Hedon Bloodrite

It's a Hexen/Strife gameplay through and through, almost to a fault. Hedon feels like a Build engine game with emphasis world interactivity and attention to environmental detail. On the surface it may be a typical FPS game but I'd invite you to go look around - it has the kind of hard-made attention to detail seldom seen in games nowadays. Bloodrite maps are massive, perhaps too large considering the amount of backtracking involved. Much like in Hexen there's switch hunting galore and having to figure out if an otherwise inconspicuous piece of level geometry is meant to be interacted with. A lot of secrets are easier to find than the switches mandatory to progress further. Not sure if the character design/artwork is purposefully amateurish but it sure does contrast with the rest of design. All dialogues are delivered through text, there are no voice overs, and if you don't pay attention you may miss crucial detail about your next objective, end up being stuck and finding solution by what may seem like a random chance (displayed text is usually logged in game console, press ~). Sound effects, particularly weapons, are well done. Perhaps having a bit more ambient sounds would have improved levels even further but what's in here is alright. Music is hit and miss. There are a few tracks from Alexander Brandon (of Tyrian, Unreal and Deus Ex fame) mostly from his tracker era, which are in high contrast with the rest of the score being mostly ambient drone. It's a step above total conversion, a solid effort with a somewhat skewed production. Past the surface level there is a lovingly made game with several hours of content and few surprises up its sleeve for those patient enough. Most retro shooter games nowadays would probably steer away from Hexen "puzzles" while Hedon embraces it instead - a bold move to be certain, and in my opinion a welcome one too.

It's like they took the first level of Unreal and made all of Hexen out of it. I was half ready to dismiss this game as saucy bait for the weak-willed but it's a solid improvement on the Doom / Hexen / quake formula in just about every way. The environments are varied, the puzzles are interesting without being belabored, there are secrets all over, but they're not so obscure that you have to wander around randomly interacting with walls. The story seems good but honestly I played for too long in one go and stopped reading. It's 4 am. The melee combat is cool, and feels powerful enough to stay relevant well into the game! In addition to the axe, you can punch, kick, do flying kicks mid-air, or slide tackles on the ground. The ranged weapons are pretty cool and seem to have some depth in their alternative fire modes which I haven't totally figured out yet. If you aren't impressed by the screenshots, and graphics are really really important to you, follow your heart, man. Me personally, I just like kickass gameplay, and this delivers.

I really wanted to like this game. The art style is great, the world building is fantastic, and the combat is super fun. The issue for me was that I could only enjoy the game 25% of the time. Of the 6 hours I've put in, I'm pretty sure less than two hours was actual game time. The rest of the time I've spent was on trying to figure out what to do next. Some of the puzzles are clever, and you feel good once you discover the solution. But others seem to be in there for the sole purpose of you pulling your hair out. For example, in one of the puzzles, you need to find a tablet thats been hidden in one of the bases. You literally have to pixel hunt the entire library of books to find the one that is slightly sticking out, then push it to open the passage way. That would be fine in a game with stellar graphics, but when you have these retro graphics, it's so hard to see anything and differentiate. It's puzzles like these that were frustrating and a huge waste of time. I really really wanted to like this game. 25% of the game was almost perfect. But the other 75% was a frustrating quest on trying to figure out what to do next.

I was broke for many, many years of my life, so, for a long time, I only played "Blackbeard" copies of games. Generally, I didn't feel bad, because most games sucked. Not this one. I kept coming back to this one. It was my first boomer shooter, and it was love at first sight. The art style, the old school gameplay, the fantasy setting... It hit all the notes to me. I didn't even knew "crystalpunk" before playing this game, and now, i love that style too. I got a job this year. I actually have (some) money now. Surely, enough to pay for a game that brought me so many good times (and memorable rage moments too). I hope this make things right. This game was a little peace of fun during some rough moments of my life. Yes - this review is very biased. I love this game. I know it is flawed - like all things in life - but I still love it all the same. Truly, one of the best games I ever played.

This is a great game. The combat is so tight and satisfying, and accomodates several playstyles. The art, enemy design, and especially the music are gorgeous. The story and worldbuilding are thoroughly done. Most importantly, it's just fun to play! The biggest drawback is just how sprawling some of the levels are. My playthrough was lengthened by several hours just from being lost and confused on where to go. I also thought some of the boss fights were a bit underwhelming - I'm not fond of just adding more monsters to make a fight harder, but that seems to be pretty common in these kinds of games, so it's not a flaw specific only to this one. I'm not usually the biggest fan of Doom clones/boomer shooters/whatever you call these, but this one kept me entertained through a 25+ hour playthrough.