Recent reviews by Major Cooke

Things to keep in mind when you play this game...

There is a lives system, and if you run out, your run is over and you have to restart. Things that you unlock in your arsenal however are for keeps, so it's your Dead Cells/Binding of Isaac gameplay all over again only you don't need to restart whenever you quit - only when you run out of lives.

I only ever played single player and here's the deal about that...

DO NOT PLAY CONQUEST LEVELS. Enemies respawn ad infinitum and you'll never be able to finish those maps because allies do not respawn. This is a guaranteed defeat condition for you because the devs didn't realize they should've capped the number of enemies spawning.

Also, the lives system can burn in Hell.

EDIT: Nevermind, don't buy this ♥♥♥♥ show because apparently the devs abandoned it.


Here's a list of everything I think could help improve the game.


I'd like to experiment with builds and practice against bots, but if the servers are acting funny, it's a bit difficult to engage in it, so please, above all else, add offline support or a LAN option so it doesn't require an internet connection for experimenting/practicing. This is by far my biggest complaint about the game. Everything else, one can give or take, but I think an offline mode is essential.

I don't enjoy being forced to use VGS or voice chat only. Text chat would be greatly appreciated and very helpful.

Tribes 2 did it best with inventory stations. Opened up a menu, set the preferred loadouts, customized it and stepped on the inventory pad to receive their changed gear. That was fantastic.

In Tribes 1 & 2, you could have a range of weapons you could select, yet only have so many at a time, but you could easily mix and match in between. I liked being able to do that. Tribes 2 also did it best here and I highly recommend bringing that old system back.

As someone who enjoyed playing the building engineer dude who set up turrets, and sneakily deployed inventory stations near enemy bases, that was a lot of fun. I also loved being able to place down different gadgets that would hinder enemy teams abilities such as stealthing/sensor jamming.

Please consider these points, devs. You'll go a long way to making it feel like Tribes even more.

It was bad enough that my single player experience was soured by terrible bots and a medic who is ultimately useless. But what made me quit this game was the terrible decision that hacked turrets had to target players, and furthermore, attacking xenos with the turrets had them target the players INSTEAD OF THE TURRETS THEMSELVES.

If they fix these, I'll change my tune. Otherwise, if you're looking for a single player experience, just go play Doom instead, or even Shadow Warrior 1 & 2.

Tips for beginners:

* Always be mining, especially gold and nitra.

* When you unlock the secondary mission objectives, go straight for them at the beginning of each mission since they become harder to complete later on. They reward tons of experience and gold.

* Loot bugs have gold and nitra and are faster to mine too.

* Gold and nitra are used to buy things between missions, but gold is also used to reroll items both in the mission and intermission.

* Unlock your overclock upgrades ASAP. To do this, focus all upgrades into a weapon and nothing else until the bar is fully unlocked. You can then simply die and repeat the process for other weapons.

* If you're cornered, remember: You've a pickaxe. Mine through it!

* On map 5, save the supply drop for the big motherbugger. It'll cleave half its health bar right off.

If there's one thing Quake 2 makes me want to play more of, it's Quake 1. Coming off the success of Quake, II has some big shoes to fill - and what do they do? They took some of the space marines from 1 and turn them into a fully fledged alternative category that's based entirely on alien technology trying to take control of Earth.

If you were expecting an actual Cthulhu continuation, you're sadly mistaken. After Carmack punched Romero out of the driver seat and id's top office floor (metaphorically), Carmack jumped in the driver seat and launched off the occult world to do evil alien tech wars. The result is a BFG 10K that now permeates through all Doom games from that day forward - while also slogging the player down with slower weaponry and gameplay in general instead of the fast paced action of Quake.

Quake had the opposite problem - fewer guns and gun variants, but action was at a break-neck speed.

There's also no tie-in to it's prequel other than a few Strogg icons in Quake 1, from which Carmack evolved into a whole new race of enemies that are all industrialized instead of occultic.

Quake 2 still has the spirit of Quake 1 in it, but it's loaded down with haphazard choices and slowness that would turn Duke Nukem Forever into what it was on launch (RIP). But if there's one redeeming quality that it has... It makes me want to play Quake 1 more. Don't get it twisted: They're both fun, I just prefer Quake 1, even with the re-release.

id software, I know you're out there still experimenting and enjoying the success of Doom. but when you get back to Quake, please do more occult. Quake 1's expansions are amazing, especially Dissolution of Eternity. More gun modes, more powers, more enemies, I loved it, and hope something comes from that in the future.

I got this for $15 because I already own SS4 (the bundle deal discounts some cash), so if you want to save some money, get that.

For $15-20... Is this worth the cash?

♥♥♥♥ YES. The new weaponry, the new enemies, the absolutely badass music, the better boss battles, and the much better mech & tank you control play amazingly.

While this only has 5 levels, the play time is very long. Lots of secrets to find too.

The mech here handles way better, and the tank is very powerful. And for all of $15, I can't recommend it enough. It's about as long as Shadow Warrior 3, perhaps a little longer.

GET IT! IT'S FUN!

Flying Wild Hog... Here's a legit suggestion. If you're going to try and take inspiration from another successful game like Doom Eternal, listen to what the devs and what Hugo Martin have to say.

Hugo Martin specifically said, every level in Doom Eternal introduces something new to learn, something to keep the players hooked. Hugo learned in the later half of Doom 2016 that it too suffered the same problems as SW3: became repetitive in the later levels.

Everyone else...

It was good for one play-through. After that, there's no chance I'm going back to it. I've already uninstalled it and it's in the grave.

Want a superior Shadow Warrior? Play the classic, the first remake and Shadow Warrior 2. This game is not worth $60. Wait for it to go on sale for at least half price.

The game is solid, though it has a few minor frame hiccups here and there, but that only really happens during cinematics so it shouldn't affect gameplay much if at all. That's the good news. It's plenty fun too... for about half the game in. But the problem is, you get all the weapons almost immediately a third of the game in.

From there on out, it's trying to build up your skills. If you were hoping for the Borderlands-esque experience, that's a big fat no. It's much more akin to Doom Eternal but it feels like it's missing some components and pacing is wacky as hell.

Also, Wang, kindly STFU please. Thank you. Except when interacting with Hoji, those moments are golden. Pairs well just like it did in #1. Thank God for Hoji too, because I HATED the pair-up in #2. I kept silently replacing her voice with cat screams. Not that the VA did bad, far from it. Just the way the character was... She's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ forgettable.

Anyway... It gets boring and repetitive in the later half. And it's quite short too. But I reckon they had to cut the length because of how boring it became.

But in defense of FWH, they certainly tried. It's definitely worth a play-through, just not at the current price tag.

If anything, buy SW3 to get #1 and #2 if you haven't already. Otherwise, I'd recommend buying them regardless because, to me, they're superior - even with the aged mechanics of #1 and the mini-game of tap dancing you have to perform to get chi powers to activate. And those did NOT age well.

Also, FWH, please do a redux of SW1 like what you did with Hard Reset. I'd buy it in a heartbeat if you made the ability to play without the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up double tapping required to use chi powers and streamlined the ability to play it smoother, and REMOVE THAT ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ STAMINA METER.

People wonder where I stolewas inspired by for my user name? Now you know. Love this game to bits, even if I suck at it. This game has several massive improvements over the first.

+ Pilots are no longer a resource and are infinite
+ Scrap generates up to certain points with the Recycler alone so there's no threat of scrap shortage
+ Scavengers deploying on scrap pools increases the scrap generation
+ Ammo/health regeneration for certain units and service trucks
+ Buildings are much easier to place and better evolved
+ Buildings CAN BE BUILT ON TOP OF SCRAP no seriously this was a huge gripe of BZ1.
+ Geysers don't exist, unless you count scrap pools from their appearance.
+ Numbered units are now groups instead of representing one unit, allowing for much better and bigger teams of units
+ New units. My favorite, the Service Truck. No more scampering back to base after launching a comet so you can stick around and wag your dongle at the enemy as you watch their base go boom boom broo ha ha.
+ Sorted weapon points. No more replacing gun turret cannons with miniguns. EAT IT YA !@#$ING CHEATING MANGY MULTIPLAYER BASS TURDS!

But there are some criticisms.
- Constructors are ground based (Really? WHY!?)
- ISDF buildings must be attached to one another, unless its relay bunkers & gun towers
- A-grade blast cannon does trash damage against buildings
- Some other things I'm forgetting.
- Sorted weapon points. No, you cannot have 2 super stabbers on a tank anymore, sadly.

But really, given all the improvements of the above, I can't complain that much. The game is fun, the objectives are fun and even the pilots get some nice upgrades like the ability to jetpack, lay satchel charges or other things. Overall, a vast improvement from Battlezone 1, and I highly recommend it for those who want a more in-depth experience without the pains that BZ1 had.

By far better than Borderlands 2 and much better balanced. No millions of hit points overpowered mode and damage given/received. Instead, there's Mayhem Mode that increases enemy stats EXCEPT for damage output. That means everyone can hit up different mayhem modes more easily. Almost all weapons can be affected by Mayhem mode so you can deal more damage to keep up with enemy stat increases, keeping things nice and balanced.

I'm glad it went to Epic launcher first, ensuring that my first time experience was far better and without bugs after six months release.

Addendum 11/30/2021

HORDE MODE REVIEW

id software's take on Horde Mode is both beautiful, and ugly.

The bad:
- If you have an obsession with maximizing high scores, prepare to be blue balled since you have to figure out how to work the mechanics and know when certain demons spawn at certain times. It'll take a few tries, or just watching youtubers to save some time, but keep in mind high priority targets can be randomized.
- Making even the slightest mistake such as failing to glory kill the amount of certain demons for the mission challenges will make you feel like ♥♥♥♥ and make the mode far less enjoyable.
- Randomized weapons WILL affect your outcome of points for 2/3 of the game mode. You could wind up without your preferred quick switching weapon, and that can really make it a struggle for some people if points are on the mind.

Good:
- Lots of new challenges for people to face, especially since weapons are randomized
- Introduces a challenge to try and kill certain demons with different weapons, as all but the shotgun are randomized between the arenas.

Honestly, I hate the point system for all the 'bad' reasons listed above. I wish it didn't exist, ESPECIALLY since weapons are randomized. What would be far more ideal is endless waves, guaranteeing the player is going to die at some point - it's just a matter of when, and each wave gains a little more difficult with the set of demons that spawn. Imagine wave 250+ as the insane tier for the most elite of players, and the wave number which you die upon is your 'high score'.

Instead, we have an arcade mode where the only true way to maximize your points is by getting all golden onslaught powerups, and on some cases, collecting both on certain arenas to get up to 16x multipliers, then killing as many demons as you can. Unfortunately, you need foresight to determine when to use this so it's VERY easy to ♥♥♥♥ this up. The traversal/blitz/coin rounds are hardly worth it and have proven to be more annoying. The coins are the worst, as they have the least value and can easily be made up with other bonuses. Seriously, the point of the bonus rounds I would imagine would be to MAXIMIZE the high score FAR MORE than what's given, but nope. It'll have a moderate affect on the score AT BEST.

So the point system I can do without and I'd be far happier. If there is something that's desperately needed, it's an option to disable the ability to even see the leaderboards or record scores, as well as removing those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ high priority targets. Out of sight, out of mind, the best kind of peace that doesn't get me thinking about it. Gives me dread instead of excitement.

Everything ELSE is fun and interesting though. Definitely worth checking out... if you can avoid thinking about the scoring nonsense that may chew into every fiber of your being if you've OCD. New skins worth unlocking which are very nice, including Doom 2 guy's skin!

Final rating for horde mode:
5/10
+ 1 point for free DLC
6/10

It introduces a lot of new concepts and combat puzzles, but also misses the mark entirely with the point system IMO. But the new challenges are quite fun and gets you to think about how you can do damage against a marauder with unconventional weaponry.


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Original review
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What can be said that no one else is already raving about for this game? It's fun. id Software have really outdone themselves this time, and come out with something new and interesting.

Despite the minimum graphics requirement settings, my card is well below the minimum specs... And yet, it still runs amazingly good. In fact, I'm... able to cheat a little because the game doesn't have frame skip, so during the most heavy fighting the game slows down and gives me more time to react. But this is because I'm on a laptop with a GeForce GTX 970M, about 4 years old. Still runs damn good.

Now... I do have some criticisms about the game.

* Even with all the ammo upgrades, I feel like there is just slightly not enough capacity to really enjoy some of them, the BFG and Unmakyr in particular. Ammo for these two weapons is a lot rarer and you can only carry enough for 2 BFG shots. If there could have been one more ammo upgrade, I feel it'd be perfect.

* While I understand the destroyer blade is perfect for wiping out fodder enemies, I feel it could do more damage against some of the heavier demons, just a smidge more. Words can't describe how underwhelming it was to go up against two mancubi and three cacodemons only for it to feel like I was just farting at them and wasting 50 cells. I could achieve the same sort of thing with the Detonator mod on the Rocket Launcher for less.

* Speaking of detonator mod, I miss Doom 2016's detonator upgrade. This one feels... Meh at most. It at least encouraged aiming at an enemy so you could deal extra damage instead of aiming just to the side.

* WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WE CAN'T USE THE CRUCIBLE ON THE MARAUDER!? Even when faltered, you just can't use it on him, sadly. The BFG can damage him while faltered but he even resists a point blank explosion behind him when he's not turned towards it.

It's a stark contrast from Doom 2016's "Here's a bunch of weapons, have fun with it" to "you'll be punished if you play it this way". It can be daunting but it sure can give quite a challenge for the most battle hardened folks. Even ITYTD can be tough. It's like the slaughtermaps made for Doom 2 in terms of difficulty, even if not that packed, but it can still feel overwhelming, like you're ACTUALLY IN HELL. And it certainly feels that way, with every enemy you come across.

This successfully captures the feeling of a man being constantly attacked by demons. In overwhelming number.

Even the cheat codes are actually part of the gameplay now, and you can use them directly with mission selection, after you've beaten the mission. Clever!

So grab all your guns... Grab all your mods and suit upgrades... And Rip Hell a new one. Tear them to shreds.

Rip & Tear... Until it is done.