A beautiful piece of crap. A coherent and well-thought turd. And essentially, a pretty fun game.
This game is far from being revolutionary at all when it comes to the gameplay. Guns are good, level-design is pretty great, everything here works properly enough to make another fun retro-FPS, and there’s even room for a couple tweaks (enemies are a bit spongy, jumping could be better). But the real charm of this game relies in it’s aesthetic, in how it nails a specific moment of the late-90s and a specific moment in the lives of many of us, while growing up. And also, how it creates it’s own universe. This blend of white thrash, nu-metal, scatology, the Matrix, pre-teen humor, and lots and lots of green (inb4 “how green is Slayers X” memes). This game even made me feel a lot of sympathy for it’s characters, something unusual in this kind of games. The Slayers are just awesome. I can picture the Slayers as a rock band: Zane on guitar and vocals, Steffanie on bass and backing vocals, Mikey on drums, alltogether playing the main song from this game for a crowd of funny rats. By the way, the soundtrack is by far one of the best things in this game.
So, essentially, Slayers X is all about design, art, and aesthetic. The gameplay, while it’s good, i think could definitely be a lot better. The best things are the weapons and of course, the level design, and how it mimmicks the build engine cappability of destroying entire structures. This concept is used incredibly well here: Is not just about the spectable of seeing an exploying building. This time, explosions can even rearrange a whole map in a total different way, showing how this idea can be used to a more functional degree in terms of design. However, i think the main problems of this game relies on the movement (specifically, platforming, which is extremely necessary at times but without being adjusted properly enough to flow organically), and the balance. I think at times the game is just too unbalanced: Enemies are kinda bullet-spongy, specially those werewolves which are also way too overpowered. And to complicate this even more, in those moments, you don’t even have enough health packs around. There’s a moment right at the end of Map 7, where you have to fight a whole bunch of around 10 of these werewolves (which is a lot considering how spongy and overpowered they are). I came to that part of the game with only 3% of health and no health bonuses around. After multiple attempts i just decided to cheat my way through. And the last couple levels whete just reaaally frustrating, specially considering all the platform involved.
Despite these flaws , Slayers X was a really great experience. It was, in many ways, what i was expecting when i got my hands on Redneck Rampage when i was a probably 10 years old.
I truly hope we have an expansion or sequel anytime soon.
This game is far from being revolutionary at all when it comes to the gameplay. Guns are good, level-design is pretty great, everything here works properly enough to make another fun retro-FPS, and there’s even room for a couple tweaks (enemies are a bit spongy, jumping could be better). But the real charm of this game relies in it’s aesthetic, in how it nails a specific moment of the late-90s and a specific moment in the lives of many of us, while growing up. And also, how it creates it’s own universe. This blend of white thrash, nu-metal, scatology, the Matrix, pre-teen humor, and lots and lots of green (inb4 “how green is Slayers X” memes). This game even made me feel a lot of sympathy for it’s characters, something unusual in this kind of games. The Slayers are just awesome. I can picture the Slayers as a rock band: Zane on guitar and vocals, Steffanie on bass and backing vocals, Mikey on drums, alltogether playing the main song from this game for a crowd of funny rats. By the way, the soundtrack is by far one of the best things in this game.
So, essentially, Slayers X is all about design, art, and aesthetic. The gameplay, while it’s good, i think could definitely be a lot better. The best things are the weapons and of course, the level design, and how it mimmicks the build engine cappability of destroying entire structures. This concept is used incredibly well here: Is not just about the spectable of seeing an exploying building. This time, explosions can even rearrange a whole map in a total different way, showing how this idea can be used to a more functional degree in terms of design. However, i think the main problems of this game relies on the movement (specifically, platforming, which is extremely necessary at times but without being adjusted properly enough to flow organically), and the balance. I think at times the game is just too unbalanced: Enemies are kinda bullet-spongy, specially those werewolves which are also way too overpowered. And to complicate this even more, in those moments, you don’t even have enough health packs around. There’s a moment right at the end of Map 7, where you have to fight a whole bunch of around 10 of these werewolves (which is a lot considering how spongy and overpowered they are). I came to that part of the game with only 3% of health and no health bonuses around. After multiple attempts i just decided to cheat my way through. And the last couple levels whete just reaaally frustrating, specially considering all the platform involved.
Despite these flaws , Slayers X was a really great experience. It was, in many ways, what i was expecting when i got my hands on Redneck Rampage when i was a probably 10 years old.
I truly hope we have an expansion or sequel anytime soon.