For the first time in history, Christmas is celebrated on September 29, get this gem - now! Dark ambience, sweet bloody efficient skills, clunky controls - Windows compatible once more – 10% off - perfect!
Nice short take on the Metroidvania style. Completed 100% within 3.5 hours and the map design while quite simple was interesting to navigate. There are a few hidden rooms here and here but not enough to satisfy explorers. No health regeneration from enemies - but plenty of save points to regenerate hit points. Played with keyboard which allows you to remap controls but they always felt wrong / in the way for me (had to remap a few keys couple times) – they felt awkward in particular when performing special moves. Bosses can be frustrating -if- you rush them headlessly (I had to restart one of them in particular quite a few times) but all of them are actually quite easy in retrospect - the last boss in particular felt quite underwhelming seeing that some previous bosses were way harder. The ending is not particularly special but its a nice and simple easily approachable game regardless - it would have been fun to get deeped levels seeing the low level of complexity of the game mechanics and the number of weapons (a main gun and a missile launcher - both with upgraded specs). Replayability is relatively low seeing that the map is quite simple. Maybe if you want to unlock challenges (complete the game without HP pickups or in less than X amount of time etc.) it might worth a replay but as it is the reason to replay for me will be to use a different control scheme (EG. Controller or Steam Deck). Quite happy that this game ended up on GOG! For roughly 5$ - I give this game 4.5/5 - definitively no regrets! Note to developers: The mechanic to jump out of the suit should have been adjusted so that users dont enter it right away if they touch it right after exiting it. Also, while the art is simpler to generate and it reduces costs, only using sets of colors instead of full colors was somewhat of a detriment to the game in my opinion.
Nice ambiance and visuals! Played 40+ hours so far (without ever meeting Dex | Johnny Silverhand) without a single crash! Game engine is fantastic and options can be changed on the fly and the changes take effect immediately. Not playable on minimum specs – had to resort to third party tool to disable further options to be playable – Can lower resolution in Windowed mode to reach 50+ fps to enjoy the game. Many important/useful features and intricacies of the game are not disclosed to the player. Bugs with a list going on and on: - Very first NPC met after exiting the garage during Nomad intro was T-posing – a bad start… - Jumping on rocks where the kid using a “kite” in the Nomad intro can glitch out and you get teleported (as when going too far on map). - Some highlighted objects cannot be picked up. - Jackie going through elevator door during intro. - Initially (now fixed) couldn't use first gen CPU without AVX instructions to play past the intro. - Jackie appearing in front of me in sit position while on the phone. - Physics collision going crazy. - Vehicles hitting objects on side of roads. - Vehicle blowing their horn while you are peacefully walking on the sideways. - Dying from small jumping after going on roofs / some places you can jump to cannot be climbed back from… even with double jump (and mantis blades are not like in the first trailers). - Police system completely broken. - Mission failing to register / car to drop bodies into going away. - Sudden collision and being sling shot 1 km away on the map… + Dozens of other misc. glitches so far – some of which required reloading a previous game to fix. Dialogs options have almost no impact, only flavor. Killing vs. sparing enemies make no difference other than Street Cred gained. Noticed that Gorilla Arms don't help opening doors unlike suggested in trailers. Lot of features in the trailers either not present or partially or poorly implemented so in retrospect the trailers were quite misleading.
This was mostly an engine tech showcase that attempted to present all that the engine could do - be it by its environments and lighting effects or different controls schemes with vehicles. Game does everything OK overall. Great graphics and lasts quite a few hours, with quick load times from SSD and widescreen support so it can shine (even without mods) with its textures that -mostly- hold up to this day overall. But ultimately performance remains poor for such an old game and basically the original experience from release can be experienced on recent hardware at higher resolutions. Gorgeous especially at 4K with everything maxed out (hitting anything from 24 and generally between to 45- 64 FPS up to 90 FPS max. 1440p gets you better FPS but barely - with 70 FPS easily reached on an AMD 5700XT. However game wasn’t memorable; I barely recalled moments from it except the gameplay mechanics and mostly the beginning and end of the game. Issues: Lost over an hour on a map to end up finding that there was a bug not triggering an event - reported by others as well - requiring to restart the whole level. Got to love that I was able to kill a boss slightly after getting the issue above - by merely hitting him over and over with my fists (without Strength) without getting hit a single time. That part made my day! In retrospective maps were way too big in particular in the jungle - but interestingly the scale of the map don’t appear to impact game performance. To enjoy, play easier modes if you never played; at hard difficulty level the action felt quite oppressive at times and AI gets randomly quite deadly. I had to cheese some section (sometime out of boredom) so the pace of the game might not be for everyone. Tip: Had graphics issues and had to ALT-TAB a few times to return to the game with a fluid screen (as if there was an alternative way the game renders the visuals or problematic effects that otherwise made the screen content lag – all with the same FPS).
Game feels more like the original Wolfenstein 3D than the other games in its level design and ambiance with better textures and performance than “Wolfenstein: The New Order”! - Still the same texture popping issue as "New Order" even after creating the required folders under “C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\MachineGames\Wolfenstein The Old Blood” - at least it’s less noticeable. - Fun on lower difficulties but having played on “I am Death incarnate!” (Hard – 4th difficulty), the very first section felt too hard (length of combat) for an intro and was followed by a section with a “puzzle” which felt quite odd for a game introduction. - Some sections are quite harsh (stealth wise in particular) and I will forever be irritated to hear “Alarm” ever again! Also, it felt like cheesing through some sections was encouraged or even required. The checkpoint system feels frustrating like in “New Order” but the Quick Load works almost instantly after death – which wasn’t the case in the previous game. - Unintuitive game configuration menu (need to scroll back up to Apply) and game doesn’t keep binding if you remove the original keybind (adding works) by example adding CTRL to C for crouch will save but replacing it with CTRL won't. These problems weren’t present in the previous game. - Additionally there are -SIX- small clips/ screens at start up that cannot be skipped every time you want to play: A video clip for the Publisher, a clip for the Developer, one for the game engine, followed by a corporate/copyright screen, then 2 warning screens – the second of which you need to press ENTER to proceed - then another ENTER, then select a profile then ENTER to proceed – then you are at the main menu! It feels bad just describing it here... Recommended to play something quite different from “New Order” yet that fits properly as a prequel. I remembered most of the section of the game vs. New Order after playing after a few years P.S. I liked the first antagonist; sorry Greta!!!
Great action shooter incorporating basic cover and stealth. There are a lot of interesting game elements not found in other games at the time. Many sub-sections (due to the way chapters follow each other in the story) leading you to lose your current guns and knives pretty often so unlocking perks takes planned efforts (perks add up in between deaths though). Played on PS4 & PC with ATI Radeon HD 5770 X2 -> NVIDIA 780 SLI -> AMD RX 5700XT (4K this time). No ultra widescreen support while animated events are in ultra-wide… - Textures quality could have been better in retrospective (some are horrid) but at least you feel the cohesion as all fits together. - Textures popping up all lot like in RAGE (to a lesser degree fortunately) and was at its worse the second time in apartment; occurred with both AMD and NVIDIA hardware over the years. Particularity noticeable when looking back in New Order. - Game slows down with AMD video card as reported on the Steam forums – which leads to broken dialog audio playing at wrong the time (experienced 4-5 different times). Misc. gripes: - Bugs having you restart whole levels to get treasures (incorrect water level in catacombs) and others not showing up if switching between timelines in single game session. - Cutting grids can get frustrating at times if you mess the shape of the cut as you can’t always cut it properly afterward (got stuck a few times). - Cannot skip intro logos and game asking to hit Enter key twice to begin playing felt misplaced for PC Other thoughts: End game boss battle felt frustrating rather than enjoyable (an aggravated by how checkpoints work in my case) on Death Incarnate and above - the combat with Rudi in “Old Blood” was way more fun and fair. The amount of time the main character gets deadly injuries outside of regular combat is ridiculous and become tedious to watch. Overall a good game with an OK story for the genre that lasted longer than expected; would recommended to anyone into shooters.
Issues as of 1.0 (will cover issues only as they ruin the fun - please check Steam / GOG reviews first for the positive aspects as there are still plenty): -Major performance / degrading performance issues -Game crashing after death 20-40% of the time upon trying to re-spawn. -Counter intuitive UI / control scheme by default. -Screen drifting is introduced when you try to hack mini games. -Enemy IA not here yet (such as NPCs walking straight into walls). -Enemy and player falling between textures at times. -Enemies partially crossing closed doors. -AI detection issues. -Journal doesn’t seem to update properly. -Combat doesn't feel fun with balance issues and poorly implemented combat generally speaking. -Game start with station not being powered sufficiently (we do see more than pre-release though) -Enemies keep spawning in an inconvenient way and will keep destroying your bases. -Survival aspect ends up feeling oppressive. Tip: Lower the strength of enemies when first setting the game mode (that you can customize which is cool BTW) otherwise you might get -quite- frustrated.
Full review in forum due to length restrictions Enjoyable & stable Demo - quite promising! - Full first level available / cannot (as of writing) save in the Demo - Cannot seem to be able to block with melee weapons - On 5700XT I was getting (24-39) FPS @4K & about 70-89 FPS @ 2560X1080 all on ULTRA - There are a lot of in game options – all of which are stable (some don’t seem to work) - Ultrawide resolution supported along with a FOV slider - HDR support in options - Tested all game items and game did not crash a single time - Lots more enemies from the original game (but small robots gone) in new Demo - No issues using ladders (unlike previous Demo) Impressions: - Initially more impressed with the visuals of the original Unity demo back then but this one is apparently way more stable doesn’t seem to be CPU intensive - The demo took me an hour to complete and as far as I can tell is representative of the original map - 4K visuals are great but not so much in 1080p so likely more representative to the original game fidelity wise - Some textures could be improved - The colors driving the Spark Beam modes should be changed as they are confusing at first (until you realise what is the actual visual indicator for its strength) - Game looked better with the (non-intrusive) Motion Blur - Disliked default screen curvature (there is a slider in the menus to change it fortunately) - Cursor movement leave a bit to be desired but I got used to them after a while - Found a single more important bug; upon being revived I needed to press ESC to go to the menu and return to the game (otherwise I was stuck in an animation) – and the minor visual glitch was that there is an animation that make you hit out of the surgery machine when using it and attacking - Mag-Pulse did not seem to be efficient against cybernetic enemies P.S. You will know what I mean once you try the Demo but the eyes OMG the eyes I can't look away from them!
