This game could have been a near-perfect metroidvania... but it's souls-like elements really ruin the charm... why? The save points are way too far away and if you fail on a body run you may lose hours of work... this may be good for kids who have 100 hours to play a game, but this level of frustration isn't acceptable for someone who values their time. The combat is awesome... the world is one of the most interesting I've ever seen... but I hate Dark Souls and this game tries too hard to copy it's most frustrating and punishing elements. If there were a mod to keep geo (for the latest version), I make keep playing... but I'm quitting after 6 hours.
The mood is spot on and there seems to be something here, but in it's current state, I keep getting bored. The weapons are cool, the movement feels OK, and the inventory/journal system/map all work well. So, let's get to the rest. The early enemies are just not terribly fun to fight. The hordes of zombies mostly just get in the way, the skeletons are easy, and the other creatures don't seem to be lethal enough to build any tension. They are at least somewhat fun to fight (unlike the zombies). This is not an RPG. This is an old-school FPS with a journal, quests, and an inventory. It's more like Strife than Dark Messiah of Might and Magic or Deus Ex. I do like how the city is the hub where you get quests and move to new areas that feel like old FPS levels. You don't enter "E1M2" or whatever, so that is at least cool. The puzzles are the boring, "match 3 rune symbols" nonsense that I am completely sick of. Every game does them... they aren't fun... and they don't require any real problem solving. The graphic style is retro pixel... but somehow still bright and stylized. It almost looks like they used stylized assets and ran the materials or textures through an algorithm that pixelated them. It's a weird mix of dark, retro, but still cartoony in a way. It's kinda cool, but I think I would have preferred darker. I was streaming this and a viewer said, "what a sausage fest." I didn't see any living women in my 3 hours of play. Maybe they show up later... but all the townsfolk I saw were men. The zombies were men... etc. I could hear women crying behind walls... and there were dead women in the streets. The story starts with a dead woman and her daughter... you're the gruff male who adopts the girl (I am also getting over this boring trope of a hero dad figure and a dead mom). Anyway, it seems you're looking for her, but I didn't care much about the plot. Anyway, it's average and I wish I liked it more. At least you can pet the dog. At least you can pet the dog.
Dusk took me by surprise despite the fact that I was following it's development. I thought, "this looks like it might be an OK homage." I didn't expect a masterpiece, but that's what I got. The action is more reminiscent of Doom 2 and Blood than Quake (imo)... meaning that it's very fast and insane. The enemies are varied and fun... the level design also got better and better and better. At first, it's standard fare retro FPS. By the end, I'm flying through the air in some sort of M.C. Escher puzzle. The weapons are a mix of old ideas and new. If you have a favorite weapon from an old FPS, there's probably a version of it here. My personal favorite was the crossbow; line up a shot and take down all the enemies in a line. Andrew Hulshult's soundtrack is a modern take on the chuggy metal riffs from 90s FPS, but this time with real instruments. I think the music crafted for some of the more subtle moments... horroresque (is that a word?) organs and eerie synths... before the guitars kick in. One last thing, be sure to play all the way to the end. The boss battle is classic. ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED.
This is easily the best looking throwback fps, but it's much more than that. Some of the levels remind me of Romeros work... Then later I felt like I was in an American McGee map. You get hints of the past while experiencing something new and different. They really have their own style. Several maps are more vertical than I'm used to and that was a very welcome change. There have been plenty of comparisons to Heretic and Hexen and I can see that in the style and setting. So, I replayed both of those games. Amid Evil is a longer game with way more variety, better weapons, better bosses; it's just bigger, better, & more insane in about every way. It's hard to beat the classics, but they have. I'll leave you to experience the rest on your own. If you like fast, retro, fps... BUY THIS GAME.
