I really enjoy retro shooters, and every time and then, I boot up Duke Nukem, Blood, Doom, even Rise of the Triad, for a quick playthrough. So I was really excited to see a retro styled game promising similar action as those games. Unfortunately even though it's not a bad game, I will continue playing the old titles, at least until Iron Maiden gets released. First, the style choice kinda feels odd to me. Aesthetically it really reminds me the crappiest of FPS games of the early to mid 90s, like Pumkinhead or Depth Dwellers with really tight corridors, beefy pixels and low detailed enemies. Not a fan, but you can get used to it. Gameplay-wise it's decent but feels restricted at least up to the part I got (the boss of the first act). It just doesn't feel as smooth and satisfying as Doom, nor as complex and interesting to explore as Duke Nukem 3D. Again feels like those weird Wolfenstein clones we got when the FPS genre was in it's infancy. Action for me just doesn't feel right, and most enemies so far are just not that fun to deal with. The most (someone might say only) interesting part of the game is the RPG mechanics but don't expect anything deep. After every level you clear (which consists of 3-5 different areas), you return to your workshop where you can spend points you earned to upgrade your weapons, raise your stats and unlock specialties (becoming faster, better with a shotgun, etc). Maybe if I give it a bit more time it would actually felt like those mattered, but nothing during the first act felt like I needed to get stronger to progress. Until the first boss, where the kinda restrictive movement of your character became extremely apparent. With no sprint, no jump and not any defensive maneuver to pull out other than just strafe and hope for the best, it's just wasn't that fun of a fight. I know I sound very negative about the game, but there is fun to be had.. but unless you played them to death I would stick with the classics.
I start writing this review by admitting I am a huge fan of this game and the Riddick franchise in particular. So to some my words may seem like I'm over-glorifying a game that I like from back then, but the original title (Escape from Butcher Bay) is indeed that good. It took a promising character from a mediocre movie (Chronicles of Riddick) and put him into a game that is far superior to the films in every way. Even though it feels a bit clumsy at times, something a lot of first person games are guilty of, still every aspect of the game works. It combines stealth, fast paced action, rpg elements, it gives you multiple ways to move forward, it looks and sounds great. I played it half a dozen times (even more if I combine the original Xbox version) and I still discover new things to do and different ways to tackle each area. For me Escape from Butcher Bay nears perfection giving us a cinematic experience that even now not many games of the genre manage to achieve and a perfect example that a movie-licensed game can be not just as good but even better than the source material. So if I consider the game almost perfect, why not giving it the full 5 star treatment? Well, that's because that Escape from Butcher Bay is the main game of this package. Yeah, the bonus addition to Dark Athena overshadowed the main dish and not only that it only emphasized the faults of the sequel of the first title. Dark Athena fails in almost every aspect of what made the first one amazing. The plot is not that intriguing, the pitch-perfect balancing between stealth, action and rpg elements is thrown out of the window for a huge part of the game, making the game feel most times like a mediocre FPS. If you are going to buy this game, only buy it considering the Escape for Butcher Bay the main attraction and Assault on Dark Athena just a decent expansion pack. If you just play the second one you will find nothing to blow you away.
I have to be honest with you guys. I preordered the game just because of my nostalgia and the deep love I have for Apogee. Back then booting a game up and hearing that magical Apogee fanfare at the intro was almost a guarantee that the next few hours were going to be amazing. Even when seeing the first gameplay videos of Bombshell and not seeing any of that magic of the past in them, I still convinced myself that the final product was going to blow me away. And finally the game was released... and it's nothing to write home about. If Apogee's name wasn't slapped on the front cover, we would just talk about a decent generic isometric shooter and nothing more, the ones that popped up on GOG or Steam and you only consider buying on each Summer Sale for a fraction of the initial price. The story is nothing to write home about, just the typical alien invasion that only our main protagonist can prevent. But this is only a minor issue, after all even Duke Nukem didn't have a story to show besides "they stole our babes" angle. But that's when you have to ensure that your title shines in the other departments. And unfortunately with Bombshell they dropped the ball there as well. For starters, the main protagonist is bland almost silent heroine, a far cry of what Duke Nukem was back in the day. No bad ass one liners, no funny remarks, no interactions with the environment, nothing. Bombshell is as expressive as a slab of concrete and almost as silent. You would expect that this is the one aspect that Apogee would try and get right, but unfortunately no, it seems like they didn't try at all. Secondly, the levels are extremely bland and repetitive, despite the used engine being capable of far better visuals. I'm not talking about the texture or lighting quality, but the level design and the aesthetics of each area. Even though it starts promising, with a big shootout at the White House, soon after you are teleported into the alien world where everything consists of geometrical shapes, making it look like they used a simple level editor to create the levels instead of putting real effort in creating imaginative worlds. There are some exceptions here and there, but none of them will stick in your memory after finishing the game. I mean everyone who ever played Duke Nukem 3D still remembers the first episode by heart, room by room, but here the only thing I remember is basically the lighting color in each level. So why don't I put a single star on the game and call it a day? Because the mechanics are decent and killing aliens is fun for the most part, especially after unlocking the bigger guns. There is an upgrade system that at least gives you a reason to complete each level in the best of your abilities to unlock better gear and upgrades. Well... that's about it, to be honest. Solid mechanics in a rather bland package. Do I regret buying the game full price? Not really, I bought way worse titles and I really want to see Apogee becoming a reputable studio once again, creating amazing games and giving me the same chills every time I hear that fanfare at the intro. Buy it when the price drops.
