|
admataY posted:Oh, and one little oddity , im not sure what was up with that final boss. Gaming trained me to assume there is some special method to beating him, what with the special looking pyres in the 4 corners of the arena , each burning in a color similar to one of the boss's special attacks . Those will refill one of your mana colors when you're close by.
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2019 13:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 1, 2024 10:59 |
|
|
Yeah it took me a couple tries to suss out exactly how they worked, and I wasn't sure at first how I was getting my mana back. Basically, they'll refill your mana but when he shoots a beam at it, it also determines what type of attacks he'll use.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2019 16:32
|
|
|
admataY posted:I really loved AMID EVIL , but between the obvious comparisons to HEXEN and QUAKE I think there is a very obvious PAINKILLER influence in the mix - stuff like a small number of weapons but each is super useful in its own way, or the the collect souls to fill a bar that let you unleash a strategic " gently caress everyone" extra damage mode . I can see that. Somehow I had forgotten all about Painkiller. Which is a shame, such a great game. edit: The more I play this and Dusk, the less it feels like a straight-up throw back like say Ion Maiden, which I've also been enjoying, which aims for something very, very specific, but this feels like they're really kinda doing their own thing. (especially Dusk, that thing is pretty wild from what I've played) Wizard Whateley fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Jul 13, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2019 23:07
|
|
|
admataY posted:I really loved AMID EVIL , but between the obvious comparisons to HEXEN and QUAKE I think there is a very obvious PAINKILLER influence in the mix - stuff like a small number of weapons but each is super useful in its own way, or the the collect souls to fill a bar that let you unleash a strategic " gently caress everyone" extra damage mode . You are right, it reminds me of Painkiller in some things,like a faster pace and a good number of melee enemies.
|
|
#
?
Jul 14, 2019 09:07
|
|
|
Wizard Whateley posted:I can see that. Somehow I had forgotten all about Painkiller. Which is a shame, such a great game. the developers all got their start modding doom and the game really feels like its building on how doom has evolved to play instead of just looking to the past
|
|
#
?
Jul 14, 2019 14:27
|
|
|
Turin Turambar posted:You are right, it reminds me of Painkiller in some things,like a faster pace and a good number of melee enemies. That, and the levels sometimes really give me a Painkiller vibe, especially when they go into the giant, open areas.
|
|
#
?
Jul 14, 2019 19:21
|
|
|
This game is really good
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2019 01:19
|
|
|
Just finished this up, played on Evil difficulty. Really good game overall but I felt like it ended a lot weaker than it started due to the order I played the episodes in. I had no idea what the episode order was so I ended up doing the Arcane Expanse really early.  My ranking: 6, 5, 3, 7, 2, 1, 4 No question Solar Solstice was the bottom of the barrel for me. Level architecture was pretty alright, but the enemy types just flat out sucked for various reasons. Very Serious Sam feelin' episode in all the wrong ways. Props to the absolute nothing of a boss as well. Oh yeah and gently caress all the stupid decorative torches in this episode that deal damage to you. This is the only episode I'd say I don't like, everything else is Good to Awesome. For the final episode, I think I finally started getting the hang of all the enemy types towards the end, and I feel like it ended pretty strong. I think if I took a second pass at this episode, or it had just been a little longer or introduced some of the BS enemy types a little more clearly, I would have liked it better. Forges, I guess it's not a popular episode but I really like what they were going for. They just ... really need to ease up on some of those enemy types, especially early on. Excellent theming in the episode in general. Super lame boss though, that goes from "what is this this is dumb" to "oh it's dead in 3 seconds" because Mace exists. Arcane Expanse, it's pretty much perfect. Awesome theme, great music (the dynamic tracks are sooo good in this one), good enemy types, I liked the crazy rear end architecture here better than the final episode too. I pretty much love all the weapons to death, except the rocket launcher. Surprisingly poor damage, slow travel speed, bad damage radius, more dangerous to yourself than enemies, and in a game where half of the dangerous enemy types are ones that fly towards you at breakneck speeds. I pretty much only used it against enemies specifically weak to it or big slow enemies I didn't want to waste useful ammo on. Huge ups for being able to shoot through loving walls with the sword, I love that thing so much. Gwyrgyn Blood fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Jul 15, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2019 04:51
|
|
|
It's not quite as good as DUSK but goddamn is it enjoyable I'm almost finished with it so I'll do an extensive write-up when it's over
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2019 09:46
|
|
|
Mordja posted:I never got into Quake. From what I remember I had problems with how bullet spongy the enemies were. Ooooof course, the last time I tried playing it was probably over a decade ago and I also only got into Doom a couple years ago, so maybe I was just dumb.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2019 11:31
|
|
|
Palpek posted:Quake was cool but its biggest selling point was multiplayer imo. It was the first id game to nail it and show what's yet to come, it was basically the first big quality jump that showed that multiplayer-only FPSes could become a thing. And goddamn I was coming back to it even when being hooked on Q3. Quakeworld was incredible but I think you're underselling just how much of a jump it was to have proper full 3D (with physics!) that felt so physical and present. Add in the stylistic and audio choices and it was a paradigm shift for the genre.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2019 11:45
|
|
|
Songbearer posted:It's not quite as good as DUSK but goddamn is it enjoyable yeah i still definitely prefer dusk but to be honest i think that just comes down to personal preference at the end of the day and has no bearing on amid evil as far as i'm concerned. they both are aiming at different retro fps feelings and both achieve them well along with having excellent monster rosters and weaponry to choose from along with having great levels.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2019 12:34
|
|
|
While I love this game, I've been having a problem where the video settings keep getting reset or changed. I'm not sure how it's being changed or where to fix it and it's frustrating. I tried setting the config files to read-only but still no dice. Any ideas or suggestion? I'm all ears and appreciate any advice on it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2019 18:31
|
|
|
100 degrees Calcium posted:I always overthink this poo poo. Should I play Quake first or does it particularly matter? Game's fuckin' good and I never played Quake It's goofy demon-slaying silliness and I love it Also all of the weapons feel different and they all feel that slightly bit jank that marks old FPS games, but never a level of jank where it actually affects gameplay. E: And none of them are the loving grenade launcher Somfin fucked around with this message at 11:22 on Jul 16, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2019 11:20
|
|
|
Thirsty Dog posted:Quakeworld was incredible but I think you're underselling just how much of a jump it was to have proper full 3D (with physics!) that felt so physical and present. Add in the stylistic and audio choices and it was a paradigm shift for the genre.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2019 12:23
|
|
|
Palpek posted:Don't get me wrong, I get the jump, I was playing the game at release. It's just that after all these years people who play the campaign for the first time tend to not be aware of how groundbreaking multiplayer in Q1 and Q2 was and how Q3 going multiplayer only was an evolution of that progress. So while the singleplayer may seem old the multiplayer mode kicks rear end even today. Yeah fair enough, can't argue with that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2019 17:28
|
|
|
Okey doke, just beaten it (Hard difficulty, Auto Soul Mode) and overall I had a great time, but it didn't keep me enraptured the same way DUSK did. It's also worth noting that I never really cared for Hexen/Heretic and I've only recently come round on Quake 1 & 2, so I'll have a degree of bias on that end. The quick version: The Good: - Dear god the level design, lighting and texture work is just beautiful. Absolutely stunning. I was impressed by the variety in DUSK so consider me blown the gently caress away by AMID EVIL, and this was after being spoiled by Civvie's video before I started playing it. The fact that all episodes have a unique design and enemy roster makes every entry really stand out. - I came round on the weapons about halfway through my playthrough after being kind of underwhelmed near the beginning. It feels unfair to complain about them when they're the reverse end of the scale to DUSK, which played it too safe. Every weapon has a purpose and the Soul Mode attacks are all stupendously fun. The rocket (Planet!) launcher of the game is a little weedy but I actually think it's because all the weapons just kick so much rear end in general. Even then I basically used the Celestial Claw as a No Man's Sky planet generator to see what cool things it would spit out because near as I can tell other than the Earth they're all randomly generated. - Enemy designs are all round good and they tend to die just quickly enough to not be a pain in the arse. - Item placement is superb, there was always health when I thought I could really do with it, ammo was plentiful for all my weapons, yet it was never too easy. This is a brilliant sign that they played the everloving poo poo out of their levels to make sure that a wide variety of players could get through it. - Sound design is generally solid but not really stand-out in any way... except for the music. Holy poo poo the music is so good. It's very much in the veins of Unreal but it also channels Silent Hill's more mellow songs here and there, it's just so fitting and really feels special. - Level lengths are just short enough to not become boring, and linear enough to keep you from getting lost. The Bad: - Mandatory platforming in an FPS and way too much of it. The only place I found it largely tolerable was in The Void because it's nice enough to reset you if you fall. The jumping in this game feels pretty imprecise, I think it's because unless it's my imagination you tend to slide around a little when you land which resulted in a lot of frustrating deaths. This is probably my biggest complaint. - Game isn't very forgiving with autosaves. It'll generally give you one when you secure a key which is a good way to split the level into thirds, but the later chapters can have you go half a level without an autosave which is super frustrating. I know this is how they handled it back in the day but I'd like to have seen one before major combat arenas since it makes a blind playthrough a fair bit more punishing when you have to do it all over again. True, this is the way retro shooters used to do it, but I don't really appreciate it here. - Normal difficulty is too easy. Generally if I like a game I'll play it on Normal and then replay it on Hard, but for this game I felt I had to switch it to Hard simply because it increases the enemy count. Even then there were times that I felt that when I was just heating up for a big battle, it ended there and then. I think I kind of understand it because having seen all the chapters it's apparent there aren't any real "fodder" mooks, even the weakest can be dangerous in their own right, but sometimes it still feels a little too shy to get really chaotic until you're at the end. - Sound design on some of the weapons was very weak. The Aeturnum rips a hole in space-time and sucks everything into a black hole with its soul fire mode but it just sounds like a fictional OS's "error message" prompt. The Celestial Claw fires entire loving planets at people and goes "shonk shonk shonk" with a piddly little pop when every shot should probably sound like the Redeemer from Unreal Tournament. The Star Of Torment, one of the coolest weapons in the game, has a weirdly comical squishy sound when it hits. I get that they don't want it to grate on players after a long time but for a game that's aesthetic is "heavy metal wizard album art" you'd expect some real chunk from it. The axe sounds awesome though. Now for some more focused thoughts: Weapons: Axe of the Black Labyrinth: Yeah, this is a solid entry in the FPS melee weapon category. Makes a fantastic noise, pulls enemies towards you, and the soul fire is the loving Painkiller. Didn't really use it too much but when I did I was always satisfied with the result. Staff of the Azure Orb: Makes a terrible first impression but is deceptively useful. I thought after I got Voltride this would be taking a backseat but it was particularly useful for ganking FPS's beloved aerial enemies or just when I was feeling lazy and didn't want to aim at things. Soul fire mode is so loving good because it's just the Plasma Gun from DOOM but even more badass. Boring weapon design though. Whisper's Edge: It's solid. Probably my least favourite weapon in the game in general but it's useful and I do like just how powerful its soul mode is, especially in enclosed areas. Looks neat. Voltride: Essentially my default weapon. Seemingly unlimited range, fires quickly, decent damage, stunlocks, sounds impactful and if you can land an Overkill boy howdy does it clean up fodder beautifully. Remains incredibly useful throughout the entire game, I'd love to see usage stats because I bet this one comes out on top. Don't really need to explain that its soul mode just makes it do its job insanely better and it already did a great job in the first place. I literally only just got the "Voltride" pun while writing this. Celestial Claw: Oh god I hate its pathetic sound design and I wish, I WISH its soul mode was just the loving Redeemer even if it took 10 ammo a shot. It's useful in certain situations and it's kind of nice to have an FPS where the default weapon isn't going to be the rocket launcher, but that's because it's easily one of the poorest weapons in the roster. Its main use for me was using it to rocket jump past the Forge's more hateful jumping puzzles or just as a speed boost when backtracking. I like to admire the pretty planets it comes out with. Star of Torment: Again, I really don't like its sound design, but you can't argue with its efficiency. Easily the second most powerful weapon in the game with its soul mode and I love anything that pins enemies to walls in games. It's what you're gonna pull out when you're fighting the big dudes (probably) and is just a great weapon all around. Aeturnum: This is gonna be a weird critique but I'd love it if the fractal ribbon this thing generated was randomly shaped. It does its job of being a room-cleaning BFG very well, quite obviously even better in soul mode, but man - it sounds pathetic. Visually it's pretty nice, but as the games ultimate weapon I really wanted so much more out of it. Episodes (In order I played them): Astral Equinox: A really pretty introduction to the game without being overwhelming. I liked the amount of messages and the feeling of progressing though this cool-rear end moon fortress. Its more monochrome and blue palette is a real nice way to really make the other levels really pop out later. Enemies are nice and straightforward and it makes a good first impression. Domain of the Sentinels: This is the episode that lets the player know that they're gonna see some much cooler stuff down the road. There's some tolerable platforming and some very nicely elaborate area design. I like the weird monsters in this episode, they're creepy and the organic vs mechanical theme is a solid one. The Forges: Ugh. Agreeing with everyone who said this was the weakest chapter. I think the enemy designs are probably some of the coolest in the game but they can be a pain in the arse to fight and fuuuuck the platforming. At one point I literally couldn't figure out how to complete one of the puzzles without rocket jumping to each button. Even if I'm stupid for that reason, it still has issues with momentum for this reason. A shame because the level design is really beautiful in a lot of places. The Sacred Path: I enjoy this as The Lore Episode. The theme of this level is beautiful and I love how bright and soft everything is. Enemies were fairly bland and again there were some irritating platforming moments, but there are plenty of big arenas to fight in which felt really nice compared to some of the more claustrophobic levels in the episode before it. Solar Solstice: While it makes sense that the enemies here are mostly palette swaps of the ones in Astral Equinox with a few tweaks, it's still disappointing. Visually the level design is really nice, the inside of the cathedral being a real standout, and this episode reminded me a lot of Unreal with its grand architecture and pleasant outdoor areas. The vertical part in the tower where you're fighting people in the rafters is thematically cool but mechanically a pain in the rear end and it made me actually want fall damage so I could restart faster when I cratered. The Arcane Expanse: With the exception of The Void this is by far and away the most impressive episode on a visual standpoint and while there's a lot of suspended platforms and pathways, I didn't really get frustrated by platforming crap too often here. Jesus loving christ the texture work, the level design, the lighting: All incredible. The enemies are decently fun to fight and this episode feels like the most polished one in the game. I absolutely adore the music here. The mages who cast lightning orbs and roll around are basically the Skarrj. The Void: Man whatever the level designers were taking I want some because this is the "Heavy Metal Fantasy Album Art" aesthetic comes to life. It's absolutely stunning and makes for a really memorable end game episode, especially because your punishment for falling off the thousands of platforms is a slap on the wrist. Why this couldn't be the case for other episodes hurts and confuses me. I'll stand by my assertion that DUSK is mechanically superior while AMID EVIL is visually mindblowing, but I wouldn't have written this many words about the game if I didn't enjoy the gently caress out of it. It's an absolutely worthy retro FPS to add to your collection and you'll get a solid 8 hours out of it, but bare in mind some of this may involve falling off a bunch of lovely platforms. At least the "NOOOOOOO" your character bellows when you do is really satisfying.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2019 20:33
|
|
|
Thirsty Dog posted:Quakeworld was incredible but I think you're underselling just how much of a jump it was to have proper full 3D (with physics!) that felt so physical and present. Add in the stylistic and audio choices and it was a paradigm shift for the genre. Quakeworld wasn't even available at initial retail release was it? I remember playing quakeworld and using gamespy to find matches, such a far cry from how things are today. The biggest thing I remember about classic FPS back then was having to be sure to install v2.11b_to_v2.13c.exe before you install v2.13_to_v2.14.exe and patch each game version by version.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2019 00:07
|
|
|
Thanks for the detailed write-up!
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2019 18:41
|
|
|
If you missed the Steam sale or just prefer DRM-free-ness, Amid Evil is 20%-off on GOG right now.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2019 21:08
|
|
|
I'm surprised to see so much praise for the Voltride as it was definitely my least used weapon. The hitstun is nice but in a crowd I could never get the overcharge off and trying to focus on being pinpoint accurate would more often than not just get me hit. I would kind of just always rather be using the staff for anything serious.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2019 20:28
|
|
|
The Trident feels better on Hard when there's a higher density of enemies.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2019 20:32
|
|
|
It felt worse the more enemies there were to me. When its just one guy you can stunlock to death okay cool, but trying to focus on one guy to proc an overcharge with a bunch of other enemies breaking line of sight and trying to hit you is what hosed me up. There isn't a big window on the overcharge either so if you drop a shot or two its not happening.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2019 20:37
|
|
|
I was kinda meh on this game until I played the Arcane Expanse, something about the trippy architecture and the serene music made the game suddenly click. Speaking of music, Andrew Hulshult did the music, I guess he's becoming the go-to guy for Retro FPS music.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2019 20:51
|
|
|
This game is cool
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2019 03:13
|
|
|
Such a loving shame about The Forges, the art style is cool. I loved most of every other episode but retro FPS jumping puzzles can gently caress right off. They should just axe the episode from the game and then, if they feel like, rebuild it again from scratch and patch it in later.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2019 19:55
|
|
|
Its more of the problem that the jump physics feel really slippery. Dusk and Ion Maiden's jumping doesn't have that problem. The Forges' level design isn't bad fundamentally at all.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2019 20:11
|
|
|
I didn't have a problem at all with the platforming puzzles! I found the jumping very precise.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2019 20:49
|
|
|
Yeah honestly The Forges had a really bad reputation before I went into it and then the episode ended and I was left thinking, "oh, that didn't actually seem bad at all."
|
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2019 21:10
|
|
|
I never had a problem with the jumping puzzles, I had a problem with the combat while you're on an inch-wid platform puzzles.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2019 21:12
|
|
|
It's really just that one specific area from the Forges where you have to climb up that clockwork tower, where any of the moving parts can instantly crush you, to be greeted by 8 dudes at the top with knockback attacks that can send you all the way back down to the bottom, or directly into the aforementioned crushing machinery. It's super annoying and no other area required as much precise platforming.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2019 21:14
|
|
|
I dug these up from the Game Grave of hidden games on steam, got them in this insane mega-pack I bought, well, twelve loving years ago, apparently. Which should I pick first?
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2019 17:36
|
|
|
Start with Doom.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2019 17:49
|
|
|
I've played a whole lot of Doom in my life, so the question then is what Doom to choose (missed Doom II and Final Doom in my previous screenshot).
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2019 17:54
|
|
|
Start with Ultimate Doom 1, than Doom 2. Final Doom is meh, because while Evilution is solid Plutonia is just straight up bad. Then once you beat Doom 2, go on to Quake 1.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2019 17:56
|
|
|
Black Griffon posted:I dug these up from the Game Grave of hidden games on steam, got them in this insane mega-pack I bought, well, twelve loving years ago, apparently. Which should I pick first? Doom, then Heretic, then Quake, then Hexen Black Griffon posted:I've played a whole lot of Doom in my life, so the question then is what Doom to choose (missed Doom II and Final Doom in my previous screenshot). Doom 1 (1-3) Doom 2 Doom 1 (4) Ultimate Doom After that, start playing WADs. Final Doom is basically an official WAD, 'sokay IMO. Go here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3420790
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2019 17:57
|
|
|
Oh yeah, been a while since I've visited. Anyway, thanks guys, time to revisit Doom!
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2019 18:02
|
|
|
I really need to play through Heretic/Hexen, because I've been on a 90's FPS/throwback kick as of late, especially because I hadn't really played some of the classics, i.e. came back and beat Doom 2, completed Evilution, played through Quake 1 for the first time, replayed Blood again through the remaster.
Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Jul 21, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2019 18:06
|
|
|
My advice to anyone playing Hexen I & II for the first time would be to use a guide because the key hunt puzzles are super obscure and nobody has time for that poo poo nowadays.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2019 18:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 1, 2024 10:59 |
|
|
Lol I tried to play Doom through default DOSbox instead of GZDoom and it made my eyes hurt and then it just loving crashed
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2019 18:27
|
|