BANGER. I can't believe no one told me this existed. I guess I missed the train by only getting into boomer shooters / retro FPS throwbacks around 2020, but god if this isn't one of the most enjoyable shooters I've played from that genre or otherwise.
A lot of this is owed to the amazing combat and art design. Enemy designs here are genuinely some of my favorite since the original Quake, and having headshots count as a weird way to bridge the gap between these old billboarding style shooters and the newer style of combat in today's shooters is just pure genius. I also loved having an actual villain with some personality, even if he is a bit one note. John St. John kills it with the voice acting though, so does Valerie Arem as Shelly. The dynamic isn't anything great but it does have a bit more going for it than Duke did back in 1996.
It does start to get a little old by the end, running out of tricks about half way through the game and the environments, while still great, aren't nearly as visually appealing as the cyberpunk environments of the first few chapters, but by god if this isn't one of the most fun shooters to come out of the genre. Still has some build engine jank that shouldn't be ignored, and some enemy types really didn't next to exist (fuck those spiders), but otherwise Gold Medal.
A lot of this is owed to the amazing combat and art design. Enemy designs here are genuinely some of my favorite since the original Quake, and having headshots count as a weird way to bridge the gap between these old billboarding style shooters and the newer style of combat in today's shooters is just pure genius. I also loved having an actual villain with some personality, even if he is a bit one note. John St. John kills it with the voice acting though, so does Valerie Arem as Shelly. The dynamic isn't anything great but it does have a bit more going for it than Duke did back in 1996.
It does start to get a little old by the end, running out of tricks about half way through the game and the environments, while still great, aren't nearly as visually appealing as the cyberpunk environments of the first few chapters, but by god if this isn't one of the most fun shooters to come out of the genre. Still has some build engine jank that shouldn't be ignored, and some enemy types really didn't next to exist (fuck those spiders), but otherwise Gold Medal.