easily the best narrative i've experienced in a shooter to date; i acknowledge that's not exactly the highest bar, but if this were the benchmark we'd perceive the genre very differently

i'd say durandal marks two steps forward and one fairly meaty step back from its predecessor. story's the most obvious improvement thanks in no small part to the titular AI narcissist (who naturally happens to be about 100x more interesting than the marathon's leela ever could've hoped to be) as well as a plentiful amount of intriguing infodumps, which are now usually accompanied with some pretty cool 90s era pixel art to boot

gunplay sees significant improvements too, as every weapon (barring the alien blaster) looks nicer and feels way punchier. not to mention that the shotgun(s) here may be the best of any retro fps i've played; doom 2, eat your fuckin' heart out. it's nice having more aliens to shoot at too - almost every new enemy type is a welcome edition (fuck those giant missile-eating drones tho)

where things fall flatter for me, however, is level design. your mileage may vary, but as much as i love being showered with ammo (especially on total carnage, where it's a necessity to have 5835230952 grenades stockpiled) at all times, i can't say i'm half as enthused by running back and forth through such open and large mazes

it's not as if the original didn't have its share of backtracking, but there's just too much of it here. "begging for mercy makes me angry" is the most frustrating and obvious example; a long gauntlet stage that revolves around constantly returning to a central hub and covering obnoxious distances to revisit save points and health stations. where marathon exuded confidence in its placements of those things, often forcing players to abandon them and actively take risks, durandal just doesn't have the same sense of activeness or urgency in most cases. there's also far less in the way of puzzles - maybe a blessing to some, but a curse to me. oh well - at least there's plenty more terminals to make up for it

ultimately, the improvements and downgrades kinda cancel each other out. either way, you should absolutely play both games. expect strong storytelling and shooting here, but don't anticipate the same consistent quality in terms of level design

Player Non Player is one of those pleasant surprises I keep searching for. Despite the amateurish production values, there's a lot of heart and introspection. I was personally touched by a lot of the themes brought up by the various characters who follow a familiar structure of having a few unresolved issues tying them to the earth still.

The fear of death, loneliness, heartbreak, grief, body dysmorphia are all for the most part dealt in a very human way, on an island of stark contrasts, of photogrammetry asset store packs which nevertheless feel deliberate in their usage. The architecture and camera work during these character quests remain engrossing the whole way through.

But I think what elevates it is the surprising movement options for what could be dismissively labeled a walking simulator, with a hoverboard and super jump, there's a genuine appreciation and almost parody of videogame levels without being pretentious, there's a self awareness about it all that I appreciate. There's mario coins FFS. Even the way in which you interact with the world via your hand which stretches out to follow the camera in an octodad-esque manner when you press the left mouse button is used cleverly and amusingly.

It gets a recommendation from me.

Player Non Player is one of those pleasant surprises I keep searching for. Despite the amateurish production values, there's a lot of heart and introspection. I was personally touched by a lot of the themes brought up by the various characters who follow a familiar structure of having a few unresolved issues tying them to the earth still.

The fear of death, loneliness, heartbreak, grief, body dysmorphia are all for the most part dealt in a very human way, on an island of stark contrasts, of photogrammetry asset store packs which nevertheless feel deliberate in their usage. The architecture and camera work during these character quests remain engrossing the whole way through.

But I think what elevates it is the surprising movement options for what could be dismissively labeled a walking simulator, with a hoverboard and super jump, there's a genuine appreciation and almost parody of videogame levels without being pretentious, there's a self awareness about it all that I appreciate. There's mario coins FFS. Even the way in which you interact with the world via your hand which stretches out to follow the camera in an octodad-esque manner when you press the left mouse button is used cleverly and amusingly.

It gets a recommendation from me.