I don't wanna be too harsh on this considering it's rocky (which is putting it mildly) development. But it's really no wonder it took so long to be released when you consider this game's biggest problem; the scope.
Wrath gets a lot of it’s cues from Arcane Dimensions; long sprawled out levels big enough to be their own episodes with an emphasis on atmosphere and exploration. Personally I love Arcane Dimensions, yet Wrath tests your patience far more often and to a higher degree than even the most grandiose & experimental levels that Arcane Dimensions has to offer. Unlike AD, Wrath’s levels are not only long, but also insanely repetitive.
Nothing exemplifies this more than E2’s Shadow Pantheon. My god what a slog of a level this is. An hour and forty minute long labyrinth which goes on about 4x longer than necessary. It does some cool stuff at times too, I was loving this level until I got the feeling my time was being wasted.
Wrath is really weird, because I’d love to say it gets better the further you progress. It kinda doesn't? Levels get increasingly grandiose and varied, yet combat feels staler by the second because there's no real variance in enemy encounters. The “base” roster of the first episode is never explored further, and sure, 5 enemies get added in the 2nd & 3rd episodes, but they're never used any differently either. Nothing ever truly gets better or worse in Wrath. Just more & more of the same 4 combat encounters slightly tweaked for 14-15 hours. And that's the frustrating bit, because the potential is there - the roster is actually fairly interesting, they're just never used in any interesting ways.
Other than the art direction I’m not sure if there's anything worthy of praise going on here. Even if this were a free conversion it's easily outclassed by the likes of Dwell, Mjolnir, Alkaline, Tomb of Thunder, and of course the aforementioned Arcane Dimensions & the 50 million maps using it as a resourcepack.
I'm sure this is someone’s perfect game, unfortunately that someone isn't me.
Some more personal nitpicks:
1. First boss completely bugged out on my first playthrough even after restarting the level/reloading saves multiple times.
2. Making me play the entire game in order to unlock the highest difficulty in a quake style game.
3. Why do “limited” saves even exist when the save items are so plentiful? I started savescumming midway through E2 and still ended the game with a full inventory of save items.
4. Enemy AI leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the roster just stands there endlessly shooting projectiles without any aggression, and there's little-to-no difficulty after you gather most of the weapons.
Wrath gets a lot of it’s cues from Arcane Dimensions; long sprawled out levels big enough to be their own episodes with an emphasis on atmosphere and exploration. Personally I love Arcane Dimensions, yet Wrath tests your patience far more often and to a higher degree than even the most grandiose & experimental levels that Arcane Dimensions has to offer. Unlike AD, Wrath’s levels are not only long, but also insanely repetitive.
Nothing exemplifies this more than E2’s Shadow Pantheon. My god what a slog of a level this is. An hour and forty minute long labyrinth which goes on about 4x longer than necessary. It does some cool stuff at times too, I was loving this level until I got the feeling my time was being wasted.
Wrath is really weird, because I’d love to say it gets better the further you progress. It kinda doesn't? Levels get increasingly grandiose and varied, yet combat feels staler by the second because there's no real variance in enemy encounters. The “base” roster of the first episode is never explored further, and sure, 5 enemies get added in the 2nd & 3rd episodes, but they're never used any differently either. Nothing ever truly gets better or worse in Wrath. Just more & more of the same 4 combat encounters slightly tweaked for 14-15 hours. And that's the frustrating bit, because the potential is there - the roster is actually fairly interesting, they're just never used in any interesting ways.
Other than the art direction I’m not sure if there's anything worthy of praise going on here. Even if this were a free conversion it's easily outclassed by the likes of Dwell, Mjolnir, Alkaline, Tomb of Thunder, and of course the aforementioned Arcane Dimensions & the 50 million maps using it as a resourcepack.
I'm sure this is someone’s perfect game, unfortunately that someone isn't me.
Some more personal nitpicks:
1. First boss completely bugged out on my first playthrough even after restarting the level/reloading saves multiple times.
2. Making me play the entire game in order to unlock the highest difficulty in a quake style game.
3. Why do “limited” saves even exist when the save items are so plentiful? I started savescumming midway through E2 and still ended the game with a full inventory of save items.
4. Enemy AI leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the roster just stands there endlessly shooting projectiles without any aggression, and there's little-to-no difficulty after you gather most of the weapons.
Pretty solid, the environments look great and the gameplay is fun. It's the classic boomer shooter formula with a few twists, mainly the artifacts and the melee weapon which doubles as a movement tool, both of which are really fun
Beneath the DarkPlaces black magic the devs pulled off lies a game that's just alright. The first hub is the most enjoyable to go through, where the level design feels the freshest and enemy positioning the least fucky.
After that the game gets progressively more predictable with its arenas and overreliance on ambushes, and no amount of chunky combat, level gimmicks and Quake-like movement can make up for that. With each level taking around 30 minutes to complete, it can become tiring to play.
The tumultuous dev cycle it went through doesn't show as much; perhaps in the boring boss fights and some levels in the final hub being a bit confusing. The quality is there, just spread too thin. Maybe I'm just too burnt out on boomer shooters.
After that the game gets progressively more predictable with its arenas and overreliance on ambushes, and no amount of chunky combat, level gimmicks and Quake-like movement can make up for that. With each level taking around 30 minutes to complete, it can become tiring to play.
The tumultuous dev cycle it went through doesn't show as much; perhaps in the boring boss fights and some levels in the final hub being a bit confusing. The quality is there, just spread too thin. Maybe I'm just too burnt out on boomer shooters.
Good game, literally unplayable console port due to softlocks (among other bugs).
3D Realms are aware of the situation but do not plan on releasing a patch, so this faulty product will continue being sold to unsuspecting PSN consumers with no recourse for a refund. Buyer beware would be an understatement.
3D Realms are aware of the situation but do not plan on releasing a patch, so this faulty product will continue being sold to unsuspecting PSN consumers with no recourse for a refund. Buyer beware would be an understatement.