I was hoping to play Heretic / Hexen with wide screen support, mouse look, and a crosshair like the updated edition of Rise of the Triad and Blood. Sadly at first this was a major let down. They tried to trick me into thinking it was good because the first levels of both Heretic and Hexen were almost the same as the classics. So I kept playing Heretic and by the second level they started to change things and by the third level I was in full blown rage for how they butchered this classic. They completely redesigned the third level (and not for the better). It looks like a bad amateur mod of Heretic, nothing even close to greatness of the original. They also rebalanced the weapons and changed there ammo caps! Why are they trying so hard to take a near perfect game and ruin it? I was almost ready to uninstall this steaming pile of garbage but I did some research and found the hidden options to revert the game back to it original glory (Single Player - Level Select - Game Modifiers). They couldn't just put these 'Options' in the 'Options' menu. I guess they had to hide them, otherwise no one would play their horrible vision of the classic. Still going to give it 3 stars for the hideous remake of the classic levels and the uninspired new episodes that Nightdive keep curning out. I guess if you don't like ZDoom OR can't handle a keyboard and mouse you might like this, but beyond that their is no real new value here. Luckly I got it for free.
The overall gameplay was fun (but repetitive) once you've found more weapons and upgrades, but for the first half of the game I was not enjoying the combat much. Also combat and exploration was dominated by animated interactions and glory kills which took control away from the player. Then all the platforming, challenges, upgrading and poor level layout just pulled the gameplay down. I didn't feel like I was playing a shooter any more, It felt more like an RPG, which I don't have a problem playing but when I play a shooter I want it to feel like a shooter. The story is a major fail for me. The doom slayer (the guy in this game) is not the doom marine (the guy from all other doom game before this). Also their story never pulled me in, just keep killing things and do what you are told and they'll give you some more of the story. It felt like you were there in the world while the creators poorly told a story happening around you, you were not driving the story forward in any way. The story also didn't make sense most of the time and I when I went back to try and figure it out it made even less sense. In the end, not having the doom guy being the last human survivor who puts his life and soul on the line to fight evil and stop the invasion, for me destroy the entire point of the story. It just felt like there was no sacrifice, tension or consequences in this so called 'DOOM'. So in the end Doom (2016) was a good looking game that had a few high moments in killing demons but was brought down by the endless jumping, upgrading, challenges, and failure at creating a good story to wrap around the Doom franchise.
If you're going to make a game with low-res graphics, poor level design and uninspired weapons, you'd better have a good story to keep the players wanting to play more. I've played many games where the game play wasn't that great, but I kept playing because I wanted to find out where the story was going. This is NOT one of those games. Pros: Main Menu looked nice. Enemy sprites were well animated. Okays: Music was okay but can't carry a game (good music is very subjective). Retro graphics options were interesting but not needed. Episode / Act / Level selection system was not needed (could have been linear). What's up with the workshop? (could have been a menu between levels). Cons: Level design had little flow or logic. Needed a better map. Ranged weapons all felt the same (click, click, click and things died). Melee weapons were very clunky to use. Need to hold attack key for alternate attacks. Need to buy spells (should get them like weapons). Texture color depth made everything blah. No motivation due to lack of story at beginning. Very weak story at end of first episode (I gave up soon after that). No in level saves (levels were short, but you need to play many levels before it saved). I was excited when all these retro styled games started coming out. I'd gotten bored with the new game design style these days, but this game just didn't draw me in, and I gave up on it after the first act of the second episode. I guess I'll just have to research future games a bit more before I just jump in and start playing.
The fast-paced action in Amid Evil does not make up for the fact that there is no story, poor level flow, blah enemy design, boring bosses and out-of-place music. For me this is another failure in the retro styled game category. Pros: Fast paced action Okays: Mouse control out of the box was unusable (for me). No way to turn off always run. Save anywhere (did not work right while saving on some platforms). The episode selection HUB was not needed. Cons: Level lighting very harsh and hurt my eyes. Gritty pixel effects also harsh (turning the texture quality to lowest helped a little). Font hard to read (especially against the glowing in-game wall writing). Cryptic messages in-game were mostly useless (but some were helpful clues). Alt attack ready effect was too much (took up a large portion of the screen). Quake 1 like design (run, shoot, switch, repeat, hope you find the exit). They couldn't decide if the game was a platformer or a shooter. The 7th episode caused headache, not fun, poor enemy design. No design consistency (modern level design, quake look enemies, doom like sprite pickups). Enemies in general were blah. Boss battles averaged about a minute (not enough time to be memorable). Music did not fit the action (didn't even notice it till the second episode). No story (you are a hero, and you kill things) It was playable, but by the 4th episode I just wanted it to end. I pushed through and my heart fell when the 7th episode was revealed. Hoping it was just one level (like quake 1) I jumped in and after the first level of the last episode I quit and played Quake 2 Enhanced. You can still buy old games and new games. These retro styled games seem to be halfway between and failed on both counts.
Some have said this was the first game to start the retro styled game craze, and I'd also like to call it the worst of the bunch. Not only is the combat boring, but the story telling was nonexistent and the level design was just lazy. There are better game out there, so I'd keep looking. Pros: Save anywhere (and quit anywhere luckily) Cons: Bad enemy design (low quality, poorly animated, boring to fight). Blah level design (everyday stuff we've seen before, no real flow). Poor feeling mouse control. Movable objects killed the only thing going for the game, the fast pace. I just don't understand what people see in the music (did nothing for me). No hands holding the weapons was just disorienting. What the hell does the flip do? (I looked it up and I'm still not quite sure). The same weapons we've seen a million times before, but they felt weak. Story? Might be the same as blood, but there is no story telling that I noticed. The help dialog pop-ups in-game don't show the current key-bindings. I played Dusk for about an hour, but just couldn't get into it. I died on about the 5th level and thought to myself: I could try again, or I could do something fun. I quit and started a different game. I've said it before and will say it again, story can drive people to keep playing a poor game, but Dusk just reused the story from Blood (I think, but I had to read between the line to figure out what was going on). The setting and levels seemed to be the same as Blood, but poorly done, so why not just play Blood? PS: Just after starting the game, I already had a bad feeling. At first, I thought I was watching an opening cinematic that would give out some story, but it just kept rotation around a dead guy. So, I pressed the escape key, but nothing. Then I press the space bar, and again nothing. Then I click the mouse button and then the menu came up! What ever happened to press any key to continue.
Great graphic style, engaging (and memorable) main story and quests, likable NPCs, fluid combat, customizable characters, and more loot than you know what to do with. That above list is what made KoA my favorite game in its class, which also happens to be everything that Skyrim was missing. Now I can get it with all the expansions (which at the time I bought the original were removed from Origin for purchase) plus a new expansion, plus no internet requirement. What is not to like? No internet requirement would have been enough for me to re-purchase this game (that's why I use GOG!).
