Replayed on Cero Miedo (equivalent to Ultra-Violence in Doom), Intruder Mode (aka pistol start from Doom), no mid-level saves. This will be a quick one, not as analytical as my usual fare.
Mechanically, SimonDedalus's review is pretty much on the money. Elements from classic FPS (movement from Quake, infighting from Doom, secrets from Build Engine, prop shenanigans from Half Life) are haphazardly smashed together without any real sense of a cohesive, balanced end product. Movement is fun to hop around with but utterly dominates open-air encounters. Map design is serviceable I guess? Nothing awe-inspiring but I haven't played Quake custom maps so I have no idea what the bar is here.
Enemies are mostly Doom 1 clones, weapons are mostly Quake clones except for the crossbow which is kinda neat. Infighting is a lot more circle-strafy than Doom (which could already get circle-strafy on some maps) and less strategic since enemies of the same type can fight each other. The props are borderline overpowered, but throwing barrels over and over is kinda boring and error-prone so whatever I guess? Ammo is usually everywhere even if you don't find the secrets, but health and armor get gobbled up quick. Enemies do huge damage on Cero Miedo, probably because the dev realized that the only way you can die with this combat and movement system is to get clipped by stray pseudo-hitscan projectiles like 5 times over the course of the whole level. Play a good Doom map and you'll understand what I mean here when I say the balancing and structure is pretty bad for protracted combat encounters.
The atmosphere, sense of pacing, and general presentation save the game. There's a sense of constant forward momentum, going towards something, though you're never quite sure what. Maps alternate between combat-heavy arenas and claustrophobic crawls, which elevates both beyond their standalone level of quality. Low-poly blends great with backwoods and industrial horror, think those PS1-style short horror games. Sound design is generally solid. I love the dual shotguns, satisfying to use. The powerups are fun and stacking them is pretty neat. And the ending is genuinely good, which is bizarrely rare in other classic FPS.
I definitely don't hate this game, it has the good sense to keep its runtime short and it was made when classic FPS design was only just coming back into vogue. If you haven't played the classics you'll probably like this a lot. Moral of the story is go play Doom and Blood.
Mechanically, SimonDedalus's review is pretty much on the money. Elements from classic FPS (movement from Quake, infighting from Doom, secrets from Build Engine, prop shenanigans from Half Life) are haphazardly smashed together without any real sense of a cohesive, balanced end product. Movement is fun to hop around with but utterly dominates open-air encounters. Map design is serviceable I guess? Nothing awe-inspiring but I haven't played Quake custom maps so I have no idea what the bar is here.
Enemies are mostly Doom 1 clones, weapons are mostly Quake clones except for the crossbow which is kinda neat. Infighting is a lot more circle-strafy than Doom (which could already get circle-strafy on some maps) and less strategic since enemies of the same type can fight each other. The props are borderline overpowered, but throwing barrels over and over is kinda boring and error-prone so whatever I guess? Ammo is usually everywhere even if you don't find the secrets, but health and armor get gobbled up quick. Enemies do huge damage on Cero Miedo, probably because the dev realized that the only way you can die with this combat and movement system is to get clipped by stray pseudo-hitscan projectiles like 5 times over the course of the whole level. Play a good Doom map and you'll understand what I mean here when I say the balancing and structure is pretty bad for protracted combat encounters.
The atmosphere, sense of pacing, and general presentation save the game. There's a sense of constant forward momentum, going towards something, though you're never quite sure what. Maps alternate between combat-heavy arenas and claustrophobic crawls, which elevates both beyond their standalone level of quality. Low-poly blends great with backwoods and industrial horror, think those PS1-style short horror games. Sound design is generally solid. I love the dual shotguns, satisfying to use. The powerups are fun and stacking them is pretty neat. And the ending is genuinely good, which is bizarrely rare in other classic FPS.
I definitely don't hate this game, it has the good sense to keep its runtime short and it was made when classic FPS design was only just coming back into vogue. If you haven't played the classics you'll probably like this a lot. Moral of the story is go play Doom and Blood.
4 Comments
Hey thanks! Yeah the map design is pretty ehh I agree, a lot more flash than substance. I still don't get what's up with enemy design in most of these shooters, Doom 2 was in fucking 1994 and we still almost never see enemies that come close to Revenants or Archviles in quality. Also I think the tendency to drop hitscanners creates problems, they control territory in a way that is easy to understand, can't be trivialized with circle-strafe, and force the player to use cover (which creates openings for other enemies to pressure). I'm almost done with some more Doom writing, finished Alien Vendetta a while ago so I have some rambles vaguely around that.
yup yup, that's actually a really good point regarding hitscanners, the collective scars of plutonia's chaingunners has alotta these creative shook maybe? lol. but yea, even in doom maps/genres that skip out on hitscanners (like alot of current slaughter) archvilles & revenants more than make up for it in necessitating movement and emerging/collapsing cones of safety. lot of the work in a good encounter for doom is whittling down the crowd to where you can circle-strafe imo. but yea excited to hear ur thoughts on Alien Vendetta; its kinda out of the zeitgeist despite how formative it is.
Nice review that captures my feelings about the game. As someone who has played a LOT of custom Quake levels, I don't hate Dusk either, but I remember a couple people on func_msgboard having aneurysms over it lol
SimonDedalus
1 year ago