Top 10 Games of 2019

2019 was a pretty mixed bag for gaming. E3 last year gave some pretty big promises for 2019, with Anthem being one of the games I was the most hyped for. And while it certainly was fun, it still lacked a LOT and when BioWare and EA straight up abandoned the roadmap for the game, it was pretty disappointing to see.

And the less said about Fallout 76 and Bethesda's handling of that the better. I mean, talk about a wasted opportunity. The concept was sound, heck I was really hyped for it. But when it launched that hype quickly turned to just a big old "what the fuck happened?" feeling.

And just what the heck was Rage 2? I mean, on paper it had some merit. Making an open world FPS set in a post-apocalyptic Mad Max world, made by the people who made the Mad Max game. But with the uninteresting story, unlikeable characters and boring repetitive gameplay I just couldn't get into it and that was a huge shame for me.

But, we're not here to discuss the biggest failures of 2019. We're here to celebrate the best 2019 had to offer, at least for me. So let's take a look at what I played in 2019 and what my best experiences were!

10. THE ETERNAL CASTLE

This fake remaster caught my attention early this year. Boasting some rather intense visuals using solely a CGA palette and with very great use of shadows and contrasts, Eternal Castle definitely won me over with its artistic direction.

It also helps the game draws a ton of inspiration from classic cinematic platformers like Prince of Persia, Flashback, Out of this World / Another World and BlackThorne, games that I grew up with on PC. It was a huge nostalgia rush for me and with a great synthwave soundtrack, there's not a whole lot to dislike about the game.

If you haven't checked out The Eternal Castle I highly recommend doing so. Even if it may not be an actual lost game from the 80's, it's still a really cool retro-inspired experience. And we need more games with CGA graphics.

9. ANTHEM

It may not have been what they promised, and in terms of end-game content it fell disappointingly short in the end. But Anthem still was one of my most fun experiences this year.

It's a game that definitely is best enjoyed with some friends, as the game unfortunately was not fun playing on public servers. But having some friends in a private game was definitely the way to go for me.

Anthem won me over with the gameplay and just how well the different Javelins synergized with each other. And not to mention just how cool you felt using them, especially the Storm. I know a lot of people love to hate on Anthem for how badly EA treated the game and not to mention the working conditions it was made under.

But for what it's worth, I still think this is a game with a lot of potential. And let's hope BioWare and EA can rework it into something better than what we got.

8. HEDON

This Doom 2 mod is probably one of my favourite games this year. In terms of content, it delivers a solid 15 hour campaign with a ton of exploration, an exciting story and a lot of intense retro FPS action.

It also helps the protagonist is a thicc orc berzerk with a penchant for huge axes. And with the game's multiple difficulties, some involving special weapons and more of a melee focus, it's a game worth replaying just to see the different things it has to offer.

7. DUSK

It's almost difficult to recommend DUSK to anyone who didn't grow up playing countless hours of Quake on a dusty Pentium in a basement while trying not to step on your Pog collection and guzzling Surge. DUSK is a love letter to the mid 90's FPS scene in so many ways, it could almost itself be from that era. And at first glance, you could easily mistake it for the best Quake engine game ever made without the Quake engine.

It sells itself as somewhat of a mix of everything great about retro shooters, taking inspiration from the aforementioned Quake, Blood, Redneck Rampage and Half-Life just to mention a few and mixes elements from all these classic shooters in seamless ways.

It's fast, it's fun, and is tailor made for boomers like myself. So if any of what I said above tickles your hype glands, go and grab a copy on Steam right now.

6. UNTITLED GOOSE GAME

The success of Untitled Goose Game is baffling and completely understandable at the same time. Despite its lack of a name, and despite it releasing only on Epic Game Store and Switch, it has amassed a huge cult following this year, myself included.

There isn't much to dislike about the game in all honesty. It has an incredibly charming cel shaded art style that gives the game a very timeless feel to it. And you play as a goose whose only goal in life is to be a complete dick. As geese pretty much tend to be.

It's a short game but what it packs in there is pretty much a nice world to explore and interact with. And just as a stealth game I think it works beautifully.

5. SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE

One of the things I got this year was a Nintendo Switch. And it came with one of the games I wanted the most for it. being Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

I've always had a love for the Smash Bros. series, ever since my first experience with it on the GameCube with Smash Bros. Melee, it became one of my favourite fighting game series for its huge cast of diverse characters.

And with Smash Bros. Ultimate that cast is not only bigger than ever, but the game has some of the best gameplay in the series. It's been so distilled at this point it's turned into the perfect Smash game.

4. AMID EVIL

Amid Evil might be one of the best shooters I've played period. With its dead simple story, it still manages to deliver an amazingly memorable experience just from the sheer impact of its visuals and level design alone.

It takes you to vastly different places, all with distinct architecture and design, with some of its later levels providing some of the most beautifully dream-like landscapes I've seen in games in a while.

This is a game you need to play simply for the experience of it. So grab it on Steam now if you haven't!

3. BORDERLANDS 3

To say I'm a huge Borderlands fan might be an understatement. I have almost 300 hours in the first game, and over 1000 hours in Borderlands 2 only on PC alone (not counting the countless hours I've spent with the PS Vita port). And combined with Pre-Sequel and the Tales From The Borderlands games, that number might be close to around 2000 hours across the whole franchise.

So a third game is something I've been anticipating for a long time, especially given the ending of Borderlands 2 which teased at the possibility of exploring vaults across the universe.Which is exactly what Borderlands 3 is about.

So far Borderlands 3 has ended up blowing away all my expectations. The quality of life improvements brought to the core gameplay are extremely nice, to the point where going back to play the older games would feel archaic. And the writing has matured so much that it makes Borderlands 2 feel like it's embarassing to play through.

So definitely go check out Borderlands 3 if you have any interest in the franchise like me.

2. THE OUTER WORLDS

When this was first announced, I was thrilled to hear about it. A game from the makers of Fallout New Vegas with a similar style to Fallout? Sign me up.

And still, even with that in mind, Outer Worlds has completely blown me away. The game's universe feels so rich and developed, and the writing is amazingly satiric yet still touches just the right amount of heart strings to feel emotionally impactful.

And props to Ashly Burch for her portrayal of Parvati Holcomb who is just one of my favourite companion characters in any game now. I've always enjoyed her as a voice actress and seeing her break free from the typical "crazy girl" roles she's had so far is refreshing.

I just can't say enough good things about this game. It's pure RPG bliss, and the combat is great. It's the best Fallout game not made by Bethesda to be honest.

1. ION FURY

This may be the game I was most anticipating this year. After teasing us with a preview campaign that honestly blew me away, and a name change from Ion Maiden to Ion Fury due to a stupid legal battle, Ion Fury finally released on August 15th. And since then, I've had a pretty near religious relationship with this game.

Built on the Build engine, the same engine that powered a ton of 90's FPS classics like Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior, Redneck Rampage, TekWar and so on, Ion Fury is one of the best old school shooters out there right now, since it authentically feels like a game from the era it draws its inspiration from.

It has everything nailed to a tee. Gameplay wise it lacks a bit of the crazy weaponry from its inspirations, but makes up for it by making every weapon feel powerful, unique and useful depending on the situation. In most shooters of its era, the pistol is your desperation weapon. But in Ion Fury, with a lock-on mechanic it becomes one of the most useful weapons for dealing with the smaller enemies in the game. And every gun has an alt-fire mode that offers tactical advantage.

And the soundtrack. MMMF. It's been so long since I've heard a proper tracker music soundtrack, probably not since the days of Deus Ex, and Jarkko "Roz" Rotsteen has delivered an AMAZING soundtrack in Ion Fury. With a range of genres, taking inspiration from everything from dub, breakbeat, techno, synthwave and so forth, it is a diverse and beautiful soundtrack that I've taken to remixing myself in my own style, simply for my own love for it.

I simply lack the praise needed to properly tell you how good Ion Fury is. You just need to play it yourself. So go on Steam and grab it now.

And those are my top 10 games of 2019. Have any games of your own you played this year and wanna tell me about? Feel free to drop a comment and follow me on Twitter!

PC Game Review: Ion Fury

GAME: Ion Fury
RELEASED: 08/15/2019
DEVELOPER: Voidpoint
PUBLISHER: 3D Realms
AVAILABLE ON: PC (Steam, GOG & Boxed)

Before I begin my review, I have to get a bit personal and talk a bit about myself and my life as a gamer. I was born in 1988 and some of my earliest memories come from gaming on PC. And the very first game I remember playing was Duke Nukem by Apogee Software. And those familiar with Apogee should also know that they eventually became 3D Realms and published titles such as Terminal Velocity, Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior. The last two games used a certain engine called BUILD, developed by Ken Silverman. This engine was also used to make games such as Redneck Rampage, Exumed/Powerslave, TekWar and not to mention the glorious tribute to horror films that is Blood.

Now the build engine didn’t really see much use after 1997. id Software’s Quake engine and Epic’s Unreal engine were both quickly blowing it out of the water and while it continued getting fan support and eventually got ported to Windows and becoming EDuke32, there hasn’t been a Build engine in 20 years…

So that should give an indication of why Ion Fury is so significant. This is a game released in 2019 using the BUILD engine. It is a game sharing so much of its DNA with these classic titles that it could almost be considered a child. Which brings me back to my personal story. These are the kind of games I grew up with being a PC gamer in the 90’s. And sure, some of them didn’t hold up as well today, especially Shadow Warrior with its somewhat problematic stereotyping and male-centric tone, but games like Blood are very much still fun playing today. So when I heard about Ion Fury, back when it was called Ion Maiden until the band Iron Maiden threatened to sue (that actually happened), I was absolutely thrilled.

Sure we’ve seen a resurgence of throwback shooters recently with games such as Dusk and Amid Evil (which you should check out my review of) getting attention for recreating the type of games we saw in the 90’s. But Ion Fury is special in the sense it doesn’t actually use a modern game engine to look old school. By using the BUILD engine, which at this point is old enough to drink hard liquor, the team at Voidpoint have been working with limitations that inherently gives the game a certain old school feel. And there is something unique about BUILD engine games that has been lost in the process of everything becoming true 3D. So let’s take a look at the greatest tribute to 90’s FPS gaming ever, ION FURY.

Much like its inspirations, Ion Fury is chock full of references to other games. And also makes me wish these arcade cabinets were real!

STORY

Ion Fury is actually a prequel of sorts to a previous 3D Realms game titled “Bombshell”. It features Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison who herself is based on a cut character from Duke Nukem Forever, who originally was going to be a sidekick of Duke. After 3D Realms lost the rights to the Duke Nukem franchise to Gearbox, they decided to give Bombshell her own game and further developed the character into a badass with a robot arm. Unfortunately, the game didn’t do so well thanks to a myriad of bugs and the game not being as good as people hoped (check out my review of it for more info on that). But already when Bombshell released, the Deluxe Edition gave people early access to an upcoming “BUILD engine prequel”, which is where development started.

Ion Fury follows Shelly’s exploits as a GDF police chief in Neo DC, tracking down the leader of a cybernetic cult that has risen on the streets, which are flooded with augmented punks that seem eager to die for their new leader. As it turns out, the leader is Professor Jadus Heskel, a scientist hellbent on world domination. It is up to Shelly to track him down and end his reign. Yeah the game is certainly not heavy on story, but much like its fathers, it doesn’t really need one. So let’s move on to talking about the gameplay.

Shelly’s reflection certainly makes it clear you don’t want to piss her off.

GAMEPLAY

Being a 90’s style FPS, Ion Fury plays deliciously old school. The focus is on collecting key cards, throwing switches, blowing shit up and generally causing mayhem. What sets it apart though is its structure. Unlike pretty much any BUILD engine shooter before it, it uses more of a hub structure similar to games like Quake 2 and Half-Life where the game is split into zones and each zone has multiple levels to go through. This makes each zone feel like one large level and helps make the game feel bigger in scope than most BUILD engine shooters. The weapon selection is pretty good too.

Your melee weapon is the Electrifier, a high powered stun baton that delivers enough juice to power a generator and killing enemies with repeated hits.

You have the Loverboy, a revolver that Shelly can either dumb fire or lock on to enemies and kill in rapid succession, Red Dead Revolver style.

The Disperser is a shotgun that doubles as a grenade launcher (although the grenade launcher is also a separate weapon somehow, it’s a bit confusing).

The Penetrator (snicker) is a SMG that fires incindiary flechettes. It can also be dualwielded by picking up another and is one of the weapons in the game with the highest damage output, especially damage over time with its added fire damage.

The Minigun is a powerful heavy weapon that can be picked up from a dead mech or found in levels as a pickup.

The Bowling Bombs are bowling ball sized bombs that seek out enemies (in theory, I found them often not really doing a good job at this) and blow them up into chunks. They can also be lit in your hand and thrown like regular grenades.

The Ion Bow is a powerful sniper weapon that can either fire single or multiple bolts. It deals incredible damage to enemies on headshots and can also stun them on body shots.

Clusterpucks (pffft) are mines that can either be attached to a surface and used as proximity mines or thrown at enemies or walls to explode on impact.

The Penetrators are probably my favourite weapon in the game as they scratch my itch for dualwielded guns AND fire ammo. Nothing quite beats lighting an enemy on fire and watching him burn to a crisp.

If I were to criticize anything about the game it would probably be the lack of any real power weapon. Having something akin to Duke’s Devastator or some kind of cyberpunk thing like having Shelly get her robot arm during the game would be awesome. The weapons as a whole feel kind of bland and like they’ve been done before.

However, that being said it does feel like focus was put on making sure that every weapon in the game feels not only useful but also as badass as possible. The Electrifier might be one of the most useful melee weapons I’ve ever seen in a game, trumping even the Katana from Shadow Warrior in how often I used it during the game, and its use for turning on generators in the game makes sure it also has an interactive function. Throughout the game I found myself stocked with plenty of ammunition and the game incentivizes using your entire arsenal for different situations and different enemies.

For instance, I found you can insta-kill the spider enemies using the Electrifier, and the Ion Bow’s incredible headshot damage made it l invaluable during the later parts of the game with the flying enemies that shoot rapid fire rockets at you. The grenade launcher also entirely owned the centipede enemy. Thus I found that overall the weapons have been integrated really well into the game and I feel everything syngergizes in a way that makes sense and makes you feel clever for using the right weapon for the right situation. I’m not sure whether a power weapon or exotic weapon would work or even add anything to that ecosystem of strategies. Ion Fury feels like it puts less focus on “let’s make the most OP weapon ever” and more focus on “let’s give the player an arsenal of OP weapons but also give the enemies weaknesses to certain weapons”.

Sure Doom has its BFG 9000 but it also has its fists and pistol that you pretty much never use. Duke Nukem has its Devastator but you almost never found ammo for it which forced you to not use it as much, and let’s be honest, very few players actually used the freezeray and shrinker/expander more than the shotgun and chaingun. What sets Ion Fury apart in that regard is definitely that each weapon feels really good. Blowing up enemies with bowling balls and grenades never gets old and even rewards you with armor shards, so the game as a whole has a very tactical vibe to it.

Ion Fury provides some gorgeous lighting with its use of shadow textures and palette swaps. The artistic talent behind the game brings out some really impressive work with the engine.

The game offers you healing items in the form of medpacks and armor in the form of 3 armor suits. Light (blue, 50 armor), medium (brown, 100 armor) and heavy (red, 200 armor) respectively. Though the cool thing about Ion Fury is that both health and armor can be overcharged. You can consume food and soft drinks you find in the levels to get your health temporarily above 100, and also use armor shards from exploded enemies or in the level to get your armor above your current armor’s maximum level.

The game is also really long, providing around 8-10 hours of gameplay if you stroll through it casually and a lot more if you plan to find all the secrets and easter eggs hidden in it. In fact, finding secrets and exploring the game is highly recommended if you want to survive on any difficulty higher than Normal. Usually stuff like the heavy armor and ammo are hidden in secret areas, so this is not the kind of game you want to rush through, or you’ll find yourself having to scrape by on very little ammunition. Despite its length though I never felt like the game was a chore to get through. Having played it almost continuously for the last few days, I always felt that itch to keep playing and once the game was over I couldn’t help but wish there was even more of it. The pacing is perfect, steadily amping up difficulty until the final battle.

Speaking of the final battle, without spoiling anything it does feel kind of disappointing. Just don’t expect anything too epic. But considering how much of a good time I had with everything leading up to it, and how in character it still feels, I can’t really say it didn’t feel good either.

Shit. Zombies. Shit zombies.

My playthrough for this review was on the Wanton Destruction difficulty which is probably the most fair. The game also has two additional difficulties, being Ultra Viscera and Maximum Fury. Ultra Viscera is the hard difficulty, which the game only recommends for FPS veterans. And Maximum Fury is just insanity and something akin to the Nightmare difficulty from Doom. First Blood is the easiest difficulty and is a good option for those who just want to have fun and explore the game without suffering too many deaths.

The game does capture that visceral and explosive feeling that comes with a BUILD engine shooter though. It’s hard to put my finger on it but the weapons, the sprite work and everything works together to create a very unique style that you don’t see in games afterwards. It has this crunchy feel to it where your weapons feel like they can deal immense damage and everything feels very heightened and high octane like in old school action movies. The game quickly becomes a gore fest where you can kick enemy heads around, much like Blood, and it’s just immensely fun to play. To put it mildly, I had a very difficult time putting this game down and even writing this review I’m just itching to go back and play it all over again on Ultra Viscera difficulty.

I should have expected to find the Dopefish. Did not expect to find him in a screenshot from the original Quake though. I guess that makes this a double cameo.

GRAPHICS & SOUND

If you can’t tell by the screenshots, this is an absolutely gorgeous game. It has a really solid art direction that pushes the BUILD engine to its absolute limits. The amount of detail in the level design is immense and the colour palette is very pleasing to look at. Despite not having any kind of dynamic lighting or even lighting period, the mappers have used palette swaps and textures to create shadows and lighting that looks pretty much like something out of a modern game. I also didn’t encounter any performance issues on my playthrough aside from some slight framerate drops here, but compared to my initial experience with the game, it has been extremely optimized.

The amount of detail is insane too, especially in the gore effects. Enemy heads can be kicked around, blood can splatter onto surfaces, you can leave bloody foot prints and you can even squish enemies in doors like in Duke 3D. This attention to detail almost disappeared entirely when FPS games turned to full 3D engines, and it’s a delight to see it brought back on such a large scale. The game also utilizes voxels to give the game 3D objects for stuff like ammo, weapons, health and items. There are still a fair amount of objects that remain 2D sprites, such as chairs and barrels, but it is impressive to see nonetheless.

The game has a ton of secrets, including a message from developer DavoX who put his daughter’s shark plush in the game.

The music is also definitely worth mentioning. It was done by demoscene artist Jarkko Rotsten, and the entire soundtrack has been done as tracker music. If you don’t know what tracker music is, it’s essentially like MIDI files, except it uses samples that are included in the files themselves and thus have far more diversity in terms of what sounds can be used. They were famously used in games such as Jazz Jackrabbit, Unreal Tournament and Deus Ex to name a few. The soundtrack as a whole gave me some serious 90’s vibes and reminded me a lot of games such as SiN and Unreal. It’s all electronic techno goodness that fits perfectly with the game’s cyberpunk vibes.

The sound design is also top notch. All the weapon noises are perfect, the headshot sounds are crunchy and the gibbing noises are just perfectly wet sounding. Everything comes together to create an aural soundscape that feels right at home in a BUILD engine game with lots of nods to Quake, Duke Nukem and Blood to name a few. The voice acting is also fun, with Shelly providing one-liners that feel in line with the BUILD tradition of pop culture references. Jon St. Jon also does a great job portraying Heskel, with just enough of his humor injected into it to make him a bit fun to listen to as well. So yeah, I don’t think I have anything bad to say about the sound or voice acting.

Any game with a reference to the Black Lodge from Twin Peaks is good in my book.

SUMMARY

All in all, I would consider Ion Fury the best BUILD engine game ever made, and honestly one of the best FPS’s I’ve played period. With its incredibly satisfying armory, enormous world, charming main character and kickass soundtrack I am seriously at a loss of finding anything bad to say about it. If anything lacks it would be some of the cringy and sexist parts from games like Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem 3D, but I honestly do not miss that at all. It’s extremely addictive though and I had problems putting it down, but to me, that’s when you know you’re playing something truly special.
What is obvious to me is that Ion Fury is crafted with a ton of love and passion and you can tell when a game is made not because a company wants to make a profit, but when they want to make something that they think is fun. Because when a developer has fun making a game, that translates into the playing experience. It hails back to an era when games were honestly more fun because teams were smaller and game engines like the BUILD engine allowed for more fun details and fun gameplay.

If you for some reason haven’t played Ion Fury and ANY of this looks fun to you, I HIGHLY recommend picking the game up on Steam and DRM-free on GOG for the incredibly fair price of $24.99. You can even buy a physical big box edition for $60 that comes with a whole bunch of goodies if you are so inclined. So what are you waiting for? GET FURIOUS!

SCORE

STORY: 8/10
GAMEPLAY: 9/10
GRAPHICS: 10/10
SOUND: 10/10

FINAL SCORE: 9/10

 Originally posted at https://www.vgr.com/ion-fury-pc-game-review

PC Game Review: Amid Evil

GAME: Amid Evil
RELEASED: 06/20/2019
DEVELOPER: Indefatigable
PUBLISHER: New Blood Interactive
AVAILABLE ON: PC (Steam & GOG)

New Blood Interactive shouldn’t be a stranger to PC gamers by now. Their game Dusk has already garnered attention for its 90’s Quake throwback visual style and similarity to old school first person shooters such as Quake, Blood and Redneck Rampage. It didn’t take long for a similar project to follow. Amid Evil is the brainchild of developer Indefatigable who are based in New Zealand. And where Dusk is a love letter to aforementioned titles, Amid Evil’s inspiration comes from similar but still different sources. Amid Evil is a love letter to games such as Heretic and Hexen, and also Quake to a large extent. So while I’m on such a boomercore kick with my previous review of Hedon, today I’m going to be taking a look at Amid Evil and let’s find out if the game is a worthy tribute to the old legends.

Amid Evil’s weapon selection includes a wand that shoots spikes, allowing you to pin enemies to scenery.

STORY

Amid Evil, much like most 90’s shooters, is rather light on story content. Essentially some kind of evil has invaded several realms and it is up to a chosen warrior to cleanse these realms of evil, seek out its source and destroy it. It really is the most straightforward story you can think of, but the game doesn’t really need much more. There are no lengthy cutscenes in sight, no text crawls, and very little in terms of dialogue. It’s just you, your weapons, your enemies and the gameplay. So let’s discuss it, shall we?

Most of the lore in the game can be read on walls. Or hidden messages from Dave Oshry.

GAMEPLAY

Amid Evil, despite its fantasy inspirations plays very much like a fantasy version of Quake. No RPG mechanics in sight, just pure action with the occasional puzzle. Puzzles are typically solved by shoving your body into buttons until a sequence is complete, so don’t expect your brain to get any massive exercise. What Amid Evil mostly focuses on is pure combat. The main gameplay consists of traversing levels, going from room to room and cleaning out the badguys.

However what makes Amid Evil stand out is the weapon selection. Since you’re not using guns, the arsenal is rather unique to say the least. You start out with a badass axe but quickly acquire more exotic weapons. Such as a staff that shoots magic bubbles, a sword that shoots green energy, a trident that fires electricity, a claw that fires minituarized planets (yeah really), a wand that shoots spikes and a weird purple crystal thing called the Aeternum that is essentially the game’s BFG-9000 and fires orbs that kill everything in vicinity.

Amid Evil features some of the coolest level design I’ve ever seen that evokes nostalgia in a way you don’t see much nowadays, often resembling 90’s fantasy media with checkerboard patterns abound.

And that’s not all. Enemies upon being killed will drop souls. The size of the soul depends on the power of the enemies you kill, ranging from small souls to large souls and even legendary souls (although the legendary ones never drop from enemies and instead show up as normal pickups, of which I am grateful). These souls fill up your soul meter and when it fills up, you can unleash what’s called a Soul Mode.

In this mode your weapons function very differently and often more powerfully than they would normally. Essentially it functions as a limited time alt fire. Your axe turns into a boat propeller, the bubble wand shoots out even more lethal bubbles, the sword shoots out even more powerful projectiles, the trident fires a continous stream of electricity, the planet claw’s planets create huge nova-like explosions, the spike wand shoots spikes much faster and the Aeternum now creates small black holes that sucks in everything nearby (even you if you’re not careful).

All of these weapons also use different types of mana. Blue mana is used for the bubble wand and trident, green mana for the sword and spike wand, orange mana is used exclusively for the planet claw, and purple mana is used exclusively for the Aeternum. It would also seem these different types of mana represent different elements though I’m not sure about it. Basically they just function as different ammo sources and making sure you usually have a fallback weapon if you run out of mana for any of them. Another cool mechanic is that you can overkill enemies. And overkilling enemies with some weapons can cause chain reactions that take out nearby enemies, such as with the electric trident.

The game’s cheat codes include different retro colour palettes. You can even play through the game in an 80’s style CGA palette if you so please.

The game’s true strength lies in its level design. Each realm you visit has its own distinct theme and style that runs through everything in it. Both in terms of its level design, visual style and enemy selection. The fact each episode feels so unique makes the game insanely fun to play through, given you’re never sure what to expect around the corner.

And some of the later episodes really threw me for a loop with some seriously awesome level designs that evoked dream-like imagery such as floating islands in a void, ethereal places and just realms where things are completely abstract. It evoked a similar feeling I got when playing Quake where things didn’t make sense in any realistic way, but felt realistic for the realm you were in. In an era where games strive for realism, it is refreshing to play a game that more tries to make something you either haven’t seen before or don’t see too often.

Amid Evil definitely features some remarkable levels, often involving castles and dungeons similar to Quake.

The game’s difficulty overall feels really fair and not only rewards skill but also at times demands it. Especially in the final episode where health pickups are extremely rare or hidden and you have to rely on your skills to survive. But it is forgiveable to increase the difficulty near the end of the game where the player should and most likely will be very familiar with the game mechanics. I like that none of the enemies use hitscan weapons, so pretty much every projectile coming towards you can be dodged which feels more rewarding for skilled players.

The enemies seem a little on the simple side. Some of them force the player to think differently but for the most part it’s just a matter of shooting them until they die. But the designs are pretty cool at least, with each episode having their own enemies to fight with unique designs and themes.

Picking a favourite realm is really difficult with Amid Evil as all of them are so distinct and pay homage to different sources. This industrial realm in particular gives me some delicious Quake vibes.

GRAPHICS & SOUND

The game’s graphics is definitely the strongest point of Amid Evil. With such diverse episodes there is a huge array of influences at display. The game is downright beautiful at times with dark and colourful lighting. It manages to look both retro in its use of baked shadows and simple colored lighting but also somehow more beautiful than a lot of photorealistic games released today. Its retro style evokes very dream-like and abstract imagery at times that most modern games don’t bother with. It’s a very strange kind of nostalgia where it reminds you of something you’ve never seen before.

The soundtrack and sound design is done by Andrew Hulshult who I feel once again has outdone himself. Rather than sticking to his (somewhat boring) rock and metal style he’s gone for a more synth heavy ambient soundtrack that is stunningly beautiful at times. It definitely fits the otherworldly and magical levels of the game in the same way Nine Inch Nails’ soundtrack for Quake fit that game perfectly. I was really impressed by the work done on the sound here and would easily recommend picking up the game soundtrack alone.

The game’s final realm provides some of the most alien and beautifully assymetrical level design I’ve seen, relying heavily on geometrical shapes and shapes that make you feel really uncomfortable and unsafe.

SUMMARY

In a market of shooters that focus so heavily on story and realism, it is extremely refreshing to play a shooter that harkens back to when games were games and movies were movies. If I were to say anything negative about Amid Evil I don’t know what it would be other than I wish it had a multiplayer mode and that there was more of it. Which in my opinion aren’t really bad things and don’t really detract from the fun of it.

What Amid Evil lacks in story and depth, it more than makes up for with its stunningly diverse level designs, extremely fun combat and immersive atmosphere. This is the kind of game you can get lost in for hours upon hours before you realize how much time you’ve spent playing it. If you’re a fan of old school shooters, heck shooters in general you should definitely pick this up. You can get it on Steam and GOG.

SCORE

STORY: 8/10
GAMEPLAY: 9/10
GRAPHICS: 10/10
SOUND: 10/10

FINAL SCORE: 9/10

PC Game Review: Hedon

GAME: Hedon
RELEASED: 05/16/2019
DEVELOPER: Zan
PUBLISHER: Zan
AVAILABLE ON: PC (Steam)

The term “boomercore” is being thrown around a lot lately to describe this new trend of making new games that either mimic 90’s shooters or straight up use 90’s shooter game engines. With games like Dusk, Amid Evil, Overload and the upcoming Ion Fury to just mention a few, it’s clear that we’re in a pretty good period right now if you’re into old school shooters. And one of the less talked about ones is Hedon, a shooter that’s made entirely in the most classic of game engines; The Doom engine. Having played through the campaign in its entirety, I do still feel it deserves a review. So let’s talk about Hedon.

Hedon starts off rather slow exploring a large cave.

STORY

In Hedon you play as Zan, a female Orc warrior who wakes up in a cave system. After exploring a bit, you find out that an invasion has taken place and your entire village has been wiped out. It’s the classic Doom story though Hedon takes more of a fantasy take on it. Unlike Doom however, Hedon focuses a lot more on its story with several levels dedicated almost entirely to the story.

One thing I love is how the story is always told in first person, much like games like Half-Life. And also similarly to Unreal and System Shock, most of the story is told through in-game journals and diaries you come across. I can’t really discuss the story in too much detail without spoiling much. All I can say is that it’s really well done.

The universe and characters in the game feel unusually developed and deep compared to most Doom mods I’ve played, which really helps make the game stand on its own. There is a ton of lore in this game in the various journals you come across. And you really feel there is a lot more than you see going on, and that you’re often too late to witness what’s really going on. The game feeds you information at a perfect pace and often leaves you open to put the pieces together yourself.

Zan could be described as… thicc.

GAMEPLAY

Hedon is technically a mod for Doom. Specifically for GZDoom, a popular source port. But considering it uses no assets at all from the original game and even adds a lot of new content, I would consider it more being its own game using the Doom engine, in a similar vein to games like Heretic, Hexen and Strife.

Like in Doom you have a health meter indicated by Zan’s face getting progressively bloodier as you take damage. You also have armor that functions identically to the one in Doom. Though in Hedon they’re called armor crystals (probably to justify the fact that everyone’s clothing is rather skimpy).
That’s where most of the similarities end however. The weapon selection is probably the most interesting part of the game. For melee you have your fists which is essentially your desperation weapon and you pretty much never use them since you get an axe shortly into the game. You then pick up the Spike Gun, which functions as your basic assault rifle. It feels similar to the nail gun from Quake in that it fires spikes at your enemies. Its alt fire allows you to aim down the sights and fire short bursts at your enemies.

The Fragfire Gun is a combination shotgun and flamethrower that fires piping hot shells at your enemies or with the alt fire shoots out flames of death at them that can ignite an entire group in seconds. It’s a very powerful weapon and ammo for it is thankfully not in short supply.
The fourth weapon is the Crushbow, which fires explosive arrows at your enemies, similar to the dynamite launching crossbow from Redneck Rampage. The alt fire fires weaker but faster bolts that have a smaller explosion radius. It’s very useful against groups of enemies and larges ones as well as the damage is pretty substantial.

The fifth weapon, the Potion Launcher is also the most utility based one. Its first ammo type are Toxic Grenades which create clouds of toxic gas upon impact. These can also be ignited though to create massive explosions. So combining them with the Crushbow or using them against fire based enemies can prove to be quite effective. The second ammo type are Acid Grenades that cover their target in corrosive acid upon detonation. Extremely useful against hordes of enemies and even some tougher armored enemies. The alt fire makes your grenades bounce around, which can be tactically useful in some situations but I never used it.

The aftermath of battles tend to look pretty spectacular with the game’s gore effects.

The final weapon is the Crylance, which uses the power crystals you find scattered around in the game as its ammo source. It is easily the most powerful weapon in the game and can deal massive damage to most enemies. Its alt fire fires off a large projectile that explodes upon impact and sends out numerous smaller ones.

There are also some additional weapons that are only available on the Bearzerk difficulty, a special difficulty mode that removes access to the game’s usual weaponry and instead gives you a unique set of weapons to play with.

The Hatchet and Shield gives you a less powerful version of the Axe, but it does give you some defensive option with the shield, which can soak up damage for you. The Fire Hammer creates explosions when used against enemies and can also be thrown to be used as a makeshift grenade. The Force Pike can be used as a powerful spear and can also be used to pull enemies towards the player. The final weapon is the Great Axe which deals massive melee damage to enemies. Its alt fire allows you to spin around in a 360 degree circle with it, dealing damage to everything around you.

Using the Crushbow against a group of Cultists.

In addition to the weapons you also have some helpful items at your disposal. Unlike the original Doom where items would be used upon pickup, Hedon is more similar to games like Duke Nukem 3D in that your items are stored in your inventory and can be used at any point. All of the items are temporary buffs and none of them are reusable.

The Vial of Healing restores your health by 10 HP up to a maximum of 100. It’s very useful during combat when access to health potions are limited. The Fixer Goggles functions as the game’s aid in low light conditions and not only illuminates the area around you in a neat “night vision” mode but also highlights enemies. They are particularly useful against some of the late game enemies which are pure black and blend in very well with the darkness around them. My only criticism with these is that they have a limited supply. And given how much of the game is covered in darkness, I often found myself running out of juice when exploring or getting stuck in a level, which lead me to having to fumble through a lot of the darkness.

The Time Shard is an artifact that allows you to freeze time around you. It’s useful for escaping out of bad situations but I found it most of the time to be pretty useless. It doesn’t really offer that much tactical advantage I found, but some players might find it more useful. The Potion of Stoneskin is probably the one I found the most useful. It gives the player massively increased damage resistance and also removes the pain flashes from the screen when taking damage.

The Elemental Ring provides you with massively increased protection against elemental and magic damage. It’s very useful in combination with the Potion of Stoneskin for providing damage protection. The Potion of Might increases your Axe and Fists damage 4 times (basically a melee equivalent of Quad Damage) but ranged damage is reduced by 50%. This makes the Potion very useful for when you want to do insane melee damage. Combined with the protection potions, it turns you into an Orc sized grinder.

The Amulet of Shadows is your invisibility power. Although it doesn’t technically turn you invisible, only makes you much harder to see. It also makes you much faster, making it handy for crossing large gaps. The Potion of Haste, unlike what its name suggests, doesn’t actually make you run faster. But it does increase your firing rate as well as your reload speed temporarily, making it very useful during combat. In combination with weapons like the Crylance it’s a really useful buff.

The Choker of the Beast are items that not only makes your enemies run away in fear (unless they are immune to the fear effect) but also reflects any damage they dish out. The Sentry Gun are helpful allies that you can carry around and place anywhere in the world where they will dutifully attack any hostile in their near vicinity. They do unfortunately have a limited range however.

The Scroll of Wizard’s eye is a useful item which functions like the automap in Doom, filling out the entire map for you, including secret areas. Easter egg areas are however not filled out by this item. The item also charts monsters, items and projectiles. There’s also the Bag of Holding which is only obtainable in a single level and gives the player a permanent inventory upgrade, similar to the backpack from Doom. I never picked this up in my game and I did fine but it is a useful item still.

The level designs are easily some of the best I’ve seen in a Doom engine game.

Most of the gameplay feels similar to Doom where you’ll mostly be searching for keys to unlock locked doors and progress through the game. Although Hedon will sometimes mix things up by tasking you with finding certain spells or completing puzzles in order to progress through the game. All items in your inventory can be examined by pressing the Enter key with the item selected. This can give important clues for Quest items which can only be used in specific circumstances, such as in the first level where you need a pickaxe to get through a crack in a wall.

Combat is a lot more tactical than Doom however with a bigger reliance on elemental damage as well as various weapons and items working together. Finding the right weapons and items to use in the right situations can be key to survival. I also found the general difficulty to be really high as enemies can deal a lot of damage to you. Particularly some of the stronger ones.

But with the items and weapons at your disposal there is also a lot of possibility for yourself to not only deal a lot of damage but also become almost invincible so the game feels very fair and rewards skill and quick tactical thinking over mindless shooting. It is very easy to play Hedon like you’d play Doom but it isn’t as fun or rewarding. It’s easier to approach it like a FPS hack’n’slash rather and use the buffs at your disposal as the game really is built around them.

What I like the most about the game is the varying pace. Some levels are more focused on exploration and building atmosphere. And I found the pacing to be perfect in that regard. In one level you’re going from battle to battle while in the next you’re simply exploring an ominous facility and avoiding organic trip mines. The use of black slime and tentacles really gives the game a very Lovecraftian vibe, even more so than Quake. And you truly feel like you’re up against a realm that’s beyond understanding.

The game features a rich universe with multiple characters and feels unusually deep for a Doom engine game.

GRAPHICS & SOUND

Graphically, Hedon looks amazing for a Doom engine game. It looks unmistakably retro, but with some very nice lighting effects and the sprite artwork is undeniably well done. Of course it feels a little male oriented with the amount of scantily clad women in the game. In particular the boss feels like she’s straight up wearing dominatrix gear. But it never really bothered me that much. I mean it is a fantasy game and if I had a body like Zan’s and a crystal that gave me armor without needing any physical armor, you’d bet I would show some skin.

The sound is really good though, with a lot of satisfying crunch to the sound effects and with some excellent music. A lot of it is composed by Alexander Brandon who might sound familiar to those who grew up with games like Jazz Jackrabbit, Unreal and Deus Ex. He really brings his own sound to a lot of the music in the game and it’s really good stuff. The soundtrack is also really diverse, ranging from creepy ambience to melodic breakbeat tunes and even some heavy metal. I really hope a soundtrack album is or will be available at some point. Cause it’s one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a while.

The levels really give a sense of this underground fantasy world in Hedon, where crystals are used as light sources.

SUMMARY

All in all, Hedon is an amazing retro FPS that I highly recommend if you’re a fan of old school shooters. Its difficulty might turn some people off and its confusing level design can sometimes be a bit of a chore to get through, but this is a really rich experience that feels highly rewarding to those who are willing to get good at it. You can grab it now on Steam for about $10.

SCORE

STORY: 8/10
GAMEPLAY: 7/10
GRAPHICS: 8/10
SOUND: 9/10

FINAL SCORE: 8/10

PC Game Reivew: Borderlands 2 - Commander Lilith & The Fight For Sanctuary

GAME: Borderlands 2 - Commander Lilith & The Fight For Sanctuary (DLC)
RELEASED: 06/09/2019
DEVELOPER: Gearbox Software
PUBLISHER: 2K
AVAILABLE ON: PC (Steam), PS3, PS4, XBOX 360, XBOX One

It's been quite a while since Borderlands 2 released. 7 years to be precise. But seeing as it is finally time for Borderlands 3 to be released (and it has to be said it's looking really good), in order to get their fans prepared for Borderlands 3 they have released a brand new and completely free DLC for Borderlands 2. Today we're going to take a look at Commander Lilith & The Fight For Sanctuary, a DLC which is set a while after the end of Borderlands 2. I will do my best to avoid any spoilers for both the DLC and the main game, but I will definitely touch on some things that are story related to if you want to go into the DLC completely blind, I suggest not reading this review. Because I can probably say right away that if you're a fan of the series and especially if you're hyped for Borderlands 3, you should definitely play this DLC. But let's get into the details of why you should.

Fight For Sanctuary has quite a different theme to it, with a heavy focus on plants. Good thing I'm playing a fire-speced Maya.

 STORY

Set after the events of Borderlands 2, Fight For Sanctuary is about how the vault hunters must help Lilith, who have now become the leader of the Crimson Raiders, fight an invasion of Sanctuary at the hands of Hector. How does he plan to invade Sanctuary you may ask? Why by releasing spores into the air that turns everyone into mutated plant zombies of course. Seeing as the gas soon affects not only the inhabitants of Sanctuary but also the Crimson Raiders themselves when Mordecai becomes infected by it, the stakes are definitely put pretty high from the get-go. Along the way you meet Vaughn who has his first and only appearance in Borderlands 2, and you of course also meet all the familiar faces from the core game, including Ellie, Scooter, Moxxi, Tiny Tina, Mordecai, Brick and the whole story almost feels like a family get-together where all of these characters we have spent 7 years playing with are coming together to fight a final threat before the next big adventure.

In all honesty, something I did not expect was just how much the story would tug at my heart strings. It not only gives characters like Tiny Tina much needed character development and depth, but some of the writing is extremely well done in both terms of humor and emotional depth. Something I can definitely say is that you can tell this was not written by Anthony Burch, so people who didn't really enjoy his style of humor in the main game may definitely enjoy the writing in this DLC more. It still has a lot of references here and there but they're not as common and it feels more like the writing focuses on the characters themselves and gives them more room to shine. Especially Vaughn I feel was extremely well done here and his voice delivery combined with his writing just made me laugh so many times.

It just wouldn't be Borderlands 2 without some... "adult" magazines would it? If titles like "Racks & Rakks" interest you anyway.

GAMEPLAY

In terms of gameplay nothing is radically different here. It's still the good old looter shooter gameplay you'd come to expect from this game. The DLC does add some notable updates to the game however. The level cap is raised even more from 72 to 80 so now you can actually have even more skills at max level, a much welcome update in my opinion. It also gave an excuse to brush some dust off my old max level character I've had since 2012 or so.

The DLC also makes it possible to start a game at level 30 instead of level 1, putting you at the end of the main story with gear befitting the class you pick. This is a perfect addition for people who have played the game a lot and want to start a new character without having to do the entirety of playthrough 1.

Another notable addition is the new weapons tier, the Effervescent tier. We didn't find much of these in our playthrough but what we did find was pretty cool. One of the items was a grenade mod called the Electric Chair which proved extremely useful against some of the shielded enemies in the DLC. We also found a fire SMG that didn't seem to do anything that unique but it had a pretty high elemental damage so it was definitely useful. Some of the Effervescent tier gear also seems to have abilities that gel well with each other so collecting all of it seems to possibly give some "set" bonuses.

There is kind of a gameplay mechanic about how the toxic gas from the plants makes your damage output higher the more you have in your system but taking too much of it causes you to take damage over time. It would've been neat if this had been developed further and perhaps given you some random debuffs or even buffs depending on which class you played, so it's a little bit disappointing they didn't go further with it.

The good thing about plants is that they burn well.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Graphically I really love some of the level designs in the DLC and the design of the enemies. Granted some of the models do look a little bit weird in the cinematics and it still doesn't look amazing, even with the HD textures added, but it definitely doesn't look awful for sure. Everything in the DLC suits the style and the atmosphere is generally really well done.

The voice acting is really good I would say, especially Vaughn who absolutely has some killer delivery in this DLC. There isn't really much new to comment on in this DLC in terms of sound and music though. The music sounds good but doesn't really stand out and the lack of a proper end credits song is disappointing. It would've been nice to hear something like a remix of "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked" or something similar to give the game a proper sendoff before Borderlands 3, and it feels like a missed opportunity for some fanservice.

You know, this is pretty much how I feel during pollen season...

SUMMARY 

All in all, this DLC is really good and considering it's free, it's definitely worth downloading and playing. I think it's really nice of Gearbox to give this little gift to the fans and give us a story bridge between Borderlands 2 and 3. It ties up a lot of loose ends from Borderlands 2 in terms of story as well and some events that happened in other spinoff games, Tales From The Borderlands in particular. And if you haven't played Borderlands 2 yet then you should definitely give it a go as you now have even more to explore.

SCORE

STORY: 8/10
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
GRAPHICS: 6/10
SOUND: 6/10

FINAL SCORE: 7/10

PC Game Review: Borderlands - Game Of The Year Edition

Originally published at https://www.vgr.com/borderlands-goty-edition-pc-game-review/

GAME: Borderlands Game Of The Year Edition
RELEASED: 04/03/2019
DEVELOPER: Gearbox Software
PUBLISHER: 2K
AVAILABLE ON: PC (Steam), XBOX One, PS4

The Original Looter Shooter

Gearbox is a developer that most gamers probably have a bit of a love/hate relationship with. When they aren’t busy pissing off the collective Alien and Duke Nukem fandoms, there is one franchise that they seem to put more effort into. And that is of course their very own IP, Borderlands.

If you’ve never heard of Borderlands, you have probably heard of the term looter shooter. It’s a term that gets thrown around quite a bit nowadays, but Borderlands was in many ways the first of its kind. It’s best described as someone at Gearbox having the lovely idea of getting Diablo and Call Of Duty together in a bedroom with some sexy music and letting nature do its thing. What we ended up with was a pretty addictive game that combined FPS combat with hack’n’slash mechanics.

When your co-op partner gets a perfect headshot on the person you’re about to attack. 😛

The original Borderlands was in that regard a very original shooter when it came out in 2009. Being a co-op shooter, it gave you four heroes to choose from. The so-called “vault hunters” who each had a distinct personality and skill sets.

You had Mordecai, the brooding hunter type with his pet bird of prey Bloodwing, with skills that makes him an excellent gunslinger and sniper. You had Brick, a towering mountain of a man capable of wielding rocket launchers with ease and punching enemies into submission. There was Roland, the soldier type more focused on support with his trusty turret. And finally there was Lilith, a siren. Sirens in Borderlands are legendary females with blue tattoos who are gifted with immense powers. Lilith has the power to literally enter another dimension, an ability called phasewalk. She is also more centered around elemental damage than the other hunters and has skills more focused on SMG’s and automatic weapons, as well as crowd control.

The plot in Borderlands is pretty simple. You learn that Patricia Tannis, an archeologist on a planet called Pandora is studying something called Vaults, which she isn’t entirely sure on what is but she seems to have found one on Pandora and intends to find a way to open it. As the four vault hunters, your main task in the game becomes to assist Tannis in her journey towards opening the Vault and finding out what’s on the other side. This of course would be an easy task if Pandora wasn’t also an incredibly harsh environment with not only local wildlife to deal with but also humans that have either turned insane or are there to seize the Vault for themselves.

The Game of the Year Edition of Borderlands adds “heads” which are essentially just accessories to your character.

What Makes It Different?

Being the game’s 10th anniversary, it’s therefore a perfect time to release a remaster of the game. Because while it is a great game, it still suffers from being the first in the series, with a lot of the quality-of-life improvements from Borderlands 2 having always felt absent from it. And therefore I would argue it is the game that has benefited from a remaster the most compared to the games in the Handsome Collection which were essentially just glorified texture packs. The Game of the Year Edition of Borderlands is a far more substantial update of the core game that adds those improvements back into the first game and also updates the visuals by an incredible amount.

The SHiFT system is now in full swing in Borderlands 1, meaning you have access to a golden chest in the game’s many main locations which can be used to get really good loot at your current level.

You now have a minimap in addition to the compass from the first game. An issue in the original game was always navigation since the compass would only give you a vague idea of where something was. With the minimap and the game’s added objective markers, you’re now never stuck being unsure of where something is during one of the game’s many fetch quests. And it also shows enemy locations which helps a lot during combat.

Another issue in the first game was that you had to manually pick up everything, which included stuff like money and ammunition. This is now fixed so that like in Borderlands 2 you automatically suck up consumables, which probably is one of the most welcome fixes to the game.

Inventory has been massively overhauled, with items now being markable as junk or locked so that you can’t accidentally lose them. You can also sell all items marked as junk in any store with a single key press

What Makes It Unique?

Despite the changes that makes Borderlands 1 play more like Borderlands 2, it is still a very different game at its core. The gameplay in general is far slower and more tactical, with more focus on shooting from cover and advantageous locations than running around blasting enemies. The difficulty is generally higher which means that running and gunning is more likely to get you killed faster, even if you have a decent shield. Compared to the sequels which had gameplay that felt much faster paced and twitchy, it definitely makes the game feel unique to play.

There is of course also the lack of the trademark humor from Borderlands 2, since Borderlands 1 in general had a more laid back tone to it. So if you were never a fan of the writing in Borderlands 2, you may still enjoy Borderlands 1. That’s not to say Borderlands 1 isn’t funny at times either, it definitely has some funny references and quirks, but it never reaches the same points that the sequels made.

Boom.

The combat also feels distinctly gorier, with heads actually exploding when you get a perfect headshot, something that was missing in the sequels. And with Borderlands 1 being the only game where you could get snipers and SMG’s with explosive elements, it also has a more diverse feel with the weapons, since the explosive element isn’t exclusive to a single manufacturer like it was in the sequels.

And of course it has to be mentioned that cars are just the most powerful weapon in the game, capable of running over pretty much any enemy and making them explode instantly. Granted this does damage your car a fair bit when running over heavily armored enemies or corrosive element enemies, but it still feels amazingly overpowered. Compared to the sequels where your car dealt more realistic damage to enemies, it feels almost comical in comparison but not lacking in fun factor for sure.

And that’s of course not counting the fact that Borderlands 1 offers unique locations and enemies you likely won’t see in the sequels, such as the Scythids which always felt absent from the sequels. The flying space slugs are probably some of the most annoying enemies in the game though so that may be a reason they decided not to include them in future games.

Well this guy had a nasty surprise.

A Mixed Bag

Visually the Game of the Year edition features some noticable enhancements. Textures are at a much higher resolution, making it actually possible to see fine details on them, as well as a higher shadow resolution. And the game on PC now has an FOV slider, meaning you’re no longer forced to deal with the low fixed FOV of the original game. It does not feature any massive visual enhancements though, the colours still look a bit muted and the lighting still feels very basic and reliant on bloom like most pre-2010 games tended to do. So in a way it does look like a 2009 game still, albeit with higher resolution textures.

That’s sadly not to say the new edition is without its flaws. And most of them come in the audio department. The audio mix is kind of all over the place with gunfire constantly cutting out during heavy combat which makes the game feel oddly quiet despite there being a lot of sound going on. Noises made by enemies and cars feel like they have no distance factor to them, being incredibly loud no matter how far away you are from them which makes combat incredibly disorienting, and other players can be on the other side of the map and still sound like they’re right next to you. And music changes so abruptly you’re almost given sonic whiplash. This is the area where the remaster suffers the most and it’s hard to understand how the audio could get this badly messed up.

It doesn’t stop there either, the audio settings in the menus doesn’t do anything. Changing volume sliders doesn’t actually change any volumes and everything still feels like it’s mixed completely bonkers, with it almost being impossible to hear Echo logs when you pick them up due to them being drowned out by other noise. And that’s not to mention that whenever you start the game, your voice settings are reset to always broadcasting, which means you have to enter the audio settings every time you start the game to toggle them. It gets incredibly frustrating.

Mothrakk is looking pretty awesome.

In Conclusion

Despite the audio issues, I would still recommend getting the GOTY Edition of Borderlands 1. It’s a substantial and welcome overhaul of the game that makes it a lot more fun to play, to the point that I find it very hard to go back to the original. Heck, if you already own Borderlands on Steam, you also own the new version since you get it for free! So hopefully these issues will be addressed in a future patch and we will have the absolute definitive edition of Borderlands 1 to play.

SCORE

STORY: 7/10
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
GRAPHICS: 8/10
SOUND: 5/10

FINAL SCORE: 7/10