cruelty squad understands what made shooters from the mid-90s to early 00s so distinct and special better than pretty much every other so-called boomer shooter revival game: a combination of weird atmosphere, uncanny map design, and a genuine sense of mystery and crypticism that eventually payoff in discovery and reward. secrets feel like secrets in an old-timey sense, the way they're all buried away and provided without fanfare or notification that they're supposed to be secrets. it encourages you to explore, which in turn makes you get the most out of the (mostly) super tight level designs
i feel like people overstate the grossout/poor graphics aesthetic. that stuff is all there in spades but acting as if that's the game's main selling point kind of sells the game short - the gameplay and game design, atmosphere, themes and even the bits-and-pieces of story and capital l Lore are all really, really solid. you hear a lot about the "tactical shooter" angle but i was pleasantly surprised to find out how much this game encourages, accomodates and necessitates FPS Shit like bunny hopping, surfing, rocket jumping and wall jumping and makes it work with the slow, methodical, routing-and-planning emphatic aspect of things. this game has Schmovement and it's good! it's just real, real good
mostly, anyways. the level designs can be a little bit inconsistent (it's mostly the big, wide-open levels that suffer, as i feel cruelty squad is at its best when things are small, compact, and tightly designed with every run through exposing a new possible plan of action for your next run), and flesh rats are fucking bullshit and seem to exist only to make you rely on rote memorization instead of knowing the level well enough to improv as obstacles necessitate, which most of the gameplay otherwise focuses on and excels at.
the plot, lore, themes, ideas, etc. are all super interesting too but i think i need to digest them and think about them a bit more before i have anything meaningful to say about them. they're pretty obfuscated and delivered with very opaque and dense prose that almost kind of reminds me of the stilted and imperfect english that the original quake used? just on the opposite side of the spectrum, a lot more verbose and eloquent than i was expecting
for once i have more to say about the gameplay than i do about the writing. they're both good. really, really good. it's just a really good game
i feel like people overstate the grossout/poor graphics aesthetic. that stuff is all there in spades but acting as if that's the game's main selling point kind of sells the game short - the gameplay and game design, atmosphere, themes and even the bits-and-pieces of story and capital l Lore are all really, really solid. you hear a lot about the "tactical shooter" angle but i was pleasantly surprised to find out how much this game encourages, accomodates and necessitates FPS Shit like bunny hopping, surfing, rocket jumping and wall jumping and makes it work with the slow, methodical, routing-and-planning emphatic aspect of things. this game has Schmovement and it's good! it's just real, real good
mostly, anyways. the level designs can be a little bit inconsistent (it's mostly the big, wide-open levels that suffer, as i feel cruelty squad is at its best when things are small, compact, and tightly designed with every run through exposing a new possible plan of action for your next run), and flesh rats are fucking bullshit and seem to exist only to make you rely on rote memorization instead of knowing the level well enough to improv as obstacles necessitate, which most of the gameplay otherwise focuses on and excels at.
the plot, lore, themes, ideas, etc. are all super interesting too but i think i need to digest them and think about them a bit more before i have anything meaningful to say about them. they're pretty obfuscated and delivered with very opaque and dense prose that almost kind of reminds me of the stilted and imperfect english that the original quake used? just on the opposite side of the spectrum, a lot more verbose and eloquent than i was expecting
for once i have more to say about the gameplay than i do about the writing. they're both good. really, really good. it's just a really good game