanced blend between old-school palette and modern post-processing, is simply beautiful. The music, while repetetive, has some really catchy hooks here and there. Most importantly however, the gameplay is pretty damn sweet. The monsters' toughness feels just about right - you'll find plenty one-hit trashmobs as well as tough bruisers on your way. The weapons feel satisfying as hell (handgun / shotguns are my favs so far). They are well balanced and there is no useless weapon - they all have their purpose. Level design somehow isn't confusing at all - maps are neither too simple nor too complex, and it's always easy to find your way. Upgrade system is OK so far (been upgrading weapons and stats only). And the atmosphere is something no words can describe. I don't know why anyone would bash this game as hard as some people do. It's simply fantastic, plain and simple. Sure it's pixelated and the colours are drab, but if you're gonna point out this, you may as well criticize Ion Maiden for using Build engine. Sure, it may not be everyone's cup of tea. If you love realism, you're prolly better off with modern day shooters. But if you like originality and some good, old school fun without cutscenes / quicktime events, you're gonna love this game.

I would give 5 stars but there was a bit too much that wasn't polished enough. It was too dark and some of the bosses were too easy. However I was compelled to play it from begining to end and enjoyed every second of it! Can't wait to see the second game they make hopefully with a bigger budget!

This game looks fantastic and I'm seeing some great reviews. However, controller support is not fully functional. I almost exclusively use Xbox 360 wireless and/or Logitech F710 to play FPS games (from the couch!) I can use XB360 controller to navigate the menus, but when the game starts, there is no input other than the menu button (back) which works. No movement! The dev says in the forums that he will look into this with future updates.

At first glance Project Warlock is just another shooter and that’s why you should play it. It’s a testament to how a simple formula can be special through attention to detail. It’s not going to wow you with innovative gameplay. The enemy AI is from 1996. The skill and level mechanic is good but nothing new. You’ve seen most of its weapons before. When you play it you realize none of those drawbacks matter. The locations and monsters are diverse and well animated. Each of the five episodes has their own set of monsters, loot, even the health and mana pickups are unique. The flavor of each episode includes unique map designs. In the Ancient Egypt dungeons for instance you’ll run into numerous traps while in Hell you have to navigate narrow pits. It shows refined experience, iteration and play testing. They took Romero’s rules for DOOM map making and updated them to include modern design principles. The city felt like Duke Nukem, the graveyard felt like Wolf 3D and Hell felt like DOOM 2 but I never got lost like in some of those older map designs. Shooting and melee feel satisfying from the beginning and have some unique qualities. I had to get used to throwing my knife to conserve ammo and charging up my magical staff before getting to the more commonly understood weapons like a chain gun that has to spin up before firing. The weapon upgrade kept all of my weapons relevant too. I stopped using the normal shotgun for a while after getting the super shotgun but after upgrading it to a long range slug I switched to it regularly again. I used every weapon on the final boss and three of my spells. Of course there’s a few things to complain about – the AI is terrible and I wish the game was longer but I paid $10 for it on GOG.com and it’s worth more than that. It’s a joy to play and worth your time. This is what I wrote on my Blog, loved it.

Its like playing my old 2d shooters when I was a kid and young teen. Comparing the two makes the older games look far more dated and thats okay because when we were young those games were far easier to pick out details and play it properly. Since we are so spoiled with other games there needed to be far mroe detail in Project warlock and I think they did a pretty decent job of filling up the wolrd, making nice mobs to fight with really fun guns and spells to wreck my enemies with. The only complaint, well not so much a complaint or it might even be somewhat of a compliment. The only way the game has stutered a bit is when there weas ~15 enemies and I'm just spraying with the nail gun. Even then you need things breaking and an explosion. The first level set isn't that great and it took me three seatings to beat meanwhile the next 2 or 3 I beat in one sitting due to having a bigger arsenel and the maps being a little more puzzle like 4.5/5 but you can't seem to give halves