Doing a modded fo4 run and I haven't done some of these so I may as well throw a review up
Pretty fun all things considered, better then I heard/anticipated anyways. I think a lot of people, myself included really zoned out on fo4's dlc for most of it's lifecycle since it was pretty split between settlement stuff and the actual quest/map addons most people were used to. This one's somewhere in between if we're to classify it as one or the other.
The quest itself is pretty fun, not too deep, but a fun diversion especially if you do this earlygame. I like the use of fo3 nostalgia with the returning mechanist and the new enemies are pretty fun to fight. Kind of wish most of the quest wasn't just "go to this location and kill this thing to get your next objective" but I enjoy fo4's gameplay loop enough that I can excuse it. The final arena fight at the mechanist's lair is fun too, altho for me at least it felt REALLY bullshit on survival (mind you, with TWEAKED damage values), but also survival in general kind of sucks ass in fo4 so what did I expect.
The workshop addons are really cool. You're basically able to make your own custom companion with all the robot parts we've seen across the game which allows for some really creative combinations that can also be useful in gameplay, on top of giving them the ability to do things like lockpick higher end locks like Valentine can or carry EVEN MORE loot that you can't. I sort of wouldn't recommend going all in on this your first playthrough, since you're gonna be missing out on side quests, but at the same time it's so good that it's damn tempting. Overall, fun for what it is. I think people wouldn't have issue if this was more a free update then the first paid expansion when again, most people were expecting story/quest stuff in them based off of what the last 2 games had (save for the extra weapon DLCs NV had).
Pretty fun all things considered, better then I heard/anticipated anyways. I think a lot of people, myself included really zoned out on fo4's dlc for most of it's lifecycle since it was pretty split between settlement stuff and the actual quest/map addons most people were used to. This one's somewhere in between if we're to classify it as one or the other.
The quest itself is pretty fun, not too deep, but a fun diversion especially if you do this earlygame. I like the use of fo3 nostalgia with the returning mechanist and the new enemies are pretty fun to fight. Kind of wish most of the quest wasn't just "go to this location and kill this thing to get your next objective" but I enjoy fo4's gameplay loop enough that I can excuse it. The final arena fight at the mechanist's lair is fun too, altho for me at least it felt REALLY bullshit on survival (mind you, with TWEAKED damage values), but also survival in general kind of sucks ass in fo4 so what did I expect.
The workshop addons are really cool. You're basically able to make your own custom companion with all the robot parts we've seen across the game which allows for some really creative combinations that can also be useful in gameplay, on top of giving them the ability to do things like lockpick higher end locks like Valentine can or carry EVEN MORE loot that you can't. I sort of wouldn't recommend going all in on this your first playthrough, since you're gonna be missing out on side quests, but at the same time it's so good that it's damn tempting. Overall, fun for what it is. I think people wouldn't have issue if this was more a free update then the first paid expansion when again, most people were expecting story/quest stuff in them based off of what the last 2 games had (save for the extra weapon DLCs NV had).
1997
Fallout 1 was always one of those games that kinda eluded me for the longest time. It was one of those games that I'd try once, get incredibly confused, and put it down never to pick it up again. Idk exactly where I'm going with this but MAN am I glad I finally decided to give it another shot since it really does hold up well for the most part barring the initial learning curve and some minor issues.
(For context, I played this with the Fallout1in2 mod that basically ports the game over to 2's engine with many of it's QoL enhancements, and I highly recommend you do the same if you do have any interest playing this. It's a little finnicky to set up with resolutions but it's very worth it.)
First off, the atmosphere and visuals are top tier imho, even all these years later. Sure, I already had some exposure to Mark Morgan's unnerving compositions thanks to it being featured in future games such as New Vegas but man is it as great as ever here. It effortlessly manages to get me sucked in every time. And the visuals and talking heads, while obviously dated by today's standards, have this sort of charm to it that persists all these years later I feel, helped even more by basically all of them having probably some of the best voice acting I've ever heard in a game of this era next to maybe the original Thief games.
In general this game has this sense of liveliness despite the obvious limitedness when you really look at it from a bigger angle. There's only 12 named locations in total, with only about 7 of those having a good deal of side quests you can take on, but even with that each one just feels alive and believable, honestly I'd debate maybe a bit moreso then the best modern Bethesda entries. A part of that is the mind filling in the blanks a bit sure, but even still idk, everything in this game just feels really well thought out on the worldbuilding and writing end.
The way this game handles its pacing and building up the story period holds up so well. Again, even despite the limited amount of locations, you feel this sense of wonder as you find new named locations, and learn more about this world and what happened to it. I love as well how the children of the cathedral are seen here and there, usually offering free healing, lulling you into a sense of false security, only for the truth to become more and more apparent as you do more quests and build your way up to ending their plans.
What I also liked about a lot of this game's quests is that there was always at least 4 or so ways to complete it, really encouraging players to think outside the box in terms of their skills and also encouraging replay value further. I didn't even realize until I was done with the game that you could activate the warhead in the basement and potentially not even have to deal with The Master, which is just so cool to me. Stuff like that or being able to go to Mariposa early if you decide to let yourself get captured by the Mutant in Necropolis is just such cool details that make me wanna see how they play out another time. I admittedly haven't played a whole lot of CRPGs so this is probably commonplace there, but even then I really enjoyed it.
I will say that some aspects of character building aren't perfect- more specifically this game sort of shares the same issue Deus Ex has where some skills are kind of just pointless and useless (I can only think of maybe 2 whole points in the game where the trap skill would be useful) and that if you aren't building high agility for the extra AP in combat then you are really nerfing yourself for when you DO get in combat encounters, which IS mandatory at certain points.
Speaking of, probably my biggest issue with this game has to be the overworld random encounters. They aren't inherently bad per se, especially since you can just run out of them if you've got high agility but the ones you need to deal with on your way to Mariposa can be AWFUL if you don't have a lot of healing items (which even then probably wouldn't help that much). There were so many points where just one minigun super mutant would get a critical and instantly delete me from existence, EVEN WITH HARDENED POWER ARMOR. And if you somehow stumble upon two at once, or one with a flamer? That's a save reload right there. This part of the game alone I can't imagine it being possible to do in just 1 save or without saving period, since you WILL die at least once here unless you decide to grind beforehand. Doesn't help either that it's so far away from the Brotherhood base, and you're gonna be having to make 2 round trips at least; once to complete the "scout to the north objective" (because there's no way in hell you're gonna take it down with just you and your companions), and again to actually initiate the attack with help from the brotherhood. And the mutants don't go away either once you blow up the vats, so you'll still be seeing patrols on your way back. Again, I'm not against random encounters, but the amount of times I got cheesed because of RNG being in the enemy's favor is just too much to count.
Ironically, what I found was the best way to fast travel, was doing caravan jobs, since they don't show the map overworld screen and just fast-foward you to whatever encounters you see on the road (which aren't much, I think you can only get one random encounter per each trip), are easy to deal with AND you get paid even if you decide not to go back to the Hub. Honest to god, my grinding stat before I decided to go to the cathedral was alternating between Crimson Caravan and the Far Go Traders depending on which one had a leave date that was closer, and repeating until I felt I was good.
I think my only other issues is that the water chip time limit early on can be a bit daunting to newcomers (it really isn't, I think I only bought one shipment from the water merchants to extend the timer) but even then it's not hard to get it if you spend your time wisely and do some side quests to level yourself up here and there, and the game really does open up even more after that. That, and the UI does take some learning (I didn't even realize you could unload weapons for more ammo until halfway through the game), but once you do it becomes second nature.
Either way, this game holds up exceptionally well and I feel is worth a play if you're either already into Fallout, or you just like TTRPGs in general. No shit, with how popular games like BG3 were last year I see no reason why anyone who liked that game or general TTRPG systems couldn't get into this one barring the UI learning curve (entirely the point I'm aware, since the systems were based off of GURPS). And from what I'm aware, Fallout 2 is just this game but better and with more content, so I'm really excited to give that a shot once I can. Overall, a great time and one I'm finally happy I picked up.
(For context, I played this with the Fallout1in2 mod that basically ports the game over to 2's engine with many of it's QoL enhancements, and I highly recommend you do the same if you do have any interest playing this. It's a little finnicky to set up with resolutions but it's very worth it.)
First off, the atmosphere and visuals are top tier imho, even all these years later. Sure, I already had some exposure to Mark Morgan's unnerving compositions thanks to it being featured in future games such as New Vegas but man is it as great as ever here. It effortlessly manages to get me sucked in every time. And the visuals and talking heads, while obviously dated by today's standards, have this sort of charm to it that persists all these years later I feel, helped even more by basically all of them having probably some of the best voice acting I've ever heard in a game of this era next to maybe the original Thief games.
In general this game has this sense of liveliness despite the obvious limitedness when you really look at it from a bigger angle. There's only 12 named locations in total, with only about 7 of those having a good deal of side quests you can take on, but even with that each one just feels alive and believable, honestly I'd debate maybe a bit moreso then the best modern Bethesda entries. A part of that is the mind filling in the blanks a bit sure, but even still idk, everything in this game just feels really well thought out on the worldbuilding and writing end.
The way this game handles its pacing and building up the story period holds up so well. Again, even despite the limited amount of locations, you feel this sense of wonder as you find new named locations, and learn more about this world and what happened to it. I love as well how the children of the cathedral are seen here and there, usually offering free healing, lulling you into a sense of false security, only for the truth to become more and more apparent as you do more quests and build your way up to ending their plans.
What I also liked about a lot of this game's quests is that there was always at least 4 or so ways to complete it, really encouraging players to think outside the box in terms of their skills and also encouraging replay value further. I didn't even realize until I was done with the game that you could activate the warhead in the basement and potentially not even have to deal with The Master, which is just so cool to me. Stuff like that or being able to go to Mariposa early if you decide to let yourself get captured by the Mutant in Necropolis is just such cool details that make me wanna see how they play out another time. I admittedly haven't played a whole lot of CRPGs so this is probably commonplace there, but even then I really enjoyed it.
I will say that some aspects of character building aren't perfect- more specifically this game sort of shares the same issue Deus Ex has where some skills are kind of just pointless and useless (I can only think of maybe 2 whole points in the game where the trap skill would be useful) and that if you aren't building high agility for the extra AP in combat then you are really nerfing yourself for when you DO get in combat encounters, which IS mandatory at certain points.
Speaking of, probably my biggest issue with this game has to be the overworld random encounters. They aren't inherently bad per se, especially since you can just run out of them if you've got high agility but the ones you need to deal with on your way to Mariposa can be AWFUL if you don't have a lot of healing items (which even then probably wouldn't help that much). There were so many points where just one minigun super mutant would get a critical and instantly delete me from existence, EVEN WITH HARDENED POWER ARMOR. And if you somehow stumble upon two at once, or one with a flamer? That's a save reload right there. This part of the game alone I can't imagine it being possible to do in just 1 save or without saving period, since you WILL die at least once here unless you decide to grind beforehand. Doesn't help either that it's so far away from the Brotherhood base, and you're gonna be having to make 2 round trips at least; once to complete the "scout to the north objective" (because there's no way in hell you're gonna take it down with just you and your companions), and again to actually initiate the attack with help from the brotherhood. And the mutants don't go away either once you blow up the vats, so you'll still be seeing patrols on your way back. Again, I'm not against random encounters, but the amount of times I got cheesed because of RNG being in the enemy's favor is just too much to count.
Ironically, what I found was the best way to fast travel, was doing caravan jobs, since they don't show the map overworld screen and just fast-foward you to whatever encounters you see on the road (which aren't much, I think you can only get one random encounter per each trip), are easy to deal with AND you get paid even if you decide not to go back to the Hub. Honest to god, my grinding stat before I decided to go to the cathedral was alternating between Crimson Caravan and the Far Go Traders depending on which one had a leave date that was closer, and repeating until I felt I was good.
I think my only other issues is that the water chip time limit early on can be a bit daunting to newcomers (it really isn't, I think I only bought one shipment from the water merchants to extend the timer) but even then it's not hard to get it if you spend your time wisely and do some side quests to level yourself up here and there, and the game really does open up even more after that. That, and the UI does take some learning (I didn't even realize you could unload weapons for more ammo until halfway through the game), but once you do it becomes second nature.
Either way, this game holds up exceptionally well and I feel is worth a play if you're either already into Fallout, or you just like TTRPGs in general. No shit, with how popular games like BG3 were last year I see no reason why anyone who liked that game or general TTRPG systems couldn't get into this one barring the UI learning curve (entirely the point I'm aware, since the systems were based off of GURPS). And from what I'm aware, Fallout 2 is just this game but better and with more content, so I'm really excited to give that a shot once I can. Overall, a great time and one I'm finally happy I picked up.
2024
Where do I even start. Do I talk about how Ion Fury is my single favorite indie fps ever made and a near-perfect experience? Do I talk about the Half-Life series, and how it single-handedly kickstarted my love for FPS games, and how the first one is still my favorite overall game ever all these years later? I don't know. Let's just get this over with.
Phantom Fury is not good. It's a buggy, subpar, amateur, unfinished, unfocused mess of a game that clearly needed another year or two to fix all it's problems, and I truly believe that no amount of patches will fix the underlying design issues. It's not the worst indie FPS I've played, nor do I think it is on par with retail DNF or Blood 2, but some of the comparisons are valid in some aspects.
For starters, I want to emphasize: I did not pay for this game because I refuse to support people who both publicly and privately shit on reviewers that THEY THEMSELVES gave out codes for just because they didn't exactly have nice things to say. Not even full on malicious takedowns of the game mind you, just saying they didn't like it and giving constructive criticism about it. But this is a whole another topic entirely.
Let's get the obvious out of the way first: Phantom Fury's inspirations are obvious if you've seen that reveal trailer from 2 years back-- mixing together the pre-existing success of Voidpoint's Ion Fury (which to remind you, that team had NOTHING to do with this game), and blending it together with the linear narrative structure seen in games like Half-Life, and more specifically, the early 2000s-era builds of Duke Nukem Forever.
This is NOT a Half-Life game, nor is it anything CLOSE to the older DNF builds. It tries to be, but it's attempts after the first few levels come down to just reminding you of those games and how you could be playing them instead. Half-Life's level design was incredibly linear, with minimal backtracking save for a few chapters (such as HL1's Blast Pit), usually with a clear objective set by the game and you going from point A to B to C. The level design in Phantom Fury instead mostly comprises of standard, labyrinthian keyhunts you'd see in other more DOOM-inspired games, with little to no signposting to speak of save for an objective list. There was one point where I genuinely got lost for 30 minutes because a fucking ladder blended into the environment and I didn't know I had to go back to where I just was AT THE START OF A LEVEL. It's just so bad.
Let's continue with what to most will be a nitpick, but matters a lot when talking about Half-Life inspired games. What immediately comes to mind when you think of HL's presentation and design? An unbroken first-person narrative, with each area seamlessly transitioning to the next. The game does do this during some of the first few levels, but the illusion is immediately broken by forcing a fade to black and a loading screen with just the game's title art. Half-life's loading screens simply just froze on the last thing you saw as you loaded to the next level, making for only a small break and not taking you out of the setting. And even aside from this, the game just stops trying with seamlessly connecting the levels after the halfway point, simply just teleporting you from one area to the next.
Going back to level design, the layouts are painfully boring, and the location variety is nothing you've seen before in other games. I find it so funny how this game is described by 3DR as a "road trip" game, but really thinking about it, how many places did we go in total? 14 of this game's 18 levels take place in either a desert-like location, or a secret lab of some kind. It's only for the game's final two levels that the variety changes, but even with that, Chicago feels nothing more but a bootleg gm_bigcity but with random enemies placed all over the place. You're mostly stuck to the road with being unable to go inside a lot of buildings, and almost no verticality to speak of. And even with that, most of this game's levels just love to replicate HL1/2's big setpieces except done worse in every way. Remember the helicopter fight in surface tension on the cliffside? Here it is again with basically no level design difference! Remember Water Hazard's chase sequence with all the parked combine cars shooting at you? Here it is again except with a bootleg Halo warthog that controls horribly and no risk of death in an already braindead game! Remember HL2's final few chapters as you storm City 17, with Dr. Breen on the TVs in the background scolding you? Here it is again, except in Chicago with worse level and combat design and no AI squadmates!
Combat and enemy encounter design is an actual joke. 90% of the combat encounters in this game boil down to "here's 20 of the same enemies, have fun!" There is no variation here whatsoever, not helped by the AI being dumb as a sack of bricks. This game loves to throw the zombie enemies at you in large groups and they get so tiring to fight fast, and heavier enemies in groups are just pure bullshit. I played on normal difficulty and this game could not find a medium between purely braindead and pure bullshit. This in particular is where I feel some of the B2 comparison is justified, since it's clear this game wants to be as hard as Ion Fury, yet doesn't understand just why that game was still fair in the first place, and by extension, WHY Half-Life's combat was also challenging yet fair. The EDF soldier AI in the DNF 2001 leak is more intelligent and fun to fight, and it wasn't even for a game that was considered finished, for christ's sake. On top of this, no quicksaves. Only checkpoints. This wouldn't be an issue if this was like a modern DOOM game where it made a checkpoint before and after every enemy encounter, but this game does it whenever the hell it feels like it. I've had to replay 10+ minute sections because I died to one bullshit enemy shot and because the game is so fucking stingy with health pickups and how much they actually give you for the first 2/3rds. How the hell hasn't this company learned since the release of ROTT 2013 to put quicksaves in your retro shooters?
If you think anything in this game is new or would expand upon what we saw in that iconic DNF 2001 trailer, just don't. Aside from a bar level obviously alluding to the Slick Willy and a shield powerup that mechanically isn't different from the riot shield we saw in that trailer, there is nothing new here. It really makes me wonder just how much was even pulled from those old builds. WAS there anything new to pull from? The 01 build had better versions that exist out there that 3DR had ownership to, did they have to cut it out?
The weapons do feel better from the demo, but they still don't feel good at all and don't hold a candle to either DNF01, HL or IF's loadout in terms of raw satisfaction. They honestly feel artificially tweaked, since the only real difference I feel now is that the enemies are more prone to gibbing. Seriously, I'll shoot a guy in the head with the shitty BASE PISTOL, and somehow their leg will come off as well alongside exploding their head. The bowling bombs were done so dirty here. What was once a satisfying addition to build engine explosive weapons is now a frustratingly inconsistent thing that cannot snap onto enemies for the life of them. The Ion Bow is... fine, but it feels signifigantly nerfed from how it was in IF since the charged autofire now has a slower fire rate and now the triple-shot alt fire is replaced with... aiming down sights for some reason. Why? I feel like the loverboy had an alright transition, and the motherflakker is probably the most satisfying weapon period in this game, but that's about it. Everything else just feels bad.
The weapon mods you can find through upgrades are just plain useless for the most part. There's a couple of useful ones like the dual welding for the smgs but the rest either wern't fun to use or gave the weapon obvious downsides (Why do BOTH bowling bomb mods REMOVE the tracking???). I didn't even bother with half of them after a certain point since it was clear most of the actually valuable upgrades were for the arm and suit. On top of this, after the halfway point of the game new weapons you get just don't get mods. At all. Even the selection you have in the game as-is feels pitiful, since some guns only have one mod upgrade for them. This is another thing that just SCREAMS "unfinished and rushed out the door".
The story just makes no sense. Ignoring the fact that this supposedly takes place after Aftershock and Shelly is just fine working with the GDF again after they actively funded Heskel's experiments and hunted her down, this game just tries too hard with trying to make me care. IF didn't need a complicated story other then "stop Heskel", and neither was DNF01 if the leak was anything to go by. The deepest it got was the president having issues with how Duke handled the aliens but that was that. Even with that, literally WHAT was the motivation bootleg general graves had for turning on Shelly? Turning people into cyborgs like Heskel? That'd sure be cool IF WE COULD SEE THAT. And if that wasn't enough, this game has the BALLS to throw in ANOTHER TWIST VILLAIN AT IN THE LAST 5 MINUTES FOR THE SAKE OF ONE FINAL BOSS. Christ, and I thought Wrath's twist was hastily revealed and unnecessary. And it's done so stupidly too, seriously, the exact MOMENT mission control lady started babbling on about how Heskel could've saved the world Shelly should've just shot her on the spot. This game has a large emphasis on melodrama period and it's so fucking cringe. Shelly's entire trauma is that she couldn't defuse one bomb but at the end she IS able to defuse it! Just none of this was needed.
This game has no personality period. Unlike IF where it clearly had attitude from the start and actually had some good laughs here and there, this game doesn't even TRY with that. There's no cool locations or memorable lines at all, it's just a slog the whole way through. Shelly's voice actress sounds like she's just phoning it in here, which is insane to me since she was GREAT in aftershock. There's no punch or snarkiness to her voice, she just sounds done with everyone. The only thing I found funny aside from the occasional bugs was a billboard in the Chicago level reading "A vote for Sneed is a vote against Chuck" and that's just because I think sneedposting is still funny. There's nothing else outside of that, or any clever satirical bits like what we saw in the gun shop in Aftershock's Five finger discount level.
I could go on but honestly I'm getting bored just thinking about this game further. I'd say wait for a heavy discount, but just... no, don't even bother. You're not missing out if you skip this, and there's plenty of experiences for either less or the same amount as this game that are more worth your time.
Do you want to see what DNF01 could've been like? Play the restoration project. It's just one chapter, but it's a hell of a lot more enjoyable then this alongside being free.
Do you want a Half-Life campaign that FEELS like a continuation of the games on top of expanding on the gameplay and universe of HL2? Play Entropy Zero 2. It's absolutely free and is made by people who actually understand Half-Life's design philosophy.
Do you want a fun yet challenging retro shooter? Play Ion Fury. It's the exact same price as Phantom Fury yet is a much better experience and feels fresh the whole way through. Even for 10 bucks more the Aftershock bundle is well worth the money.
And yknow, some might look at this game, without looking at all the other shady dev and pr comments, saying "well, it's not THAT bad!", and yknow what, it is playable. But it isn't fun. Playable should be the minimum expected here, and everything I listed above is an experience more worth your time and money.
I am just done with 3DR after this. Unless it's for something like Cultic I'm not bothering with anything Slipgate Ironworks has involvement with. Never again.
At least Core Decay is safe I think.
Phantom Fury is not good. It's a buggy, subpar, amateur, unfinished, unfocused mess of a game that clearly needed another year or two to fix all it's problems, and I truly believe that no amount of patches will fix the underlying design issues. It's not the worst indie FPS I've played, nor do I think it is on par with retail DNF or Blood 2, but some of the comparisons are valid in some aspects.
For starters, I want to emphasize: I did not pay for this game because I refuse to support people who both publicly and privately shit on reviewers that THEY THEMSELVES gave out codes for just because they didn't exactly have nice things to say. Not even full on malicious takedowns of the game mind you, just saying they didn't like it and giving constructive criticism about it. But this is a whole another topic entirely.
Let's get the obvious out of the way first: Phantom Fury's inspirations are obvious if you've seen that reveal trailer from 2 years back-- mixing together the pre-existing success of Voidpoint's Ion Fury (which to remind you, that team had NOTHING to do with this game), and blending it together with the linear narrative structure seen in games like Half-Life, and more specifically, the early 2000s-era builds of Duke Nukem Forever.
This is NOT a Half-Life game, nor is it anything CLOSE to the older DNF builds. It tries to be, but it's attempts after the first few levels come down to just reminding you of those games and how you could be playing them instead. Half-Life's level design was incredibly linear, with minimal backtracking save for a few chapters (such as HL1's Blast Pit), usually with a clear objective set by the game and you going from point A to B to C. The level design in Phantom Fury instead mostly comprises of standard, labyrinthian keyhunts you'd see in other more DOOM-inspired games, with little to no signposting to speak of save for an objective list. There was one point where I genuinely got lost for 30 minutes because a fucking ladder blended into the environment and I didn't know I had to go back to where I just was AT THE START OF A LEVEL. It's just so bad.
Let's continue with what to most will be a nitpick, but matters a lot when talking about Half-Life inspired games. What immediately comes to mind when you think of HL's presentation and design? An unbroken first-person narrative, with each area seamlessly transitioning to the next. The game does do this during some of the first few levels, but the illusion is immediately broken by forcing a fade to black and a loading screen with just the game's title art. Half-life's loading screens simply just froze on the last thing you saw as you loaded to the next level, making for only a small break and not taking you out of the setting. And even aside from this, the game just stops trying with seamlessly connecting the levels after the halfway point, simply just teleporting you from one area to the next.
Going back to level design, the layouts are painfully boring, and the location variety is nothing you've seen before in other games. I find it so funny how this game is described by 3DR as a "road trip" game, but really thinking about it, how many places did we go in total? 14 of this game's 18 levels take place in either a desert-like location, or a secret lab of some kind. It's only for the game's final two levels that the variety changes, but even with that, Chicago feels nothing more but a bootleg gm_bigcity but with random enemies placed all over the place. You're mostly stuck to the road with being unable to go inside a lot of buildings, and almost no verticality to speak of. And even with that, most of this game's levels just love to replicate HL1/2's big setpieces except done worse in every way. Remember the helicopter fight in surface tension on the cliffside? Here it is again with basically no level design difference! Remember Water Hazard's chase sequence with all the parked combine cars shooting at you? Here it is again except with a bootleg Halo warthog that controls horribly and no risk of death in an already braindead game! Remember HL2's final few chapters as you storm City 17, with Dr. Breen on the TVs in the background scolding you? Here it is again, except in Chicago with worse level and combat design and no AI squadmates!
Combat and enemy encounter design is an actual joke. 90% of the combat encounters in this game boil down to "here's 20 of the same enemies, have fun!" There is no variation here whatsoever, not helped by the AI being dumb as a sack of bricks. This game loves to throw the zombie enemies at you in large groups and they get so tiring to fight fast, and heavier enemies in groups are just pure bullshit. I played on normal difficulty and this game could not find a medium between purely braindead and pure bullshit. This in particular is where I feel some of the B2 comparison is justified, since it's clear this game wants to be as hard as Ion Fury, yet doesn't understand just why that game was still fair in the first place, and by extension, WHY Half-Life's combat was also challenging yet fair. The EDF soldier AI in the DNF 2001 leak is more intelligent and fun to fight, and it wasn't even for a game that was considered finished, for christ's sake. On top of this, no quicksaves. Only checkpoints. This wouldn't be an issue if this was like a modern DOOM game where it made a checkpoint before and after every enemy encounter, but this game does it whenever the hell it feels like it. I've had to replay 10+ minute sections because I died to one bullshit enemy shot and because the game is so fucking stingy with health pickups and how much they actually give you for the first 2/3rds. How the hell hasn't this company learned since the release of ROTT 2013 to put quicksaves in your retro shooters?
If you think anything in this game is new or would expand upon what we saw in that iconic DNF 2001 trailer, just don't. Aside from a bar level obviously alluding to the Slick Willy and a shield powerup that mechanically isn't different from the riot shield we saw in that trailer, there is nothing new here. It really makes me wonder just how much was even pulled from those old builds. WAS there anything new to pull from? The 01 build had better versions that exist out there that 3DR had ownership to, did they have to cut it out?
The weapons do feel better from the demo, but they still don't feel good at all and don't hold a candle to either DNF01, HL or IF's loadout in terms of raw satisfaction. They honestly feel artificially tweaked, since the only real difference I feel now is that the enemies are more prone to gibbing. Seriously, I'll shoot a guy in the head with the shitty BASE PISTOL, and somehow their leg will come off as well alongside exploding their head. The bowling bombs were done so dirty here. What was once a satisfying addition to build engine explosive weapons is now a frustratingly inconsistent thing that cannot snap onto enemies for the life of them. The Ion Bow is... fine, but it feels signifigantly nerfed from how it was in IF since the charged autofire now has a slower fire rate and now the triple-shot alt fire is replaced with... aiming down sights for some reason. Why? I feel like the loverboy had an alright transition, and the motherflakker is probably the most satisfying weapon period in this game, but that's about it. Everything else just feels bad.
The weapon mods you can find through upgrades are just plain useless for the most part. There's a couple of useful ones like the dual welding for the smgs but the rest either wern't fun to use or gave the weapon obvious downsides (Why do BOTH bowling bomb mods REMOVE the tracking???). I didn't even bother with half of them after a certain point since it was clear most of the actually valuable upgrades were for the arm and suit. On top of this, after the halfway point of the game new weapons you get just don't get mods. At all. Even the selection you have in the game as-is feels pitiful, since some guns only have one mod upgrade for them. This is another thing that just SCREAMS "unfinished and rushed out the door".
The story just makes no sense. Ignoring the fact that this supposedly takes place after Aftershock and Shelly is just fine working with the GDF again after they actively funded Heskel's experiments and hunted her down, this game just tries too hard with trying to make me care. IF didn't need a complicated story other then "stop Heskel", and neither was DNF01 if the leak was anything to go by. The deepest it got was the president having issues with how Duke handled the aliens but that was that. Even with that, literally WHAT was the motivation bootleg general graves had for turning on Shelly? Turning people into cyborgs like Heskel? That'd sure be cool IF WE COULD SEE THAT. And if that wasn't enough, this game has the BALLS to throw in ANOTHER TWIST VILLAIN AT IN THE LAST 5 MINUTES FOR THE SAKE OF ONE FINAL BOSS. Christ, and I thought Wrath's twist was hastily revealed and unnecessary. And it's done so stupidly too, seriously, the exact MOMENT mission control lady started babbling on about how Heskel could've saved the world Shelly should've just shot her on the spot. This game has a large emphasis on melodrama period and it's so fucking cringe. Shelly's entire trauma is that she couldn't defuse one bomb but at the end she IS able to defuse it! Just none of this was needed.
This game has no personality period. Unlike IF where it clearly had attitude from the start and actually had some good laughs here and there, this game doesn't even TRY with that. There's no cool locations or memorable lines at all, it's just a slog the whole way through. Shelly's voice actress sounds like she's just phoning it in here, which is insane to me since she was GREAT in aftershock. There's no punch or snarkiness to her voice, she just sounds done with everyone. The only thing I found funny aside from the occasional bugs was a billboard in the Chicago level reading "A vote for Sneed is a vote against Chuck" and that's just because I think sneedposting is still funny. There's nothing else outside of that, or any clever satirical bits like what we saw in the gun shop in Aftershock's Five finger discount level.
I could go on but honestly I'm getting bored just thinking about this game further. I'd say wait for a heavy discount, but just... no, don't even bother. You're not missing out if you skip this, and there's plenty of experiences for either less or the same amount as this game that are more worth your time.
Do you want to see what DNF01 could've been like? Play the restoration project. It's just one chapter, but it's a hell of a lot more enjoyable then this alongside being free.
Do you want a Half-Life campaign that FEELS like a continuation of the games on top of expanding on the gameplay and universe of HL2? Play Entropy Zero 2. It's absolutely free and is made by people who actually understand Half-Life's design philosophy.
Do you want a fun yet challenging retro shooter? Play Ion Fury. It's the exact same price as Phantom Fury yet is a much better experience and feels fresh the whole way through. Even for 10 bucks more the Aftershock bundle is well worth the money.
And yknow, some might look at this game, without looking at all the other shady dev and pr comments, saying "well, it's not THAT bad!", and yknow what, it is playable. But it isn't fun. Playable should be the minimum expected here, and everything I listed above is an experience more worth your time and money.
I am just done with 3DR after this. Unless it's for something like Cultic I'm not bothering with anything Slipgate Ironworks has involvement with. Never again.
At least Core Decay is safe I think.
2023
Another game I started off really weird with. I played this on launch, really excited to see a reimagining of what would end up inspiring games like PREY and Bioshock and... man was I disappointed. It wasn't... bad per se, but it felt way too cryptic for its own good and relied too much on being faithful to the original for the sake of the fans. A great thing if you are indeed a fan of the original, but not a good thing if you are a newcomer.
After playing SS2 and falling in love with that game so much to the point where it quickly became an all-time favorite for me, I was interested in revisiting this game again, and the recent patch felt like the best opportunity. Does it click fully for me now?
Yes and no. I appreciate and respect this game a lot more now then I did prior, especially as a remake, but I still largely prefer SS2 and I really feel that you should play that game first if you're at all interested in this franchise. That's a game I think anyone can pick up and enjoy. If you liked SS2 already and want something more challenging to pick at your brain or are incredibly familiar with the original, then this game is for you.
One thing I'll immediately say is PLAY ON MISSION DIFFICULTY 1 IF YOU AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH THIS GAME IN ANY CAPACITY. And if anyone complains at you for doing this, fuck them. This is the big thing that really made me want to revisit this game, since mission skill 1 is supposed to give you waypoints to your objectives on your map and they supposedly didn't work on launch for some reason. And I think save for some of the bugs and jankiness that exist as of writing, this is a great way for people to play this game at first. It's not to say this game is unnavigable outside of it, this game does a good job telling you what to do so long as you listen to audio logs and emails (and the game just gives you the waypoints, no objective list, you still need to put the pieces together to figure out just HOW to do it which I enjoy), but what you have to memorize is way more then in SS2 (a game that actually KEEPS TRACK of your objectives on any skill), and there's no way to take notes in-game save for the steam overlay if you play on there. That and the later half of this game really likes to force you to backtrack to previous floors just to grab one specific item or memorize something for later. At least Abe's head is on the same floor as the door you need to unlock, but if I didn't know I had to memorize the CPU node terminal numbers on my first playthrough to get the self-destruct code, I would've HATED having to go back to write them down again. My only real issue with the waypoints is that sometimes they won't disappear after you did what was tagged in that area which can cause a bit of confusion on what to do next if your brain forgets what you have to do next. As an example, the objective marker on the Cyberspace computer that unlocked the doors to the antennae on engineering didn't clear up even after I destroyed all the locks, which made me second guess myself for a bit since I remember on my first playthrough I forgot one and had to go back to destroy the last one. Again, not a bad thing, and for all I know this'll get fixed soon, but it happened pretty often and it bugged me.
Another thing I'll say off the bat is I really didn't give the combat as much praise as I probably should've back then. Sure, anything is better then the OG's combat, but this game's gunplay is REALLY satisfying. Headshots are meaty and satisfying and slicing a dude with a laser rapier in half and seeing all the blood splash out never gets old. I really appreciated this game's focus on survival period this time around, compared to how frustrated I felt on my first run. When I got into that mindset of vaporizing worthless items for scrap, keeping the ones that were more valuable to recycle later, and playing liberally with ammo and using all my resources everything really clicked with me. At the very least I just wish there was an auto-vaporize function for items that have no as-is recycle value, since it meant after a certain point I focused more on the items that I KNEW had a decent payout, being electronics and broken weapons.
The cyberspace sections aren't bad either imo. I turned them to difficulty 1 on my first playthrough since I remember really hating them in the demo, but idk they were a nice pacebreaker. They aren't exactly complex, but they're fun and simplistic for what they are.
I think timing was what really set this game back for me when it first came out. Comparing this again to something like the RE1 remake, at least RE had so many other games before it that proved to be good starter points. System Shock hasn't had a game since 1999, so in turn more people are inclined to make this their starting point, when it's easily the second least approachable in the series next to the OG, and leading to unfair comparisons (Me wishing this game played more like BioShock 1 was a bad take looking back, since that series plays nothing alike to this one, even compared to SS2). Again, if you want to play this game, either play 2 first or be familiar with the OG, and set that difficulty to 1. Overall a fun time and a great remake, but WILL be make or break for people if you aren't accustomed to this game's specific style of design.
After playing SS2 and falling in love with that game so much to the point where it quickly became an all-time favorite for me, I was interested in revisiting this game again, and the recent patch felt like the best opportunity. Does it click fully for me now?
Yes and no. I appreciate and respect this game a lot more now then I did prior, especially as a remake, but I still largely prefer SS2 and I really feel that you should play that game first if you're at all interested in this franchise. That's a game I think anyone can pick up and enjoy. If you liked SS2 already and want something more challenging to pick at your brain or are incredibly familiar with the original, then this game is for you.
One thing I'll immediately say is PLAY ON MISSION DIFFICULTY 1 IF YOU AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH THIS GAME IN ANY CAPACITY. And if anyone complains at you for doing this, fuck them. This is the big thing that really made me want to revisit this game, since mission skill 1 is supposed to give you waypoints to your objectives on your map and they supposedly didn't work on launch for some reason. And I think save for some of the bugs and jankiness that exist as of writing, this is a great way for people to play this game at first. It's not to say this game is unnavigable outside of it, this game does a good job telling you what to do so long as you listen to audio logs and emails (and the game just gives you the waypoints, no objective list, you still need to put the pieces together to figure out just HOW to do it which I enjoy), but what you have to memorize is way more then in SS2 (a game that actually KEEPS TRACK of your objectives on any skill), and there's no way to take notes in-game save for the steam overlay if you play on there. That and the later half of this game really likes to force you to backtrack to previous floors just to grab one specific item or memorize something for later. At least Abe's head is on the same floor as the door you need to unlock, but if I didn't know I had to memorize the CPU node terminal numbers on my first playthrough to get the self-destruct code, I would've HATED having to go back to write them down again. My only real issue with the waypoints is that sometimes they won't disappear after you did what was tagged in that area which can cause a bit of confusion on what to do next if your brain forgets what you have to do next. As an example, the objective marker on the Cyberspace computer that unlocked the doors to the antennae on engineering didn't clear up even after I destroyed all the locks, which made me second guess myself for a bit since I remember on my first playthrough I forgot one and had to go back to destroy the last one. Again, not a bad thing, and for all I know this'll get fixed soon, but it happened pretty often and it bugged me.
Another thing I'll say off the bat is I really didn't give the combat as much praise as I probably should've back then. Sure, anything is better then the OG's combat, but this game's gunplay is REALLY satisfying. Headshots are meaty and satisfying and slicing a dude with a laser rapier in half and seeing all the blood splash out never gets old. I really appreciated this game's focus on survival period this time around, compared to how frustrated I felt on my first run. When I got into that mindset of vaporizing worthless items for scrap, keeping the ones that were more valuable to recycle later, and playing liberally with ammo and using all my resources everything really clicked with me. At the very least I just wish there was an auto-vaporize function for items that have no as-is recycle value, since it meant after a certain point I focused more on the items that I KNEW had a decent payout, being electronics and broken weapons.
The cyberspace sections aren't bad either imo. I turned them to difficulty 1 on my first playthrough since I remember really hating them in the demo, but idk they were a nice pacebreaker. They aren't exactly complex, but they're fun and simplistic for what they are.
I think timing was what really set this game back for me when it first came out. Comparing this again to something like the RE1 remake, at least RE had so many other games before it that proved to be good starter points. System Shock hasn't had a game since 1999, so in turn more people are inclined to make this their starting point, when it's easily the second least approachable in the series next to the OG, and leading to unfair comparisons (Me wishing this game played more like BioShock 1 was a bad take looking back, since that series plays nothing alike to this one, even compared to SS2). Again, if you want to play this game, either play 2 first or be familiar with the OG, and set that difficulty to 1. Overall a fun time and a great remake, but WILL be make or break for people if you aren't accustomed to this game's specific style of design.
2023
somehow they made a worse postal 1
if you're gonna make a joke game you should at least make it FUN and PLAYABLE and have it not have 1fps performance on fucking high settings for a game that looks like THIS
its so cool that this company doesn't have to try anymore and because its a funny april fools prank its immune from criticism, not like other devs have done the same thing and made genuine great products out of it. but we'll update it a year later and fix nothing so that makes it okay.
if you're gonna make a joke game you should at least make it FUN and PLAYABLE and have it not have 1fps performance on fucking high settings for a game that looks like THIS
its so cool that this company doesn't have to try anymore and because its a funny april fools prank its immune from criticism, not like other devs have done the same thing and made genuine great products out of it. but we'll update it a year later and fix nothing so that makes it okay.
2023
Objectively speaking this game is fine for what it is but the more I think about it and really absorb it I feel so soured on it, thank christ I didn't pay $70 bucks for this shit because it is not even CLOSE to being worth that much.
When I first beat Starfield's main quest, I thought "that was kinda fun", but the more I really thought about it this might just be my least favorite BGS game. It makes some good steps from Fo4, by all means, but it does too few good steps and just more steps backwards, on top of having a setting that is BORING. The XP system is a grindy slog that makes zero sense whatsoever. Why do I only get 50 xp from a MASTER LOCKPICK? Oh yeah, because this game has NG+ and wants you to replay it 7 times just to get to master level. The perk system is genuinely awful. At first it doesn't seem that bad until you realize just how many basic ass abilities are not only locked behind spending a point in it (you cannot pickpocket or craft low level items by default, you NEED to put points in and grind), but also grinding it to level up. It's busywork on top of even more busywork. Give me the basics to work off, and just let me put more points in it if I wanna do better stuff with it. Fo4 had this right. Here I gotta do these stupid objectives if you wanna level up a certain perk which takes FOREVER.
In general this game loves to waste your time. The ship builder seems cool at first but you eventually realize how limited you are because if you try to have a cool design, you're either gonna cause some error depending on your placement or your shit is gonna be too heavy according to the game (not helping the game BARELY explains the rules of the builder and how it works). Most of the time you're honestly just better off buying or using a pre-made ship because trying to upgrade a better one just becomes a headache. On top of that, fast travelling from system to system is a joke. You can't just do it by default over any distance. If you need to fast travel over a long distance, you need to have a better grav drive on your ship, or else you can only travel so far to one point before having to open up the menu to fast travel AGAIN to where you need to go. WHY DO I NEED TWO LOADING SCREENS IF MY SHIP ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH. STOP WASTING MY TIME. And again, even if you have the money to get a good grav drive, you may as well get fucked, becuase just equipping that in turn of your last one is more then likely gonna fuck up the weight and lock you out. And if you're a stubborn shit like me and just try to use it reguardless, having a heavy ship (but not too heavy that the game forbids me to use it), it makes space combat nearly unbeatable at certain points. Especially later on where enemies have faster, tougher ships with more damaging weapons, you will not stand a chance since your ship goes as slow as shit in normal space and likely will die in two hits if you didn't upgrade anything else. Yes that is my fault but Christ why give me this huge complicated ship builder, encouraging me to be creative when you're gonna force all these rules on me for the sake of balance?? And again, all for the sake of having ONE EXTRA LOADING SCREEN???
The story is just boring. I usually try to look for nuggets of potential even with dry delivery/writing but there's barely anything here. It's the very basics of a modern mid-tier sci-fi adventure you'd see dumped on netflix and see get talked about for a week before everyone moves on. Nothing about this setting clicks with me. Even Elder Scrolls, a series I have always had almost no real connection to, is more interesting then this because it feels more creative. The companions are all feel like carboard personalities that didn't get the development they wanted. The only one I liked was the cowboy dude and even then his companion-specific quest (yknow, usually the thing that gives the characters that development) doesn't do anything for me. I legit don't even remember what happened during it. The only section I found interesting settingwise was exploring old NASA, finding out the story behind the discovery of the grav drives but even then that's only near the very end of the game, so who cares by that point.
The map design feels so bloated too. If this game ditched all the procedurally generated planets and just opted for like 2 or 3 planets with super large maps and tons of things to do it would've been a lot better. And you're gonna want to explore all those planets too because those have the resources you want to craft better stuff. The stuff you already have to grind xp and put a perk point into and do the challenge. It's all a viscous cycle of boredom and wasting time. I don't care if it's "realistic", there's nothing fun to do on these planets. No interesting monsters to fight, no cool caves to explore with anything useful, at the most you'll get these blatantly copy-pasted quests of "Hey we lost our scientist friend can you go find him?" from nameless NPCs that again, only exist to give you SOMETHING to do. You could ignore these and miss NOTHING.
This whole game just feels bloated for the sake of it, with too many cooks in the kitchen for the sake of pleasing investors (for context, only 100 people made skyrim and fallout 4, compared to here with the 400+ people at BGS, PLUS other studios like Arkane for support). It really makes me wonder if BGS is really listening to player feedback. Was the player voice removed because of the blowback they got from fo4? Or because it would've been too much work for all the content they wanted to make? Actually, no, I know that is the case, because they've said before it WAS gonna have a voiced protag again, before not wanting to put in all the effort and instead just recasting the VOs as companions.
This shit is just a slog. I'll replay games like Fo4 because even despite the messy story it feels concise and fun to play, with a focus on stuff. Even fo3 is more fun then this. It's just boring. I really don't have faith in TES6 or FO5 if it's just gonna be like this game (not helping fo5 is probably gonna come out in like 2030 when im dead).
When I first beat Starfield's main quest, I thought "that was kinda fun", but the more I really thought about it this might just be my least favorite BGS game. It makes some good steps from Fo4, by all means, but it does too few good steps and just more steps backwards, on top of having a setting that is BORING. The XP system is a grindy slog that makes zero sense whatsoever. Why do I only get 50 xp from a MASTER LOCKPICK? Oh yeah, because this game has NG+ and wants you to replay it 7 times just to get to master level. The perk system is genuinely awful. At first it doesn't seem that bad until you realize just how many basic ass abilities are not only locked behind spending a point in it (you cannot pickpocket or craft low level items by default, you NEED to put points in and grind), but also grinding it to level up. It's busywork on top of even more busywork. Give me the basics to work off, and just let me put more points in it if I wanna do better stuff with it. Fo4 had this right. Here I gotta do these stupid objectives if you wanna level up a certain perk which takes FOREVER.
In general this game loves to waste your time. The ship builder seems cool at first but you eventually realize how limited you are because if you try to have a cool design, you're either gonna cause some error depending on your placement or your shit is gonna be too heavy according to the game (not helping the game BARELY explains the rules of the builder and how it works). Most of the time you're honestly just better off buying or using a pre-made ship because trying to upgrade a better one just becomes a headache. On top of that, fast travelling from system to system is a joke. You can't just do it by default over any distance. If you need to fast travel over a long distance, you need to have a better grav drive on your ship, or else you can only travel so far to one point before having to open up the menu to fast travel AGAIN to where you need to go. WHY DO I NEED TWO LOADING SCREENS IF MY SHIP ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH. STOP WASTING MY TIME. And again, even if you have the money to get a good grav drive, you may as well get fucked, becuase just equipping that in turn of your last one is more then likely gonna fuck up the weight and lock you out. And if you're a stubborn shit like me and just try to use it reguardless, having a heavy ship (but not too heavy that the game forbids me to use it), it makes space combat nearly unbeatable at certain points. Especially later on where enemies have faster, tougher ships with more damaging weapons, you will not stand a chance since your ship goes as slow as shit in normal space and likely will die in two hits if you didn't upgrade anything else. Yes that is my fault but Christ why give me this huge complicated ship builder, encouraging me to be creative when you're gonna force all these rules on me for the sake of balance?? And again, all for the sake of having ONE EXTRA LOADING SCREEN???
The story is just boring. I usually try to look for nuggets of potential even with dry delivery/writing but there's barely anything here. It's the very basics of a modern mid-tier sci-fi adventure you'd see dumped on netflix and see get talked about for a week before everyone moves on. Nothing about this setting clicks with me. Even Elder Scrolls, a series I have always had almost no real connection to, is more interesting then this because it feels more creative. The companions are all feel like carboard personalities that didn't get the development they wanted. The only one I liked was the cowboy dude and even then his companion-specific quest (yknow, usually the thing that gives the characters that development) doesn't do anything for me. I legit don't even remember what happened during it. The only section I found interesting settingwise was exploring old NASA, finding out the story behind the discovery of the grav drives but even then that's only near the very end of the game, so who cares by that point.
The map design feels so bloated too. If this game ditched all the procedurally generated planets and just opted for like 2 or 3 planets with super large maps and tons of things to do it would've been a lot better. And you're gonna want to explore all those planets too because those have the resources you want to craft better stuff. The stuff you already have to grind xp and put a perk point into and do the challenge. It's all a viscous cycle of boredom and wasting time. I don't care if it's "realistic", there's nothing fun to do on these planets. No interesting monsters to fight, no cool caves to explore with anything useful, at the most you'll get these blatantly copy-pasted quests of "Hey we lost our scientist friend can you go find him?" from nameless NPCs that again, only exist to give you SOMETHING to do. You could ignore these and miss NOTHING.
This whole game just feels bloated for the sake of it, with too many cooks in the kitchen for the sake of pleasing investors (for context, only 100 people made skyrim and fallout 4, compared to here with the 400+ people at BGS, PLUS other studios like Arkane for support). It really makes me wonder if BGS is really listening to player feedback. Was the player voice removed because of the blowback they got from fo4? Or because it would've been too much work for all the content they wanted to make? Actually, no, I know that is the case, because they've said before it WAS gonna have a voiced protag again, before not wanting to put in all the effort and instead just recasting the VOs as companions.
This shit is just a slog. I'll replay games like Fo4 because even despite the messy story it feels concise and fun to play, with a focus on stuff. Even fo3 is more fun then this. It's just boring. I really don't have faith in TES6 or FO5 if it's just gonna be like this game (not helping fo5 is probably gonna come out in like 2030 when im dead).
2019
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.
2021
*Note I haven't done ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING yet but I've done most of the secret levels save for House and Trauma Loop and thats just because they require a fuckton of grinding for money and idk when if I'll ever get it done.
Yeah this game is really fuckin good and I wish I wasn't such a jackass about it years ago.
When a game looks like cruelty squad you're essentially fighting an uphill battle with me, and it didn't help this came out next to a lot of other low effort cashgrab "retro indie boomer shooters!!!" that would fill the weaker sections of Realms Deep streams didn't help one bit. From what I saw this game was just a giant ironic shitpost somehow masquerading as some stupid fake deep "we live in a society" bullshit.
Not the case at all.
Cruelty Squad is unconventional. Very unconventional. But it rides the line so thin that almost everything is still readable, and the gameplay behind all that is addicting as shit.
The game is objectively ugly on purpose. But everything on the hud is still readable and you can easily understand what's going on. Yes, I'll admit some of the bright colors did get to me and gave me a headache after a bit at points but again it surprisingly didn't bug me as much over time.
If I were to describe this game, it would be "first person hitman with deus ex powers for schizos". You have targets on your hud, and you're tasked with killing them. How? Doesn't matter, just get it done. With a few exceptions Cruelty Squad's levels are exactly what make imsims so special, and the powers and weapons you obtain are just the cherry on top. It's funny, this game has a lot of stealth elements, but at the same time I wouldn't even totally call it a stealth game with how many points you'll probably just end up gunning people down. But you gotta go a certain way about it. You can't just play this like a doom game, you gotta be precise, take cover when it matters, go for headshots. It's incredibly satisfying and the short completion times for each levels help encourage replayability all the more.
My only real complaints if anything is that noticing enemies can be a bit hard I feel sometimes? At least in crowded areas where so many people look the same so that got annoying sometimes. The last level also felt really obtuse and bad for the sake of it. That was entirely the point I'm sure but it just felt like a slog to get through.
Finally not sure if it's like this for anyone else but this game has some weird performance degradion over time for me, at least on my system (GTX 3060). Like, when I'll boot the game up, everything is a rock solid 60+ like it should be, but usually after like 9 level loads/retries the framerate dips into the 40s and I don't know why. I THINK its because the game is still trying to process stats of NPCs after their death on top of things like the stock markets? But I don't know, maybe this is just a me issue or something.
Other then that this has to be one of the most fun indie fpses I've played this year and I'm really upset at myself I didn't try it sooner. If you're still turned off because of the visuals or fans like I was, at least give it a try with an open mind. In terms of raw gameplay, this is a must-play for imsim fans as far as I'm concerned.
Yeah this game is really fuckin good and I wish I wasn't such a jackass about it years ago.
When a game looks like cruelty squad you're essentially fighting an uphill battle with me, and it didn't help this came out next to a lot of other low effort cashgrab "retro indie boomer shooters!!!" that would fill the weaker sections of Realms Deep streams didn't help one bit. From what I saw this game was just a giant ironic shitpost somehow masquerading as some stupid fake deep "we live in a society" bullshit.
Not the case at all.
Cruelty Squad is unconventional. Very unconventional. But it rides the line so thin that almost everything is still readable, and the gameplay behind all that is addicting as shit.
The game is objectively ugly on purpose. But everything on the hud is still readable and you can easily understand what's going on. Yes, I'll admit some of the bright colors did get to me and gave me a headache after a bit at points but again it surprisingly didn't bug me as much over time.
If I were to describe this game, it would be "first person hitman with deus ex powers for schizos". You have targets on your hud, and you're tasked with killing them. How? Doesn't matter, just get it done. With a few exceptions Cruelty Squad's levels are exactly what make imsims so special, and the powers and weapons you obtain are just the cherry on top. It's funny, this game has a lot of stealth elements, but at the same time I wouldn't even totally call it a stealth game with how many points you'll probably just end up gunning people down. But you gotta go a certain way about it. You can't just play this like a doom game, you gotta be precise, take cover when it matters, go for headshots. It's incredibly satisfying and the short completion times for each levels help encourage replayability all the more.
My only real complaints if anything is that noticing enemies can be a bit hard I feel sometimes? At least in crowded areas where so many people look the same so that got annoying sometimes. The last level also felt really obtuse and bad for the sake of it. That was entirely the point I'm sure but it just felt like a slog to get through.
Finally not sure if it's like this for anyone else but this game has some weird performance degradion over time for me, at least on my system (GTX 3060). Like, when I'll boot the game up, everything is a rock solid 60+ like it should be, but usually after like 9 level loads/retries the framerate dips into the 40s and I don't know why. I THINK its because the game is still trying to process stats of NPCs after their death on top of things like the stock markets? But I don't know, maybe this is just a me issue or something.
Other then that this has to be one of the most fun indie fpses I've played this year and I'm really upset at myself I didn't try it sooner. If you're still turned off because of the visuals or fans like I was, at least give it a try with an open mind. In terms of raw gameplay, this is a must-play for imsim fans as far as I'm concerned.
*Beat with 2024 remaster
Pretty alright overall. Feels the most "doom 1" compared to other "doom-likes" of the era (which makes sense, we were only 2 years removed from doom 1's release) and I mean that for the better and worse.
Story isn't much, but it works for what it is. Cool for someone like me who grew up with the prequel era to see the origin of smaller legends aspects like the Dark Troopers and Kyle Katarn as a character.
Combat is pretty good too for the most part. Almost all the weapons have a use up until the final levels, save for the fusion cutter (it never did the damage I felt it should've) and the mortar canon (with how close quarters most encounters are in this game it feels more like an easy way to kill yourself then anything else).
Biggest thing that makes this game fall down a good few notches is the level design and the lives system. There's a few good streightfoward ones here and there, but the game'll also throw some labrythian mazes and the odd puzzle every so often which is a real pace breaker. Doesn't help how there's no real conveyance in most instances in terms of where to go with how most areas look the same. The later half of levels also like to get really annoying with enemies being thrown (namely nar shadaa with all the thermal detonator dudes) and ESPECIALLY the mines. Seriously, on the last few levels they're placed in such cheap locations and have an explosive damage range that I swear is much larger then it appears to be. I'm glad I played on medium because I know for a fact levels like nar shadaa would be red dicking me on hard.
The lives system is the only aspect I downright don't like and I wish ND changed with the remaster. You start every level with 3 lives, and you respawn at a pre-determined point in real-time as you die, prodeus-style. Most of this game on medium is pretty comfortable save for the last few levels, and I just felt this was unnecessary more then anything else. I only had to restart two levels (Jabba's Ship and the final level) because of how cheap the enemy placement was. Sure, you can find more lives through secrets and whatnot throughout the level, but I don't understand why they couldn't have put in a more conventional quicksave system, at least as an option for people. Other then that, pretty fun, but definitely make or break for some people.
Pretty alright overall. Feels the most "doom 1" compared to other "doom-likes" of the era (which makes sense, we were only 2 years removed from doom 1's release) and I mean that for the better and worse.
Story isn't much, but it works for what it is. Cool for someone like me who grew up with the prequel era to see the origin of smaller legends aspects like the Dark Troopers and Kyle Katarn as a character.
Combat is pretty good too for the most part. Almost all the weapons have a use up until the final levels, save for the fusion cutter (it never did the damage I felt it should've) and the mortar canon (with how close quarters most encounters are in this game it feels more like an easy way to kill yourself then anything else).
Biggest thing that makes this game fall down a good few notches is the level design and the lives system. There's a few good streightfoward ones here and there, but the game'll also throw some labrythian mazes and the odd puzzle every so often which is a real pace breaker. Doesn't help how there's no real conveyance in most instances in terms of where to go with how most areas look the same. The later half of levels also like to get really annoying with enemies being thrown (namely nar shadaa with all the thermal detonator dudes) and ESPECIALLY the mines. Seriously, on the last few levels they're placed in such cheap locations and have an explosive damage range that I swear is much larger then it appears to be. I'm glad I played on medium because I know for a fact levels like nar shadaa would be red dicking me on hard.
The lives system is the only aspect I downright don't like and I wish ND changed with the remaster. You start every level with 3 lives, and you respawn at a pre-determined point in real-time as you die, prodeus-style. Most of this game on medium is pretty comfortable save for the last few levels, and I just felt this was unnecessary more then anything else. I only had to restart two levels (Jabba's Ship and the final level) because of how cheap the enemy placement was. Sure, you can find more lives through secrets and whatnot throughout the level, but I don't understand why they couldn't have put in a more conventional quicksave system, at least as an option for people. Other then that, pretty fun, but definitely make or break for some people.
Everything I wanted and more. Whitehead and his team continue to be masters at their craft at making great platformers.
It's not perfect, by all means, but the issues are so minor to the point where it doesn't detract from what's easily gonna be a 2024 GOTY contender for me. Easily the best 3D platformer I've played since Mario Odyssey.
I think a lot of the division I've seen seems to come from those who expected it to be more of a Sonic game, hence it sharing a lot of the staff from Mania. There's some of that here, by all means, but It felt more of momentum-based 3D Mario game (Odyssey came to mind with all the powerups). There's a bit of a learning curve, but I think that's exactly why the first world is as slow as it is pacingwise, to ease people into the controls, and I don't think that's an issue at all.
The two biggest critiques I've heard regard bugs and controls, and honestly barring a few minor instances early on I didn't have much of an issue with either. I only had one flat-out crash on PC total, and the worst I had with bugs was with World 2's boss fight (although I feel most of that was due to me still trying to get the hang of the roll controls), as I either would get knocked off course for seemingly no reason or in one specific case completely lock up and have no input on Penny's movements. And as I said prior, while I do think there is a learning curve to it, it's exceptionally satisfying to master, and the game does a great job of pushing you to play faster and thinking out of the box with your entire moveset to either skip whole areas or get into areas with special collectables/objectives.
Everything else is top notch. Tee Lopes' compositions here are admittedly a bit more low energy compared to what we heard in Mania (and even a bit recently with his Superstars tracks), but as someone who loved Mania's more slow tracks like Press garden I have no issue. Legit can't wait for the soundtrack to release.
My only real issue would probably be the currency you pick up in levels not mattering much in the long run. You have the stuff you can use for bonus levels, and that's all well and good, but the one-use items felt kinda pointless aside from it being a crutch for worse players or those who maybe want to explore the levels with more freedom. Maybe it's just me but I'd rather find things legit instead of relying on the items, so I felt no desire to spend them. Even something as simple as costumes would've given the normal currency more worth imho.
That, and probably the biggest thing for me (and I'd imagine some others), the price point. This game has around the same completion+100% timing as Sonic Mania (8-9 Hours) yet is 30 bucks, compared to Mania being just 20 when it came out. I have no issue spending 30 here since I'll support the devs no matter what here, but I do feel 20 is a more appropriate price point for this game and I feel like considering the teams background they wanted to do that, only for it to not happen due to Private Division or T2 meddling. Not a big issue at the end of the day and doesn't lessen my enjoyment, but if you ARE on the edge I don't think it'd hurt at all if you waited for a 10 buck price drop. Either way, highly recommended. Give these guys more projects, please.
It's not perfect, by all means, but the issues are so minor to the point where it doesn't detract from what's easily gonna be a 2024 GOTY contender for me. Easily the best 3D platformer I've played since Mario Odyssey.
I think a lot of the division I've seen seems to come from those who expected it to be more of a Sonic game, hence it sharing a lot of the staff from Mania. There's some of that here, by all means, but It felt more of momentum-based 3D Mario game (Odyssey came to mind with all the powerups). There's a bit of a learning curve, but I think that's exactly why the first world is as slow as it is pacingwise, to ease people into the controls, and I don't think that's an issue at all.
The two biggest critiques I've heard regard bugs and controls, and honestly barring a few minor instances early on I didn't have much of an issue with either. I only had one flat-out crash on PC total, and the worst I had with bugs was with World 2's boss fight (although I feel most of that was due to me still trying to get the hang of the roll controls), as I either would get knocked off course for seemingly no reason or in one specific case completely lock up and have no input on Penny's movements. And as I said prior, while I do think there is a learning curve to it, it's exceptionally satisfying to master, and the game does a great job of pushing you to play faster and thinking out of the box with your entire moveset to either skip whole areas or get into areas with special collectables/objectives.
Everything else is top notch. Tee Lopes' compositions here are admittedly a bit more low energy compared to what we heard in Mania (and even a bit recently with his Superstars tracks), but as someone who loved Mania's more slow tracks like Press garden I have no issue. Legit can't wait for the soundtrack to release.
My only real issue would probably be the currency you pick up in levels not mattering much in the long run. You have the stuff you can use for bonus levels, and that's all well and good, but the one-use items felt kinda pointless aside from it being a crutch for worse players or those who maybe want to explore the levels with more freedom. Maybe it's just me but I'd rather find things legit instead of relying on the items, so I felt no desire to spend them. Even something as simple as costumes would've given the normal currency more worth imho.
That, and probably the biggest thing for me (and I'd imagine some others), the price point. This game has around the same completion+100% timing as Sonic Mania (8-9 Hours) yet is 30 bucks, compared to Mania being just 20 when it came out. I have no issue spending 30 here since I'll support the devs no matter what here, but I do feel 20 is a more appropriate price point for this game and I feel like considering the teams background they wanted to do that, only for it to not happen due to Private Division or T2 meddling. Not a big issue at the end of the day and doesn't lessen my enjoyment, but if you ARE on the edge I don't think it'd hurt at all if you waited for a 10 buck price drop. Either way, highly recommended. Give these guys more projects, please.
2020
you'reapedophile.
Holy shit, what an incredible mod.
I still haven't played too many fan campaigns as of now, but for me, this was easily better then T2X in terms of both having better writing and presentation, and also the levels just leaving a much bigger impression on me.
The Black Parade is basically everything Thief as a game excels at, distilled and polished to an absolute sheen while also pushing the engine to limits I didn't even think possible. From the first level alone to the very end, even the mod's lowest points are not enough to bring down what I honest to god feel outclasses even T2's base levels in some aspects.
My biggest worry going into this was this being a Thief 1 mod. From my experience with other games (namely classic DOOM), most people stick to the sequel just for all the stuff it added. It seemed kind of backwards to make a campaign mod for the first game without all the stuff T2 added, and my biggest worry was that this was gonna have all the stuff I hated about T1 but on a larger scale. Not the case at all.
It's got the similar mission variety T1 has (with thieving levels on the level T2 had and then some), but just with much, MUCH better level design. Sure, the map doesn't tell you EXACTLY where you are like in T2, but everything is so distinct and well-designed that it's not hard to figure out just WHERE you are by taking a quick glance of your map and compass for cross-referencing. I barely got lost at all in this campaign, and even when I did it didn't take more then a minute to get back on track. Honestly playing this has made me realize that the missions I hate the most in T1 are the ones with just no map, or the ones that have barely any detail to them and then just expect you to figure it out (looking at you, Constantine's Mansion and Cragscleft). When you aren't given a map in this mod, your path is made more linear to compensate, which I think works really well. Honestly the fact I had to figure out where I was more often just felt really satisfying and made me feel more immersed in the game.
If there's any real complaints I guess It'd be that the last level was kinda eh personally? It's not even that hard but it feels really big and in turn more confusing then it should be for no real reason, where when you really think about it it's kind of just a streight shot to the end once you pick up a few items. Again, not a huge deal though. The other missions are consistently great that it doesn't matter.
If you somehow are in the Thief community and haven't played this yet, please, play this. It's as perfect as a campaign can get for this game I feel. If Skacky's contributions to this are any indication of Arkane Lyon's future projects in terms of level quality, then fuck me we might be in for something good.
I still haven't played too many fan campaigns as of now, but for me, this was easily better then T2X in terms of both having better writing and presentation, and also the levels just leaving a much bigger impression on me.
The Black Parade is basically everything Thief as a game excels at, distilled and polished to an absolute sheen while also pushing the engine to limits I didn't even think possible. From the first level alone to the very end, even the mod's lowest points are not enough to bring down what I honest to god feel outclasses even T2's base levels in some aspects.
My biggest worry going into this was this being a Thief 1 mod. From my experience with other games (namely classic DOOM), most people stick to the sequel just for all the stuff it added. It seemed kind of backwards to make a campaign mod for the first game without all the stuff T2 added, and my biggest worry was that this was gonna have all the stuff I hated about T1 but on a larger scale. Not the case at all.
It's got the similar mission variety T1 has (with thieving levels on the level T2 had and then some), but just with much, MUCH better level design. Sure, the map doesn't tell you EXACTLY where you are like in T2, but everything is so distinct and well-designed that it's not hard to figure out just WHERE you are by taking a quick glance of your map and compass for cross-referencing. I barely got lost at all in this campaign, and even when I did it didn't take more then a minute to get back on track. Honestly playing this has made me realize that the missions I hate the most in T1 are the ones with just no map, or the ones that have barely any detail to them and then just expect you to figure it out (looking at you, Constantine's Mansion and Cragscleft). When you aren't given a map in this mod, your path is made more linear to compensate, which I think works really well. Honestly the fact I had to figure out where I was more often just felt really satisfying and made me feel more immersed in the game.
If there's any real complaints I guess It'd be that the last level was kinda eh personally? It's not even that hard but it feels really big and in turn more confusing then it should be for no real reason, where when you really think about it it's kind of just a streight shot to the end once you pick up a few items. Again, not a huge deal though. The other missions are consistently great that it doesn't matter.
If you somehow are in the Thief community and haven't played this yet, please, play this. It's as perfect as a campaign can get for this game I feel. If Skacky's contributions to this are any indication of Arkane Lyon's future projects in terms of level quality, then fuck me we might be in for something good.
2009
Fuckin' ninja style
I'm gonna bring it to 'em
I'm gonna show 'em what time it is
Good spot to bring the noise
AH
You morons'll love this
Hope you assholes like fireworks
OOH
Fuckin' commies keep getting in my way
Well, surprise motherfuckers
Happy fuckin' birthday
That's right
Nighty-night you sweet piece of shit
Enjoy the ride cocksuckers, have a nice trip
Boom time baby
Trick or treat
Looks like a party, c'mon
I got places to go, people to meet
Assholes are everywhere
Fuckers are out in the forest
Hi ho, hi ho, this fucker's gonna blow
Anytime, anywhere, anyplace
Kickin' ass and taking names
Who's the hardest motherfuckers around, huh?
AH
Rock and roll motherfuckers rock and roll
OOH
AHH
Hide and seek, motherfuckers
Anybody home?
Hey, daddy's here c'mon
Glad to see me fuckers?
Send me the bill, motherfucking cocksuckers
I'm over here, fuckface
Theres gonna be fuckin' asses bleeding all over the place
Sorry assholes, but your quiet day at the office is about to get severely fucked up
Anytime, anywhere, anyplace
Kickin' ass and taking names
Who's the hardest motherfuckers around, huh?
AH
Gimmie a goddamn break!
Good place to blow some shit up
(Repeated hurt noises)
What the fuck was I doing again?
Oh yeah, fucking shit up
Goddamn cock breath commie motherfucker
You fucking asshole, you fucking pig farmers
Drop dead motherfucker you fucking amateurs
I own your fucking soul you fuckin' commie bitch
Yeah, some capitalism for you, huh?
Pussy you fucking shit eating pig
Time to move, I got bad guys to send to commie heaven
Fuckin' ninja style
I'm gonna bring it to 'em
I'm gonna show them what time it is
I'm gonna bring it to 'em
I'm gonna show 'em what time it is
Good spot to bring the noise
AH
You morons'll love this
Hope you assholes like fireworks
OOH
Fuckin' commies keep getting in my way
Well, surprise motherfuckers
Happy fuckin' birthday
That's right
Nighty-night you sweet piece of shit
Enjoy the ride cocksuckers, have a nice trip
Boom time baby
Trick or treat
Looks like a party, c'mon
I got places to go, people to meet
Assholes are everywhere
Fuckers are out in the forest
Hi ho, hi ho, this fucker's gonna blow
Anytime, anywhere, anyplace
Kickin' ass and taking names
Who's the hardest motherfuckers around, huh?
AH
Rock and roll motherfuckers rock and roll
OOH
AHH
Hide and seek, motherfuckers
Anybody home?
Hey, daddy's here c'mon
Glad to see me fuckers?
Send me the bill, motherfucking cocksuckers
I'm over here, fuckface
Theres gonna be fuckin' asses bleeding all over the place
Sorry assholes, but your quiet day at the office is about to get severely fucked up
Anytime, anywhere, anyplace
Kickin' ass and taking names
Who's the hardest motherfuckers around, huh?
AH
Gimmie a goddamn break!
Good place to blow some shit up
(Repeated hurt noises)
What the fuck was I doing again?
Oh yeah, fucking shit up
Goddamn cock breath commie motherfucker
You fucking asshole, you fucking pig farmers
Drop dead motherfucker you fucking amateurs
I own your fucking soul you fuckin' commie bitch
Yeah, some capitalism for you, huh?
Pussy you fucking shit eating pig
Time to move, I got bad guys to send to commie heaven
Fuckin' ninja style
I'm gonna bring it to 'em
I'm gonna show them what time it is
2010
I beat this shit at least 3 times in high school on 3 different platforms each so its safe to say I liked this I think
Fire ost too
Fire ost too
21 is so fucking fun i wish gambling was real