I don't know how to describe it other then everything feels very amateurish? Guns feel okay but some have missing animations like the shotgun while others feel weak to shoot like the duel smgs. The most annoying is the save system however i dont know who thought it would be a good idea to have a save system in you fast paced boomer shooter where you have to stop at save points and manually save halting all action. This will inevitable end up withe you forgetting to save and then dying and having to replay a decent chunk. It does have auto saves but they are not very common. Put in almost an hour before I realized it was just not for me.

Dread Templar is a boomer shooter that seemingly wants to be everything and it almost nails everything! Something is just... off about the whole game.

It reminds me of everything that is good and bad about that era of shooters: The very chaotic levels, seemingly large but very shallow enemy variety and the fact that it has "episodes", each with a different theme.

What makes Dread Templar unique are the runes and the "default equipment" of the protagonist. At the first episode of the game, you assemble what is basically the essential weaponary for your character, namely a katana, a bow and a trap launcher. These weapons will be your best friends along the journey, as 2 out of 3 has infinite ammo, you only need to wait for a short cooldown to use them again. The runes are essentially perks and modifiers that you can find in secret locations, and along the main path, making your weapons shoot faster, deal more damage or store more ammo.

Along these weapons you also have a bunch of other toys, as a demonic rocket launcher thing, dual SMGs, shotguns and the list goes on. These weapons are pretty standard and you need to mix them with the above mentioned katana and the bow to create combos. You can also slow down time, and dash, so you can really make those ugly demons suffer for what they done to you.

Speaking of demons, the enemies are annoying, and their designs are just simply flawed most of the time. There is one in particular, that can sidestep, but only in one direction, no matter where he is, so he can just sidestep into a wall and appear out of nowhere, making these creatures annoying, instead of challenging. There are also enemies, which can just zap you almost instantly, ones who can bombard you with what seems like exploding spores and the list goes on. They are not that good to engage with, that is what I am saying.

What makes this game seemingly fun though is the fact that you have the bow and the katana, and the obvious mixing and matching of runes, where you can create alternate versions of guns with the highest tier runes. The SMGs can become mini chainguns or the regular pistols can become demonic versions with better bullets. These alone can make up for the flawed enemy designs, the seemingly messy concept of the game, and the overall fact that it feels kind of overly long to finish this game. I played this one for 10 hours, and it did not have that much content in it. I wish this was a shorter, sweeter and better game, but I did not regret my time with it, thanks to the vast combat equipment.

Decent retro FPS, but a lot of its positives are accompanied by something pulling it down.

The upgrade system includes a lot of unique changes to how a weapon behaves or can be used as a whole, although a good deal of those mods are extremely overpowered whereas some are borderline useless.

The soundtrack is pretty good with a lot of nice metal songs, but they loop so often during the game's long levels that it kind of blends together at some point.

The game really drags on towards the end, featuring five episodes with levels being really long compared to other retro-FPS'.

The arsenal itself is decent, with (mostly) punchy sounds, but as is often usual with Retro-FPS, their impact on enemies is only felt after you kill them by gibbing them (and even the gibbing is somewhat underwhelming).