They could not help it. They had to pick a deliberately offensive, sexist and inadeqaute character like Larry, and make him nicer, more correct, more likable, more "aware" and, heck, they even made him taller and with better hair, so nobody gets offended. It's not a terrible game, it's just not Larry. Instead we got some look-a-like that went through the preachy SJW filter and became flavourless and boring.
...they could not make it worse, they do this. DRMd always online content in the temple of no-DRM stuff. Sacrilegious. What a year, guys, what a year.
Just a few hours into it, and I've experienced a mix of delight and frustration, with some really annoying moments. PROs: It's simple, fun, energetic and has the vibe of the early FPS of the early 90s. CONs: Vibe is the only thing it has inherited from those games. Mainly because: - Despite what young gamers are led to believe, running and firing guns was not all those games were about. There was good level design, a diversity of situations, some puzzles and some strategy in it. Generally speaking, it was not so arcade-y as you imagine, except for maybe the very first titles like Catacomb Abyss, Wolfenstein 3D or Planet Strike. And those games have not aged well: they were a shock back them because of novelty, but now they feel terribly boring after a few minutes. No Doom, Heretic, Hexen or Duke Nukem 3D here, those games used a lot of creativity and level design work that seems lost here. - If this game really aims at replicating the feel of those games, it must feature in-level saves and quicksaves. They were not there to damp challenge, they were there to skip frustrating backtracking and repetition, aside the fact you could have dinner, visit the loo, pork the wife, avoid a rant of your boss or sleep without losing progression. Without this BASIC FEATURE ALL 90s FPS HAD, and the fact that difficulty is kinda uneven, it feels like one of those hardcore platforms that masochistic kids like to grind for hours these days, but certainly not like any 90s game, easy or hard. - Performance is kinda subpar. It is not well optimized and uses a lot of resources. This is the only accurate simulation of my first runs with Doom, when I tried it (I should say "dragged it") in a PC 386 16Mhz with 2Mb RAM. Overall, not a bad game, but they need to address these issues. Good for a few runs, but not a classic -nor a good copy of the classics- at all.
I remember the first time I saw this, I was at a friend's house, and he was one of the first fortunate dudes I knew to have a 80386 PC and a VGA color monitor. I had never seen something like this, so complex and easy to use thanks to the SCUMM mouse interface (the command based Sierra adventures were rare to see in my country, and demanded a good level in English). This was translated to Spanish and gorgeous. My brother and I got a copy and enjoyed a lot playing it in awful CGA tones of grey (It was the CGA/EGA version with 4/16 colors, the 256 VGA version in GOG was released later in CD), and internal speaker beep sounds. We didn't even have a hard disk, so we played it entirely from floppy disks... I only give it 4 stars because: 1) It lacks the CGA/EGA version I got to love, if uglier, and 2) puzzles are clever and fun, but there are difficult fight/run arcade-ish sections that always gave us a hard time and makes it a little less enjoyable. All in all, a jewel and a milestone in the story of point-and-click adventures. Lucasfilm/Lucasarts just made it even better later.
Not for everyone, and obviously without the brilliancy of games like the Total War titles, these games were and still are a jewel for geeks like me, more interested in deepness, thoughtful decisions and historical accuracy (dreadfully lacking in the unmoded, vanilla Rome Total War), than on flashy graphics or thrilling action. It's very limited in scope, including just a handful of historical battles, but it does so with real depth, and it has quite replay value. You will love it if you like paused games and ancient History. If not, play some RTS instead. I was very happy when I saw this finally in GOG.
...For GOG to release Worms Armageddon, which is the peak of the series, then all repeating itself with less and less options and fun. Trying to push 3D into a game with mechanics so well suited to 2D gameplay, is just making it clumsy and too demanding to be fun.
