Beneath the DarkPlaces black magic the devs pulled off lies a game that's just alright. The first hub is the most enjoyable to go through, where the level design feels the freshest and enemy positioning the least fucky.
After that the game gets progressively more predictable with its arenas and overreliance on ambushes, and no amount of chunky combat, level gimmicks and Quake-like movement can make up for that. With each level taking around 30 minutes to complete, it can become tiring to play.
The tumultuous dev cycle it went through doesn't show as much; perhaps in the boring boss fights and some levels in the final hub being a bit confusing. The quality is there, just spread too thin. Maybe I'm just too burnt out on boomer shooters.
After that the game gets progressively more predictable with its arenas and overreliance on ambushes, and no amount of chunky combat, level gimmicks and Quake-like movement can make up for that. With each level taking around 30 minutes to complete, it can become tiring to play.
The tumultuous dev cycle it went through doesn't show as much; perhaps in the boring boss fights and some levels in the final hub being a bit confusing. The quality is there, just spread too thin. Maybe I'm just too burnt out on boomer shooters.