Hey all, I want to direct your attention to this game called Sickbrick, primarily made by one guy. As you know, despite the mass of first person sequels and new IPs out there, we have a dearth of old school FPSes, the latest being Hard Reset, and the next being Serious Sam 3. I don't know about Hard Reset, but the last OSFPS I played was Painkiller, and while it has its own merits, it lacks the feel of classics like Doom and Quake - specifically it feels too scripted.

Well, I found Sickbrick a few days ago while checking on Magrathean's website. Apparently they are working alongside this dude who goes by the handle of MisfitVillager to release Sickbrick. It combines Portal's theme with Quake, and there are a lot of destructible objects in the world. Speaking of destructibility, it's not as versatile as Red Faction Armageddon, but you get to blow up a lot of stuff and watch them collapse gloriously.

This also makes destroying enemies very satisfying. Shooting a cubot doesn't just cause it to die and go into ragdoll - when it dies, it's metal armour falls apart and becomes kicked/thrown/blown back and forth by waves of enemies and firepower. This means things will get very messy. I am very happy to report that when it comes to the feel of the action, the game succeeds, or at least almost, from my experience in the demo. I corresponded with MisfitVillager, and it seems that the final version will have tweaked sounds and music to make the experience an even more cohesive one.

If you are interested, do check out Sickbrick's IndieDB page. Support indies! Demo is available there too.

http://www.indiedb.com/games/sickbrick/

Trailer

Has anyone tried the demo yet?
(translation: shameless bump)

Interesting video. I'll download the demo.

Cheers. Just to let you know though, the music in the demo's a bit funky and unfitting, because it's a "placeholder". I don't know how it'll be like in the final version, but the developer's assured me that they're going for a more rock feel rather than the Lady Gaga type of dance music in the demo =P

Hey, Portal let you knock cameras off walls. We can't miss that!
Hey, the physics we use cause parts to fly about wildly. Let's have every enemy drop them!
Hey, the bots can see and fire at the player through solid walls. Well, at least they don't penetrate. *that's what she said?*
Hey, the tank drives worse than the one in Tron: Evolution. Let's put it at bumping distance with the enemies in narrow passages. *I got stuck twice and one time was nearly bumped off a cliff by a foot-high rail that lay perfectly still*

There's something about the demo that makes it feel like a middle-tier project from DigiPen.

Well drop the developer a note on IndieDB and let him know what needs to be fixed. He's a real swell chap =)

(but yes it really has that low-budget feel. Still I have more fun in 20 minutes of this than 2 hours of Painkiller though. Sorry for so many references to PK. It's the only recent OSFPS I can compare it to right now.)

It's out on Gamersgate!

Would buy because I feel like blowing stuff up in an old school shooter, but after my last eBay spree, I'm really broke...

Looks like I probably wouldn't be able to run it on my crappy computron. From the trailer, I like the destruction, but it looks like it lacks the sophisticated art and brutal combat of Painkiller, and the weapons looked pretty bland. For the work of one guy, however, it's pretty impressive. Might try out the demo, but considering the final product is almost as much as Painkiller (which is one of my favorite FPSs ever), I'll probably pass.

Cute.