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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
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Jul 15, 2019 09:46
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 12:19 |
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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.
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Jul 16, 2019 20:33
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On the plus side it's even more brutal to consider their soul lost forever in the darkness, not even worthy of being used in your righteous crusade Pretty sure the soul drops the moment they die though, not where they impale
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Jul 22, 2019 05:27
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I'd be interested to know if the planets on the Celestial Claw are procgen or not (excluding earth)
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Jul 22, 2019 23:39
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Do make sure to check out the cheats in the Codex if you've completed the game. There's a bunch of really fun ones, I love the one that ramps all the post processing up to the highest level. It turns the game from a beautifully considered piece of work to a My First Unreal Game you'd find sold for three quid on STEAM
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Jul 31, 2019 11:42
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