There is so much I loved about Nightmare Reaper that it may end up as one of my favorite games of all time. The loot collecting of Borderlands, light RPG leveling through mini games, mixed with the speed of Doom Eternal makes for one heck of a time. The gunplay is great and varied thanks to the loot collecting aspect. Getting carried by a weapon for a few levels then finding something much stronger or unique helped to keep things fresh. All of the weapons handle well, are all worth trying, and each weapon type was fun to use and all the different abilities you can find add to the mayhem. Level design was pretty solid as well. Tight hallways littered with explosive barrels, open spaces where enemies just feel like they never stop spawning, along with some challenges thrown in (destroying crystals that do spawn enemies forever until you destroy them) help to keep things varied as you get deeper into the nightmare. There were a few times where the layout of a level felt same-y and I think that was from the Rogue-like part of its DNA. Not the end of the world but it was felt. The mini games offer a break from the action and offer something different but there was some grind involved. The Arena based horde fights (think Serious Sam) to grind for Jade coins was a fun way to kill time and if you can get through 10 waves, any weapon you collected can be kept or sold and turned into coins to help level you up. The old school Gameboy style mini games are going to be hit and miss for some and is your main way of leveling up. Grinding for the currencies to play these can be a real pain in the neck and make them more of a chore. You milage will vary.
I really wanted to enjoy my time with 40k Fire Warrior but there really isn't a whole lot to write home about here. I'm not sure I will even finish the game. The level design is pretty straight forward and bland (outside of a secret objective each mission that the game doesn't tell you about), which would be fine if the gunplay was good. The gunplay is not good. Guns actively feel like they are fighting against you. The Pulse Rifle, Pulse Carbine, and Autogun all feel like spray and pray weapons. Accuracy is not a thing with these weapons. Weapons that seem like they should really pack a punch (Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, Plasma Gun) lack any real good feedback or effect that makes them feel like powerful tools. Most weapons have a secondary fire that might make them a little stronger or accurate, but it doesn't help to make most weapons feel better. Grenades can be your best friend but they feel hit and miss. Game balance feels all over the place. Some mobs of enemies will just shred you and force you to restart from your last checkpoint. Other times it just feels like mobs are just paper and you blow through them quite easily. Most enemies feel spongy most of the time and I'm not sure if that is because the weapons feel meh or if the enemies are actual sponges. Enemy AI can be on point and take cover or just stand in front of you and tank damage. The audio in Fire Warrior gets repetitive real fast. You will hear the same "pew pews" for most missions. Not much to say here. I did enjoy the terrible voice acting. Aiming in the game is rough. It may have felt better back in the day, but it feels sluggish and with the help of the weapons accuracy being low, combat just sucks. Now, you can turn on the auto aim feature which did help me a little bit, but it didn't save this lackluster experience for me. Maybe on sale this might be worth it for you but there are much better games that you can spend your money on.
... but adding mods made Powerslave a 5 star for me. I have really been enjoying my time with Powerslave so far. Never played it back in the day but I love going through old school boomer shooter games, so I had to give Powerslave a shot. Being a DOSBox game, I pretty much knew what to expect from PS and it hasn't let me down. Kill baddies. Find Keys. Continue on. Repeat. The Egyptian theme is chefs kiss on the overall presentation for Powerslave and helps PS stand out from other boomer shooter games from the time. The maps, enemies, powerups, and keys are all skinned in the Egyptian theme, and I feel it works well. The soundtrack is a banger, a slapper, and a toe tapper. It's been keeping me locked in while I'm playing. With that said, the vanilla version is pretty rough play. Normally, I try and tackle all of the old school boomer shooter games in their vanilla form first and try the game out how it was released back in the day. That was not a good idea with Powerslave. The out of date controls can make combat a pain at times. The framerate can dip down real low and the gameplay chugs because of it. The save system is unique (maybe?) for the time using checkpoints and a life point system instead of being able to save whenever you want but it can lead to some frustrations upon death. Adding BuildGDX to your Powerslave experience (or other mods I'm sure) really do change the game a lot. Smoothing out the controls and using up to date FPS controls feels so good. Adding mouse aiming is always a positive for me, though I kept the auto aim feature on because of the dang crabs! The framerate gets smoothed out and gameplay chugs go away. Being able to change the game to add save whenever instead of using the checkpoint/life system is a real life and time saver. If you enjoy old DOSBox shooter games, then Powerslave should be an easy add to your collection but needs mods to truly shine.
The improvements made on the Wolf3d engine really shine here when it comes to looks. Everything looks improved on from Aliens of Gold. The new weapon sprites are bigger and look so much more detailed. The lighting is much better and a little darker instead of everything being vibrant and bright giving it a better feel (at least to me). The new enemy sprites look way better than AoG (even though most of the enemies are the same ones from the first game). Maps have better detail to them and ending each level by needing to find a detonator to blow up that floors security system helps change things up a bit. But not everything is better in Planet Strike. - Since most of the weapons and enemies are recycled from the first game with a fresh coat of paint on them, it makes Planet Strike feel like just some DLC for AoG and not really a standalone adventure. The guns make the same sounds as they did in AoG. The enemies make the same sounds as they did in AoG. It feels familiar and lazy at the same time. - The changes made to your map are fine but it's just not as good as in AoG. Sure, you can zoom in and have it reveal secrets to you (and there is a charge needed to keep it going) and that is fine but doesn't come close to how good the map in the first game was. There will be times where you will get lost and won't be able to open your map because it is always on the bottom of your screen now (unless I am just dumb and didn't know how to open it). - Planet Strike is shorter than Aliens of Gold. For some, that might be a bad thing, but I think it helps PS from overstaying its welcome. Later levels do feel a little bit rushed like they did in AoG. If you enjoyed AoG, I think you will find some enjoyment with Blake Stone on his second adventure. More of the same can be good sometimes and I think the little bit of changes made do help keep things feeling fresh till the end
I want to start by saying that I really enjoyed mt time with Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold. I enjoyed looking for the Red Access key to get to the next floor. I also enjoyed that you could go back after you complete a floor and look for secrets or any enemies you didn't find the first time around to make your score better (if you're into that kind of thing). I appreciated the in game map compared to a lot of other maps in old boomer shooter games. But there are a few things that hold Blake back from being one of the great ones. Pros - -I loved using coins to replenish health from vending machines. Nice touch. -The in game map is really well done. - Level layouts are well done and do take a little time to explore. - I really enjoyed the soundtrack for Aliens of Gold - The Informants helping out Cons - -There are a lot of hit scan enemies, and they almost always seem to land a shot before you even have a chance - Enemies can feel a little too tanky at times - On higher difficulties it feels like you go from 100 to 0 health way too quickly - Damage feels random at times - Later levels feel rushed with imbalanced enemy placement - The dang lightning orbs - The visuals are nothing to write home about - The Informants getting in the way - Vending machines running out If you are looking for another Wolf3d style game to tackle, I found Aliens of Gold to be well worth it. It might not be the most exciting game out there, but I found it fun
I want to start by saying I finished the game on the Ronin (easy) difficulty after hearing all the issues the game has, and I feel like that was the correct move. I didn't use any kind of patches for the game. Just played it straight up the way you get it when you get it from GoG. The Bad First - Your AI companions are pretty dumb (which was the reason I choose to play on easy to start with). You will need to babysit them like crazy because they will run headfirst into battle and die, get stuck on everything and nothing, and fall of the map just for fun. It did lead to a few headaches. I did have some crashing issues but not a lot. The weapons (while many and unique) really don't feel very punchy and have no feedback leaving every weapon to feel lifeless and melee combat doesn't feel at all. The game does start off pretty slow. It took me a few levels to start to get into it. Could not change video settings without the game crashing. The Good - The game has the perfect mix of campy B movie time travel, terrible voice acting, and crazy enemy types (sharks, mosquitos, mechs, prison inmates!?!?) which all blend together to make for a pretty good time. This is what kept me coming back for more. Level design was pretty solid, and each area felt mostly unique and fun to explore. I did get hung up on some of the puzzles and fetch quests (I eventually sold out and used a walkthrough guide) which ended up padding some of my gameplay time. I enjoyed that each time travel section had its own pile of weapons to play with to help keep from same weapon fatigue. Even though the weapons don't feel great to use, there is a ton of variety in the weapons. With all of that said, is Daikatana one of the worst games I have ever played? Not even close. Was it a letdown when it released back in 2000? You bet it was. If you are looking for a new boomer shooter game to tackle over a weekend, I feel Daikatana deserves a look but keep your expectations low and I promise a goodtime
I was all in on getting to play through this game I played back when it came out in 2002. Sometimes, it's just better to keep those memories. Don't get me wrong, the game is a good time and there is some fun to be had (especially if you played it back in the day) but there are a few things that really keep this from being really solid in 2024. 1) Dying for the first time and seeing a set number of continues (5) was from the old school so no big deal, or so I thought until you get to some of the later stages and enemy placement is cheap and has a way to take some of those continues away from you. Checkpoints feel few and far between at times, especially at the tougher parts. 2) Controls are clunky. Not being able to jetpack and shoot at the same time, the half second it takes for you to aim your gun to have good accuracy (I feel like I would not be able to play this on controller anymore), and having to continually switch back and forth between your gun and the Bounty mode instead of having set buttons to do that are just a few things that make Bounty Hunter feel dated in the control department. 3) A few times I have had some weird audio issues where voices wouldn't play (I could still read the subtitles, so I guess not the biggest deal), audio for your weapons not coming through, or a sound staying around for the whole level (I had an elevator noise play for almost one whole level and didn't want to restart the level and lose all my progress so I just kept going). 4) The camera feels like it is fighting against you more than helping you at times making for some tougher than they should be or makes it hard to see enemies before they see you and start blasting. Outside of those issues I found the game to be a good time, even with some of my frustrations. I do recommend Bounty Hunter but only on sale. There is fun to be had if you can look past some of the jank of a game that is 20 years old.
Never played the original before so I'm not all that in the know of what ROTT is really all about, but this game has scratched an itch that needed to be itched. Not really full of story (is there even really a story?), hit scans that make you pull your hair out on higher difficulty at times because they hit you before you even see them, the system that shows you where you are getting hit from is almost always wrong, and platforming that is the absolute worst thing in all of gaming ever (okay, maybe not that bad but still painful). With that said, it's a fun retro fps game that makes for a good weekend romp. There is some replayability for those that like to cut down on finish times, racking up a higher score, and finding all the secrets in every level. There are also 5 characters to choose from with different health pools and speeds to add a little more replayability. I am currently having a blast going through it, so much I also picked up the original ROTT.
