This review contains spoilers
So this is a really weird game for me to rate.
Objectively, Wrath is a great FPS and one I would easily recommend if you like other games like it.
...But at the same time, I can't help but feel a bit disappointed by it.
The reason I bought into Wrath when it first came out into EA all those years ago, was for the talent behind it. In particular, the involvement of several mappers behind the Arcane Dimensions mod for Quake 1, considered by many (including myself) to be the single best campaign mod for Quake 1. What makes Arcane Dimensions so great, aside from the balance changes making Q1's combat the best it can be, are the levels. Every level in AD delivers something any other mod can't, be it something you didn't even know could be done in the engine, a unique level gimmick, or a beautiful setting. They have this "Wow" factor to them that continues to exist even when I replay it all these years later, and unfortunately Wrath just doesn't have that. It's got some beautiful environments, by all means, but there's nothing really unique that I couldn't have seen anywhere else. I understand that half of them left or got the shaft from Embracer Group's bullshit, but I still can't help but compare it to AD, because that's what I was expecting. What we have here is a solid shooter (In particular especially, I love the weapons here), but nothing mind-blowing. I wanted to have those moments like I did playing AD (or hell, even Ion Fury) saying "wait, the engine can do THAT?" or "Holy shit that was an awesome fight/environment" but that's not really there. The most of that "Wow" factor really only comes from the game's beginning hours, which I already experienced years ago during the game's first EA build. Everything else is pretty standard. There's a few cool looking levels here and there (A lot of the third hub's was my favorite), but again, nothing you could experience anywhere else. The wait feels like the biggest curse this game has, because there's so many points where I can't help but ask, did this HAVE to be done in the Quake engine? If this game came out much earlier like it was supposed to, maybe some of that "wow" factor would be there. As is, I've seen what this game has done in other Quake mods, not just in AD, but other stuff like Slayer's Testaments. Again, I want to emphasize, it's not to say it's a bad game at all. But I was expecting way more from it.
There's a few small things that I don't quite understand either. Lemme start with the save system. Right off the bat, this game didn't leave a good impression replaying those first two levels that were back in the EA build. The one thing I remember the most, was how soul tethers were EVERYWHERE, and unfortunately that wasn't changed there. I was barely experiencing any challenge, and I had upwards of 20 on me in those levels because of how often they give them out, which made me think "oh god, this game is going to be absolutely braindead, isn't it?" Thankfully it's not the case and you have to play more cautiously with using them by the latter half of the first episode onwards, but at the same I don't really feel the game would've lost anything had it not existed. I honestly found it an artificial hindrance more than anything else, since there were so many points where I'd play liberally and not save, trying to save my tethers, die 30 minutes into a level, and have to start the whole thing again because I was too stubborn to use one of the 5 tethers I had.
The powerups are a bit weird too. Not to say they're bad, they're fun to use, but you can't stack them for some reason and I don't understand why. Is it a DarkPlaces thing? I don't think this game would've lost a whole lot of balance if you were able to stack some of your powerups together.
On that note too, this is more of a nitpick I'm aware, but you can't bind your weapons to side mouse buttons if you have them which really bugged me. In a game like this where there's 6+ weapons and I'm constantly switching between them, you should at least have a weapon wheel yet this game doesn't and it just makes selecting those weapons you get later in the game much more of a needless hassle, since you have to either scroll needlessly until you get them in the middle of a firefight, or stretch your pointer finger halfway across your keyboard to hit the 8 or 9 key. In games like Doom Eternal, I like to bind the Chaingun and Ballista to my side mouse buttons for that very reason, so I don't have to stretch my finger in the middle of a fight. But even with that, there's still the weapon wheel which helps with that if you don't have a mouse with extra buttons. What's stranger is there IS a inventory wheel, but only for your powerups. Why not have it for your weapons too? Again, is it just a DarkPlaces limitation? If you're making a FPS with more then 6 weapons, it should be mandatory you at least have a weapon wheel, because it just makes the final third of your game's combat encounters more frustrating then it really should be.
Finally, there's the story, which... I don't even really know what happened here. It feels like they had an outline written for an universe, then realized they had to get the game out ASAP so they just half-assed the rest of it. I get most people don't play these kinds of games for their narratives, but I like to see them at least TRY. Even your bestiary, which you'd think would have bios written for the enemies, have nothing except drawings of them. Pretty drawings at that (again makes me wish this game had an artbook of some kind), but nothing else. What also doesn't help with that is the ending with how... whatever it feels.
[SPOILERS]
So it's revealed that the shepherd that was guiding you throughout the game was actually evil the whole time and was using you to release him from his prison which is just... okay??? I kinda wasn't really given a reason to care or even any sign of this coming, it feels like they just wanted a twist for the sake of it, or they had it written out but had no time to actually figure out WHY the twist would happen. It feels so slapdash and rushed that it makes me wonder what was the point.
Don't let my criticisms prevent you from enjoying this. Again, this IS a great game and I did have some fun with it (and trust me when I say, that is a fucking miracle compared to the other garbage slipgate has been putting out lately with Graven and Kingpin Reloaded). I'd put it right below DOOM 2016 in terms of it's combat quality. Hell, for all we know, custom mapping could give this game some longevity. In a bubble, this game is good.
I just don't think it was worth the 6 year wait.
*Also to finish this off, can someone change the release date on the page on here to actually reflect when it left EA instead of when it entered it back in 2019?? It's been like this ever since the game came out and it's never changed and it's been bugging the hell out of me.
Objectively, Wrath is a great FPS and one I would easily recommend if you like other games like it.
...But at the same time, I can't help but feel a bit disappointed by it.
The reason I bought into Wrath when it first came out into EA all those years ago, was for the talent behind it. In particular, the involvement of several mappers behind the Arcane Dimensions mod for Quake 1, considered by many (including myself) to be the single best campaign mod for Quake 1. What makes Arcane Dimensions so great, aside from the balance changes making Q1's combat the best it can be, are the levels. Every level in AD delivers something any other mod can't, be it something you didn't even know could be done in the engine, a unique level gimmick, or a beautiful setting. They have this "Wow" factor to them that continues to exist even when I replay it all these years later, and unfortunately Wrath just doesn't have that. It's got some beautiful environments, by all means, but there's nothing really unique that I couldn't have seen anywhere else. I understand that half of them left or got the shaft from Embracer Group's bullshit, but I still can't help but compare it to AD, because that's what I was expecting. What we have here is a solid shooter (In particular especially, I love the weapons here), but nothing mind-blowing. I wanted to have those moments like I did playing AD (or hell, even Ion Fury) saying "wait, the engine can do THAT?" or "Holy shit that was an awesome fight/environment" but that's not really there. The most of that "Wow" factor really only comes from the game's beginning hours, which I already experienced years ago during the game's first EA build. Everything else is pretty standard. There's a few cool looking levels here and there (A lot of the third hub's was my favorite), but again, nothing you could experience anywhere else. The wait feels like the biggest curse this game has, because there's so many points where I can't help but ask, did this HAVE to be done in the Quake engine? If this game came out much earlier like it was supposed to, maybe some of that "wow" factor would be there. As is, I've seen what this game has done in other Quake mods, not just in AD, but other stuff like Slayer's Testaments. Again, I want to emphasize, it's not to say it's a bad game at all. But I was expecting way more from it.
There's a few small things that I don't quite understand either. Lemme start with the save system. Right off the bat, this game didn't leave a good impression replaying those first two levels that were back in the EA build. The one thing I remember the most, was how soul tethers were EVERYWHERE, and unfortunately that wasn't changed there. I was barely experiencing any challenge, and I had upwards of 20 on me in those levels because of how often they give them out, which made me think "oh god, this game is going to be absolutely braindead, isn't it?" Thankfully it's not the case and you have to play more cautiously with using them by the latter half of the first episode onwards, but at the same I don't really feel the game would've lost anything had it not existed. I honestly found it an artificial hindrance more than anything else, since there were so many points where I'd play liberally and not save, trying to save my tethers, die 30 minutes into a level, and have to start the whole thing again because I was too stubborn to use one of the 5 tethers I had.
The powerups are a bit weird too. Not to say they're bad, they're fun to use, but you can't stack them for some reason and I don't understand why. Is it a DarkPlaces thing? I don't think this game would've lost a whole lot of balance if you were able to stack some of your powerups together.
On that note too, this is more of a nitpick I'm aware, but you can't bind your weapons to side mouse buttons if you have them which really bugged me. In a game like this where there's 6+ weapons and I'm constantly switching between them, you should at least have a weapon wheel yet this game doesn't and it just makes selecting those weapons you get later in the game much more of a needless hassle, since you have to either scroll needlessly until you get them in the middle of a firefight, or stretch your pointer finger halfway across your keyboard to hit the 8 or 9 key. In games like Doom Eternal, I like to bind the Chaingun and Ballista to my side mouse buttons for that very reason, so I don't have to stretch my finger in the middle of a fight. But even with that, there's still the weapon wheel which helps with that if you don't have a mouse with extra buttons. What's stranger is there IS a inventory wheel, but only for your powerups. Why not have it for your weapons too? Again, is it just a DarkPlaces limitation? If you're making a FPS with more then 6 weapons, it should be mandatory you at least have a weapon wheel, because it just makes the final third of your game's combat encounters more frustrating then it really should be.
Finally, there's the story, which... I don't even really know what happened here. It feels like they had an outline written for an universe, then realized they had to get the game out ASAP so they just half-assed the rest of it. I get most people don't play these kinds of games for their narratives, but I like to see them at least TRY. Even your bestiary, which you'd think would have bios written for the enemies, have nothing except drawings of them. Pretty drawings at that (again makes me wish this game had an artbook of some kind), but nothing else. What also doesn't help with that is the ending with how... whatever it feels.
[SPOILERS]
So it's revealed that the shepherd that was guiding you throughout the game was actually evil the whole time and was using you to release him from his prison which is just... okay??? I kinda wasn't really given a reason to care or even any sign of this coming, it feels like they just wanted a twist for the sake of it, or they had it written out but had no time to actually figure out WHY the twist would happen. It feels so slapdash and rushed that it makes me wonder what was the point.
Don't let my criticisms prevent you from enjoying this. Again, this IS a great game and I did have some fun with it (and trust me when I say, that is a fucking miracle compared to the other garbage slipgate has been putting out lately with Graven and Kingpin Reloaded). I'd put it right below DOOM 2016 in terms of it's combat quality. Hell, for all we know, custom mapping could give this game some longevity. In a bubble, this game is good.
I just don't think it was worth the 6 year wait.
*Also to finish this off, can someone change the release date on the page on here to actually reflect when it left EA instead of when it entered it back in 2019?? It's been like this ever since the game came out and it's never changed and it's been bugging the hell out of me.