An incredible romp through a dystopian hell. Set against the backdrop of an unidentified disaster, Chechoslovakia is now overrun by mutants and monsters, and all you've got is a pistol, a sickle, and whatever else you can find. While the game uses a smiliar software renderer and color pallette, its world is far more expressive than its obvious inspiration, Quake. The levels are lovingly crafted to really sell the depressed, dystopian world of Cold War-era Eastern Europe, with many locations being based on the sort of places you might expect to find in such an area, such as culture houses and drab, lifeless shops. Imagine a brown, sad version of Duke Nukem's world, and you're not that far off. Translating most signs in the game for the English release is also a nice touch, and really helps add context for foreign players. While the world is unique and striking, the action is pure, classic boomer shooter. Punchy weapons, relentless speed, monster closets and sudden spawns. Secrets, par times and lots of enemies to kill. If you're over the age of 35 or you've taken the time to look back at the classics of the FPS genre (Quake, Doom, Duke, ETC), you'll feel right at home. I could see this having sold many, many copies back in the mid-90s. While some may view the game as a bit of a pastiche, it's clear that the developer poured their heart and soul into a game, capturing both nostalgia for a bygone era of gaming and a chilling stoicism looking at a bygone era of his homeland. There's not a lot of story, and there doesn't need to be. HROT is a tour-de-force, and wholeheartedly recommended.
About the games, what is there to say? the DOOM engine games are among the greatest games out there, largely responsible for bringing the PC into the mainstream gaming landscape. Anything said about the games themselves is really unneeded. If you're reading this, you know what these games are about. The real treat here is the package. You have the DOOM, DOOM II, Final Doom (TNT and Plutonia), Master Levels for Doom II, No Rest for the Living, Sigil, and the newly-made Legacy of Rust, presented in an EXTREMELY easy way to play. There's no messing with settings or wad placement or any other hassle - Everything is selectable from a single menu. Master Levels for Doom II is even presented as a complete campaign allowing you to go from one game to the next completely hassle-free. What if you WANT to use the old games, either to play them in their original forms or to plug them into your favorite open-source engine? Good news: The GOG version of DOOM I+II gives you the original DOOM and DOOM II for your pleasure! Not only that, but wads of the classic games can be used in GZDOOM (the newer game wads may require using DOOM II as an IWAD). Essentially, what you're looking at here is the definitive version of the classic DOOM engine series. It's the perfect way to play, so grab your guns and get blastin'!
This is the most damning evidence of the pitfalls of crunch culture, and why I hope to never see CDPR do that again. At launch, it was a disaster of bugs, poor optimization, muddy graphics and half-baked gameplay. Two years later, what you have here is a beast of a game that plays and runs beautifully on the recommended hardware. HOWEVER, that we had to wait two years for the game to actually live up to the hype is not something that should be tolerated, especially after a SIX-YEAR development time. I'm not sure whether there was too much ambition on display, but hopefully CDPR reins back ad bit and sticks to polished games in their means, because when they do it right, they hit it out of the ballpark. Long story short, if you waited to buy the game, now is the time. If you bought at launch, hopefully the current game soothes those wounds.
The game is, in some ways, a bit of a step backward from Epistory. The story is far more straightforward, without any greater story in the background as Epistory had. Also, having to type out the powers each time they're to be used (epistory had you locking into different "modes" of attack) makes enemy encounters more stressful than the previous title, especially early on. The art style, while still very pleasing, is more in line with other indie titles. At least it's still pleasant to look at. In other ways, the game progresses past Epistory with its increased gameplay diversity. The ability to use your typing powers to affect the environment has expanded, leading to some interesting terrain puzzles, and there's more effort required in unlocking more of the world, giving the game a bit more of a Zelda-ish feel. Also, the locked-in-place nests have been replaced by screen-sized battles that allow the player to make strategic retreats and maximize area-of-effect powers, which is often needed when dealing with the bosses. Unfortunately, there are three damning elements in this game. First off, there's no distinction between UK and US English in the settings, which led to me having a couple of frustrating moments where the spelling of some words were against my reflexes, affecting typing speed. Second, the game's actually MUCH shorter. The first game was fairly short, but this game has only three areas, all of which can be cleared pretty easily. Lastly, however, the ending is trash. Going for a straightforward story makes the lackluster ending. Seriously, there's no real closure, like the devs were in a rush to get this over with. Doesn't help that the final fight is more cryptic than the rest. Sadly, despite some enjoyable elements and building on the gameplay loop, Nanotale ends up being the lesser game, and it's not even close. How the mighty have fallen.
Most indie developers have a problem marrying gameplay to their artistic intent, but you can tell from the onset that the two are pretty much in parallel. The game ostensibly stars a girl riding atop a fox going through a gorgeous origami world, yet throughout, there are hints of something larger, of a young artist going through her life, trying to find her place in the world. In this, the art plays into both the surface-level story and the behind-the-scenes writer trying to make a good story. The narrator helps this with a beautiful, inspired performance that helps to draw the user into this amazing world. On the gaming end, as the title suggests, you're ostensibly typing. Enemies are killed, obstacles and chests are opened using the written words that appear over them. People with full or 1800 keyboards will be happy to know that their number pad is given use as well, with various safes that have to be opened to unlock the fragments scattered through all the levels. Of course, there's more than just normal typing random words - The player will find four very distinct powers on the way. Fire makes it so you can effectively kill an enemy with half the words required, ice keeps enemies in place to give the user more time to handle closer threats, wind can push enemies away, and spark, easily the most powerful in the right places, can shoot lightning towards multiple enemies at once. While there are enemies that can only be cleared with certain powers, even if you're going against normal enemies, using the right power at the right time can mean the difference between a smooth experience and a very tense one, especially at nests, essentially boss battles that the player cannot escape once the fight starts. If I must dock points, the lack of enemy variety goes against the game. That is, however a minor complaint compared to the sheer joy of playing. This is NOT one to miss.
Make no mistake, this is one of the greatest FPS games ever. It's frantic, gothic, and horrifying in a way few games can even come hope to match, a gem of the golden age of FPS games. Now it's even BETTER, since the package includes not only the original game, but also the enhanced version, which runs brilliantly on modern hardware, and with even more levels to boot! If I -MUST- criticize this game, the color palette is severely lacking compared to other titles out at the time. It's unrelentingly monotonous in tone, the very definition of a "brown" game, where there's very little in the way of color, a trend that would overwhelm western game design soon after, as many games in the 2000s employed the sort of limited, drab color palette that would come to define western games for the decade and even into the early 2010s. However, don't let the color palette scare you off. It may not be the most aesthetically exciting game in the world, but make NO mistake, this is the essence of the all-action FPS, what is now called a "boomer shooter" by some. If you like that kind of game, you OWE it to yourself to get this amazing title.
Most of the game is locked behind an online requirement, making it a poor fit for those who don't wish to play online.
