If you liked the first Shrine, you should play this one as well. Alternatively, if you played this first (looks to be more popular in general), I recommend you go back and give the first one a try. This one ironed out a few growing pains and is generally better, but both are solid games at the best possible price. And if you liked both Shrine and Shrine II, go check out Vomitoreum, as it's a newer effort from the developer, and basically the evolved form of these both.
This is one of the best if not THE BEST Mod for GZDoom. It's not even a debate. It TOWERS over part one which already was really good. I thought that such big improvement would be impossible, I was horrendously wrong. There were locations which climate and atmosphere would cause chills to run down my spine. Bosses who made me say 'that's so fking cool' more times than I could count. Weapon upgrades, Special abilities, gameplay changing constantly from start to finish, you simply CAN NOT get bored. The Locations are beautiful, the sprites and enemies too. Even the OST is done amazingly well for a mod. It's shocking that all this is available completely for free.
my review on steam from 17oct23:
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a bit too good for a free game!!
aesthetics are superb: 90s/00s edgy "its-not-just a-phase-mom"/anthony soprano jr wearing that marilyn manson tee - groove blended with those intoxicating splashes of lovecraft, cronenberg (weapons feel like they are straight from existenz) and hr giger.
in short: smells like musky teen outcast spirit!!
gameplay is straightforward but hella fun, the gameplay loop started making sense in the 2nd level for me, has depth/strategy and rewards backtracking for ammo/health/etc.. remember to (abuse) saves (no auto save or checkpoints).
just try it, it's free after all!!
_
a bit too good for a free game!!
aesthetics are superb: 90s/00s edgy "its-not-just a-phase-mom"/anthony soprano jr wearing that marilyn manson tee - groove blended with those intoxicating splashes of lovecraft, cronenberg (weapons feel like they are straight from existenz) and hr giger.
in short: smells like musky teen outcast spirit!!
gameplay is straightforward but hella fun, the gameplay loop started making sense in the 2nd level for me, has depth/strategy and rewards backtracking for ammo/health/etc.. remember to (abuse) saves (no auto save or checkpoints).
just try it, it's free after all!!
Huge improvement on the original. Has all of its same strengths—the beautiful art, the great atmosphere—and fixes nearly every one of its weaknesses.
Smartest change is to ammunition, which is no longer universal (a baffling decision in the original). This means ammo scarcity now pushes you to think better about which weapons to use in which situation. Enemies also force situational weapon usage—there's enemies that multiply on death, but not if you freeze them first, for instance. Altogether it's a smarter, better package with all the original's strengths. And it's still just as expensive ($0).
Smartest change is to ammunition, which is no longer universal (a baffling decision in the original). This means ammo scarcity now pushes you to think better about which weapons to use in which situation. Enemies also force situational weapon usage—there's enemies that multiply on death, but not if you freeze them first, for instance. Altogether it's a smarter, better package with all the original's strengths. And it's still just as expensive ($0).