this is a great and fun game. i went into this not being a fan of or ever playing the games it is an homage to. i really enjoy the how combat works and the general gameplay loop. the only minor critiques i have are the food system and the puzzles. you have to eat in this game, and you get hungrier either with each step or over time. if you are stupid like me you will be walking around a lot to solve the puzzles. there is limited respawning of enemies that drop food, ive never run out, but i have had to backtrack just to refill my supplies. its not unbalanced or anything like that, i just dont like the time pressure being added to trying to solve puzzles. 4 stars ONLY because there are things in the game not to my taste. nothing wrong with the mechanics themselves.
This game is very much a boomer shooter. though a bit too much for my tastes. it has a lot of things from those old games i dont like. for one thing the game is a little bit on the meaner side; they love to drop you into a level and have enemies shooting at you faster than you can react, as well as have enemies behind doors that shoot at you before the door is all the way open. reminds me of mob grinders in minecraft where a skeleton dropping down a pit at max speed with no awareness of you will turm, fire, and likely hit you in the only open block going down the pit. the game trains you to just fire immediately as you go around corners and while doors are opening before you know if wanything is actually there because you will be shot if you dont. the game is balanaced for this though, ammunition is plentiful. the other meaner side is that the "upgrades" are more like sidegrades in that they can change weapon behavoir, but usually in such a way where you are going to hurt yourself more often. ecample: assault rifle upgrade gives riccochet shots, and you WILL hurt yourself with them, guranteed. level design is... serviceable. like i said they are mazelike but they are so small its not going to give you nausea running around them. a lot of levels are extremely cramped and all one one level, which again, a bit too nostaligic. no jumping either. the biggest problem is you cant get a full screen map. it strongly needs a toggle for larger mapsize for when you inevitably get turned around in the cramped hallways of a level. the music is also just serviceable. havent heard it all, but nothing so far that iwould like to listen to outside of the game and sveral tracks are just plain bad. gunplay is great, all the guns sound great and feel great. magic is a thing, but very much optional in my playthrough so far. the first spell they give you is a flashlight that is entirely unecessary. feels like an afterthought, though may be very useful on harder difficulties.
As of 3/31/21 this game is absolutely playable. if you like old school shooters, you will like this game too. If you like doomclones but get nausea playing them, this is the game for you. i have this problem with doomclones and dont have that problem with this game. my favorite thing about this game is that it respects your time: levels are short and sweet. none of the gigantic labyrinths that open up monster closets whenever you pick up the red key, which you need to get the blue key, to get the yellow key to exit the level and each of these items are on opposite sides of the map from each other. this game has keys but they are handled in a way that it wont give you a headache running around the level. You dont have to hump every wall to find secrets either. They are indicated by something for a good chunk of the game, but i wont spoil what that indication is, and in later levels they start hiding secrets in different ways. you collect money instead of points, which you can and should use to upgrade your character in various ways. levels are randomly generated afaik. not full randomization but prebuilt rooms connected randomly. works very well. you collect weapons as you go, all weapons can have varying loevels of quality, levels above normal have random stat buffs/debuffs. you can only take one weapon with you at the end of the level. keeps the game-play interesting. can get some crazy guns. can also rarely spend money to randomize weapon stats, which is a gamble. The only thing i dont like is that some areas have are very tall, and it can be hard to see enemies if you are at a significant angle to them, as enemies are sprites and always remain perpendicular to the floor. the description for the game is very accurate.
