Melan on 27/8/2019 at 11:06
So I played through the game, and here are my impressions now that I'm done:
* Overall, it is a lot of fun. It stands heads and shoulders above most modern shooters (although not Dusk). Compared to Duke Nukem 3D and Blood (I did not play enough of Shadow Warrior), it falls short, but that's falling short of the best.
* Level design didn't have the variety of the old Build classics; there were a few too many research labs (although some of them were quite cool, like the underground habitats), and too few off-the-wall ideas like Heskell's House of Horrors. I expected crazy gimmicks like a moving metro or a level where you have to put your demo skills to test. Blowing up shit is Build's big, unique joy that has never been properly equalled in FPS design. Maybe in an extra episode with thematic levels like Duke's? Perhaps a few ruined or bombed out city blocks would have been good, too. However, what was there was quite good, and took good advantage of Build's suitability for decaying urban environments. In any case, there were a lot of levels; this is a properly long game, a modern rarity.
* Excellent weapon variety. I did not abuse the Loverboy, and ended up using most of the arsenal. There is a great grenade launcher, and those are always more fun than basic rocket launchers. The crossbow may be a little OP due to the abundance of ammo; it became my default weapon to pick off distant enemies for the second half of the game. Proximity mines are a bit fiddly, at least I ended up getting blown into chunks fairly often. Shotgun's cool. The bowling bombs are hella useful, and are a high point.
* Combat: many of the encounters are set up similarly; relatively few had rich tactical situations like the shipping containers fight. However, I found after a while that it gets a lot more entertaining if you go for mobility and rushing enemies instead of picking them off at a distance - inherently risky, but satisfying.
* Enemies: The game is a bit back-loaded WRT enemy types - Duke (which has surprisingly few basic types in hindsight) drops them earlier and them keeps using them to their fullest. I was okay with the basic cyborg types. The skulls, yeah, there were too many of them, and they had bad feedback. I don't care much for where HL has gone, but HL's headcrabs are scary when they sneak up on you. Here, you just notice you have lost a lot of health due to a little guy you didn't notice. The flying kamikaze skulls were funny, and the advanced AI types were not bad. Interesting choice to introduce zombies so late, but it shook up things a little.
* Boss fights: I loved these! Properly difficult and intense. This is where combat shines - if you aren't on the move and exploiting opportunities, you get pinned down and killed. This is where we see the proper potential of the combat engine, which is a bit underutilised in the other levels. I did have to cheese the helicopter boss with the duct / ammo crate trick. The final one was tremendously entertaining and a proper sendup to the rest of the game.
* Style: good in-jokes and references. OGAY is life (perhaps a little less 90s style sophomoric humour than ideal, but still fairly neat). Some decent visual storytelling; it is good that this kind of game can't rely on readables or audiologs. Heskell is present as much as he has to. I like that he is just a basic evil scientist without a gimmick tragic life story. Before his current position, I bet he was just an evil associate professor, and before that an evil lab assistant. He crops up where he has to, and speaks as much as he has to.
* Music is top-tier retro stuff. Will listen to on Youtube.
I wouldn't mind seeing an extra episode or Ion Fury II: Ion Vengeance (or some such). Best of all, fanmade levels. I might make one or two myself if I have the time.
Overall: **** / *****
Sulphur on 27/8/2019 at 17:10
Frankly, I don't get the furore over OGAY. I chuckled when I saw it, because it's exactly what you'd expect from a 13-year old kid making a 90s video game. There's nothing to really take umbrage over there - it's just a very lame, very stupid joke. Fagbag not so much, but they've removed it.
But also, how not to do PR: 'we'll fix it / oh we got review bombed on Steam because the narrative is now that SJWs made us self-censor / fuck that - we're not changing it'.
That's faster than the speed of whiplash. I thought Steam's anti-review bomb system was intended to help ignore off-topic bullshit, but apparently that's not good enough for the reanimated husk of 3D Realms and whomever's making the decisions at Voidpoint. It's a pretty immature attitude in general to be pushed around by mobs on either side, but I suppose that's to be expected given the product they're hawking.
People do get it, you know. Everyone knows at the end of the day it's about the bottom line, and not something as expensive as having actual principles.
I'm sure IoF is a pretty good time despite its creators, but I've still got to finish Blood someday, and there's other people who could do with my custom instead.
Twist on 27/8/2019 at 21:07
No matter where someone stands on the matter, it sure does seem like sincerity and morality took a backseat to incompetent PR spinning.
icemann on 29/8/2019 at 01:33
They did a turn around on censoring content, after a massive review bomb backlash by the masses. Have to say that I agree. They shouldn't have to censor their game, even if it offends a few people. If you find the content of the game offensive, don't play it. Simple.
Renzatic on 29/8/2019 at 02:26
Or just wait for the console versions to arrive, for which they'll probably remove the offending content
Sulphur on 29/8/2019 at 03:49
Y'know, given a choice, and minus dialectical issues for a second, I'd prefer playing it on the PC to consoles. I'm sure Duke and the rest transferred well enough to a controller environment, but things just aren't the same if I can't whap through levels with only the keyboard, then furiously hammer at the keys when some offscreen douchenozzles chaingun my health away like I've suddenly sauntered into a BDSM club lit with nothing but red strobelights.
Renzatic on 29/8/2019 at 04:13
I've been playing Doom on the Switch, and it's otherwise pretty good, save for the fact you can't immediately select another weapon. You have to scroll through them one at a time to get to the one you want.
That said, I'll probably buy Ion Fury and WRATH: AEON OF RUIN on the Switch, simply because that's where I buy 95% of my games these days.
...cuz I'm dum.
Starker on 29/8/2019 at 07:10
Quote Posted by icemann
They did a turn around on censoring content, after a massive review bomb backlash by the masses. Have to say that I agree. They shouldn't have to censor their game, even if it offends a few people. If you find the content of the game offensive, don't play it. Simple.
Tell that to all the people who got outraged because there is an option to choose a gender neutral pronoun in Battletech.
Look, game developers have every right to make fun of people's sexual preferences. And likewise people have every right to call them assholes for that. That's not censorship, that's expressing your opinion. Both on the side of the developers who think gay people are something to be made fun of and on the side of those who think that's a shitty thing to do.
Renzatic on 29/8/2019 at 10:20
Quote Posted by Starker
Look, game developers have every right to make fun of people's sexual preferences. And likewise people have every right to call them assholes for that. That's not censorship, that's expressing your opinion. Both on the side of the developers who think gay people are something to be made fun of and on the side of those who think that's a shitty thing to do.
Yeah, it's a buying public expressing their opinion over an issue. 3D Realms has the choice to listen to them or not. If they do listen to them, it's not censorship, it's heeding the wishes of their audience. If they don't, well, it's not like the videogame community has ever done a good job of standing up for its principles in the past, so I doubt it'll hurt them much.
Thirith on 29/8/2019 at 10:39
What is this monolithic "videogame community" and what are "its principles"?