Recent reviews by Luna O' Blue

Oh… The only and one Daikatana by the one and only John Romero whose b*tch I am apparently now… Yeah, I finally got my hands on that game… First and foremost, I, as most people, played on the fan-made 1.3 patch with unlimited saves and invincible sidekicks. I did want to try playing the release version just to understand how the original game with no improvements felt, however, it was so broken that I couldn’t even activate the console – and I have zero desire spending another 3 hours to get to the first sidekick for an hour of the original gameplay test. Nonetheless, even the 1.3 patch does not fix this game to being anywhere near good but let’s take one thing at a time…

Story. Boring and cringe. I understand that Romero wanted to make an epic adventure about travelling between different ages, however, why couldn’t he hire a professional writer to make the story? The game greets you with a 10-minute-long intro cutscene where you are instantly given tons of names and events, you sit through it hoping that it was a necessary lore introduction and the story will get epic from there… but it doesn’t. All dialogues and cutscenes in the game are insanely boring and prolonged, some are additionally cringe, and I honestly do not understand how I restrained myself from not skipping them. Even the final twist barely provokes any emotions, except the one you already had for most part of the game “when will this finally be over?”

Music and Sounds. Fine, I did not remember any single track from the game and some gun sounds were weird (huge thanks though that the patch developers removed that insane cracking sound during the loading screens!) but overall, these are the most minor problems of Daikatana.

And without further ado… Gameplay. Oh, where should I even start… Sidekicks. The infamous sidekicks! It was advertised as one of the unique features of the game and became its biggest problem. The thing is, unlike modern games where your companions silently teleport behind you when falling back, manage their ammo and health themselves, and in a few games can even noticeably impact the battlefield, in Daikatana, they are primitive and dumb. They do not teleport, and you cannot leave a level without them, so if they got stuck somewhere behind, you have to backtrack and look for them. Even with the patch, I still got a dozen of moments where they got permanently stuck and I had to load the nearest save file (thanks that the game at least automatically saves after every map change). Their combat intelligence is no better: they cannot pick up weapons and ammo themselves and you have to manually give them commands (and you will likely just vacuum clean the area yourself just as in any other boomer shooter; why couldn’t the developers make it that you cannot pick up the weapons you already have?). They can also easily get stuck into an enemy in a corner or on stairs and do nothing while getting damaged. On top of that, while the patch makes them invincible, in the original release you also had to babysit them with their health and armor because their death was game over. So, you can imagine what a nightmare Daikatana was when it came out.

Guns. Every episode has its own set of 7 guns, however, except episode 4, in all other episode they are either just bad or have a specific quirk that makes them barely usable. Grenade Launcher – grenades get attached to the surface if you miss and have enormous blast radius, Shotgun – shoots in bursts of 6 when all enemies die in 2-3 hits, Venom Staff – if you miss the projectile bounces around and can poison you too, Hade’s Hammer (melee weapon but still) – has a powerful AOE attack that damages you too, Electric Staff – sends small wisps that deal minor damage, Necromancer’s Staff – summons a demon that barely attacks enemies and you cannot swap weapons for while etc, etc, etc. As for Daikatana – the weapon this game is named after – this is one of the most pathetic melee weapons I’ve ever seen in computer games! Sure, you can level it up by killing enemies with it, however, you get only get 1-2% of XP per kill, do not receive XP yourself, and can’t block enemy attacks. The sword attack hitbox is super broken and the only reliable way to kill with it is standing in place while getting damaged by enemies you are trying to bat with it.

Level design and enemies. The game starts in a cyberpunk future and you expect the first episode to be some cool Ghost In The Shell-ish city levels but instead you get… a pack of acid green sewer levels, later mixed with industrial zones… Same for the episode 4 but the acid green is replaced with pale grey there. Sure, the game does get more visually appealing in episodes 2 and 3 with Ancient Greece and Medieval Europe, however, the level quality remains the same… While there are maps with interesting layouts and ideas the overall level design quality just makes them into labyrinths with unobvious switches and pathways. The same situation is with the enemies: while there are different types of them, it feels like they were randomly placed on the maps without any intention of making a challenging or interesting combat scenarios.

It feels like all the assets and ideas were just put into some RNG machine which merged them together without any logic and spat out this piece of code. Also, as I’ve said before, even though 1.3 patch does significantly fix the game it does not make it any good. It simply turns it from an unplayable boring mess into a mostly playable boring mediocre product.

Conclusion. You know, there are some games (like the original Nier for PS3 and Xbox360, for example) that received mixed or negative reviews on the release but have one or two good things which makes it worth getting back to them many years after – Daikatana is not one of these games. It does not any part of it that is above the mediocre level. I still can’t fathom how a person who worked on the levels of Doom and Quake could fail every single element in his own passion project, especially the level design! Is Daikatana a terrible game? On the release – probably; with 1.3 patch – no. However, it does not stand out in any way, and there is no single reason to play it nowadays, except as a relic of history. Yet still, instead you can just watch a video about its and Ion Storm’s history (which I highly recommend, it’s hilarious how they spent their money), and it will be easier and funnier than spending 12-15 hours on this piece of code. Nonetheless, if you are still planning to touch Daikatana yourself, play with 1.3 patch with cheats enabled in extra options, unless you are a total masochist who wants to suffer just for the sake of it!

P.S. Do you actually want a game with an epic story about saving humanity and time-traveling between 4 different eras? Play Serious Sam: The First Encounter and The Second Encounter! Sure, it does not have 28 different weapons and enemies remain the same for each era, however, I do not think it is such a big problem when the game itself is actually fun and challenging!

So, I finally finished FAITH: The Unholy Trinity and I must admit this game got on my nerves pretty heavy and I doubt I will go for the Good Christian Boy achievement unless I find reliable and consistent speedrunning strats. Nonetheless, I will try to stay objective in this review, and explain why you may or may not like this game.

Story. Probably the biggest reason to play FAITH. I will not spoil it here but if you are a fan of classical supernatural horror movies about demons and the occult like The Exorcist 1973, The Omen 1976, Suspiria 1977, etc, you will certainly enjoy the plot of FAITH. Though most of it is told through the notes which can significantly vary in their dates with the text being confusing, if you collect all of them and reach all the endings, you will certainly understand 90% of the story without much trouble.

Graphics. Atari 80’s style, minimal detalization and pretty basic level design – there is not much to say here. The only difference from actual 80’s games is the presence of cutscenes made in the same pixelated art-style but with high resolution and more details.

Music and Sounds. The soundtrack is good old 8-bit chiptune, sounds are also like that, and all the dialogues are voiced through an 80s speech synthesizer, so usually it’s barely possible to understand what the characters are saying without subtitles.

Atmosphere. That’s where it becomes controversial. While FAITH does provide Atari-like 80’s vibe, there is actually barely any horror aspect aka even playing at night in headphones won’t make you feel nervous and unsettled. The game only made me jump like 4 times and only in chapter III and only because the jumpscares were really sudden and unexpected.

Gameplay. Oh dios mio… that’s where the main crux for me is. The core gameplay is primitive: you have 4 buttons to walk 4 directions and one more button which is both for interaction and attack. This could be an okay layout if the game concentrated on the story and atmosphere but no… it also has high difficulty… and that difficulty is also 80’s Atari style. If it was not for the lack of intuitivity and hints (aka if you play without a guide it will take hours to figure out stuff by yourself), tank controls, one-hit enemy attacks, and those 1.5 pixels of a demon’s sprite that touched you (its becomes especially bad given the "isometric view" since you never know the actual size of your/enemy's hitbox) all three chapters could be finished in 2 hours (it took me 11 to collect all notes and reach all the endings). Even though I really like hardcore games, when all the difficulty comes from one-hit attacks and whether you will be lucky enough that the enemy won’t teleport right into your face, it does not make the game challenging, it makes it irritating, at least in my humble opinion. In addition, there are only checkpoint saves and only one save slot for each chapter, again, just to make the game more difficult without adding actual challenge. Speaking more about the tank controls, as I’ve said, you can only move in 4 directions which would not be a problem if the attacks adjusted but they do not… Your attack hitbox is basically a triangle drawn from where you’re facing with the size approximately the same as the flashlight cover area (though it can significantly change depending on a particular demon, usually notably nerfed, of course) – about 60 degrees wide and quarter of the level long. Now add the ability to only move in 4 directions and one-hit attacks and you will get a magnificent gameplay of trying to hit an enemy while also not getting hit by its hitbox flying around the room. Even in Castle Wolfestein – the game from the actual 1982 – you could move and shoot diagonally! Yet in FAITH – no, go and suffer just for the sake of it!

Apart from that, there is not much to say about the gameplay. You can also collect notes lying on the ground or interact with various objects to get more notes or open new passages. There is a turbo mode for all chapters, which makes the game 2 or 4 times faster, lantern and flashlight modes for the first chapter, and a survival mode that is basically a boss rush through the entire game.

Conclusion. So, even though FAITH did manage to significantly irritate me with its gameplay, overall, I enjoyed it more than I hated it. Plus, I am too young to enjoy the nostalgia about these kinds of old-style games with crushing difficulty out of nowhere. Should you play FAITH though? Well, if you like unorthodox indie games, good story or a fan of old-school 80’s Atari games – you will certainly enjoy it. However, if you are looking for a sophisticated unsettling psychological horror experience or a difficult but fair challenge – you better look for another game.

UPD after getting GCB + Survival Mode max rank, all demons, no death: I F*CKING HATE THIS GAME! Some demons don't even have flags that prevent them from teleporting inside you or 2 pixels in front of your hitbox with max movement speed! Mein Leben in Wolfenstein II was a f*cking breeze in comparison to this sh*t! There if RNG goes against you, you just use a recovery strat; here if RNG goes against you you can't do that because you are f*cking dead! Start over! Yet there are 2 bosses in the game that let you get an extra hit before dying and you know what? Those two are the easiest bosses in the game! Because the entire f*cking difficulty is based on the sh*tty random and one-hit death! Do not go for this achievement unless you are a masochist with no friends and social life who hates themselves! I AM SERIOUS!

I remember back in the day when Saints Row: The Third was released, some people were saying that the series lost its identity and was made into a constant torrent of sex and toilet jokes… Oh boy, if we only knew…

You know, before writing a review I usually try to fully finish the game or at least the main story to build an objective opinion and consider both pros and cons of the product. However, with Saints Row 2022… I just can’t… I’ve played 10 hours and it felt like 30 for me! I am literally making myself play it, while I can do other actually interesting and enjoyable things. I highly doubt I will finish or even continue playing after today, so I will just leave this review now.

Graphics. What the f*ck? I know when you make a game with highly customizable character you have certain challenges regarding animations, object collision, and texture resolutions but why the f*ck the game from 2022 looks like one from 2012? Seriously, I feel SR3 looked more visually appealing. Objects load literally 10 meters in front of you, texture quality is low, animations are outdated, and the lighting is broken even with RTX on!

Music and sounds. I don’t usually consider this factor in open-world games like SR because I perfectly understand they have to license several dozen tracks, which also must be cheap, and composing original music is far from the top priorities but… In all SR games I found a few interesting tracks on radio, and repeating melodies in garage, character customization, clothing stores never bothered me. With SR 2022, the repeating music started to irritate me just after an hour while I was still creating the character, the same was for car customization. On top of that, all songs on radio are barely memorable and even after scrolling through them manually I couldn’t find anything to make a personal playlist.

Story and Characters. Sh*t, total stinky large load of sh*t from a cesspool! I played up until the moment where you start building your criminal empire and conquer the city, and that was my breaking point! The three rival gangs are basically copies of Brotherhood, Deckers, and Ultor but without anything that made the latter ones unique. Remember how each previous game showed the cutsences with gangs’ members and leaders and uncovered their lores and operations? SR 2022 has none of that! The characters from your gang are walking stereotypes, and I barely remembered the names of them! As for the comedic part of the game… I will just quote one of comments from Youtube: “Game-containing* product with artificial aromatizer "Saints Row" not identical to the natural analogue**. Produced by LLC "Our game must not offend anyone". *Does not contain interesting story and memorable characters **Due to the production cycle the final product may contain many bugs and disgusting graphics (edited)”. In short, jokes are absent, and those that somehow made it into the game are so cringe that I doubt even 10 year olds will find them funny! Many people blame it on the fact that instead of a serious or a comedic gangster drama like in SR1/SR2 and SR3 respectively, we got a hipster new-age piece of a sh*tstory, and while it is true, Watch Dogs 2 also had young protagonists, yet they were memorable, and that game actually had good jokes! Moreover, SR1 was also basically about young street kids starting their own gang, so there was a potential to pull the same old script but just seasoning it with modern zoomer stuff and appropriate jokes. Why the f*ck the writers went with a kid show plot? Sh*t knows!

Gameplay. Oh, boi… I am holding back from just using the f-word adjective after every noun… It’s F*CKING RAW aka terrible. Car physics only works if you drive on a straight flat surface with no obstacles. If any bumps or objects are present, your car can f*ck and fly around like a cardboard box (even the water from hydrants sends it into the f*cking air)! In previous games, flying out of the windshield was a fun little mechanic which was only triggered if you had a hard frontal impact into a solid wall, so it was difficult to trigger accidently. In SR 2022 any light side impact can send your character flying out! I am not asking for a racing simulator physics but when I have hard times getting from point A to point B which are 300 meters apart… Has anyone even tested this sh*t?

Shooting is boring. I played the game on medium and even regular non-armored enemies take a decent amount of damage before they can be killed! The foes also do not take any tactical positions and just run at you for a melee distance most of the time. On top of that, the developers included active skills system, which you will totally forget about after getting a grenade throw and putting it on a hotkey. You also cannot unlock perks one by one like in SR3, you only have a limited number of slots (which are also blocked by default), and need to choose between many of them later. Am I playing a f*cking RPG or a criminal open-world drama? Maybe if I play further, and get more powerful upgrades for the weapons, the shooting becomes better, but I highly doubt.

Speaking about side-activities, I could say that most of them are just copies or slightly improved copies of the activities from previous games but I will put it another way. Look at the two of the points above, then remember that all activities in the game involve rather driving or shooting… You get it? Whatever they are, if the core gameplay is broken, no kinds of side activities will save its *ss!

Last but not least, it’s been 20 years since SR1 and SR2, yet those games still have the best customization in the series! In SR 2022, the clothing choice is poor, even poorer for jewelry/earrings/piercings, you can’t even save separate clothing pieces with custom colors or an outfit, only full boss presents, the number of which are limited to 20. You cannot apply different makeup/jewelry for the left and right sides of your face and hands respectively. Oh, and if you spend one hour customizing your characters’ sliders and then accidently open the presets menu – all your sliders will drop back to 0!

Conclusion. I can continue ranting further about this game but I am coming close to the Steam character limit for the reviews. Is Saints Row 2022 a terrible game? No, it is playable, but the gameplay is so boing you have to poke yourself with a needle not to fall asleep! Is it the worst game in the series? You know… I would say yes! Even despite my dislike of SR4 and GOoH they at least had some humor and good old memorable characters. SR 2022 has nothing of that! If you are a long-time fan of the series, just forget about this abomination and better replay SR2! If you are really willing to touch this piece of sh*t, do it only for 90% discount – not a penny more!

Finally, a few words on Volition closing… GOOD RIDDANCE! You had a great opportunity to make a remastered version of SR2 for the sake of the core fanbase and in memory of IdolNinja, or restart the series and return it to its gangster roots, and you F*CKED ALL OF THAT UP! Rest in pieces, we won’t miss you!

It's a little puzzle game which serves as a prequel for DUSK and can be completed on 100% in under 3 hours. It is a nice bonus game for the fans of the original title, however, as a standalone product, it is pretty weak, and I am not even speaking about the graphics. Somebody older than me may love the old 80's atari-like visual style, it's the content and the length. As I've said, the main campaign is barely 2 hours long, and even though the game does present some interesting mechanics, it never fully explores them and presents actually complicated or challenging puzzles. On top of that, the enemy Ai is randomized, so you cannot make complex maps which require precise movements justified by complete knowledge of the game. Overall, on sale for 2$ it is a nice little piece which can give you 2-3 hours of fun, however, the full price of 7$ is a bit too much. There are more interesting and complex indie titles for the same price out there.

An addon which replaces all the textures and models to their HD counterparts to make DUSK look like a game from mid 2000s rather than late 1990s. It is an interesting way to experience DUSK again if you played it back on the release. However, I am not a big fan of HD mods for old games in general, plus the blocky and simplistic design of the levels, as well as enemy animations, remained the same, so this addon does not really make DUSK into a some totally brand new experience. Maybe it will fit those who were put off by the original's simplistic design. Overall, even though it is nice to see some updates for the game, I would rather have a brand new episode (even if it was DUSK HD exclusive) like in The Ultimate Doom, or a co-op mode for the multiplayer.

P.S. This addon also adds a brand new weapon - Dark Claw - which deals lot of damage but uses your morale and HP as the ammo. It is certainly an interesting addition to the arsenal but not that critical to make you play DUSK HD if you have just finished the original. Plus, I don't understand why this weapon was not also included in the vanilla version, considering that DUSK HD does not seem to change enemy count or balance.

Very nice pack with early game builds, assets, arts, recording sessions, and even memes. Great addition for the fans of the game! And its free!

A true authentic sequel to the first Quake…

Even though one of my friends gifted me DUSK quite a while ago, I was kinda of hesitant to play it because even though I am a big fan of boomer shooters, for me they were always associated with Doom Engine and Build Engine games – I mostly played stuff like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D in my childhood and barely touched the first full-fledged 3D games like Quake and Unreal, so the latter ones are not considered to be “that boomer” in my head, if that makes sense. Anyway, after going on a rampage of beating one boomer shooter after another a few weeks ago, I’ve now finally decided to give DUSK a chance and had tons of fun!

Graphics. Raw low-poly minimalistic 3D like in the late 90s games. Both stylish and practical. Enemies and pickups are easy to read, while each location has its own fairly unique atmosphere. I think the only minor complaint would be that weapons are too low-detailed (even Quake I guns were not that low-poly) but it was likely an intentional style choice, so I cannot really complain much here.

Story. It is… interesting. I did not expect much so I was pleasantly surprised to hear some actual voices lines (even though not from the protagonist) and learn the game’s lore. The first Quake was an interesting mix of industrial sci-fi and dark fantasy setting, and I think DUSK is certainly inspired by this approach. While it does not have any sci-fi elements, it gradually progresses from some western-ish setting to brutalist industrial to full-fledged dark fantasy. I think it is a much more authentic blend for an eerie fast-paced Quake’s original idea successor, than the general sci-fi alien shooter we got in Quake II.

Music and Sounds. Music is just a banger. Each level has its own track and while the game mostly keeps the style of mixing electronics, synths, and metal, all songs are different and unique in their own way. There are even fully ambient tracks for more horror-styled creepy levels and these are amazing too. Overall, the soundtrack is majestic and you will certainly remember a few songs and will likely relisten to them after beating the game. As for the sounds though, while each enemy does have a good and unique sound so you can understand what you are going to face in a moment, I felt that the guns somewhat lacked the impact with the shooting sounds. The gun animations are also pretty basic and while I, again, understand that it was an intentional style choice, I feel more work could be done for weapon impact.

Gameplay. Amazing, especially if you are a fan of Quake games. While the game is built on Unity and obviously does not have all the specifics of id Tech, so the movement is much easier to perform here, it is compensated by fast enemies with diverse attacks, which does require you to not only run around quickly but also shoot precisely and promptly swap to proper weapons simultaneously. So, even though you can easily learn strafe jumping and bunny hopping in DUSK, you will have to master mixing them with gunplay, otherwise standing in place is almost always death. Level design is great: not only the levels look unique, they also provide you with various combat scenarios and leave some room for freestyle with rocket jumps and 360 no scope backflip sniper rifle kills (and for exploration and secret hunting, of course).

Speaking about the enemies, as you have already probably understood, they are pretty diverse and unique with their attacks. There are also no true hitscan foes, which lets you avoid the damage even from the rifle and shotgun bearing ones, if you move quickly. On top of that, the game gradually introduces new variations and types with new levels and some of the enemies are unique and exclusive (or mostly exclusive) for their episode. As for the weapons, while there are no truly unique unorthodox ones here, all of them are useful for different situations even on the higher difficulties. Pistols become submachine guns with a haste powerup, one-barrel shotguns are good alternative for a mid-distance combat instead of the rifle, crossbow is great for killing rows of enemies or dangerous foes through the walls to avoid damage, sniper rifle is useful for long distances and buffy enemies in cramped spaces where you cannot really use rockets, and by the third episode (or in the special secrets in the first and the second) you get a special sword which can deflect enemy projectiles and one hit kill them, provided you have enough health and armor (which is called morale here). I think the only disappointment is that, just like in Quake II, rockets and grenades have ridiculously small area of damage, so you cannot just spam them to the feet of an incoming horde.

I played DUSK on Cero Miedo and beat it in around 10 hours. I don’t know why the game tries to warn you that this difficulty is not for the first playthrough (and why this message keeps popping up when I’ve already finished the game) because unless you finished the level or made an unfortunate quicksave with low health and ammo, this difficulty makes you master movement and aiming and utilize the design of each location for your advantage. As for the max difficulty – DUSKMARE – it is kind of lame in the sense that it does not provide any unique or ultimate challenge like Nightmare or Ultra-Nightmare in old and new Doom games respectively, and just makes all enemy damage instakill you. Sure, this difficulty does require mastery in movement and level knowledge but restarting the entire level at the end of it just because you were unfortunate to catch one bullet from the other side of the map is not a very joyful experience.

Apart from the difficulties, the game also provides optional challenges like Completionist, Par-time beater, and Pacifist for those who want more. The game also has a survival mode, which is interesting but only provides 3 relatively small maps and no leaderboard to compete. However, a much bigger disappointment for me personally is that even though DUSK was one of the first boomer shooters released in the new era, it did not gather a large fan-base and despite the game providing modding tools, in 6 years there were barely any levels and mods released for it, and it does not seem we are going to get DUSK II any time soon… So I guess, we can only wait for a Quake reboot or another indie developer releasing a tribute game to that legendary series.

Conclusion. DUSK is a great game which takes huge inspiration from Quake I yet possesses a lot of unique and creative features that make it memorable in its own way. If you are fan of boomer shooter and specifically Quake – this is a must buy! You will certainly have fun beating the main game and if it is not enough to satisfy your boomer needs – you can go for beating all challenges and sickle-starting all 3 episodes on DUSKMARE with no saves.

P.S. I am also seriously thinking about beating all the optional challenges and the entire game on max difficulty despite there being no achievements for it. And this only happens if I do really like the game and ready to grind it just for the sake of having fun grinding it for myself with no public award. UPD: I did it. All medals on each level + all par times beaten + DUSKMARE run, sickle start, all kills, all secrets, no soap. This game is amazing! I really wish we got a sequel or a new episode!


P.P.S. I have also just learnt that DUSK is made by the same developer who made the IRON LUNG horror game. What a small world we live in!

Caleb did not finish his job properly, so now another man has to get it done…

I am a big fan of Blood 1997, so when I saw CULTIC in Steam, I became instantly interested in the game, however, seeing “Chapter One” in the title was somewhat disappointing – I made it a policy not to buy early access games (except few exceptions like BeamNG when the game can be developed further and improved infinitely) and I prefer to play and rate finished full-fledged products. Yet, after returning to this game a few months later and reading some reviews that Chapter One is indeed a finished full-fledged experience, I decided to give CULTIC a try and was pleasantly surprised.

Story. Not that it matters much in a boomer shooter, but still, it is present here. There are a few notes scattered around the maps and some of the levels also have environmental storytelling. The plot provides proper atmosphere and I do not think you really need anything more from it in a game like that.

Music and Sounds. They are simply great! Just like the plot, the music is very atmospheric and yet fits the fast-paced boomer shooter gameplay. Sounds are great too, shooting, reloading, explosions – they all make you feel the impact from the weapon. However, the thing I did kinda miss was the protagonist and enemy voiceover. In Blood screaming cultists and Caleb’s one liners were gold and made you feel like an unstoppable killing machine, and in that regard CULTIC does fall back a little bit. I hope with the release of Chapter Two the developer will also rework Chapter One and add proper voice lines, considering voiced dialogues were indeed added in the Interlude level that is meant to bind these two chapters.

Graphics. Though I do love retro visual style in games, after my poor experience with BPM, I was a bit skeptical about the palette and texture choice, yet, that skepticism completely was completely gone after the first 15 min of playing. Despite the unique graphics look, the game does not make your eyes hurt and enemies, ammo, and resources are easily readable in the surroundings. Plus, in case you are not a fan of such art style, you can turn off some of the effects like Dithering and Color Filtering to make the game look more like a general retro shooter.

Gameplay. Amazing! The game provides you with 10 different weapons (plus additional 2 in the Interlude chapter) and while there are no unique fantasy ones like in Blood, each gun remains useful until the very end and has its own purpose for a particular scenario. On top of that, weapons can have up to 2 alt-fire mods, which makes the combat even more diverse. There is also a weapon upgrade system, and while the upgrades are not that drastic like weapon mods in Doom Eternal, they still add diversity to the shooting and let you customize a weapon to make it more useful for certain combat scenarios. Enemies mostly consists of cultists that wield the same weapons as you, but there are also a few buffier melee ones that will try to chase and approach you close. It may not sound much, however, they still manage to provide you challenge, and I am sure there will be more types in Chapter Two. As for the bosses, there are two in Chapter One, which are quite easy to beat on their own (but it is a persistent issue for most boomer shooters), so the main difficulty in these battles comes from the regular constantly respawning enemies. There is also an additional boss in the Interlude chapter, and while I cannot say it is any difficult either, it at least does provide you with some challenge with the variety of its attacks. Level design is great, the levels are not only stylish and memorable but also provide you with different sets of environments: from mountain ranges with a lot of open space and verticality to cramped dimly lit corridors with foes hiding behind corners. I also played the Survival Mode a bit, and while I would rather prefer to have a full-fledged map editor and a mod repository, it is a nice addition if you are hungry for more CULTIC gameplay or want to compete in your combat skills with others.

Speaking about the difficulty, I finished Chapter One on 100% (all kills and secrets) on Extreme in about 8 hours, plus Interlude in about 40 minitunes (also on 100%), and, just like Blood, the game provides you with a lot of challenge, makes you play smart, and does not forgive you mistakes unless you have full health and armor. However, unlike Blood, CULTIC is more fair when it comes to enemies: they do have a split-second reaction time when they see you, so there is no need to paranoically throw dynamite bundles behind every corner to prevent unavoidable damage. On top of that, if an enemy is far enough or looking the opposite direction, they also do not instantly react to your presence, so you can carefully plan your approach on large open maps. The hitscan enemies are also not truly hitscan and their bullets have a short delay before hitting you, so even in tight situations you can retreat back to a safe spot without receiving a lot of damage if you move quickly.

Last but not least, there are also a few minor drawbacks and bugs which do not directly affect the gameplay but I still have to mention them. Firstly, quicksaves can take up to 10 seconds to load (which is likely due to the game running on Unity) and while this is not critical, it is quite noticeable in comparison to other modern boomer shooters (particularly on Build Engine) which load even large maps with hundreds of enemies in just 2 seconds. Additionally, it would also be cool to have several quicksave slots and level checkpoints like in Ion Fury. There is also no way to unbind a button completely or bind one action to two different buttons, plus the bind menu scrolls up to the top each time you change a button and does not warn you to apply new settings if you exit without saving. As for the bugs, firstly, if you toggle “always run” (and I do not know why you won’t in a boomer shooter) you cannot slide by pressing crouch while moving, so you have to bind it to a separate button. Secondly, while you can save during the last boss fight, if you load that save, the boss completely regenerates their HP. Maybe it is a clever trolling, however, the game does not let you save during the first boss fight, so it is likely a bug.

Conclusion. CULTIC is an amazing game and it amazes you even more when you learn that it is almost entirely made by one person – Jason Smith. The man truly understands why people love old 90s shooters so much and what modern elements you can add to diversify the gameplay but still keep it authentic. After 25 years, we finally got a true spiritual successor to Blood (the developer also stated he was heavily inspired by Resident Evil 4, however, I have not played a single RE game, so I cannot say anything here), not the broken unfished piece of code Blood 2 turned out to be. If you are a fan of boomer shooters and especially Blood, this is a must buy! One of the best boomer shooters of the last few years, and despite the “Chapter One” in the title, it is, indeed, a finished game. I hope Chapter Two we release soon and bring us more new levels, weapons and enemies!

Quake 4 is the last game in the series that had a proper single player campaign and the only one so far that did not receive a remaster (technically, Quake III was remastered back in 2010 as Quake Live) and after finishing it, I can kinda understand why…

To begin with, the problems began even before I clicked the “New Game” button. When I firstly started Quake 4, it requested a CD-key, I thought it was fine because I clearly remembered that Steam had a “show game key” in its options but apparently, this feature was cut out long time ago. After looking into Steam forums and verifying the game files 3 times in a row, the game finally let me in into the main menu, and I tried to set up the graphics settings and install OpenAL to fix the surrounding sound feature and… the game simply began to instantly crash on starting. After tinkering more with the settings, the game finally began to load and… it requested the key again… I tried various keys and keygens from the internet but they all were for some different game version (probably the CD one), so in the end I just gave up and simply downloaded a Jolly Roger version hoping that I would finally be able to play, yet, the problems only stopped temporarily. After about an hour the game began to regularly crash, mostly after the boss battles and during loading zones, until I had to search the forums again to learn that the game freaks out if you have a multicore CPU. You may ask, why I simply did not install a fan-made patch, and the reason is – there is simply none (which probably tells a lot about the fans’ attitude to Quake 4).

Speaking about the game itself… it is not Quake… I am already not a big fan of Quake II because it traded a unique mix of dark fantasy and sci-fi for a general sci-fi alien shooter but at least it still had a solid gameplay… Quake 4 has none of that. Your movement is slow, every level is some kind of industrial zone, levels are cramped and half of the missions require you to procced slowly with your squad or escort someone from point A to point B (in a damn Quake!). Difficulty levels do not add any challenge and basically just increase the enemies’ damage output and damage sponginess. While the shooting itself is not that bad, because of all the aforementioned issues, it becomes boring and tedious rather than fun and challenging.

Quake 4 also runs on the same engine as Doom 3 (which explains small cramped locations) and tries to put heavy emphasis on the story when the plot itself is as one dimensional as a line. Moreover, you cannot even regulate volumes of music, voices, and sound effects separately and the game has no subtitles, so even if you are a native English speaker you will barely understand half of the dialogues because most of them are inaudible with shooting and music on the background.

Furthermore, just like Doom 3, Quake 4 also somewhat attempts to be a horror, when the game is not actually scary except for one creepy chapter after the one infamous scene. Even though Doom 3 also was not the scariest game in the world, it had some lore and immersive sim-ish elements which helped to build up the atmosphere. The locations were eerie and a few enemy spawns made you jump, and, on top of that, the Doom series had already experimented with horror elements before that, particularly with PSX and Nintendo 64 ports of Doom I and Doom II. At the same time, Quake was always about fast-paced gameplay and challenging fights, and making it a linear companion-based mid-paced cover shooter just kills its identity. Yes, technically, the Quake II universe with its cybernetic Stroggs and alien theme has a potential to be a good body horror, however, just as I’ve stated above, the game is not scary except one relatively short chapter.

Finally, the main campaign is only 6 hours long, and while it may seem not that critical, Quake 4 is the only single-player game in the series that has never received any expansions and there are no real mods for this game. So, right now, for 15$ you only get a mediocre 6-hour campaign and a long-dead multiplayer, which I am not sure if anyone ever tried to revive (oh, and a crapton of headache trying to boot the game on modern systems). Is Quake 4 a terrible game? Not really, it is just a regular alien-themed shooter from 2000s. However, it is definitely the worst game in the series (technically, there is also Quake Champions but that’s a whole another story), and it is just sad to see that the single-player era of Quake ended so poorly.

Does this game need a remaster? Maybe, at least to make it start properly on the modern systems and have a working multiplayer; maybe we will even get an expansion from Nightdive and MachineGames just like in other remasters. However, I would rather say this game needs a proper remake. Rather make it an actual Quake game with fast gameplay and no companion crap, or a full-fledged body horror which would be dreadful and uncomfortable to play. With the modern graphics features and advancements, the latter can actually be achieved relatively easily.

Overall, should you play Quake 4? If you are a hardcore fan of the series – probably but do not expect much. If you’ve always loved the series for its gameplay – you better skip this one and get a new modern fast-paced boomer shooter like HROT or a good-old long-standing classic like Unreal.

Another remaster of the cult classics. Though I personally like Quake I much more for its unique dark style and gameplay-oriented levels, the Quake II remaster is still great. All official add-ons are now available in one launcher + you get additional Quake II 64 campaign and a brand new "Call of The Machine" expansion made by Nightdive Studios and Machine Games (also, Operation Darkest Depths there is the only Quake II episode that doesn't allow backtracking to previous levels, so be careful if you are going for 100% kills and secrets). Another great addition is the implementation of compass aka the arrow showing where to go, You no longer have to guess what the game wants from you, attempting to hit all possible switches on the map (though sometimes compass does show the final target like a door instead of the secondary one like a switch that opens that door but it is not that frequent). Weapon and items wheels are useful too considering large amount of weapons and items in Quake II (especially in the expansions). Setting up a multiplayer match is very easy and the Nightmare difficulty is now officially implemented and you don't have to use console commands to access it. Overall, just as with Quake I remaster, unless you are planning to do dive deep into modding and custom maps, this source port is the best way to play Quake II nowadays.