A really nice Metroidvania done in the gzdoom engine, it sure has is limitations but it's fun and I really like the art style, unique and unsettling.
Only the bosses are not that good but the exploration and combat is pretty good.
Only the bosses are not that good but the exploration and combat is pretty good.
the only thing you'll be throwing up is your arms in delight as you experience this astonishing, colorful world brought to you by scumhead
A natural evolution of the gameplay and aesthetic found in Shrine and Shrine II. Take the vibe from those games, add a heavy Metroidvania aspect to it, and you've got Vomitoreum. My quick and dirty suggestion is to try both Shrine games (or at least Shrine II), as they're both free, and if you dig the vibe, pick up Vomitoreum to show some love to the developer. I really appreciated the different types of gameplay and exploration options drip fed throughout. Nice variety of weapons, though some enemies felt a little on the tanky side for sure (less so than a few Shrine enemies, for what it's worth). But it's clear that the dev took a lot of learnings from the Shrine games and built something really cool out of it. Worth the cost of admission if you're into boomer shooters, especially those with Metroidvania leanings. If I had to guess, it took me 3-4 hours to play through in its entirety.
Very short, yet memorable. As is the bulk of Scumhead's output. My only real complaint is of weapon variety feeling somewhat poor. Overall I'm glad I picked this one up.
I love the Scumhead vibe. That Beksiński painting has been my desktop background for like a decade.
I love the artstyle, and the game is pretty good, but the plot was laughably bad.
Ojama Lime appears as a graffiti in the subway. That's pretty cool.
Ojama Lime appears as a graffiti in the subway. That's pretty cool.
This review contains spoilers
I would've really liked it if it wasn't for some huge issues. Let's go over them.
1. The game's checkpoints are not great. I had to refight the Ornstein and Smogh ripoff boss fight three times since I died almost insantly after defeating them because at that point any water will drain your health at a ridiculous rate and you die within seconds. The devs could have made the game autosave after beating a boss or even do a Dark Souls 3 and put a checkpoint in the boss arena but nope. The checkpoint system itself is kinda stupid too: so like in Dark Souls, checkpoints fully heal you and restore all your healing items but unlike Dark Souls using checkpoints comes at no cost which is to say enemies don't get revived. That means there's no reason not to walk back to the last checkpoint after every encounter which robs the game of a lof of challenge which it could've used.
2. The bosses kinda suck. The previously mentioned Ornstein and Smough boss is the best one in the game as its structure makes it so you can't just circle strafe around them like for most other bosses. The other exception to this rule is the final boss which is by far the worst one in the game. He has this really fun machine gun move where for like legit 30 seconds he'll non stop fire homing projectiles. The only strat to avoid damage here is to hide behind one of the pillars in the boss arena. All his other moves are super unnoteworthy except for one move where he'll suddenly throw a barage of fire balls at you. This move has next to no wind-up and can deal ridiculous damage, I remember dying to it with more than four full health bars. The other bosses are fine overall and some are even good but yeah for pretty much all of them if you just keep strafing around them they can't do shit.
3. The metro area. This one fucking area made me dislike the entire game so much more. And it was so close to being good too - the atmosphere is amazing. It's the darkest area in the game and the only one where the map doesn't show you anything. Combine that with some real spooky enemy designs and you got some real strong vibes, ruined by the game's lighting. So like some other games like Hollow Knight at one point you can get a little lantern as a light source. The problem is that lantern doesn't at all follow the player - it is its own entity that tries to follow the player but it really struggles doing so. Its path finding is really not great so it'll constantly get stuck around corners and stuff leaving you in complete darkness. The light it casts is also just not very strong which defo enhances said atmosphere but my god does it make traversing this area tedious. You can take like five steps before you gotta wait for your little light source buddy to catch up which a lot of the time it fails to do, I really don't get how they tested this shit out and didn't think to change it for the final game. Oh yeah and about the strong atmosphere? Ruined by meme drawings on the wall. The dev let people on Twitter submit random artwork to plaster on the walls of this area, the idea being it's supposed to be like grafitti. It is kinda cool just for the novelty of it but also because it like tells you something about the world, like that there used to be people in the past who drew random shit on the walls and that's cool but like, being in this spooky ass area and suddenly seeing popular yugioh meme Ojama Lime on the wall instantly broke any sense of tension. I really would've preferred these grafitti things to be included in any other area instead.
I really wish I could've enjoyed this thing more and at times I really got into it, like it's made in the Doom engine so already it's a lot of fun play and the level design can be really strong and it has a good sense of exploration as you'd hope for a game like this to have but yeah, it sadly has too many issues for me to really be able to recommend it.
1. The game's checkpoints are not great. I had to refight the Ornstein and Smogh ripoff boss fight three times since I died almost insantly after defeating them because at that point any water will drain your health at a ridiculous rate and you die within seconds. The devs could have made the game autosave after beating a boss or even do a Dark Souls 3 and put a checkpoint in the boss arena but nope. The checkpoint system itself is kinda stupid too: so like in Dark Souls, checkpoints fully heal you and restore all your healing items but unlike Dark Souls using checkpoints comes at no cost which is to say enemies don't get revived. That means there's no reason not to walk back to the last checkpoint after every encounter which robs the game of a lof of challenge which it could've used.
2. The bosses kinda suck. The previously mentioned Ornstein and Smough boss is the best one in the game as its structure makes it so you can't just circle strafe around them like for most other bosses. The other exception to this rule is the final boss which is by far the worst one in the game. He has this really fun machine gun move where for like legit 30 seconds he'll non stop fire homing projectiles. The only strat to avoid damage here is to hide behind one of the pillars in the boss arena. All his other moves are super unnoteworthy except for one move where he'll suddenly throw a barage of fire balls at you. This move has next to no wind-up and can deal ridiculous damage, I remember dying to it with more than four full health bars. The other bosses are fine overall and some are even good but yeah for pretty much all of them if you just keep strafing around them they can't do shit.
3. The metro area. This one fucking area made me dislike the entire game so much more. And it was so close to being good too - the atmosphere is amazing. It's the darkest area in the game and the only one where the map doesn't show you anything. Combine that with some real spooky enemy designs and you got some real strong vibes, ruined by the game's lighting. So like some other games like Hollow Knight at one point you can get a little lantern as a light source. The problem is that lantern doesn't at all follow the player - it is its own entity that tries to follow the player but it really struggles doing so. Its path finding is really not great so it'll constantly get stuck around corners and stuff leaving you in complete darkness. The light it casts is also just not very strong which defo enhances said atmosphere but my god does it make traversing this area tedious. You can take like five steps before you gotta wait for your little light source buddy to catch up which a lot of the time it fails to do, I really don't get how they tested this shit out and didn't think to change it for the final game. Oh yeah and about the strong atmosphere? Ruined by meme drawings on the wall. The dev let people on Twitter submit random artwork to plaster on the walls of this area, the idea being it's supposed to be like grafitti. It is kinda cool just for the novelty of it but also because it like tells you something about the world, like that there used to be people in the past who drew random shit on the walls and that's cool but like, being in this spooky ass area and suddenly seeing popular yugioh meme Ojama Lime on the wall instantly broke any sense of tension. I really would've preferred these grafitti things to be included in any other area instead.
I really wish I could've enjoyed this thing more and at times I really got into it, like it's made in the Doom engine so already it's a lot of fun play and the level design can be really strong and it has a good sense of exploration as you'd hope for a game like this to have but yeah, it sadly has too many issues for me to really be able to recommend it.
One of my favourite metroidvanias of recent years. I just wish there was more of it. It does things with the Doom Engine that would have set your computer on fire back in the day.
Vomitorium doesn't have a lot of inventive ideas to bring to either the metroidvania or FPS genre, but the (seemingly Giger-inspired) horror aesthetics and clippy pace (takes roughly 3 hours to 100%) make it go down easy.
Could definitely use a content warning for sexual violence (nothing visual).
Could definitely use a content warning for sexual violence (nothing visual).
The aesthetics of Dusk (or Blood, if you want to dive deeper into the past) is married to the distinctly European weirdness of EYE: Divine Cybermancy, and somehow the baby is a Metroidvania.
Vomitoreum is really short - only clocks in about a couple of hours which is why I'm posting about this so soon after my last game completion - but it manages to be strangely compelling in that time. It goes on sale for mere pocket change in every Steam event and if that description at all sounds like anything you might be intrigued by, it's worth a shot. It's an intriguing curio and I imagine if it had been a "full length" game, it'd have all the ingredients for a cult classic.
Vomitoreum is really short - only clocks in about a couple of hours which is why I'm posting about this so soon after my last game completion - but it manages to be strangely compelling in that time. It goes on sale for mere pocket change in every Steam event and if that description at all sounds like anything you might be intrigued by, it's worth a shot. It's an intriguing curio and I imagine if it had been a "full length" game, it'd have all the ingredients for a cult classic.
Pretty good game really liked the artwork and gun play, movement also felt very smooth.
though a map after you unlock areas could have sped up some of the backtracking.
also some of the later rooms have so many enemies that the only strat ends up being camping out in front of the door ways instead of engaging which is kind of lame
Had fun playing this game. It is a good length for me (2.5h) and I thought it was a cool experience. Exploration and moving around was a lot of fun. Found some enjoyment in the story and presentation. Bosses were pathetic.
A DOOM megawad with the exploration of Unreal and genuinely inspired art direction.
Combat errs easy, and most bosses get circlestrafed to death without a second thought, but I still had a good time taking them out. Doesn't overstay its welcome, either, partially 'cause the actual metroid-like progression is much simpler than its inspirations.
Combat errs easy, and most bosses get circlestrafed to death without a second thought, but I still had a good time taking them out. Doesn't overstay its welcome, either, partially 'cause the actual metroid-like progression is much simpler than its inspirations.
A smart Metroidvania that takes influence from the Prime side of things rather than the usual 2D offerings. Simple combat is made interesting by a nice variety of enemies, tension is ramped up by some killer atmosphere (an area Scumhead is really starting to show is where he could be an elite talent) and savepoints instead of free save, meaning some of the more intense combat sequences require a more considered approach. Bosses are delightfully grim, albeit all bested with circle strafing for the most part.
Plot takes a dark path and it might not be for everyone but for those who enjoy 'retro' FPS, Metroidvanias and the darker sides of Soulslike lore (Bloodborne, Blasphemous etc) this is a couple of hours where you'll find a lot to like.
Plot takes a dark path and it might not be for everyone but for those who enjoy 'retro' FPS, Metroidvanias and the darker sides of Soulslike lore (Bloodborne, Blasphemous etc) this is a couple of hours where you'll find a lot to like.
I really enjoyed this game! It got its hooks into me and I couldn't pull myself away until I'd finished it. The game delivers a very satisfying metroidvania experience: the atmosphere is nasty and compelling, movement feels really good, the navigation of the interconnected world is just about perfect, the pace is great, secrets are fun to find. Judging it specifically as a metroidvania, I think it's great. I love exploring the world, finding shortcuts and doubling back with new abilities to find hidden items.
I only have minor critiques, and those would just add up to a close to perfect gaming experience. The weapons aren't super well balanced, so the shotgun pretty much sucks compared to the pistol/machine gun. Many of the bosses just come down to circle strafe and hold down the trigger. There is one boss that requires you to use the dash to dodge one of his attacks, and that feels really good. Most of the bosses' attacks can be pretty easily avoid just by strafing. I'd love to see more bosses require you to watch for telegraphs, dodge or jump to avoid taking damage. A couple of the bosses are pretty good, but most are pretty dull. Also the map is very rudimentary and not usually very helpful. You can't look around the map, and it's hard to see the little white blip that represents where you are.
Enemies don't respawn ever, which at first I didn't like, but the experience of traversing empty areas where you've already slaughtered every monster is its own kind of unsettling. I think, however, it would be better if as you get close to late game new, stronger enemies start showing up in old areas. You'd still get those empty moments, but it would make late game item hunting more fun.
It deals with some heavy subject matter in a way that feels more edgy than profound, but ultimately it's all in service of a solid story that is all of a piece with the disturbing aesthetic.
I thought it was good! Glad I picked it up.
I only have minor critiques, and those would just add up to a close to perfect gaming experience. The weapons aren't super well balanced, so the shotgun pretty much sucks compared to the pistol/machine gun. Many of the bosses just come down to circle strafe and hold down the trigger. There is one boss that requires you to use the dash to dodge one of his attacks, and that feels really good. Most of the bosses' attacks can be pretty easily avoid just by strafing. I'd love to see more bosses require you to watch for telegraphs, dodge or jump to avoid taking damage. A couple of the bosses are pretty good, but most are pretty dull. Also the map is very rudimentary and not usually very helpful. You can't look around the map, and it's hard to see the little white blip that represents where you are.
Enemies don't respawn ever, which at first I didn't like, but the experience of traversing empty areas where you've already slaughtered every monster is its own kind of unsettling. I think, however, it would be better if as you get close to late game new, stronger enemies start showing up in old areas. You'd still get those empty moments, but it would make late game item hunting more fun.
It deals with some heavy subject matter in a way that feels more edgy than profound, but ultimately it's all in service of a solid story that is all of a piece with the disturbing aesthetic.
I thought it was good! Glad I picked it up.
It was a okay. everything feels pretty underdeveloped and underwhelming, but i liked what they were going for. i liked the art. the bosses were terrible though, with Umadermadine being the worst one. like, you can't just have a boss who's attack is a 30 seconds long stream of projectiles and expect it to be anything fun. so, yeah. Also, i feel like every Scumhead game i played yet (Lycanthorne I and II, Shrine) has this recurring theme of annoyingly hard and not fun late game bosses. just a thought
i think i felt more positive about this from the outset that i ended up doing in hindsight. the visual style is obviously the highlight here - and it is good, especially in particular areas. there is something nice about wandering through weird cartoony labyrinths in a Metroid format but still obviously in first person in the Doom engine. and it does feel like something that had a lot of heart put into it. even if it’s pretty short, it’s solidly executed. and there were areas that felt distinct, with some new surprises or interesting traits.
there are really times where felt like it could use more work or it just didn’t feel that refined - some areas were a bit empty, there were a few times where it felt buggy or overly grindy or there were random death traps for no reason, and a lot of the bosses were just “circle strafe and hold down fire to win” - in general there’s not exactly deep inspiring combat. it’s definitely a game that just runs in the Doom engine - you even get the Doom percentage stat screen at the end of the game. the plot is a bit like a Dark Souls fanfiction and feels amateurish at times.
my big complaint is the design feels a bit boilerplate outside of the cool visuals - very workmanlike, which is fine! in that way it made me think a little of older indie game designers like Locomalito or Daniel Remar who sort of have a retro sensibility aren’t exactly doing anything revolutionary in terms of design features in their games or whatever (Locomalito literally advertises his work as “traditional video games” which is... lol), but their games still have a distinctive mark. tho it is less refined design-wise than the output of those designers. but still it’s obviously coming from a developer with limited resources and time - and that is part of the charm. it reminds me of a lot of 00's games in that way.
but if you're expecting something more weird or off the beaten path due to the visuals, you're not really going to get that here. i wouldn't exactly call it an essential play for that reason, even if there were individual parts i liked.
there are really times where felt like it could use more work or it just didn’t feel that refined - some areas were a bit empty, there were a few times where it felt buggy or overly grindy or there were random death traps for no reason, and a lot of the bosses were just “circle strafe and hold down fire to win” - in general there’s not exactly deep inspiring combat. it’s definitely a game that just runs in the Doom engine - you even get the Doom percentage stat screen at the end of the game. the plot is a bit like a Dark Souls fanfiction and feels amateurish at times.
my big complaint is the design feels a bit boilerplate outside of the cool visuals - very workmanlike, which is fine! in that way it made me think a little of older indie game designers like Locomalito or Daniel Remar who sort of have a retro sensibility aren’t exactly doing anything revolutionary in terms of design features in their games or whatever (Locomalito literally advertises his work as “traditional video games” which is... lol), but their games still have a distinctive mark. tho it is less refined design-wise than the output of those designers. but still it’s obviously coming from a developer with limited resources and time - and that is part of the charm. it reminds me of a lot of 00's games in that way.
but if you're expecting something more weird or off the beaten path due to the visuals, you're not really going to get that here. i wouldn't exactly call it an essential play for that reason, even if there were individual parts i liked.
A pretty damm cool Metroidvania. I like basicly everything about it from the art style to the progression. I only wish your directions was a little bit clearer. There was a paticular boss fight I had to repeat about 3 times because the game didnt make it clear how to progress right after it, leading me to die mutiple times until I got back to a save point.
Looks pretty neato but that metro area had me pulling my hair out and now i am 👨🦲
an aggressively weird doom wad that's a metroidvania kind of?? i liked it but wanted more
Pretty good game, the story is kinda complicated, and its kinda dull looking at times but other times it looks really Cool. Such a surreal landscape that I backed. Also my arts in the game. In the subway there’s graffiti its says “No hope dead men praying”
A GZDoom FPS Metroidvania set in a dying, infected fantasy world. I loved this game, exploring it is great fun and it has a really cool sense of aesthetics and worldbuilding. I don't think the combat is super amazing, but it's not the focus.
I started playing this game without knowing that it was essentially a metroidvania FPS (a concept so simple yet so unexplored), and it was also another game from the developer of Shrine.
Both things hitted as good surprise once i started playing the game. It’s really great to see how Scumhead, the developer, has found a whole aesthetic of it’s own, and slowly has coupled it with a more mature gameplay.
Vomitoreum strength is not really at it’s gunplay, but mostly about the other mechanics, and of course, the exploration. Also, it’s a fairly short game, so there’s no excuses in giving this game a try.
And for sure, i’ll love to see some other develoepers exploring the idea of a metroidvania FPS.
Both things hitted as good surprise once i started playing the game. It’s really great to see how Scumhead, the developer, has found a whole aesthetic of it’s own, and slowly has coupled it with a more mature gameplay.
Vomitoreum strength is not really at it’s gunplay, but mostly about the other mechanics, and of course, the exploration. Also, it’s a fairly short game, so there’s no excuses in giving this game a try.
And for sure, i’ll love to see some other develoepers exploring the idea of a metroidvania FPS.
This is my second playthrough of this game, to gather footage for a future Youtube video where I'll give more detailed thoughts on this game. In the meantime, I'll say that it's a very neat little FPS Metroidvania!
I'm not sure Vomitoreum said much of substance about its themes of sexual violence, decay, revenge, and so on. The gunplay is surprisingly simplistic even compared to the game it's based on, is pretty unsatisfying, and quite easy. The Samus ball thing makes me feel woozy. The backtracking gets confusing and it all gets worse when you have to rely on your flashlight being a buggy little npc that floats around you and often doesn't go where you want it to. There's a lot of annoying little things in this game.
Despite all that, I can't help but kinda like it. The art is fucking gorgeous and the novelty of an FPS metroidvania lasted long enough to get me through Vomitoreum with an at least somewhat positive opinion. I want to try more gzdoom games independent from the classics...they seem like a fun area to explore.
Despite all that, I can't help but kinda like it. The art is fucking gorgeous and the novelty of an FPS metroidvania lasted long enough to get me through Vomitoreum with an at least somewhat positive opinion. I want to try more gzdoom games independent from the classics...they seem like a fun area to explore.
Bruttissimo visivamente
I've been a fan of Scumhead's works for a little while now, so when the Kickstarter for this game went up, I backed it immediately...and I'm pretty happy I did.
This was such a blast to play through. I love the Metroid influence, and I think it was executed pretty well. Some of the grotesque and haunting enemy designs were quite something to behold as well. The in-game lore for this is pretty damned dark, but I liked it a lot, and I thought the ending wrapped it all up pretty nicely.
My only complaints about this are that it's really on the short side, only taking me about 2 & 1/2 hours to finish and that it's also pretty easy in general.
I still think Shrine 2 is Scumhead's (ALSO Mengo's) best game, but Vomitoreum is pretty great still by its own right.
This was such a blast to play through. I love the Metroid influence, and I think it was executed pretty well. Some of the grotesque and haunting enemy designs were quite something to behold as well. The in-game lore for this is pretty damned dark, but I liked it a lot, and I thought the ending wrapped it all up pretty nicely.
My only complaints about this are that it's really on the short side, only taking me about 2 & 1/2 hours to finish and that it's also pretty easy in general.
I still think Shrine 2 is Scumhead's (ALSO Mengo's) best game, but Vomitoreum is pretty great still by its own right.