The art direction, the colors and the atmosphere looks gorgeous. Better than most games that focus mostly on how realistic a game looks yet they ignore the aesthetics side.
Great review, the atmosphere is definitely the biggest carry of the game. While it still has some issues, the game has improved a lot since I last checked it out.
Most reviews kept saying how spells are useless but from what I gather here, they didn't bother upgrading or didn't know about it. Think ill give this game a shot once it get a few patches.
I think they wanted for the game to have a Dark Souls aspect to it. But it seems like they got it backwards, as the enemies respawn on leaving the game, and not on death. Also, it looked like they backed out of that idea at some point, as the respawn mechanic stops for quite a while once you reach final area of act 1 (huge area and nothing ever respawns there). There's no respawning in act 2, but then it comes back in act 3, so maybe that's just due to the general unfinished nature of the game. Who knows, in a year or two maybe we'll have a normal save system? Maybe even a map :)
Great review as always. I rarely have comments that go beyond what you have covered in your review, but in this case I do. While I understand why you put this in the boomer shooter category, I found the game played more slowly and strategically than a typical game in the genre. Also, the spells do not work as many people would expect them to. While they do have a use in combat, I find them to be very underwhelming by design as I see them more as traversal and utility mechanics rather than a tool for fighting. I am emphasizing this because I think that these two elements are the cornerstone of the mixed reviews the game has on Steam. As you presented, I think it is a good game so far even with my more limited skills. The problem IMO is the expectations about pacing and spell use that are evoked by calling it a boomer shooter and equating it with Hexen. So, I wished they made the spell intentions and limitations clearer early on. It would have saved them much frustration in the player base.
Sounds like something I would want to wait a bit on for more bug fixes and such. But man I *love* the artstyle. Loving that boomer shooters are back and in style again, cause I missed these types of games.
Appreciate you covering this one. Been watching the mixed reviews pouring in since it hit EA. I was a huge fan of Hexen and Heretic as a teen, but those negative reviews were really putting me off, glad to hear the 1.0 is looking better. Will probably pick it up this week. Still pretty immersed in Seven atm though lol.
Thought this would be more like Ultima underworld or an immersive sim style. Doesn't seem like it's like amid evil and has more of the hexen style puzzles
The game is good if you like old school difficulty. The combat is incredibly deep(hidden spell effects like fire destroying skelly shields or mana pots being grenades when thrown, enemies aggroing one another, frost spell freezing water, box blocking/exploding), but the kick and its environmental interactions could be more polished. There is some decent jank, items/boxes falling trough the floor or just disappearing, same with enemies and even the player clipping or just falling under the map. Lots of reviews talk about the game having an identity crisis. Its hexen1+2 on UE4 and not id tech 1. That is it. Also the difficulty levels are almost like an NG+ feature and that is a first for me, very nice.
No Souls-like punishment for death? That sounds like a huge win for me! I got huge backlog to go through. I don't have time to spend hours fighting the same boss and trekking from a bonfire. I'll definitely pick it up on sale.
Idk it's not really like that though? It doesn't play like any boomer shooter I've played. It's way slower. I see loads of people comparing this to other boomer shooters and I think that's a a mistake. Treat it like it's own thing, if you compare to other boomer shooters you're gonna be let down.
@@themikeberg Boomer shooter doesn't just mean "hordes of enemies", there are other characteristics that this clearly ticks. If you told me "boomer shooter like heretic/hexen" I'd 1000% picture this game.
The exploration aspect almost looks like jedi knight dark forces which i was a huge fan of. As far as the heretic/hexen reference, it looks like it captures the atmosphere, which is really all i remember of those games hehe
This game along with WRATH: Aeon of Ruin sort of taught me that even highly promising early access games _can_ stall out and that 3D Realms should never be given the benefit of the doubt these days, as much as I'd love them to be worth it. Glad to see it turned out well, but I'll definitely wait for a good few patches. Hope the devs will get to support their game for at least a couple months.
did you just come here to say that. WRATH is sitting with a Very Positive rating in Steam. Neither of these gave signs of "stalling out". Probably you just don't like them for personal reasons and that's fine. If you actually came here to get Mort's review, you can see this is a pretty well formed if a bit flawed game, but I really don't see where that would disqualify it as an EA game in any way. Personally I wish I'd heard about this sooner and followed along with the EA development.
@@bitrotter Did _you_ just come here to say that? You sure like making assumptions about other people and their perspective on things, huh? If you genuinely don't see what I mean by stalling out, I'd recommend you check out the original early access release dates of both of these games as well as their update schedules/communication with early adopters over the years. Or hell, their originally intended full release dates. Also, read my final sentence maybe? Of course I watched for Mort's opinion, I just happen to have one as well - which I am commenting on a video about the game it pertains to, funny enough. Have a good one - and enjoy the game, for that matter - but leave me out of it.
@@bitrotter Yeah the Wrath rating smell as a scam from miles away( I have the game and the EA was a torture)because if you see the rating graphic: for 2 years it had an ABYSS of negative reviews, it's really fishy that in only like 2 months the rating rised up from Very Negative to Very Positive whithout the game not even out yet and no updates since last year...mmhhh... 3DRealms have launched too many games at once and I have the fear that they will be really rushed and unfinished.
@bitrotter Graven has serious problems for its whole development and they ain't fixed, and it literally stalled, it didn’t get any updates at all for like 2 years
I’m frustrated that wrath aeon of ruin isn’t for ps5. It’s ps4 only. That’s why I skipped it. But old school shooter games like this and phatom fury seem cool while we wait for 2025 doom.
Hey Mort, a CRPG has just come up on my radar on steam and i thought i'd share it. Unforetold: Witchstone - the EA seems to be coming out next week or so.
Had never heard of Unforetold, Trailer looks good. Just wishlisted. Love this channel and learning about new rpgs, especially ones that are not widely known about. 😄
Thanks for the video. I think to be a boomer-shooter there needs to be a "yell at clouds" function [bad joke]. Onward to 300k. All glory to the algorithm.
This game oozes atmosphere, I played the first chapter last year and loved it. Your assessment of 12-15 hours feels strange, that is the amount of time I spend on the first chapter.:P But I am by no means a fast gamer.
For games without controller auto-aim you should try setting up the gyro controls on the steam deck. Being able to input precise adjustments by tilting the deck will dramatically improve your experience.
I solved most of the puzzles by accident . Few bosses died from fallin through the map. But this was before the final up date got to go back and complete the game .
How can you tell you've found all the secrets? Doesn't seem to be any in-game indicator. Which is strange, as there used to be one in the early access version.
I keep trying to get into this game but my biggest problem really is the lack of direction of where to go. They'll tell you "Go west" But you have zero clue which way is west. They'll tell you "Go to this guy" "go here" But where is here?
The lack of waypoints and getting repeatedly lost is a massive time waster in this game, it actually ruins the good parts of the game. I hope they do improve these basic problems, it is not 1993 after all. By the time you realize you are going through the same area for the 5th or 6th or 7th time, the urge to uninstall becomes too strong, as you feel like the game is purposefully wasting your time, it is not enjoyable at this point. Hopefully this gets fixed, as the actual gameplay is pretty good.
I wanted to like this one, but I just am finding it to be kinda meh. And that is after playing stuff like Project Warlock II, and Ion Fury Aftershock. It just feels really mediocre for a game of the genre to me.
There is a "Casual puzzle mode" included. The combat difficulty stays the same, it just makes the puzzles more obvious. It's how I'm currently playing through the game and I'm really enjoying it.
Thank you my dear sir, I appreciate what you did in the introduction. Great review, as always.
The art direction, the colors and the atmosphere looks gorgeous. Better than most games that focus mostly on how realistic a game looks yet they ignore the aesthetics side.
it honestly looks like dreamcast graphics i dont mean it looks bad but gorgeous is a stretch
Great review, the atmosphere is definitely the biggest carry of the game. While it still has some issues, the game has improved a lot since I last checked it out.
Oh my. I played the shit out of Hexen when it came out.
Now I’m interested.
Interesting to hear about the death mechanic. It's a drastic change from the last public build which was just quick save based.
Stellar review, as usual!
Well the game looks beautiful. Will definitely give it a go sometime soon, I remember enjoying Hexen back when so that's already a plus for me.
I'll keep an eye on this and possibly get it after a few patches
Most reviews kept saying how spells are useless but from what I gather here, they didn't bother upgrading or didn't know about it. Think ill give this game a shot once it get a few patches.
thank you for this review! you're the best
Only one save point per playthrough? Now that sucks, why are some devs doing that?
I think they wanted for the game to have a Dark Souls aspect to it. But it seems like they got it backwards, as the enemies respawn on leaving the game, and not on death. Also, it looked like they backed out of that idea at some point, as the respawn mechanic stops for quite a while once you reach final area of act 1 (huge area and nothing ever respawns there). There's no respawning in act 2, but then it comes back in act 3, so maybe that's just due to the general unfinished nature of the game. Who knows, in a year or two maybe we'll have a normal save system? Maybe even a map :)
Great review as always. I rarely have comments that go beyond what you have covered in your review, but in this case I do. While I understand why you put this in the boomer shooter category, I found the game played more slowly and strategically than a typical game in the genre. Also, the spells do not work as many people would expect them to. While they do have a use in combat, I find them to be very underwhelming by design as I see them more as traversal and utility mechanics rather than a tool for fighting. I am emphasizing this because I think that these two elements are the cornerstone of the mixed reviews the game has on Steam. As you presented, I think it is a good game so far even with my more limited skills. The problem IMO is the expectations about pacing and spell use that are evoked by calling it a boomer shooter and equating it with Hexen. So, I wished they made the spell intentions and limitations clearer early on. It would have saved them much frustration in the player base.
From this and Splattercat's review, the game looks to me to be more like a fantasy Metroid Prime than Hexen.
Sounds like something I would want to wait a bit on for more bug fixes and such.
But man I *love* the artstyle.
Loving that boomer shooters are back and in style again, cause I missed these types of games.
Appreciate you covering this one. Been watching the mixed reviews pouring in since it hit EA. I was a huge fan of Hexen and Heretic as a teen, but those negative reviews were really putting me off, glad to hear the 1.0 is looking better. Will probably pick it up this week. Still pretty immersed in Seven atm though lol.
Thought this would be more like Ultima underworld or an immersive sim style.
Doesn't seem like it's like amid evil and has more of the hexen style puzzles
The game is good if you like old school difficulty. The combat is incredibly deep(hidden spell effects like fire destroying skelly shields or mana pots being grenades when thrown, enemies aggroing one another, frost spell freezing water, box blocking/exploding), but the kick and its environmental interactions could be more polished. There is some decent jank, items/boxes falling trough the floor or just disappearing, same with enemies and even the player clipping or just falling under the map.
Lots of reviews talk about the game having an identity crisis. Its hexen1+2 on UE4 and not id tech 1. That is it.
Also the difficulty levels are almost like an NG+ feature and that is a first for me, very nice.
Your review is the best one so far. Thank you!
No Souls-like punishment for death? That sounds like a huge win for me! I got huge backlog to go through. I don't have time to spend hours fighting the same boss and trekking from a bonfire. I'll definitely pick it up on sale.
As soon as you said heretic/hexen successor you had me
Idk it's not really like that though? It doesn't play like any boomer shooter I've played. It's way slower. I see loads of people comparing this to other boomer shooters and I think that's a a mistake. Treat it like it's own thing, if you compare to other boomer shooters you're gonna be let down.
@@themikeberg Boomer shooter doesn't just mean "hordes of enemies", there are other characteristics that this clearly ticks. If you told me "boomer shooter like heretic/hexen" I'd 1000% picture this game.
@@themikeberg this is def a retro fps/boomer shooter very line line with hexen1/2
Except magic is no good for combat, it's basically used for ability gate clearing (like a metroidvania movement ability).
The exploration aspect almost looks like jedi knight dark forces which i was a huge fan of. As far as the heretic/hexen reference, it looks like it captures the atmosphere, which is really all i remember of those games hehe
This game along with WRATH: Aeon of Ruin sort of taught me that even highly promising early access games _can_ stall out and that 3D Realms should never be given the benefit of the doubt these days, as much as I'd love them to be worth it.
Glad to see it turned out well, but I'll definitely wait for a good few patches. Hope the devs will get to support their game for at least a couple months.
did you just come here to say that. WRATH is sitting with a Very Positive rating in Steam. Neither of these gave signs of "stalling out". Probably you just don't like them for personal reasons and that's fine. If you actually came here to get Mort's review, you can see this is a pretty well formed if a bit flawed game, but I really don't see where that would disqualify it as an EA game in any way. Personally I wish I'd heard about this sooner and followed along with the EA development.
@@bitrotter Did _you_ just come here to say that?
You sure like making assumptions about other people and their perspective on things, huh?
If you genuinely don't see what I mean by stalling out, I'd recommend you check out the original early access release dates of both of these games as well as their update schedules/communication with early adopters over the years. Or hell, their originally intended full release dates.
Also, read my final sentence maybe? Of course I watched for Mort's opinion, I just happen to have one as well - which I am commenting on a video about the game it pertains to, funny enough.
Have a good one - and enjoy the game, for that matter - but leave me out of it.
@@bitrotter Yeah the Wrath rating smell as a scam from miles away( I have the game and the EA was a torture)because if you see the rating graphic: for 2 years it had an ABYSS of negative reviews, it's really fishy that in only like 2 months the rating rised up from Very Negative to Very Positive whithout the game not even out yet and no updates since last year...mmhhh...
3DRealms have launched too many games at once and I have the fear that they will be really rushed and unfinished.
@bitrotter Graven has serious problems for its whole development and they ain't fixed, and it literally stalled, it didn’t get any updates at all for like 2 years
I’m frustrated that wrath aeon of ruin isn’t for ps5. It’s ps4 only. That’s why I skipped it. But old school shooter games like this and phatom fury seem cool while we wait for 2025 doom.
Hey Mort, a CRPG has just come up on my radar on steam and i thought i'd share it. Unforetold: Witchstone - the EA seems to be coming out next week or so.
Had never heard of Unforetold, Trailer looks good. Just wishlisted. Love this channel and learning about new rpgs, especially ones that are not widely known about. 😄
I’ve been excited for this game for like 3 years…. Very disappointing that it’s not very good
Thanks for the video. I think to be a boomer-shooter there needs to be a "yell at clouds" function [bad joke]. Onward to 300k. All glory to the algorithm.
Looks pretty cool. I could never get into the original Hexen but I'll probably give it a try regardless
hmmm i'm definitely interested, i'll see what upcoming patches/updates bring i suppose
if it’s priced good. I will definitely get it today for ps5. it seems worth it. for mindless pick up and play.
I enjoyed the game a lot, but now im stuck with the collectible achievements. I cant find the remaining Orthogonal and Shivering Dead notes.
This game oozes atmosphere, I played the first chapter last year and loved it.
Your assessment of 12-15 hours feels strange, that is the amount of time I spend on the first chapter.:P
But I am by no means a fast gamer.
For games without controller auto-aim you should try setting up the gyro controls on the steam deck. Being able to input precise adjustments by tilting the deck will dramatically improve your experience.
I solved most of the puzzles by accident . Few bosses died from fallin through the map. But this was before the final up date got to go back and complete the game .
How can you tell you've found all the secrets? Doesn't seem to be any in-game indicator. Which is strange, as there used to be one in the early access version.
How do si fix the soft lock at Grimaine gate?
neat! just what I was looking for..
thanks for the review, Mortismal _!_
hope your 2024 is awesome
It's amusing that the achievement called "a clerical error" is bugged.
You ever doing reviews for Xcom games?
At some point
@@MortismalGaming love it.
I really want this game to be good, and it seems like it probably is!
I keep trying to get into this game but my biggest problem really is the lack of direction of where to go. They'll tell you "Go west" But you have zero clue which way is west. They'll tell you "Go to this guy" "go here" But where is here?
Anyone know what time it leaves EA today?
Dude, u are an absolute BEAST! I dont know how you do it but its impressive! Absolutely love your reviews!
👍🏾👍🏾🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 this just gets me more hyped for Avowed!
You convinced me. For 25 dollars it seems definitely worth it.
Hi Morty ❤
I can't remember where the green crystal for the staff is, I played this game a while ago
They moved it, its in the library clocktower now
not related but you should do a review on hellblade: senua's sacrifice
I absolutely need this on PS5 TODAY
The lack of waypoints and getting repeatedly lost is a massive time waster in this game, it actually ruins the good parts of the game. I hope they do improve these basic problems, it is not 1993 after all. By the time you realize you are going through the same area for the 5th or 6th or 7th time, the urge to uninstall becomes too strong, as you feel like the game is purposefully wasting your time, it is not enjoyable at this point. Hopefully this gets fixed, as the actual gameplay is pretty good.
finally a real review unlike the whiny crybabies who vaguely talk about anything the entire video
Try kingsvein it’s so fun
Already made a video on it
free comment!
Jazzing !
I wanted to like this one, but I just am finding it to be kinda meh. And that is after playing stuff like Project Warlock II, and Ion Fury Aftershock. It just feels really mediocre for a game of the genre to me.
Love the graphics but I heard it’s very puzzle heavy so I’ll pass. Thanks for the review!
There is a "Casual puzzle mode" included. The combat difficulty stays the same, it just makes the puzzles more obvious. It's how I'm currently playing through the game and I'm really enjoying it.
shame about the steamdeck compatibility :(
Thank You
Are you from USA or Britain?
USA
Death zerg is a great term 😂
I'm out because of the save points...shame.
First
"a boomer shooter" LOL
Yes. that is what they are called
I later google'd it. What a meme name.
@@PhantomGardener
the graphics are like what PS1 games nostaglia had you imagined it to be