Project Warlock is a good boomshot, especially for the money. I had fun at the beginning and end of the game but there were some hiccups in the middle. The game is far too easy until about the 4th episode, even on the hard difficulty. By the end of the second episode and throughout the third, I was getting bored and considered quitting. I'm glad I didn't because I finally had some intense firefights and came close to dying in the city episode. And in the final episode I even died! Once to an actual fight and like 10 times to a cramped level with instant death pits, in a game where you move at Doom speeds. I could have done without that level. There were also several levels in the last two episodes that start you surrounded by enemies and not always facing them. Kind of a evil move but I guess it kept me on my toes. There were several times in episodes 4 and 5 that I went out of the map and could not go back or a switch in the level failed to activate correctly, forcing a restart. There's also a level in episode 5 with an elevator in a sewer that, if you accidentally back out of it, traps you and forces a restart. This is a weird oversight because every other elevator I encountered in the game had a button to return the elevator if you accidentally activated it. There are too many weapons for my tastes. I would rather have fewer, highly differentiate weapons, than many weapons that might overlap. Several could have been cut without losing anything IMO. There are also many weapons that share a key with another weapon and, in almost every case, the weapon I would want in an emergency is not the first one tapping the key will bring up. You can reassign these but it's such a weird and bad design choice. The upgrades in the game are neat but some are not well designed - the melee one that changes your third hit, for example, is mostly a downgrade. But, outside the mid-game slump, I am mostly nitpicking. On balance it was a really good experience.
Amid Evil is quite good. Not great, not amazing, not awesome. Okay, the art direction is awesome but it's not BLOOD or DUSK or DOOM or SHADOW WARRIOR or even Nightmare Reaper (should I block letter that one too?). But what is? There's nothing wrong with being pretty good and looking good doing it. And make no mistake, this game is visually striking. It's not like there are many fantasy themed boomer shooters with a green sword for a shotgun or a staff that shoots planets for ammo. Including ours. I played the game twice through and probably won't play it again for a long time. Because behind the amazing art direction, it's a competent boomer shooter but not much better than that. I can't say the weapons and combat have that... you know, that feel where you shoot everything in a room and feel like John Wick ain't got nothin' on you or like you've just snorted a line of coke. I couldn't remember one of the enemies in the game the way I could, say, a shambler from Quake. This is hard to quantify but it's missing that something that makes me keep coming back to the truly best shooters. If the worst thing about your game is that it isn't one of the greatest of all time and I can't really think of anything else to complain about, I say that's pretty darn good. Especially for a $20 game. Just buy it.
I've donned my flame suit, so let it be known: Arcanum is not a masterpiece. I don't mean to say the many five star reviews are invalid but only wish to point that Arcanum is the kind of game certain people will love. It's not for everyone though. In fact, it has some glaring flaws. If we are trying to say something more than "I did/did not like this game" with our ratings, I think 3 stars is a fair rating. The good parts: a great character creation system that allows for very diverse, and personal, choices. The steampunk setting is very well utilized and a refreshing change of pace. I like the way it pits magic and technology against each other. Quests are generally good. (I won't detail the good parts extensively, there are plenty of reviewers who covered that better than I can) With these qualities, it should have the makings of a great RPG. The problem is that the execution is always just a little off. Or a lot off. The character system is unbalanced, with a magic-based fighter being far ahead of a gun wielding technologist, who must not only scrounge around for parts to make their own items but aren't even rewarded for their efforts. That great open world is sometimes so open the game seems to have no focus, largely because the main storyline gets off to a slow start. Combat is just bad. The animations are terrible, like watching a Charlie Chaplain movie. (This isn't about "old graphics" vs "new graphics" but bad art direction.) Real time moves too fast and turn based is a grind. As alluded to, certain characters can walk all over their opponents while others are doormats. This is compounded by the fact that combat XP is given upon a successful hit, not for each kill. This means those disadvantaged characters who have party members are even more disadvantaged. Your party members, who don't gain XP for their hits, are basically stealing your experience. The interface in general is clumsy and annoying. Even something that sounds great, like multiplayer, is completely derailed by the fact that you can't use the travel map at all. You have to walk through miles of randomly generated crap to get to the different towns. The developers obviously didn't intend for that to be necessary but couldn't get that issue resolved before shipping the game. Some people will see these flaws, forgive them and have fun with what the game has to offer. Others, like myself, will not be able to get past the fact that basic gameplay elements, like combat, are buggy, not properly polished or just not fun. It's a brilliant game that is deeply flawed: either you think the flaws are irrelevant in light of its genius or its dysfunctions are so deep that no amount of brilliance will save it. I've enjoyed other games with similar problems, like Planescape Torment, but wasn't able to do the same thing here. I encourage you to try it out, you will really enjoy it, if you enjoy it at all, I just want you to be forewarned.
