[First Playthrough done on Hardcore using only Auto-Saves]

Hedon episode 1 is a fine but deeply flawed intro. There's a lot to love in its pastel looking environments and great sense of place where you feel like you are exploring a (very horny) culture in areas filled with decent puzzles to solve and stories to be uncovered, sometimes happening at the same time as the player, but gets bogged down by areas that are too wide for the type of enemies the game has, feeling like it never manages to balance exploration and combat in their design with some very dull and long slaughtermap sections in flat arenas that only require basic circle strafing and some very odd mix of music genres with tracks that are decent in a vacuum but get used in unfitting moments. It's an experience that gets better as it goes along with some good moments but the issues never truly go away.

Hedon 2/Episode 2 however is a fantastic experience that improves on what was already great and what was lacking in episode 1. The environments while still feeling vast and complex have more cramped areas where enemies can be used to their full effect with obligatory fights being more small encounters with good combination of enemies and less long waves of hordes, all while not sacrificing the believability of the environments that are now less linear in its progression thanks to episode 2 going for a hub approach rather than a linear level progression. While the hub system can make puzzles more obtuse due to having to explore multiple areas they are designed in a way that rewards paying attention to your surroundings and reading things carefully, what you need to do never becomes confusing or feel like you were given misguiding hints. But the most important part is how they add to the adventure, NPCs come and go from neutral areas, conquered locations get a guard or two keeping an eye on things, companions will comment on old areas you have been and unmarked quests will reward people willing to seek them, they are small details that really add to these locations feeling lived in, making it easy to grow attached to them by the time you have to leave, all this coupled with the more diverse biomes that get more fantastical and unique as you go along makes Bloodrite feel more grandiose but also more intimate compared to the green forests and lava caves of the prequel. The way it uses its music is more consistent and fitting of the situations and areas you are in with soothing tracks accompanying most of the early areas while leaving the metal tracks with its heavy riffs and fast tempo to the action focused levels, it never feels jarring and executes on its promise of a multi-genre soundtrack with the unique individual tracks being better and mixing well with the licensed unused Unreal music.

My only major complaints is that I feel the enemy roster isn't quite there yet, there isn't enough roles being filled (knife cultists in particular feeling like filler) with a function overlap between some of the them and I wish the rewards for the more obtuse optional riddles and puzzles were more unique, there's 2 unique items in the game that get rewarded like that and their usefulness can be debatable due to being placed so late into the game.

If I was only reviewing episode 2 then the rating would be higher but as it stands as a full package Crystal Heart is a decent but flawed introduction to the amazing game that is Bloodrite. This won't appeal to the people that only care for doom engine experiences that involve pistol starting God machine with no saves but if you enjoy exploration driven FPSes with a sense of adventure and fun but obtuse puzzles like Hexen 2 and don't mind how horny game can be at times then I 100% recommend sticking to it all the way to bloodrite even if you end up not enjoying Episode 1.

Also best flamethrower of 2019.

Thanks to this game my standards on fps games have been permanently lowered.

Trying to rationalize how this game came to be in the way that it is and also be somehow shilled my way with great fervor is honestly giving me a headache. Nothing is good here, the level design is some total trash, the game employs a "maze-like" structure to its levels but it actually ends up meaning literally nothing, inferior to any Doom WAD I've ever played with such meaningless padding to its levels.

Enemies are piss easy to dodge and incredibly unpolished, with weapons that are neither fun to use, kinesthetically pleasing to shoot, or interesting to manage. The game manages to hit a bog standard idea of "immersive sim" elements that I feel like it's gunning for, and honestly DUSK comes to mind at outright shitting on this game even at Dusk's absolute lowest point.

I want to keep talking about its level design though, the idea with pacing its required progression locks is apparently to put them in the most excruciating to find corners, literally one of them in the second level was in a fucking vent on the wall you had to move yourself right up to that you can easily miss, because it's in a corner up some stairs and it's not significantly signposting in any way. The aesthetics of this game are some budget shit too, barely hitting a place that's passable. Soundtrack is total hogwash too which isn't really surprising.

I have other questions. Why is there reloading in this game? What's with the fucking nightvision goggles, that was NEVER GOOD IN DOOM and is irritating here, like what's the purpose of that? Why is there so much wide open space, when the enemies move so fucking slow?

Just absolute nonsense, go play literally any other fps. I'll pick at random.

There have been a decent number of "revival" shooters coming out for over half a decade now, but I think what makes Hedon stick out to me more than any of them comes down to its level design. Beyond a gimmick/secret level, a lot of the revival shooters don't really get out of their comfort zone when it comes to non-linear but otherwise fairly straightforward level design/progression and it's understandable they don't as the games they're inspired by most were like too for the sake of pacing out action and enemy encounters.

Hedon doesn't conform to that style of level design and decides to go in a direction more reminiscent of a game like Arx Fatalis (or for that matter, any well known "im-sim") where it gives fully fleshed out fantasy levels that are detailed, unique, fully believable as places that exist in the setting, and most of all, unapologetically large in scale because the places would not work without said scale. The last part in particular is a large point of contention for some people as aside from not being the norm for this style of shooter, it's one that demands the player to pay attention and solve environmental puzzles to continue progression with minimal hand holding in between all the usual fast paced action that comes with a shooting like this.

For some people, they can't jump the barrier ("it's too maze-like", "there's barley any shooting", "what am I supposed to do???") but for me, is the exact sort of level design I wish more games in general tried as not only does it present a unique type of challenge for the player, but it really makes the attention to detail on these levels shine through and gives a level of memorability to them (such as a mansion owned by a demonic family where the player learns of their squabbling and backstabbing between one another, a recently abandoned Dwarven fortress around a frozen hellscape, a succubus' "pleasure domain" with corrupted gardens, courtyards, and some of the trippiest environments I've seen since Constantine's Mansion from Thief: Dark Project).

It is worth mentioning that Hedon is split into two episodes, the first one being similar to what you'd expect from a level by level shooter. However, the second episode, Bloodrite (which was a completely free update for anyone who already owned the game at the time which is amazing when the thing's about twice as big as the first episode) introduces fully interconnected levels between two different hub areas that loop back around to each other in a really satisfying way while only increasing the scale and complexity of the levels by rewarding backtracking greatly (in other words, it's Strife but better).

On top of that, the arsenal of weapons feel great to use, there are unique difficulty modes for replay value such as a mode that replaces the standard ranged weapons with new and unique melee ones, the ost is a cool mix of ambient/psychedelic metal with the occasional licensed Alexander Brandon electronic music, and a decent amount of the secrets contain sexy pin up posters of muscular orcs and demons.

tl;dr I can't believe a solo dev ex-smut artist has better level design sensibilities than most level designers in the industry currently.

Not one of the best retro-style shooters I’ve ever played but certainly a fun ride I didn’t mind sticking through to the end. The weapon toolbox is really sick and it gives you a bunch of options for entering the action sections with fervor. The game on Hardcore provided a pretty sufficient challenge that never forced me into blatant savescumming but still kept me closely monitoring my vitals and ammo. All of the levels are pretty big, reflected in their pretty beefy par times. The 10 maps end up feeling quite lengthy, and my first playthrough on Hardcore took me about 13 hours. It doesn’t string together as much gunplay as a lot of its contemporaries and inspirations, because there’s definitely more of a focus on exploration here, but the combat sections usually work pretty well, even when the game kinda blatantly locks you in a room with 60 enemies with a battle soundtrack. There’s even a pretty passable stealth mechanic that works well, even though I didn’t find myself using it pretty much at all.

The “puzzles” are usually fine; If you find yourself unsure what to do with a quest item you have, the best thing to do is just take it to a place you can’t get through. If you get in a routine of this, you barely have to think about what you’re doing in the first place. There’s only one time in the game I had to find myself looking up a walkthrough to find a what-seems-like invisible book sticking out on a wall revealing a switch for a door, and I’m glad the game never got that stupid about a solution ever again.

I feel like the artstyle and graphics really miss the mark here, it feels like a chaotic mess of the usual GZdoom big-polygon 3D environments which are still nice, and even beautiful at times, mixed with raw and unpixelated art that seems like it’s retrieved from the most mediocre annals of D&D portrait DeviantArt, and I think that dissonance really fucks things up the most for me here. It’s not an ugly game per se, but one that just has me routinely remembering “oh yeah, I’m just looking at stringed-together smoke and mirrors right now, and not having an immersive experience”. The art misses a lot of what makes its influences so timeless, because I can look at the models for enemies from Doom and see the beautiful miniatures that were made for the enemies, but as for this, the art style seems to have some confusion between low effort and low game engine capabilities. A great modern example of the retro look with amazing visuals is Ion Fury, which has some absolutely incredible art direction. The way-too-horny official art I’ve seen for the game’s protagonist Zan (who is an okay protagonist, also) hardly has any connection with her borderline lazy artwork in game when you can see yourself in mirrors.

This is unnaturally lore-heavy for this type of game, and while I thought the story at hand was pretty interesting with its lite-D&D inspiration, the amount of reading the game asks me to do between action sections really gets rough, and when the game actually wants to stop and show me the “story”, the pacing just plummets. I am just really sick and tired of these “trip” sections that Far Cry started to popularize, where the protagonist enters some trippy sequences after coming into contact with drugs, or hitting their head, or whatever, you know what I’m talking about…while this isn’t the 100% entirety of the Errant Signal level, it’s still a majority of it and it just becomes a slog with the kinda unfitting (while still good) music and the megaton of unpaced exposition, even though it’s chased with a pretty fun boss battle.

The music is…interesting. It’s a mix of one part original music created by Akhzul that goes for either a dark ambient route for the quieter-exploration parts of the game or a nu-metal battle triumph, and then one part licensed OST from, among other things, Unreal. Even though I wasn’t initially complaining, it was quite weird to hear those iconic Alexander Brandon/Michiel van den Bos synths here. I’m not fully against this kind of usage, but it is a good bit weird when the context of the music hasn’t really been changed that much at all. It’s like skipping the whole step of wearing your influences on your sleeve, and just being fully clothed in them instead. Besides this, I really don’t think the licensed electronic stuff fits at all, and I think Zan’s revenge story is much better suited to the dark distorted tones that Akhzul brings to the table.

Wow. I’m totally surprised by this game. I guess i was just too carried away by the thicc waifu meme, and because of that i thought this would play mostly as a joke, like HDoom or something like that. I couldn’t be more wrong. Hedon is a fantastic game.

At the very beginning i was struck with how pretty and colorful the atmosphere was. Lightning, textures, everything related to the map aesthetic is beautiful, and that is for me a very positive thing. Spritework on the other hand –specially referring to enemies and characters in general- feels like it could have some more work into it. But still, they’re ok enough, and fit properly the overall aesthetic. Sound design is also good, but i couln’t help laughing at times at how, let’s say, moany, the sound of our heroine was.

I think some of the polarizing reviews are mainly because, despite being done in a modified Doom engine, Hedon is not really your average run and gun FPS. Instead, is a game that tends to emphasize exploration, plus also having a few puzzles here and there. In that sense, this game seems to be more inspired by Unreal and Hexen (this one, in a good way) than, let’s say, Doom or Blood. I think Strife can also be considered as an influence, for two reasons: The mix between natural/wooden environments with techbases and sci-fi elements, and also, the way this game allows you to kill in a more stealthy way but without punishing if you don’t do so.

As i said, this game is more focused on exploration. Therefore, the map layers cannot and shouldn’t be simple. I mention this because it seems to be another reason why people criticize the game. There’s nothing wrong with the map design here: Considering the kind of gaming experience Hedon proposes, maps are supposed to be complex, and even a little tricky at times. If you’re not into this kind of stuff, it’s not really Hedon’s fault. It’s also noteworthy how these maps are mostly non-linear, and can be dealed with in many different ways. This map design ties perfectly with the gameplay, the overall aesthetic, and the story.

Yes, this game has a narrative going on. And this, along with the sense of exploration is what gave me the most of the Myst/Riven vibes. You start the game without almost no idea of what’s exactly going on, just like in Myst, and slowly, you begin to form a certain background by reading notes, books, interacting with characters, and so on. I honestly feel like Hedon’s writing is not truly the best since it’s a bit hard to engage with the actual story, which also felt too ambitious in my opinion. But it’s great in the way it manages to fill the whole experience with this beautiful sense of mistery. And in this sense, MAP06 and this non-FMV sequences just like in Half-Life do a fantastic job.

Combat is pretty good here. Weapons are fantastic, and the fact that there are just 5 of them (not counting the melee ones) is perfectly balanced by their alternate fire. It’s noteworthy how amazing the two melee weapons are: The axe is extremelly satisfying to use, and the fists, alongside with the kicks, gives you the possibility of turning this game into something like a first person beat em’up. Fists and kicks might not be powerful enough to rely on them, but they are certainly fun to use. Apparently, if you play this game on Berserk mode, your arsenal is entirely replaced by melee weapons. Haven’t checked it but it sounds pretty interesting. There’s also a lot (and i mean A LOT) of items, so many that i couldn’t check all of them properly.

Enemies are ok, nothing outstanding honestly but they work just fine. I’m not a real fan of this game’s obsession at throwing you into slaughters at the end of every level during the first half. Luckily, enemy placement is better handled during the second half. What is truly excelent, in my opinion, are the boss fights. There are two of them and they are a real challenge, not like in the 90’s fps games where the bosses where a common flaw.

When it comes to the music, i’m more fond of the more ambient-like tracks. I don’t have anything against the idea of using upbeat tracks at certain moments, but i fell like the chosen ones were not that good in execution. On the contrary, the decision of using mostly guitar-based music for the atmospheric parts (instead of the typical synth-based approach for these purposes) is a fantastic decision, and they get to cover a nice palette of genres, ranging from ambient, post-rock, and even drone metal.

This incredibly ambitious game deserves all the attention from any FPS-fan.

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everything but the kitchen sink design with unwanted emphasis on walking simulator mood pieces. hedon's e1m1 isn't hangar or cradle to grave or even docks, it's a lore reading/jumping marathon/swimming section/vent crawling/half weaponless switch hunt in a 1 texture hole so awful the developer maintains a forum sticky on how to skip it. there couldn't be a more perfect setting of tone for what is likely to be the worst time you'll ever have on gzdoom, and one i certainly hope you didn't pay for. the remainder of the first episode is no less replete with low density slogs, each scarce encounter serving as short-lived preamble to long and cryptic hunts not even hexen can match in monotony. unlike hexen, these levels have massive chunks mapped out without enemies or items just to look cool, like a baths complex with a dozen rooms and zero excitement. when build games did to-scale realistic locations at least you could blow them up. i was begging for sandy petersen abstraction by map 5. mechanically, hedon plays like a stitched together 100-count mod pack with reloading (guns have to be reloaded on pickup lmao), iron sights, quick melee, gymnastics, stupid alt fires like a nausea-inducing axe whirlwind that spins your screen and can't be steered, nv goggles so instead of cool dynamic lighting (not featured) you can just look at green for whole sections, and all the usual god-forsaken suspects. it's Brutal Doom malarkey but on the first level of thief the dark project; it's total incoherence.

likewise, hedon advertises a multi-genre soundtrack because it's just the dev's disparate playlist instead of a cohesive score. akhzul's music beats the hell out of the typical hulshultshit sound these games go for but then it's muted for licensed dnb tracks from unreal tournament and radio-safe alt rock and stoner sludge ????????nani????

only beat e1. i gave e2m1 a look and it begins the same as the first. it's still two-tone with massive rooms full of mood piece decor and a huge central chamber that won't even spawn an imp when you pick up a key. there ain't shit to shoot at folks. this isn't a shooter, it's closer to the dev's sick-brained futa VN with a few more buttons to press and westerner art (ahahahah). we need a total and complete shutdown of "boomer shooters" (Say that shit Get hit) until gamers can find out what the hell is going on

This was a decently fun time. I really enjoyed the weapons, the buff orc ladies, and the story & world-building. I do wish the levels had been a bit shorter, but I wound up beating the par time for most of them still, despite getting a bit lost & confused in a few of them. The game itself feels pretty a-okay on it's Normal difficulty, it doesn't feel too easy or too hard to me.

The weapons I DID find all felt pretty nice. However, it wasn't until writing this review that I discovered I've somehow completely missed one or two, nevermind the other four that are exclusive to the BEARZERK difficulty (which feels pretty lame, honestly. Give me the whole arsenal!). Playing with some of them in the test map, having a few of these DEFINITELY would've made life a lot less painful during the final two maps, but I still managed with what I had.