This game feels like what would happen if Quake, Turok and Daikatana had a lovechild. The two downsides are sometimes a little slidy controls when the player wants to precision jump to a secret or shortcut etc. and the game doesn't have unlimited saves. There are a few scarcely scattered checkpoints throughout the world and there also are items that let the player set a quicksave point. (update: Don't know if it's been patched in later but the options menu does offer unlimited saves) Enemy designs, gameplay, secrets, sound ... all super fun.
Despite departing from Quake's original style and setting the series onto the path of the Strogg instead of Lovecraftian, eldtritch horrors this is a landmark in Quakes history. It's also a testimony for how great id were at creating FPS games. All the anniversary enhancements make this a delight to play even in 2025. Nightdive prove that they are fantastic at remastering games in a way that the are modern but still look in our memory. The extra episodes are the cherry on the icing of the cake. I can't help but think that good game and level design go way longer than flashy graphics. MachineGames' extra episode to me just makes me wonder what Duke would have been like if 3DR would have had faith in their design instead of the newest tech. We will never know. But we can play this.
So I've only played the game now for the first time. I skipped it back in 2007 because of the lame demo. And yes - despite knowing the 'twist' mid-game. Just in case I am going to say for everybody who really doesn't know anything about it yet - the short version without spoilers is this: The game is allright. The controls and the sounddesign feel like Doom 3 but it has way more action. If you can live with the storytelling of being with other AI marines telling you to pick up the pace or escort someone then this game is for you. The second half is where it really picks up and feels MUCH closer to Quake 2. And don't worry - escort mission character can't die or get stuck. It's just story advancement. The music is more cinematic but rather bland and doesn't always fit. The sound effects sound very close to Doom 3 as in having a lot of high pitch metallic sounds and lacking the powerful bass. On the other hand it looks really good for a game of the time and the second half mostly makes up for the first half as it brings back the Quake 2 feeling. !!! Spoilers from here on out !!! What the hell, Raven Software? I know where you're coming from making the player feel slow and more tactical without the stroggification but it doesn't really work for me. The first half feels like a generic military shooter on an alie planet. That's it. This is supposed to be a Q2 sequel. The player didn't have any bio ahancements there either and could still run as fast. The first part just feels like a different game to me. Also I hate that advancing the level is done by constant "come here!", "pick up the pace" or "move it marine!" intercom messages. It feels more hurried and doesn't give so much incentive to explore but just keep on rushing. Technically it's a good game, though. As mentioned above - the second half mostly makes up for the slow first one.
This game is an odd link between modern games and the cruelest of the early graphic adventures. It features an idea that was groundbreaking at the time: Replayability in an adventure game. You can play the game in different ways and experience different results. This offers an astoundingly lot of fun to try different approaches. In the same way as adventures from the era you can miss vital clues from an earlier part of the game that canot be retrieved later on. See them or miss them. And some are really easy to miss. Missing these can make later parts of the game brutally difficult. Especially as adventures still incorporated means to actually fail the game. Indy is a huge step up here as you can't block your way 'entirely' any more. You can navigate yourself into extremely difficult spots but luckily you can't block your progress completely, any more. What this means for the game is: If you actually haven't played it and aren't using a walkthrough, then finding and applying super rare clues can feel extremely rewarding. It also means that the game can feel very, very frustrating because it hasn't found the best ballance between challange and difficulty yet. Especially in the "action" sequences (brawling nazis in castle Brunwald). ScummVM with quicksaves and fast save states helps a lot. And there is no shame in using a walkthrough for the most weird puzzles. 90% of the game hit the right ballance, though. And also show a clear foundation to what the following adventures would (arguably) perfect later on.
TL;DR: It's fast, lourd and has a good size for the price. The controls are tight and remind a lot of the Build Engine games - especially Blood. If you can live with tight corridor shooters, dark labynrinth level layouts, sometimes chaotic (not in the good sense) music and at times uneven ballancing you get a lot of really good things in all the remaining regards. Super fast fun and a retro style that actually works! The Long version Like: The game is fast paced in a fun way. It has hordes of very varied enemies also in a good way. A lot of designs are tongue in cheek references to popular games from the era as well as movies. The graphic design is awesome and in this case it's one of the rare ocasions where the filters for retro look (like C64 pallete and pixelation, distortion etc.) actually WORK. The game arguably looks even a little better in the older, grimey C64 advanced colour palette look with 2x pixel size. Guns are in a wide variety and upgradeable in a way that invites replay. The episodes are in a wide range of styles as the game doesn't bother with a deep story. The look and feel is pretty spot on like the good games from the era it tries to resemble (~ 1990 - 1996). Sound FX sound super fat and add a lot of fun to the gunplay. It also has a few RPG elements that invite exploration. Like not so much: The game often is SUPER dark and your light source works sort of like in Doom3 - light or guns. Switching is fast but it is still annoying. You'd love to see more of the very nice looking envrionments, actually but most levels are super dark. Destructible light sources don't help, either. Levels are mostly super tight, low ceiling corridor figts. The fun larger areas are rare and oftentimes deco items (albeit destructible) are more in the way of the action than just good art. Level layouts are very labyrinth-y and if you stry from the level flow you get lost easily. No fullscreen automap. Music is sometimes good, sometimes merely chaotic and annoying.
Alien Breed was one of THE top-down shooters during the Amiga era and "Tower Assault" is arguably the best in the whole series. For the first time it wasn't strictly levels based but let the player chose the path through the stages themselves by branching out into two or more exits in some stages. This can result in shortcuts but also in much tougher enemies before aquiring better weapons. Ultimately all ways progress the game so there's no real free exploration. Merely longer or shorter routes. The game has to be played several times to check out the best options for the own playstyle. It has two player coop gameplay as well which makes shooting enemies easier but also shortens supplies as the credits to level up throughout the game are not doubled. So it doesn't really make the game easier but more just different. The controls feel tight and work pretty flawless. Other than the first two games Tower Assault also has a retreat option that lets you shoot in one direction while walking backwards away from danger. For all the good things in the game it is tough as f*ck, though. And not just for the right reasons unfortunately. As is tradition in games from the days - gamedesign wasn't always made to be able to succeed all the time. You can play yourself into a corner and screw up your whole progress: The game uses keycard mechanics in the later levels which means that you have to have keys to open doors. If you run out of keys doors can be shot open but it takes a LOT of ammunition and time in which you are overrun by enemies. Ammunition is NOT infinite so you will also have to keep track of it or buy new one if you are lucky enough to have credits and be close to a terminal. Worst of all some levels have an auto destruct mechanic in which you are required to reach the exit through a maze in a very short time. Otherwise: GameOver! These three mechanics should be your make or brake factors for deciding to buy. So: be aware of Amiga game difficulty before buying. ;)
In general it's a pretty good game with ups and downs. In its core it's a wlking sim/adventure with a few searching and combination puzzles. Otherwise it's mostly an atmospheric game with a really wicked art direction. At best it's mindblowingly beautiful to look at and at worst it's a glitchfest borderlining to an arthouse/AKIRA aesthetic. Mostly it's a story game that unfolds while uncovering more and more of the environemt. And that's where the ups and downs come into play - while some parts work very well others are just too much. The game has a lot of very voluntary glitch effects. Sometimes so many and so much that it gets difficult to make out the environments. The story is interesting but ultimately nothing too new if you are familiar with other games or movies of the genre. I won't spoil anything because I think the game is very much worth playing. I had just ultimately hoped for a more grounded and less esotheric experience. I could have also lived with much more sparsely placed glitch effects. They are so overused at times that it makes you want to pull the plug on all the tech in the world. Which may be what the designers intended but it still doesn't make for an overall pleasant experience in the long run. Rutger Hauer is another one of the selling points of the game. At least marketing wise. His performance varies greatly. At times it seems he was not given enough direction about what the character goes through at the moment and it makes you focus more on his performance than the story in the game. Then again - it's Rutger Hauer. ;) All in all very worthwile but unfortunately not as coherent and gripping as Layers of Fear was. And while much complexer in its presentation and visual effects unfortunately also less imaginative.
