GAME: Rad Rodgers DEVELOPER: Slipgate Studios PUBLISHER: 3D Realms / THQ Nordic YEAR: 2018
Rad Rodgers is the third game to come from Slipgate Studios, following in the wake of their 3D Realms revival with Rise Of The Triad 2013 and Bombshell, both made when they were called Interceptor Entertainment. After a name change and a deal with THQ Nordic, their newest game Rad Rodgers has finally been released for PC as well as XBox One and PS4. So having just completed it, I feel it's about time I give my thoughts on Slipgates' newest title.
Rad Rodgers is at heart an early 90's platformer made with today's technology, taking influence from a slew of games, including Apogee classics such as Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure and Commander Keen, and the Amiga classic Ruff'n'Tumble. It centers around the titular character, a young boy named Rad Rodgers (voiced by Hunter Pratt) who one evening after a lengthy session is sent to bed by his mother and immideately afterwards is sucked into his TV and finds not only is his game console Dusty (voiced by Jon St. Jon) alive, but he also has a pretty dirty sense of humor. The game quickly establishes its somewhat adult tone, similar to Conker's Bad Fur Day. And it makes it obvious that this game isn't marketed so much to kids as it's marketed to the people who grew up with these kinds of platformers and are more than old enough to handle foul language. The game does ship with a censor option though to bleep out the dirty words in case you want to spare your kids the worst of it.
World One in all its... overworld glory.
Anyway... back to the story. Apparently something has gone wrong in the game world and it's up to Rad and his pal Dusty to set things straight. Rad is immideately equipped a badass gun while Dusty helps out by smashing enemies with his arms and also has the power to enter rifts in the game's world that allows him to enter the "pixelverse", a world in which the game's very code can be changed and altered (kinda Matrix'y). And that's pretty much the only story the game has. What I love though is that it doesn't take itself too seriously, and has a lot of fun with its subject matter. All throughout the game there's a lot of banter between Rad and Dusty, a lot of it referencing pop culture but also establishing a bit of a brotherly vibe between the two (although Dusty is a bit more like that raunchy uncle who always tells dirty jokes at christmas parties). If crass humor is not your cup of tea, you might not be a big fan of the game but I found it pretty funny and I loved the personalities of Rad and Dusty and how they compliment each other. Rad being a child is pretty much either oblivious to Dusty's innuendo (which is proven by him staring awkwardly at the camera when Dusty makes a raunchy joke in the opening cutscene for the first level) or calls it gross. He always acts exactly how you'd expect a child to act and is even voiced by a real boy, making him feel like a pretty authentic character. His references are suitably "modern", spouting lines such as "git gud" and "do you even play?". At times he kinda sounds like those annoying 14-year olds you meet in Call of Duty but I suppose this was the intent. It never bothered me anyway. There's not a lot of story in the game but there is a ton of personality and unique humor.
The game features a "photo mode" which pauses the game and allows you to run the camera through the game world and take some pretty cinematic screenshots. Neato!
The game is probably one of the best platformers I've played in recent memory. Controls are incredibly tight (just how I like it...?) and the difficulty curve in the levels is just right with early levels being fairly easy and the last couple of levels being true challenges. In addition to your standard gun you also have powerups that give your gun special ammunition, including rapid fire, shooting phoenix-shaped fire blasts, lobbing grenades and firing a solid beam of death (can you say kamehameha?). The game also has three difficulty modes, with easy giving you endless lives and 4 hearts, with each heart pickup giving you 2 hearts, medium giving you 3 hearts (with heart pickups giving you 1 heart) and limited lives, and finally hard restricting you to 2 hearts (with heart pickups giving half a heart) and limited lives (which is the difficulty I used for this playthrough since I wanted a real challenge). It has to be said that the hard difficulty is probably what you should go with if you want an actual challenge as the game IS fairly easy all things considered (with the exception of the the last few levels which proved quite challenging).
Hats are a collectible in the game, each of them adding some variety to Rad's look (and even showing up in cutscenes).
One of the things I love the most about the game is how it truly feels like a 90's platformer that's been remade with modern graphics. The gameplay is consistently 2D and relies on classic and familiar traps and situations. It's very easy to feel at home in the game if you grew up with these kind of platformers. And if you have OCD then you might wanna look away from this game. The game not only contains a ton of secrets but also collectibles in the form of hats, hidden bonus coins and achievements for completing the levels 100% (grabbing all the gems and finding all the secrets as well as killing all enemies). The bonuses definitely feel like a callback to Duke Nukem where you'd get rewarded for killing all enemies in a level and such. I kinda wish there were more hidden bonuses but it's still a pretty fun experience and makes it worth replaying levels just to get that 100% score.
Slipgate has a bit of a track record for releasing buggy games but it's with a relief I can say that Rad Rodgers is probably the smoothest and most bug-free experience I've ever had from them. I didn't run into any serious glitches or bugs at all during my playthrough and overall had a really good time with the game.
Midlevel checkpoints take the form of floppy disks (with an accompanying floppy drive noise)
Graphically the game looks stunning. It has a very cartoony art style with a ton of colours and really good lighting effects (as to be expected from an UE4 game). At times the game does tend to look a little busy and it can make the levels a bit confusing at first but once you get into it, it becomes almost second nature to try and spot secrets in the levels which are fairly often very well clues. There's also a ton of little details and easter eggs in the level designs and since the cutscenes are rendered in real time, little details like the hat you're wearing will show up in them. I was able to run the game maxed out on my Phenom II 3.2 GHz PC with a 3GB R9 280X graphics card and getting a pretty decent framerate across the board (which speaks tons about how much the game has been optimized compared to the earlier "World One" version). You could definitely easily get a stable 60 FPS on a modern PC with this game even on maxed out settings.
The pixelverse, a sort of TRON-like world where you can interact with the game's code.
The sound is also really good with a few nitpicks we'll get to in a bit. First off I really wanna compliment the soundtrack. Andrew Hulshult has gone for more of a synthwave soundtrack with this game (reminiscent of games like Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon) mixed with his signature guitar solos and it really is a combination that works brilliantly and makes me wish he'd make more in this style. As opposed to his earlier outings with Bombshell the music in this game pops with really awesome melodies and riffs, heavy synthy basslines rumble in the background while his badass guitar solos are sprinkled on top. Definitely makes me want to listen to the soundtrack on its own. It's not as memorable as Giana Sisters, but it's definitely extremely pleasant to listen to and fits the game's whole retro vibe perfectly. The voice acting is also pretty great. Hunter Pratt voices Rad and using a real child actor as opposed to something like a female voice actor helps give Rad a very authentic sounding voice. He's of course not exactly a great actor and at times can sound a bit underwhelming but it can be forgiven given he's a child actor. Jon St Jon is also a ton of fun as Dusty and doing other minor voices in the game.
The sound design in general is pretty solid with the gun sounds and explosions being fairly satisfying. I do sort of miss more environmental sounds but what sounds are there do help keep you tuned in to what you need to pay attention to so too much noise might have worked against the sound's function.
I did run into some glitches with the sound though. Whenever I lowered the game's master volume, certain sounds would still play at full volume, more specifically the loading screen sound and the death sound of the larger enemies. Nothing too serious, but worth mentioning.
A pixelverse portal. The closer you get to these, the more the game will look corrupted and glitchy (a pretty neat effect).
All in all, Rad Rodgers is a beautiful love letter to the early 90's and at the same time feels fresh and has its own unique sense of humor that will definitely appeal to adults. If you grew up with PC platformers like Jazz Jackrabbit and Commander Keen, I highly recommend giving Rad Rodgers a try! My only real complaint so far is that the game is really short since only World One has been completed, but given they are working on the game I hope for World Two and Three soon enough! This is by far Slipgate Studios' best game so far and barring a few minor bugs the game is a thoroughly enjoyable experience in my opinion.
GAME: The Curse Of Monkey Island DEVELOPER: LucasArts PUBLISHER: LucasArts, Disney YEAR: 1997
So for today's review, we're taking a look at arguably one of my favourite games ever. The Curse Of Monkey Island (commonly shortened to CMI) is the third game in the amazing Monkey Island adventure game series, and in my opinion the one that I consider the best. It was the first game not to be written by Ron Gilbert and while this does make the tone somewhat different from the first two games, in some ways this helps it feel more like its own thing as well. It was also the first game to be released for Windows exclusively as the first two games were released for DOS (and Amiga if I remember correctly).
The game starts off "somewhere in the Caribbean" and we're witnessing a somewhat distressed (and starving) Guybrush Threepwood sailing the sea in a bumper car. He's writing his Captain's log, complaining about lack of fresh water and food (while humorously he is too busy writing about wanting these things to notice they are floating right behind him...) when the sounds of cannon fire breaks him out of his thoughts and he finds himself on the shores of Plunder Island. A battle between LeChuck and governor Elaine Marley ensues with Guybrush becoming trapped in LeChuck's hold. After managing to both (somewhat anticlimatically) defeat LeChuck and escape from his capsized ship within the first part of the game, he meets up with Elaine on the shore and promptly asks her to marry him with an engagement ring he found in LeChuck's treasure hold. However, turns out the ring is cursed (which in Guybrush' defense he had no idea about) and Elaine is turned into a gold statue.So good news is she's solid gold and practically nothing could really happen to her. Bad news is she's solid gold and some pirates have stolen her. Your goal becomes to undo the curse on Elaine as your adventure takes you from Plunder Island across the seas to Blood Island where an engagement ring equal to the cursed ring is located, which you will need to replace the cursed ring with. Of course, all this info is relayed to you by the awesome Voodoo Lady from the older games who despite her short time in the game is one of the strongest characters in the game in terms of impression (if only cause she has a meat-flavoured gumball machine in her place).
Mandatory shameless plug for other Lucas Arts games comes in the form of a Manny Calavera cameo and a button that says "Ask me about Grim Fandango"
So that's pretty much all I wanna spoil about the main story since I honestly feel this is a game worth playing so I'll try to keep any further spoilers to a minimum. What I love the most about CMI is the humor though. Most of it ranges from witty and clever jokes to pretty much lough out loud moments. I mean, this game is funny, and if it doesn't make you at least gigglefit a couple times, I have no idea what will. And I find this makes the game a lot easier to play since the dialogue is so funny that you kinda wanna hear as much of it as possible while playing which kind of ensures you never miss any important hints. The writing is some of the best in any Lucas Arts game I've played, with a few references here and there to Star Wars thrown in for good measure.
A good example of the game's humor would be when Haggis McMutton (who's voiced by the late Alan Young of Scrooge McDuck fame) explains the origins of his name to you and tells you his given name was "Heart Liver and Kidneys Boiled in the Stomach of the Animal McMutton" and Guybrush responds "so your parents were expecting a girl." Or when you find out the origins of the name for Skull Island (which I won't spoil but it had me laughing so hard the first time I saw it).
What I love the most about CMI is the meticulate attention to detail the designers obviously have and how game mechanics are woven into the game's world so well that most of the time you don't even notice it. The game is chock full of little details and funny "in-jokes" that gives the game a ton of charm and personality. Whether it'd be from all the plaques scattered throughout the game, which granted is a purely mechanical way of giving the player hints but it also doesn't come off that way given it makes sense someone would put up a plaque to inform others of what something is, the fact that the clocktower on Plunder Island actually legit shows the time as it follows your system clock, or the fact if you read a plaque about the Pappapishu plant and learn the origin of its name, every character from that point on will say Pappapishu instead of "ouch". It's clear that the people who worked on this game had fun with the game's setting and put as much into it as possible to help make it memorable and interesting in addition to making it a funny and lively place. Nothing in the game feels outright threatening, there's ALWAYS a sense of fun beneath all of it, even during the darker parts of the game you get the feeling this is all in good fun and that comforting and inviting feeling about this game makes it so hard to put down, and makes it so relaxing to play. The characters are so incredibly well written in this game, whether it'll be Murray the talking skull and his craving for world domination despite being just a skull, the washed up actor Slappy Cromwell who rewrote Shakespeare to appease pirates or any of the other side characters in this game that never feel like side characters but proper characters who live in this universe.
The zombie pirate LeChuck who undergoes a bit of a transformation in the game, becoming... slightly more dead I suppose.
The most brilliant thing about the game, which also counts for pretty much all Lucas Arts games of the time, is that the puzzles are designed in such a way that it's impossible for you to get softlocked in the game and you'll never find yourself in a state where you can't proceed cause you missed an item or important piece of information, something that makes the game still really playable today. For instance, something I never really thought about but noticed while playing the game was that during a puzzle where you are trapped in quicksand you need to attach a rock to a balloon in order to drop it on a vine that will get you out of the quicksand. It's impossible for you to be stuck in the quicksand without the rock in your inventory since in order to get to the quicksand in the first place you need scissors to cut through some undergrowth. You acquire both things before you get there, but it's impossible to acquire the scissors without first acquiring the rock due to how that earlier puzzle is designed. It's this kind of really well thought puzzle design that permeates the entire game and most of the time you don't even notice it because the puzzles are so well done, just like the example I just mentioned. To this day I consider LucasArts some of the best designed adventure games ever and this is the exact reason why. Of course, it's also impossible to die in LucasArts games, which makes it incredibly hilarious that at one point in CMI you actually have to die to progress, though you do so by faking it so while it doesn't really count I find it hilarious that you have to actually do something that's pretty much impossible in LucasArts adventures (except the first game where you could actually die but it was in a single instance).
There's something familiar about that face...
The controls are pretty much as intuitive as you'd expect. Forgoing the classic SCUMM interface of the first two games, the game instead uses a much more simple "coin" which you can access by holding down the mouse button on objects. This coin contains three context-sensitive icons: The hand symbol allows you to physically interact with things, either pushing, opening or otherwise do things with your hands (no... not that...). The eye symbol allows you to examine things or look through things, generally use your face. The last is the mouth symbol, which for the most part is used for talking to people but can also be used for eating stuff or generally interacting with your mouth (again... not that...). It's an incredibly intuitive interface that was also used for similar games of the time period like The Longest Journey (another one of my all-time favourites) and Day Of The Tentacle. And trying out all 3 options on things can often lead to some funny lines, which makes it incredibly fun to just interact with things in the game, which is good considering that's what you do most of the time.
The game's graphical style is also incredibly good. While it's pretty different from the more realistic drawing style of the first two games and goes for a more cartoony style I think it really fits the game's atmosphere and helps give it a very distinct mood that you probably couldn't get otherwise. The characters all have really expressive animations and the background art is stunning at times with really well done colouring. At times it feels like you're pretty much playing a classic cartoon and I absolutely love every bit of it. Of course playing the game nowadays does make it feel somewhat low-res and I really REALLY wish there was an HD remake of the game similar to Grim Fandango Remastered with remastered artwork in high definition, much like the HD remasters of the first two games. But the game's artwork is still some of the best in the franchise in my opinion. I especially love the design of Guybrush who has a more lanky appearance in this game compared to the first two.
And the sound... good god I cannot praise the sound of this game enough. The voice acting is frankly superb and I love how much personality the voice actors add to the characters. My favourite has to be Dominic Armato who voices Guybrush for the first time in the series (although he did go on to voice him in the HD remasters of the first two games as well). His comedic timing is so spot on it hurts and his voice is now so synonymous with the character I can't even imagine anyone else voicing him in all honesty. He has this somewhat clumsy feel to him, but never mean-spirited and he really does come across as a well-meaning but unlucky (and unlikely) hero most of the time. Elaine is also voiced perfectly by Alexandra Boyd and it's a real shame she's pretty much quiet for most of the game. And of course, Alan Young has to be mentioned here, giving a really memorable performance as the Scotsman Haggis McMutton (and if you're going to have a Scotsman in the game, there's honestly no better Scotsman than Alan Young to voice him if you ask me). Everyone else are also doing an amazing job and the voice acting is one of the strongest aspects about the game, especially the Voodoo Lady who's voice alone helps give her an even greater impact than in the previous games (despite her short appearance).
This is what you get for recruiting a barbershop quartet as your crew, Guybrush...
And I don't think there's enough superlatives to say how much I love the music. It ranges from reggae influenced Caribbean music with plenty of steel drums and organs (which is perfect given the Caribbean setting) to cinematic mood pieces. All of it perfectly fits the scene it's in, helps give the game a ton of atmosphere and personality, and much like Grim Fandango's score has a style that perfectly matches the game's setting and it's impossible to imagine the game without it. Also, this game's rendition of the series' signature theme is probably my favourite of the entire franchise and when the theme hits during the opening credits I get goosebumps every time. It's honestly one of the best themes ever made for a video game.
I could honestly gush for hours about this game and how much I love it and it's a struggle keeping this review short enough, but in all honesty if you've never played this game you need to. I cannot recommend it enough, it is one of the best of its genre and much like other adventure games like Grim Fandango and The Longest Journey, the games that came out during this time were some of the best ever even if they underperformed in sales. The game feels like its own little universe, breathing and popping out of the screen with its quirky and memorable characters, its insanely funny humor and clever writing and insanely good puzzles. If you're going to play an adventure game today, I suggest starting with this. I don't see how I could give this game anything but a perfect score as in my eyes, there's been few games as good and fun as Curse. It's on Steam now for a price that's practically a steal, so what ye be waitin' for? The sea be waitin' for some good old insult sword fighting!
GAME: Deus Ex DEVELOPER: Ion Storm PUBLISHER: Eidos Interactive RELEASED: 2000
Okay, so I'm down with a cold and taking a short break from playing Rad Rodgers in order to take a look at a pretty special game. Where Doom and Quake can be considered the grandfathers of the first person shooter genre, Deus Ex can really be considered one of the grandfathers of the stealth shooter genre and has spawned one sequel and two prequels. So there really isn't much to be said about the game which hasn't been said already. But I'm gonna try my best to give my own unique perspective on this in this retrospective review of one of the greatest first person stealth cyberpunk RPG's of all time.
I don't really remember the first time I played Deus Ex, but I think it was somewhere around 2001-2002. And I don't really remember much of the experience, other than the fact I thought Jaime Reyes looked and sounded an awful lot like my dad (which gave me a kind of weird family relationship with the character), but beyond that it was never a game I completely understood. I mostly messed around with cheat codes to give myself god mode, all augmentations and a crapload of skills and just going through it like an overpowered dick. Of course later on I discovered that wasn't really that fun and not really the point of the game, even though I originally completed the game that way.
The game was primarily designed and conceptualized by Warren Spector, who up until the development of Deus Ex had worked with Looking Glass Studios who famously developed System Shock, System Shock 2 as well as the Thief games and it's easy to see Deus Ex being a bit of a logical evolution of those games. Although it feels a lot more balanced in terms of gameplay, focusing more on giving players a set of options on how to complete a level, which is what was really groundbreaking about it. Meaning there was never a wrong way to play the game, and how the player approached each mission could vary depending on their playstyle and chosen skillset. It's a game more about roleplaying and choosing your own approach, rather than going along with whatever approach the developer might intend, which is what truly sets it apart from other stealth games of its day such as Metal Gear Solid, where there was a bigger emphasis on a certain playstyle, while Deus Ex is more open to a variety of playstyles. There is nothing stopping you from killing every single enemy in a level, though the game will change depending on your actions, as everything you do invariably has consequences, which was the most groundbreaking thing about the game. For instance it is possible to go through the entire game without killing a single NPC by hand (the bosses are required to be taken out but you can do so without touching them). Of course doing so is very difficult and will require some ingenuity, but just the fact it is possible speaks volumes about how focused Deus Ex is on player freedom. Of course this doesn't mean the game won't punish you for doing pretty stupid things, but it does so in a very believable way. The game seems very focused on making its world believable and everyone around you will act in a very realistic and believable manner, so whenever you do something stupid and have to take the consequences for it, it feels more like the world reacting to you and less like the game trying to punish you.
*insert Benny Hill theme here*
The story in Deus Ex starts off simple enough. You're a fresh recruit off the academy, part of a new breed of soldiers who are augmented with nanobots in their blood stream that allow them access to superhuman abilities, such as regenerating health, lights from their eyes, increased jump height and so on. Due to the reliance on nanomachines to do all the work, these new prototypes are considered the evolution of mankind, and a generation above the "mechs", the more typical mechanically augmented human commonly associated with cyberpunk. Your name is J.C. Denton, and your first assignment is on Liberty Island, where a group of terrorists (the NSF) have taken over the island and your task is to sneak into the Statue of Liberty and interrogate the NSF leader about the shipment of Ambrosia, a vaccine that is the only known cure for a plague that has struck the nation, the Grey Death. Acquiring the location, which happens to be an underground bunker below Castle Clinton in Battery Park, you head there with your assigned partner, Anna Navarre in what can only be described as a buddy cop setup if I ever saw one, seeing as Anna Navarre is one of the older mechs who have a lot of resentment for the newer nano augmented agents, but is still willing to give you the benefit of the doubt if you can manage to impress her. Once you have located the ambrosia you are sent to Hell's Kitchen to locate a warehouse to blow up the NSF' power generator. When you get back from the mission, your brother has disappeared and you are tasked with going to an airfield to eliminate one of the terrorist leaders, Juan Lebedev as well as securing the remaining shipment of Ambrosia. However when you get there, things take a big change. Your brother Paul reveals he's working with the NSF to uncover a conspiracy within the government, convinced that the Grey Death is a man made virus. And if you allow Juan Lebedev to live long enough to talk, he will inform you that you and your brother are part of this conspiracy, as you were bio-engineered from birth to accept nanomachines into your body. Regardless of whether he lives or dies, before you can travel to Hong Kong to assassinate a triad leader, your helicopter pilot brings you back to Hell's Kitchen where your brother reveals he is dying. A kill switch has been enabled and he will be dead within 24 hours.
And that's all I wanna spoil for you. While the story does get a little convoluted, especially later on, it is incredibly engaging and despite the at times cringeworthy voice acting, it is an incredibly big story involving conspiracies, AI's, aliens and pretty much anything you can think of that wouldn't be out of place in an episode of the X-Files. While Deus Ex is pretty much a product of the late 90's with its Matrix-influenced protagonist and gritty realistic portrayal of the near future, it still feels pretty relevant today and I honestly find it a more believable portrayal of the future than a lot of cyberpunk games, if only cause it feels so rooted in reality.
Welcome to China, where the military carry fucking flamethrowers...
When Deus Ex came out there weren't really anything that could compare to its gameplay. The closest comparison would obviously be System Shock 2 which featured a similar gameplay system, but where System Shock 2 was more of a cult hit and a critical darling that never really found a mainstream audience, Deus Ex immideately became a best seller. And it is fairly easy to see why. It ditches some of the more cumbersome features from the System Shock games and streamlines a lot of them without dumbing it down.
The augmentation system is fairly easy to grasp. You have basically slots for different parts of your body that can be augmented and using these augmentations is accessible via the F3-F12 keys on your keyboard. You can find augmentations in the form of canisters (most of them hidden in hard to reach places), each containing 2 augmentations, forcing you to choose between the two as once installed, an augmentation is permanently embedded in your system and irreplacable. The RPG elements come into play via skill points that can be spent upgrading various abilities, everything from how good you are with weapon groups to hacking computers and using lockpicks. Skill points are rewarded fairly sparse and coupled with the permanent nature of augmentations, it's generally a good idea to pick a playstyle you wanna go for and sticking to it (you know, actually roleplaying). It is a bit of an oldschool mentality and this strict enforcement was either more relaxed or removed entirely in future installments.
Combat feels a little janky. It's hard to describe but movement can feel a little clunky at times, and it's clear the game wasn't really designed to be a shooter first and foremost. What I would often end up doing was sneaking up to enemies and taking them out, then moving their bodies to a hidden spot, or sniping them from afar with a rifle. Weapons can also be upgraded with weapon mods that add laser sights, silencers and increase range, accuracy and reload speed. Some mods might not be compatible with certain weapons, such as in the fact you can't add a silencer to a rocket launcher (as tempting as it would be).
Not sure what a wine bottle is doing in this cell.
Graphically the game hasn't really held up that well. Models in particular have a fairly low texture resolution and the animations can come off as a bit janky. But on the plus side, it runs on the early Unreal engine which features the classic detailed textures, meaning that certain wall textures will look really detailed up close, and the animations are generally fairly decent for the time. Using modern mods can offer texture replacements with high resolution graphics and new models for the characters, though I much prefer the original graphics. The game takes place pretty much entirely at night time, giving it a very unique atmosphere where you never see sunlight in the entire game (which is ironic considering J.C. wears his sunglasses the entire time).
The soundtrack is legendary of course. Alexander Brandon who also worked on Jazz Jackrabbit 2 did a fair bit of it and it's all really well done. It uses the tracker format that was also used in games like Unreal Tournament, and it gives it a very unique feel. Pretty much all of the tracks are really memorable and add to the game's atmosphere, and it's impossible to imagine the game without them. And as mention the voice acting can be hit or miss. It ranges from badass to almost so bad it's good territory...
Talk about hitting the wall.
That being said, Deus Ex is an amazing experience and has held up remarkably well. There is a saying that every time someone mentions Deus Ex, someone reinstalls it and I've been guilty of that on more than one occasion. The world is incredibly dense and rich with interesting characters that all act realistically to your actions and everything you do affects the game in some way. There's immense replay value to the game and to this day I still keep finding new stuff in the game whenever I play it. It's by no means a perfect game, but it is a true classic and one everyone should play at least once. Because it is impossible to imagine modern gaming without Deus Ex as its unique blend of gameplay styles created a genre all of its own. And its dark cyberpunk atmosphere draws you in again and again. And whether you play the original, or one of the various mods (including the extremely impressive Revision mod), Deus Ex is a must-play if you enjoy this genre of games.
GAME: DOOM DEVELOPER: id Software PUBLISHER: Bethesda Softworks RELEASED: 2016
It's DOOM time. Truth to be told it's been DOOM time since 2016, but for some reason, despite having finished the campaign and played the multiplayer a fair bit (not really looked at Snapmap cause... meh) I've only just now gotten around to writing a review. I blame my lack of writing inspiration the last few years. But since I've just gotten back into my review groove, let's take a look at the 2016 reimagining of the FPS that started it all; DOOM.
I've played enough Half-Life 2 to know that a giant portal in the background is a bad thing.
DOOM is a franchise with a lot of cred in the gaming sphere, as the original DOOM was one of the most seminal game releases of the 90's. Surrounded by controversy, giving birth to online deathmatches, launching probably one of the biggest modding communities for a game in existence and helping popularize the first person shooter genre, it is very difficult to imagine the gaming industry as a whole without this game. In 1994 it was quickly followed by DOOM 2: Hell On Earth, which largely felt like a retail standalone expansion to the original game, since it was largely the same game with new levels, enemies and a super shotgun. And through 1995 and 1996 it received numerous console ports as well as a few officially released level packs (Master Levels for DOOM II and Final Doom). Then id Software decided to make Quake and things changed drastically. John Romero left the company in 1996 following the release of Quake (Tom Hall had already left earlier during development of DOOM feeling a lack of creative input on the game), and id spent the following years releasing Quake 2 (which had nothing to do with Quake, except sharing its predecessor's name) and Quake 3: Arena (which again had little to do with either Quake or Quake 2) which was a multiplayer only arena shooter similar to Unreal Tournament (albeit with less game modes).
id would return to the DOOM franchise in 2004, with the suitably titled DOOM 3, although it was itself more of a remake than a direct sequel to DOOM 2. DOOM 3 is probably the game in the franchise that strays the furthest away from what most people consider the makeup of DOOM. While it wasn't really a bad game, in fact it was rather enjoyable, it focused a lot more on the horror aspect of DOOM and made it the focus of the game, at times not very successfully. You can read more in my review of DOOM 3 BFG Edition.
And after DOOM 3 that was pretty much it from id Software. The engine would go on to power Quake 4 (notably the first Quake game to actually continue a storyline from the previous games, Quake 2), and Wolfenstein 2009, both developed by Raven Software. id would start working on their next game, RAGE, intended to become the first new IP for the developer since Quake. Stuck in development hell for a solid decade, RAGE wouldn't see its release until 2011 and proved to be an enjoyable albeit not very satisfying game experience. More on RAGE here.
The best thing to come out of RAGE so far has been the technology. With its impressive megatexture id Tech 5 engine, it went on to power Wolfenstein: The New Order and The Evil Within. Then id Tech 666 came along, and with it... came DOOM.
Punching demons in the face becomes second nature in DOOM.
DOOM can best be described as pretty much the original DOOM, but with a modernized fresh take on it. The most astonishing feat of the remake though is how it manages to feel modern without at all sacrificing what made the original DOOM so much fun. Like the original DOOM and, very much unlike DOOM 3, instead of taking itself too seriously it instead focuses on making a fast-paced shooter about fighting the hordes of hell and not really giving a crap about much else. And the most amazing thing about it is how self-aware it is throughout the entire experience. Whenever the story comes into play, the Doomguy will notably be pissed off about it, not really caring about the reasons why the demons are here. He just wants to kill demons. In a rather badass scene in the beginning of the game, he is given a bit of briefing via a console and then promptly smashes the console into the wall before going on his merry way to slaughter himself some demons, perfectly not only mirroring the player's eagerness to get into the game proper, but also showing character without uttering a single word of dialogue. The game also foregoes any sort of lengthy intro sequence, rather starting you off by waking you up on an altar, bound by chains which you promptly break before smashing a possessed human's skull into said altar, grabbing your pistol, shooting some more possessed freaks and you're off. It's all the introduction you need for a game that's all about one thing: ripping and tearing some demon flesh.
That being said, the story isn't bad and simple enough for the game. There's a ton of lore to be found as well throughout the game, all written with that same self-aware and somewhat ironic snarky tone, very reminiscent of reading the original DOOM manual in some regards. The basic story is that a UAC scientists have harnessed energy from hell, so-called argent energy, a seemingly incredibly powerful and limitless source of energy. Of course, harnessing hell energy has brought along some complications as some deals have been made that have started an invasion of demons from hell, and it is up to the Doom Slayer (which sounds like a name for an epic metal band) to stop them.
He gave me a hand.
The gameplay in DOOM has a bit of a set rhythm to it, kinda reminding me of games like Serious Sam in some regards. You essentially move from battle to battle, often some of them start with you finding a gore nest and tearing it open, spawning in a horde of demons. These battles are interspersed with exploration, finding secrets and easter eggs, as well as taking in parts of the story. The battles are really the pounding heart of the DOOM experience and they feel entirely unique to the game. Describing the battles in DOOM would be like... well, imagine a 300 pound ballerina with a chaingun and you have roughly how it works. Because while you carry around an arsenal of oversized weapons and probably weight more than a freight truck, you move with the grace and agility of a rabbit on speed after having had 15 cups of coffee. Movement is fluid as all hell and it's a bit of a strange paradox how the game makes you feel large and heavy yet completely agile and in control at the same time. The guns all feel incredibly satisfying, and all of the DOOM mainstays are here and act roughly like their original DOOM counterparts, with my favourites being the super shotgun and the assault rifle. All the weapons can be upgraded with attachments, such as rapid-firing rockets for the assault rifle, explosive chargers for the combat shotgun and turning your chaingun into a freakin' turret just to name a few. It's all kind of insanely deep with upgrade paths, challenges to complete and this not only counts for guns but also your character where your skills can all be upgraded throughout the game using upgrade tokens and points you earn through finding secrets, doing challenges and just all around playing the game. And in addition to taking out enemies the old-fashioned way with a shotgun blast to the face, once you have done so they will begin to flash, and you can run up to them for a brutal melee finisher, which will be different depending on where you approach the enemy from, ranging from punching them in the face, crushing their skull and sending them flying with a kick to the groin. Okay the latter may not be an actual finisher (although it would be amazing if it was). The finishers are just short enough to not really pause the game for too long and there is a strange fluidity to them, making it obvious the game was playtested a lot to really perfect the length and timing of these finishing blows. It also feels somewhat influenced by Brutal DOOM, an awesome modification for the original DOOM which added the ability to brutalize demons with violent melee kills. Of course, when all fails, a BFG blast will easily clear out a room of baddies.
The enemies from DOOM all make a return and have been awesomely reimagined as well, feeling familiar yet different at the same time. Most notably the feared Arch-Vile has been rebranded as the Summoner, a floating and faster variation that easily takes priority whenever faced in battle. Otherwise all of the enemies feel familiar and you instantly know what sort of threat they pose.
Don't you look familiar...
Graphically the game looks absolutely gorgeous. Running on the much improved id Tech 666 engine, the game has a bunch of cool visual upgrades. That being said, there isn't really much of a noticeable difference between the graphics levels and I was hard pressed to really see any difference between Low and Ultra settings, so if you have a PC that struggles with the game on higher settings, I wouldn't feel too bad about lowering your settings, as the game's art direction is so strong it helps the game still look very good on low settings. Texture popin is a much smaller problem and overall the game has a colourful look to it, but still retaining a somewhat dark sci-fi horror atmosphere.
I also have no complaints about the game's sound. The weapons have beefy and punchy sound effects, the voice acting is top notch and the soundtrack is a glitched out cacophony of industrial noise and while it never goes into the same thrash metal inspired territory as the original DOOM, it pays homage to the original soundtrack in several places. A cool and impressive bonus is that the composer of the soundtrack went as far as to include pentagrams and other satanic imagery into the music itself, visible if you view the songs in a spectrum analyzer. Definitely a whole new level of detail that just adds more to the game's atmosphere.
The game features several throwback levels to the original DOOM. Finding them can be a challenge though.
So what else is there to do in DOOM? Well, in all honesty the campaign is the only worthwhile part of the game. But let's discuss the other game modes briefly.
The multiplayer mode consists of several game modes, ranging from the classic Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes to stuff like Freeze Tag and Domination. None of it is really that groundbreaking and in all honesty the multiplayer isn't that fun. Most of the time I end up getting killed by other players with either far more time on their hands or better loadouts. It's not terrible though and it's not difficult finding players to play with, and the lobbies all feature randomized game modes which breaks up the tedium unlike Call of Duty where you're usually stuck in a single mode until you decide to change it. There's a ton of visual upgrades to unlock, challenges to do and you unlock stuff as you level up. I mean, it's completely adequate but doesn't really fit in with the game in my opinion.
Then there's the Snapmap mode where you can make your own maps, game modes and other fun stuff using a basic game code system. I haven't really touched it to be honest and doubt I ever will but if you are feeling creative, it's very easy to snap together your own maps in the game. It does feel very limited in some regards though, as you can't really make big outdoor levels, being restricted to making essentially hallway levels. But for what it's worth, it's nice to have a creative mode like this in a game. It's just a shame it's not really a fully fledged editor.
Scott Cawthon approves of this.
So all in all, DOOM is definitely an amazing remake of the original DOOM and does just enough new stuff to make it feel fresh. It's just a shame the multiplayer mode ends up feeling not that fun and a bit superfluous, and the Snapmap mode is just kind of... there. But this one definitely gets a recommendation from me as a lifelong fan of id Software and DOOM. Of course, I'm still waiting for a true sequel to the original Quake... STORY: 8/10 GAMEPLAY: 8/10 GRAPHICS: 9/10 SOUND: 9/10
GAME: STRAFE DEVELOPER: Pixel Titans PUBLISHER: Devolver Digital RELEASED: 2017
STRAFE was originally started as a Kickstarter campaign that pretty much instantly grabbed my attention. Along with a trailer that pretty much out-extremed the 90's and a website that out-90's... d the 90's, it seemed to promise a kind of a throwback experience to 90's shooters, particurarily Quake. Well... it kind of does and kind of doesn't.
STRAFE is a roguelike FPS with a 90's influenced skin. While it tries to pass off as a 90's shooter, for the most part it isn't. Most notably, the levels are randomly generated, which is something I'm not a huge fan of. For one it makes it incredibly tedious and confusing to navigate the levels at times since they have little rhyme or reason to them and due to the random generation often end up a bit of a mess. It also kinda feels lazy to just have levels randomly generate rather than spending time developing proper levels. To be fair, this isn't something that's necessarily unique to STRAFE as a lot of games released lately have gone for the same approach. And in a roguelike it makes sense given the whole point is to see how far you can make it without dying and thus having to replay the game a lot would make it very repetitive if the levels weren't randomized.
STRAFE prides itself on having fairly large amounts of blood and gore, allowing you to turn enemies into blood fountains.
There's also a lot of other typical roguelike tropes in the game, such as randomized enemy spawns, randomized loot and the ability to buy upgrades, ammo and armor using in-game currency. Some of the good things about the game though is that it allows you to save and quit between levels, giving an option to take a break if you want to. It also features a cool graphics downgrade mode that increases the pixel count on large resolutions and giving the game a more retro look. It also has a training mode with instructional videos that, like the Kickstarter trailer, has a bit of a retro VHS look to them.
This happy guy will offer you some bonus items if you clear the area without killing him.
The enemies all offer up a fair bit of challenge, though some of the AI seem to revolve around the enemies simply heading for the player and punching them in the face. Some enemies will lob grenades and some will fire at you from a distance so it does force you to change your strategy depending on the enemy. When you start the game you have the choice between 3 main weapons: The shotgun, the machine gun and the railgun. The shotgun is a great close quarters weapon, the machine gun is good at pretty much all distances and the railgun excels at long distances but has a long delay between shots making it somewhat clunky in CQC. All the main weapons also have alternate firing modes, with the shotgun shooting stronger pellets that bounce off the walls, the machine gun lobbing grenades and the railgun firing a steady electric beam.
Some airvents will shoot homing missiles at you.
Graphically the game isn't that bad to look at, it definitely nails the 90's aesthetic to a degree, especially with the low polygon count on the enemies, but still has a fairly modern twist on it, such as having the ammo count on the guns themselves, giving you a physical visor display rather than a classic Quake/Doom style HUD.
The sound is also pretty good. The weapon sounds all feel pretty good, the enemy sounds give clear clues about what type of enemy you're facing and the soundtrack is all synthy goodness, very comparable to the Power Glove soundtrack for Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon if I were to compare it to anything.
Between some levels you can buy random upgrades.
All in all, STRAFE does accomplish what it sets out to do, which is being a roguelike shooter with a retro look. In all honesty it might be disappointing to those craving more of a genuine 90's shooter experience, but as a roguelike shooter it's definitely a fun distraction for a while. However, it's not that fun to play in long periods of time as the repetitive nature of constantly restarting does grind on you after a while and the game simply isn't that fun to play for me. If you are into roguelike shooters though, I definitely recommend giving it a try.
GAME: Rise Of The Triad DEVELOPER: Slipgate Studios (formerly known as Interceptor Entertainment) PUBLISHER: Apogee YEAR: 2013
So it seems it's time for the second part of my Apogee/3D Realms/Slipgate Studios retrospective (I swear I wasn't planning on reviewing their games so close to each other, I just happened to have their games on my backlog for a while and finally completed them...) And today we're looking at none other than Rise Of The Triad. Not the 1994 game (which I probably SHOULD look at at some point come to think of it...) but the 2013 remake.
The original Rise Of The Triad is a 1994 first person shooter with a somewhat interesting history. It was originally meant to be a sequel to Wolfenstein 3D using the same engine (albeit heavily modified to allow for a lot of new features), until id Software decided to part ways with Apogee and release their next shooter DOOM on their own, and since they didn't want a Wolfenstein title to steal DOOM's thunder, they denied Apogee to use the IP. However it didn't stop Apogee and the developer "Developers Of Incredible Power" (DIP) from changing the game into Rise Of The Triad, and without the Wolfenstein IP they were free to do as they wanted with the game. It ended up becoming very similar to Wolfenstein 3D in some ways, still focusing on a very arcady experience with points, stuff to collect and maze-like level design.
Scott Miller announced in 2009 that the game was being remade, with the game being revealed at the 2012 Quake Con, developed by Interceptor Entertainment, a virtual development studio with members all over the world, and on a very small budget. In 2013 the game was finally released, with the original game being released earlier in the year in the Apogee Throwback Pack, and I was probably one of the first people to buy it (not the throwback pack, the remake, although I bought the throwback pack as well). So as you can imagine it's taken a while for me to actually get around to writing a review even though I had always intended to do so. So let's just pretend it's 2014 again and I've played the game extensively (you don't have to pretend that last part actually considering I have played it extensively...)
There's nothing quite like gibbing an enemy to the point their eyeballs hit your screen.
The story is practically identical to the original ROTT. A team of four mercenaries (the so-called HUNT team) is stranded on an island following their boat being destroyed by enemies. They soon learn that the Triad is planning to nuke Los Angeles and goes on a mission to stop them from doing so. Truth to be told the game doesn't really need a story and it's quickly put to the wayside so you might as well just ignore the whole thing. It's pretty much just a setup for the game.
ROTT is truly more about the gameplay than the story, and there is a lot to say about it. To put it short, the remake includes practically every gameplay element from the original and expands upon it in some way. For instance, like in the original you can gib enemies and paint the level with their innards, although here you can even shoot limbs of their corpses. And like in the original you have a ton of explosive weapons to use, although they have been upgraded with some alternate firing modes and the game even includes a shotgun with an explosive alternate firing mode. The game also retains all the powerups (and power-downs) from the original ROTT, including a literal GOD mode that turns you into a GOD with the power to practically disintegrate enemies. And the opposite DOG mode that turns you into... well... a dog. You also have a powerup that give you wings, allowing you to defy gravity like an angel of questionable one-liners and explosives. My favourite has to be the mushroom power-down which essentially does nothing but shake your screen around annoyingly. You also have coins to collect which add to your score (which increases a lot more on higher difficulties), giving the game the same arcade-like feel of the original and it's really satisfying to 100% complete a stage, getting all the coins, secrets and killing every single enemy. Prepare to have your OCD triggered though... All in all though, the game really has a sense of humor about its gameplay and the lack of seriousness it treats itself with is both odd, quirky and enjoyable. To say this game is unique is probably an understatement...
He lost his head.
God mode. Literally.
Though it's not really all fun and games at times. The jump pads and platforms for one is a relic from the 90's that in my opinion should've stayed buried. Every time these things pop up in a level you KNOW they are going to be a pain in the ass and completely stall the flow of the game for a solid hour. First person platforming, especially with these freaking things is always promising a bad time, making it more of a chore to play the game at times. And it wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't expect you to use these in practically every single level. I've definitely had some extremely rage-inducing moments in this game with the jump pads and platforms and it's not challenging as much as it is frustrating.
And the game doesn't really run as well as you could hope either, even with the latest patch. While it does run acceptably most of the time, at some times the framerate will suffer a bit, especially with stuff like PhysX turned on. It's no big deal but it does have an impact on the overall experience, especially coupled with relentless jump pad sections.
Ever had a sniper duel with rocket launchers? Well you kinda have to in ROTT considering there just are no snipers...
So it's kind of hard to make up my mind on whether I enjoy the game or not. Because at most times it is incredibly fun and while some may say it feels outdated, it definitely feels like it exists in a universe of its own. And it feels all delightfully oldschool with tons of secrets and easter eggs, fast paced combat and with just enough modern sensibilities to make it feel fresh. For instance you can reload your weapons, even though you have infinite ammo. Yeah I don't really get that either but I am thankful as I kind of have a reload itch in me that I appreciate getting scratched.
It also helps the game is rather gorgeous to look at for a low budget game. The levels are fairly atmospheric and using the Unreal engine to its full potential, this allows for the game to look really good, especially on max settings. It is kind of weird to see such high detail graphics on levels with such a retro design though. But it kind of just adds to the strangeness of the whole experience.
The soundtrack is also really good, consisting of some themes from the original game remixed by Andrew Hulshult and he does a really good job retaining the original themes and riffs while expanding on them and giving them more of a rock feel. The sound effects are also really beefy and I love the inclusion of some of the sounds from the original game. Overall no complaints other than that the voice acting does sound a bit off at times, probably because some of the voice actors were literally parts of the team. But it does give the game a certain charm, much like a b-movie and you can tell people are giving their best when doing their roles.
The game features no shortage of explosive weapons including this lovely heat-seeking missile.
SPLAT!
So all in all I definitely recommend giving the remake of ROTT a try if you are into oldschool shooters. It fills a certain nieche all of its own and there's simply nothing like it out there. The game is simply LUDICROUS! And that's why it's awesome. STORY: 8/10 GAMEPLAY: 7/10 GRAPHICS: 8/10 SOUND: 9/10 TOTAL SCORE: 8/10
GAME: Bombshell DEVELOPER: Slipgate Studios (formerly known as Interceptor Entertainment) PUBLISHER: 3D Realms RELEASED: 2016
During the development of Duke Nukem Forever, the creators came up with this idea of a female counterpart to Duke Nukem. A badass chick who could hold her own against the alien forces and join forces with the king to wipe them out. The idea unfortunately ended up being scrapped due to... reasons that are frankly unknown to me, even though I could guess it had something to do with it just not fitting for the game which ended up being entirely centered on Duke, so it wouldn't make much sense to have a secondary hero character steal his thunder. But when publisher 3D Realms and developer Interceptor Entertainment (now known as Slipgate Studios following a name change after the release of this game) were working on a Duke Nukem action RPG, and ended up in a legal battle with Gearbox Software, they lost the chance to make a Duke Nukem action RPG. However, from the ashes of this legal battle arose a new chance to bring this female badass, from deep within Duke Nukem Forever's endless vaults of cut content, to the front of her own game, and finally give her a franchise of her own. The end result is Bombshell, a top down isometric shooter RPG. And here are my thoughts on it.
The 2015 reveal trailer featured an early draft of the character that left a bad taste in most people's mouths. Unfortunately I actually kinda liked it. :P
In 2015, 3D Realms published a reveal trailer of their new game in development. The trailer featured a scantily clad female with a robot arm and a black sidecut hair that would make Skrillex jealous, drinking whiskey before grabbing a shotgun and getting on a bike. It encapsulated perfectly what the game was about but received a fair bit of backlash for its lackluster graphical fidelity and sexualized protagonist. And while I personally liked it and got hyped from it, I could see where people were coming from. Luckily, the trailer wasn't really representative of what was to come. Because Bombshell isn't really a game in the same league as Duke Nukem 3D or even Duke Nukem Forever if you ask me. While Shelly is clearly a badass protagonist, she feels entirely different as a character and never really ends up feeling like a simple genderswapped Duke Nukem.
The first thing I've really noticed about Bombshell is that it kinda takes itself seriously. The story feels like something out of a b-movie of course. The president (who is a female in this game) is kidnapped by a cyborg villain known as Doctor Jadus Heskel (totally not Doctor Proton) and a badass chick with a robot arm goes on an intergalactic trip to an alien homeworld to save her. But it's not really played up in any way that makes it self-aware or self-referencing, as most of it is taken really seriously and most of the humor is kind of tucked away in the form of one-liners and references. And this is why it feels really different from a Duke Nukem game. Because while on paper the setup feels almost like a perfect setup for a Duke Nukem game, where a Duke Nukem game wouldn't really take itself TOO seriously, Bombshell goes for a very serious tone despite the somewhat ludicrous premise. For instance, Duke Nukem Forever did take itself somewhat seriously in terms of story but it never expected the player to take it seriously and always assumed the player would be in on the joke and understand that this was never meant to be taken seriously and that it was all in good fun. Bombshell completely lacks that self-awareness and thus always expects the player to not only take the story seriously but also be invested in it. The main problem with the story though is that it's not really written well enough to draw you into it and expects a little too much from the player to be invested in it. And it lacks enough humor to really offset the amount of seriousness.
Most of the humor in Bombshell is derived from stuff like naming a weapon "Ion Maiden" (cause Iron Maiden... get it?) or "PMS" (which is basically on par with naming a town Morningwood). Or making a random NPC sound like a horrible impersonation of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's never really humor that fully lands for me and while I can get a chuckle out of a few lines here and there, I would never really call the game comedic in tone, just kind of witty at times, and it kind of makes stuff like the weapon names feel a little out of place. You thought Duke Nukem Forever had a confused tone? This game struggles to even get a confused tone, it's a straight up disconnection between what you see on screen and what the game's story is doing.
The final design of Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison pretty much nails who the character is meant to be. A serious and badass female with a robot arm and a zero bullshit tolerance.
The game looks rather gorgeous though, especially for what is essentially an indie title. Interceptor is a fairly small development team, and they all work from different parts of the world, making it more of a virtual dev team than a physical one, which may explain a few things but we'll get back to that later. All of the levels in the game feel distinct from one another, with each sporting its own colour space and mood, ranging from a level over a deep underground lava pit, to a frozen ice level, to an industrial level with tons of awesome imagery. While none of the levels really end up feeling that original, they definitely all feel distinct enough to make clear and proper "chapters" in the game. I also rather like the cutscenes that are all done in-engine and feature some very cool animation. It's a huge step up from the comic book style cutscenes that most indie titles seem to do nowadays (even Interceptor was guilty of this with their Rise of the Triad remake, although in that game I felt it was a bit justified given it was a remake of an old game). Of course, as I mentioned, your enjoyment of these cutscenes will of course depend heavily on your investment into the story and whether you like it or not. But despite not being entirely into the story I still enjoyed the flair of the cutscenes and they do their job building up some drama between levels.
The detail is also extremely high and the game allows you to zoom in on the action to take in the amount of detail on the textures. Especially Shelly herself has some rather awesome texture work done on her. With everything cranked to the max the game definitely looks rather good and runs really well too with no hitches or stuttering (bear in mind I am running the game on the latest patch), and you probably won't need any high end system to truly crank up the graphics, as running everything maxed out on 1080p granted me smooth and stable performance on an AMD Phenom II 3.2GHz CPU with an AMD R9 280X GPU. I can definitely appreciate the work put into the graphics in this game, and it is by far one of my favourite aspects about it. It deserves praise when an indie game manages to look this good.
The game starts out on Earth sending you into the white house to rescue the president, which ends up taking you to the alien planet Kyrr.
The game is a top down shooter despite it trying to sell itself as an action RPG. The RPG mechanics are extremely miniscule in this game. There is no real roleplaying involved as you don't play your own character, you cannot choose what to say, all of the levels are played in a linear fashion and in general the only RPG element is that you can choose which of Shelly's abilities to upgrade whenever you level up, and can choose between 2 upgrade paths on your weapons, with new upgrades unlocking as you level up. This is really not enough to warrant the game being called an RPG in my opinion and I think it's wrong to call it such as it gives the wrong expectations towards the game. The game is really just a simple isometric shooter.
That being said, as a twin-stick shooter it is still fairly competent. The game features moving with the WASD keys and aiming with the mouse, or using dual analogue sticks on a gamepad. While I might have preferred the game being made as a first person or behind-the-shoulder third person shooter, it still plays well as what it is. The camera can be a little frustrating though as the angle can make it difficult to spot enemies approaching you (though the map mitigates this design flaw a little as it shows enemy locations as red dots). The weapons feel satisfying to use, especially if you get the right upgrades for them, such as upgrading the Maxigun to fire rockets (which feels pretty much exactly like it does in the new Doom game) or upgrading the Motherflakker (basically the game's shotgun) to fire explosive shells. It gives the weapons a whole new "oomph" and dimension and makes you feel crazy powerful. I wouldn't say there was any weapon I really didn't enjoy using with the exception of the Shellshock, which I couldn't really wrap my head around using. I mostly ended up using either the Maxigun or Motherflakker with the Ion Maiden being used for dispatching small pests and the PMS or Flamethrower being used for larger miniboss type enemies. While you can definitely tell there is some influence from Duke Nukem to these weapons, they truly end up feeling unique to the game and puts their own twist on familiar archetypes (except the Shellshock, I still have no idea what it's supposed to do lol).
The game's currency can be picked up in the form of purple orbs. At times it ends up feeling like I'm playing a strange mix between Duke Nukem and Diablo.
The level design is alright for the most part. The main gameplay rhythm mostly comprises of moving towards objectives, wiping out enemies, gathering ammo and currency, and rinse and repeat. You do get secondary objectives in some levels which you might wanna finish before moving on to the primary objective if you're a completionist, and a lot of the levels have secrets in them. A few issues I did notice though was that at times you are required to do platforming which can be tricky given the camera angle, and at times the level geometry can make it a bit tricky to move around. The aiming can also be a bit finnicky at times, requiring you to aim specifically at enemies rather in their general direction. The game also softlocked several times for me during certain quests, requiring me to restart the entire level. Not a huge deal but something you should be aware of. For instance, I never ended up getting the Electroshocker on my playthrough, despite picking it up. And I was stuck for hours when a quest bugged and leaving me unable to pick up a power crystal I needed to continue. So the game is far from perfect, but none of the bugs I encountered were outright gamebreaking and could typically be fixed with a level reset.
The soundtrack is decent enough, if you love industrial metal. It's not really my cup of tea and most of it just ended up sounding like generic background noise to me and not really with enough synth to make it sound interesting. Just generic chugs and no real themes or memorable riffs. Andrew Hulshult is a decent musician but not a really strong songwriter in my opinion. Some stronger themes would really have helped the soundtrack come a long way as I couldn't really get into it. The main theme is repeated a few times but even that isn't really that memorable. I felt he did a much better job with his Rad Rodgers soundtrack in all honesty.
The voice acting also leaves something to be desired. While Shelly herself does an alright job, it is true she kind of lacks impact. And some of the NPC voice actors straight up sound like they recorded their lines in their bedroom. Which they probably did given how Interceptor works. For the most part it's not too distracting but at times it was pretty cringe-worthy.
Luckily the weapon sounds and general sound design is pretty good. The weapons sound beefy and loud and the ambience is also really good. I just couldn't really get behind the voice acting or music. Both sound a bit bland.
At a few points the game will offer a turret section to break up the gameplay a bit. If you hate these though, do not fear. They are extremely underutilized. The turret does feature a slow-mo function though.
So that kind of concludes everything I had to say about this game. While it's not really a bad game and definitely not as bad as some reviews make it out to be, it has a lot of missed potential. I feel with a stronger story that took itself less seriously, and with better voice acting and stronger music the game could be a real blast. Oh well, maybe Ion Maiden will prove to be a stronger experience given it's using the good old Build engine, the same tech which powered Duke Nukem 3D, the series from which Bombshell was born from? Time will tell. In the meantime, I would say Bombshell is worth giving a shot if you can find it on sale and crave a simple isometric shooter with a b-movie story and playing as a badass female with a robot arm. Because as mediocre as this game might be, Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison is still a hell of a gal and I really hope to see her in more games and watch her grow as a character.
