Recent reviews by F14m3z

Visually it's impressive and the sound design is good too. Clearly it was a very ambitious project but I just can't recommend it. The quality of the levels is all over the place with the best map coming at the end of each episode. The encounter design is extremely poor and generally boils down to locking you in a room with tons of enemies and forcing you to fight your way out. You're constantly starved of ammunition, often ending the level with none left for any of your weapons. I'm not sure if this was an attempt to artificially increase the difficulty or to force you to rely on the power ups but it sucks. I found it amusing that there was a tutorial at the beginning of the game that would teach new players how to jump and crouch only to then destroy any chance they had of enjoying the game by completely depriving them of ammo. I'm a Quake veteran and was constantly running out. God knows how a new player is expected to cope.

Some of the levels go on so long it just becomes a drag and I often found myself wanting it to be over. I'd be so drained after a play session I'd have to come back the next day when I'd regained enough patience to tackle another level. There was nothing pulling me forwards or keeping me engaged. It was a struggle just to find the motivation to continue. You can sequence break in at least one level preventing all of the pickups from spawning in a large chunk of the map, leading me to believe very little testing must have been done. I don't see how else that could have been missed. The game gives you this cool movement mechanic but then punishes you for using it making it feel like it's fighting against itself. A slow and methodical play style is rewarded and if you try a faster movement based play style you quickly find yourself overwhelmed.

It's been 28 years since Quake was released and we've seemingly learned nothing in that time. In fact it appears we've regressed. I can still pick up Quake to this day and be blown away by the level of creativity in its levels. It inspires me and reminds me why I love video games, without fail, every single time and yet Wrath: Aeon of Ruin was a miserable experience with a handful of high points that could be described as being merely okay or vaguely interesting at best. In summery, it's allot nicer to look at than it is to play and I'd pick Quake over Wrath any day of the week. 2/5