It's a good doom-style (2d levels, no jumping) game. It's levels mechanics is weird and somehow feels tacked on and only 50% complete (even though it certainly feels at home in early 90s). "No saves" mechanics is completely out of character and seems simply unreasonable. Enemy design is cool. Weapons are 70% good (sounds certainly are great). Overall it's good, sometimes great (especially if you are into this thing).
It's a love letter to the 90's FPS genre that refreshes the old formula by keeping everything familiar: wide-open rooms and narrow corridors, labyrinths, multi-colored keycards and secrets galore. Running from room to room, wiping out waves of enemies with your choice of over a dozen different weapons in classic style, slinging magical spells and generally just feeling powerful as all get out- all to a wonderful soundtrack that combines creep factor, synth and chiptune sounds and pure headbanging material all perfectly suited to your frantic, blood-stained trek.
Adding to the formula, Project Warlock sports a cunning upgrade and levelling system that allows you to mix and match weapon upgrades and skill point allocation, adding a level of replayability that will have you coming back to experiment time and again.
Aside from a few spikes and lulls in difficulty that left me either frustrated or frankly bored, the only things I can find complaint with are the brightness and the bosses.
Oftentimes I felt shackled to my Light spell (I'm looking at you, stages 3 and 4) to such a degree that I oftentimes forgot that I -had- other spells to use. Though not game-breaking, I found myself needing to light up the room between shots (or in my run's case, axe swings) just to make sure I wasn't swinging at nothing, leaving my arsenal of other powerful abilities mostly untouched.
As far as the bosses go, you won't find much here I'm afraid. The bosses of the first two stages felt at least somewhat challenging, and required me to think on my feet. The others afterwards... less so. Perhaps this was the nature of my build (here's Johnny), or perhaps it was simply a matter of poor design, but of the things worth killing, the bosses weren't really it.
Regardless, I had a fantastic time with this, and if you're a fan of old-timey FPS games, you will too. And at such a low price, it's worth every penny.
Pros: Firstly, the options menu is great with lots of choices to make the game look however you want! The visual style is retro with VERY pretty post-processing effects to make a very simple, yet beautiful look. While I haven't played through the entire game the level and environmental design is amazing thus far, with nice destructible objects! The soundtrack is killer and the sound design is perfect, a 10/10 in that department. The perk/upgrade system is a great addition to keep the combat feeling fresh and makes you look forward to maxing out the potential of the warlock and his weapons! Since this is a retro-styled game there are, of course, secrets. Secrets are a very nice touch to the game, finding one feels rewarding and it doesn't feel worthless or tacked on! Difficulty wise the game on difficulties other than easy is really challenging and really keeps you focused on your ammo supply and surroundings. What is great is that the game on harder difficulties doesn't make the enemies bullet sponges unlike lots of others.
Cons: At times certain enemies can feel too weak health-wise. There are not many, but some bugs such as after throwing a dagger and taking out magic light the sound is deafening after it hits something and enemies that have two lives change their name's to enemies around them. Not game-breaking bugs but still bugs. I don't know if it's an issue on my end but the optimization feels off. I'm running a GTX 1060 and the game feels like it's running at 30 FPS. If there is a FPS cap in place please let me know.
Conclusion: It's a great game that never feels stale! If you're a fan of older titles or a fan of first person shooter's in general you'll love it!
This game is brilliant, plays like a genuine old school shooter. Hexen and Blood come to mind. Combat is fast and smooth and challenging. Both melee and ranged combat is fun and rewarding. Plenty of secrets and traps. Collect points for weapon, spells and character upgrades. The graphics are definitely delicious, creating this bloody, dark fantasy, medieval carnage vibe. Only one glitch I've encountered so far -- some graphical distortion at the beginning of a level that disappears after I open the menu screen and play with any of the bars. Love the game!
Finishing it since I bought it took me about 11 hrs 30 mins according to GoG Galaxy. I've done all the achievements sans completing the game on easy or hardcore and possibly missed one hidden easter egg (wherefore art thou, Doomguy?). By the time I was done my Warlock was already able to spawn infinite ammo, hack twenty foot-tall demons with a single swing of an axe and the amount of chaingun fire I spat out almost gave me a seizure from all the muzzle flashing. They're not kidding with the epilepsy warning. Please be careful, you guys.
My point being, it's a short game, but it is long enough to do what it meant to do. Any shorter would be too short, any longer would be overstaying its welcome. It's messy, it's fun, it's sometimes clumsy (the way the verticality in the levels was implemented is kind of silly, but eh, there never was meant to be one from the very start, ), it lets you live a crazy power fantasy of being an almighty gun-toting sorcerer bent on murdering possibly everything in its path to hell and beyond. A cool homage to shooters from early 90s, but it's also pretty good in its own right.
That said, it's a little flawed - graphics tend to have weird glitches. The game tends to get so dark it's beyond unplayable (easy to fix with options provided within the menu, but still) and 2D sprites of humongous boss monsters clip in a silly way, especially when they are already dead. The trailer does show some scenes that were cut from the final game (like the Eldritch God appearing from under the ground - once you get to the arena, it's already there, no powerful entrance for you!) and, contrary to what the voiceover suggests, the Warlock is a silent progatonist - no cheesy oneliners.
Don't consider Project Warlock as a game you will be playing for a long time. No. It's an experience, a nostalgia-driven power trip to the happier, simpler times. Enough for having some fun and going back to the present with some good memories. Seen as such it won't disappoint.
