This showed up at the start of the Neo boomer shooter trend, along with Ion Fury. And while that game came out and was a banger build engine game, this Quake 1 like one went into early access... and stayed there for years. If this had just come out when Neo boomer shooters were fresh it might have been recieved better. I would even say its good, but it has issues and wasn't worth the years of wait, especially since other Q1 likes have been better. The gunplay is solid, and the level architecture is pretty varied and detailed for a quake 1 like game. The secondary functions and artifacts do give you a fair few options in combat. The levels are also a lot larger than your average boomer shooter, which is also a double edges sword since it makes backtracking for supplies or secrets really tedious. As for the negatives, well some levels are really stingy on resources, occasionally feeling like a survival horror. The boss fights just plain suck. Then there's the music... I get some people like more atmospheric music in boomer shooters like Q1, this soundtrack is just plain boring and puts me to sleep. Most of the story is told through cryptic word salid scrolls that you have to hunt down, and the "twist" at the end you can see coming a mile away. The gate power ups are rather annoying, as you are forced to use them to progress and run out at the worst time due to how strict they are. And then there's the complete lack of a map which makes the previously mentioned backtracking even worse. And there is cut content that was promised in EA, such as multiplayer. While I couldn't care less about it (lets face it, most people don't buy boomer shooters for MP) I can understand why people would be pissed off after promised content was cut AFTER they got their early access money. Really, the game has more good than bad, but for a just fairly good game, the time for it to come out has long passed and other boomer shooters have done it better.
One of the many Indie shooters that went through early access hell and now that it's finally fully out, it's good, but rather dissapointing after how much it had been hyped. While I get that the whole thing is satire of soviet communism, the aggresive brown color pallete gets old and repatative quick. Environements are all over the place. Some are well detailed and have a descent level of interactivity, others are empty and confusing (also featuring multiple sewer levels. yay.) This means that, while there are some high highs, there are a fair amount of seriously low lows. The game can also be rather punishing at times because of how stingy it is on resources. This is a boomer shooter, not a survival horror. Most of the game will be relying on the shotgun and grenades, because most of the other weapons barely get any ammo. And the first episode is extra stingy on health. There's also no story as to what is going on. While boomer shooters aren't known for story telling, they usually at least clue you in as to what's happening. Not this one. I'm not asking for a cutscene heavy movie game (and honestly those have their own problems) but I would at least like to know what I'm working towards. On the plus side, there are a good amount of enemies. Some of which have some pretty crazy designs and quirks to them. There are also some interesting and unexpected boss fights. On the whole ,the game is alright but it should have come out years ago. now there are better quake 1 style games out, and I would reccomend getting and playing through those before picking this one up. Otherwise wait for a sale.
I will start by saying I feel the original was better, but for those that were put off by the archaic design and visuals of the original, should consider giving it a try. It strikes a good balance of being faithful to the original while modernizing it and adding new stuff. Much like the original Resident evil remake. The new visuals are pretty good, and the station actually looks livable now. There story was expanded some by a longer and more deailed into, plus a bunch of new audio logs. The cyberspace sections are much better and play more like a descent clone (the original was like that as well but far more janky). Difficulty is diveded into 4 sections with 3 levels each, giving the player a lot of options in how hard or easy they want certain aspcets. Something I wish more games would do. Now for the bad. They added a new currency system based on taking all the random and non essentail objects in the world and taking them to a recycler to gain credits used to buy more health/ammo or more importantly, weapon mods. The problem is the fact that the limited inventory and there being only 1 recycle station per floor (often in really out of the way places) means a lot of ferrying items and slowing an already slow paced game to a crawl at times. The sound track also is inferior. Not that its bad per say, but outside of combat, a lot of time you are sitting in silence, or barely audible ambiences. Im also not to fond of the final boss. While it still takes place in cyberspace, it's now on foot instead of flying. Its also much longer and if you die you have to start the entire thing over. Its different for sure, but not better. Lastly while the expanded story is nice, it also comes with some odd retcons, as well as SHODANS god complex (while always hammy) is taken to the point of being marvel-esc comical and hard to take seriously. All that said its good remake but a flawed one. I personally prefer the orginal (especially the remaster) but the remake is worth picking up
I don't care for parkour and usually hat it in video games. So for me to say its good is saying something. The visual style is great and still holds up pretty well. Probably the last time EA actually had any artistic vision. The parkour is pretty solid, though it does hiccup from time to time, such as not grabbing ledges or sending you in unintend directions. But the sense and use of momentum The story is.. okay. predictable but it does its job to keep you going. The biggest problem is the combat. While not the main focus, its not good. Melee combat is worthless as punches do hardly anythig and are easily countered. The best thing to do is use slowmo to steal a gun and shoot your way out when you have to fight. Not that shooting is particularly good either, thanks to the inablity to reload and the fact that enemies are spongy and don't react to getting shot. But its not too much of an issue just to get through the game on normal. The other big problem is its lack of content. Its only about 5 hours long and doesn't offer much replay value apart from the time trial mode. Still, worth picking up at this price and even better on sale. It's a shame that instead of adressing these issues and turning a good game into a great game with a proper sequel, they instead threw out everything that made the game unique in favor of chasing the open world fad with the extremely mediocre sequel, Catalyst.
I feel people were a little to harsh on this game because of the botched launch of both the original and the spacer's choice edition, combined with the fact that everyone was expecting fallout in space. It kinda is and kinda isn't. Its a semi open game that has things from fallout with some mass effect thrown in, with a touch of boringla- borderlands as well. The roleplaying aspects are good enough to give the player a variety of ways to tackle different situations, which is good. Thats what fallout is known for. Honestly the biggest problem with the game (apart from the usual bugs and perfomance issues that these type of games have) is the way the game fizzles out in the end. The last two areas are smaller and less interesting with dull sidequests, and the end game is short and easy. Then the game just.. ends. The one good thing about it is the rather meety epilogue that goes over a good chunk of the choices that are made, including the DLC. Speaking of which, the dlc isn't any better or worse than the rest of the game. its alright. Still, the game is good. Not great, but good. And certainly better than starfield and honestly, Fallout 4 as well.
While still flawed, its a solid improvement over the original. Unlike the first game, it stays in world war 1, up until the last 2 levels, the last of which is just a boss fight. So if you were baited into the original by the wolfenstein in ww1 setting, this game will actually give you that. Better yet, while the main charater will run his yap during story sequences, he doesn't constantly quip like Simon did. The writing is still pretty cheesy though. Also had less game breaking bugs that the first, so that's a plus. For its price, I do think its worth giving this game a chance, even if you were turned off by the original.
The first 5 levels of the game (first of which is more or less a cutscene) Is a budget wolfenstein in WW1, which is what got me interested in the game in the first place. After that, the game completely changes its setting by going underground and turns into a vampire themed painkiller. The problem is, it doesn't do either of them well and you will likely hate one of the two styles. Really felt like a bait and switch for those that were interested in the ww1 setting that the game presented itself as. Worse still, the writing is awful and the main character will not STFU with his constant one liner quipping and awful voice acting. Plus its also buggy. I would recommend skipping it and playing the prequel, Lost Company if you were interested in the setting, and just getting painkiller if you were interested in the second half.
After a bunch of bad 8 and 16 bit action platformers and that garbage 2003 game, we finally have a good, though not great Robocop game. Made by the same people that did terminator resistance, it plays more or less the same. Thankfully, this game also respects the source material pretty well. It does have issues though. Long load times, is fussy to start up and has performace issues. Probably could have used more time in developement but the end result is still a solid power fantasy. Here's hoping they do an Aliens game next.
This is another Quake 1 inspired boomer shooter in the sam vein as Dusk but not as good. The enviornments are fairly interesting. Thankfully that while there are a good amount of secrets to find and thankfully they avoided the trope of putting required switches and keys in really vague spots.. mostly. I also appreciate the amount of nods to other classics (One side area is litterally dust 1 from counter strike) the weapon upgrade system does allow for customization for your arsonal, though some of the weapons really fall off later in the game once the glowing hp spunge enemies start showing up. The Last few levels really turn into a slog because of the amount of tanky enemies they throw at you, but its still quite doable on normal difficulty. There are a few amount of bugs but nothing game breaking for the most part and the UI is kinda ugly. Could have also used a weapon wheel. The sound track is pretty head banging but it can get repetitive due to how long some of the levesl are and it really could have used a more dynamic soundtrack to slow down when exploring. Lastly, what little story the game his is a predictable guy gives up his humanity to get revenge on the demons trope and is pretty cringe. Dread Templar might have been helped by some more time in the oven, but is a pretty alright boomer shooter and a good first stop if you played all the great ones and want more.
The first half of the game is pretty fun. And I appreciate that this is a rare case of the game letting you play in both third and first person. However, the game starts falling apart in the second half. Enemies get really bullet spongy and the game refuses to give you ammo outside of missles which become very outclassed in the later stages. And having doors suddenly close behind you to block off a retreat or let you scavange any left over ammo just adds to the frustration. This was probably to pad out its short length. The game is also very unstable. Random frame rate drops and crashes, though infrequent, can happen at any time. The audio for voices also cuts out, making it impossible to follow what little story the game has. Many games suffered during the transition from "2.5D" boomer shooters to full 3D, and while some games like quake 1 and 2 or half life made it out fine, this is not one of them and is best left forgotten.
