On the looks side of things, I have to admit that some of it are a strong hit, others are really missing. The enemies sprites are clear and awesome, but the environmental sprites are pretty bad in general. However, the biggest crime the game commits is the lighting system. See, I don't know where the dev thought that the old FPS games were dark and spooky - but they were never dark enough to force you to use an external source of light. There was clear lighting that showed you the way. In Project Warlock, you're forced to use a light spell, and you can't use your guns. Think of it as Doom 3 - but unlike Doom 3, enemies aren't slow and stupid, and the levels aren't maze-like. So you end up in a situation where everywhere you can't see anything, and if you decide to see something, you can't fire back, and when you fight, you don't get to see the fun parts, like gibs or damage. I think one of the worst levels for this was literally a desert stage, where you're outside and it's pitch black anyways. Some levels are okay with it, but some levels are in pitch blackness the entire time! WTF? On the gameplay, it's pretty damn fun when everything is lined up. There's a lot of weapons, but often you'll only gravitate toward those who are clearly superior, unless you grab sidegrades that gives you an added advantage. I didn't use the magic system because honestly, it's... not necessary at all beyond the light spell because YOU CAN'T SEE ANYTHING without it sometimes. The only weapon I feel are bad are the melee ones (but muh Hexen) and the staff (but muh heretic) , because honestly going into melee against a group of enemies is hardly ever a good idea, and the staff is just not as good as the weapons you get eventually.
The game is great in general, but the GOG version has NO PRIVATE LOBBIES, ONLY RANKED MULTIPLAYER. YOU CANNOT PLAY WITH YOUR FRIEND WITH THE GOG VERSION. THUS, DO NOT BUY, YOU WILL GET A GIMPED VERSION OF THE GAME. GET STEAM VERSION FOR ALL FEATURES. Unless you only want the SP experience, then you get a DRM free version. Which is nice.
Title sums it up pretty well. Va-11 HALL-a is really good at making you feel part of its world as a living organism. You have regular clients you learn to know about at a personal level, you have rents and bills to pay, you have your own needs to attend to, and your life can be pretty much summed up to your work. While the choice of being a bartender is a really good idea - and a really clever way to have you deal with a bunch of characters that you would never really see in the same room otherwise - the execution is sadly not as great. While most of the game is spent talking to the characters and living the life of Jill, which is great, the bar-minigame is really a let down. Let me explain more precisely : In most visual novels (Which Va-11 HALL-A is part of), you often listen to dialogue, and are given a few options of dialogue or actions that can affect the story. This allow you to change the story quite significantly, and generally you can draw the flowchart of the game. In Vallhalla, however, you are never met with such choices. Instead, you will use your drink making interface to make the drinks the client wants (or you want to give to your clients). A few times in its story, you will have *special* moments where you can guess what the client really wants instead of what he asks, and that's how you make the "good" or the "bad" choices. There's no penalty to not doing these, although you will be locked from particular endings if you fuck up. While being able to give a special drink when it is context sensitive to do so is quite fun and clever, the number of times you will have to make a lot of drinks that are "direct orders" are boring and menial. Not only that, but there's very little way of failing these - no time constraint exists. You can take an hour to serve that drink, so you can go into your menu and find the recipe without any stress. There's no challenge, which is a disappointment. I recommend this game for the story, but not its gameplay.
