Recent reviews by ytl

Make 'em like they used to again.

Modern Heretic with some quake-like approach to levels and visual style/effects that are impressive from a distance and chunky up close.
Solid shooter without the bull.

It ain't doom, It ain't good, id is dead.

This game is basically another kickstarter scam, A blatantly unfinished product pushed out because they ran out of money, time or any other reason really.

Pros
-the open-ish setpiece areas of level layouts are interesting with lots of verticality and alternate paths
-again the setpiece areas look quite nice from a distance with good lighting
-believe it or not the mantling mechanic actually works and doesn't break anything (other than puzzles that is)
-you can gain skill points for free just by saving and reloading

Cons
-levels are instanced and completely linear not a persistent interconnected dungeon
-missions are literal fetch quests with no context, this is the entirety of the game btw
-performance is abysmal, even the tutorial shows signs but the later levels will drop to single digits fps no matter what.
-way too dark, textures and other assets look straight out of an early 2000's game
-movement is just terribly clunky and inconsistent, you can get stuck on or in anything with water being the biggest threat, it just feels like you are hovering around everywhere and there is no physical sense like thief and dark messiah had which was what they were going for.
-animations and models are janky with no impact, animations get stuck, inputs don't register or are delayed for attacking/blocking, arrow firing animation from the bow can just not play making it completely useless
-the "immersive sim" elements amount to stacking crates which you never really need to do and setting things on fire which is required for some obstacles but you don't really want to do it because you will be watching half the level burn down at 2 fps,
-enemy AI is broken 9 times out of 10 they will get stuck on absolutely everything, don't respond to being shot, will detect you even if you're supposed to be undetectable (according to the game) or not detect you at all if you are jumping around in their face, if they do decide to fight back you can easily run circles around them without being hit.
-so few types of enemies and nothing that resembles anything from ultima, not even a generic oversized rpg rat to slay.
-absolutely no thought was put into the skill trees, they are all pretty uninspired and ripped from other games and just useless in general
-there is no engaging story or characters, well a ghost narrator and big bad that have some soundbites occasionally, the only other npcs are the lizards in the hub area that fire off the same 2 or 3 lines of dialogue if you walk near them, a guy you go to spend your skill points and a lady that will sell items none have anything to say or are consequential to any plot.
-there is no character customization beyond skin colour on the visible arms (which look terrible) and a choice of 3 voices for limited grunting and huffing sfx,
-equipped items are only represented as icons and all pieces of armor are represented in game as the same backpack/bag model
-there is a rune magic system like the original UW or arx but none of the spells are useful or interesting to play with and you need to collect the runes which are randomly placed in chests, did I mention that all the loot is randomly generated in chests? so if you want to play as a mage you gotta grind I guess.
-silver sapling is back to revive you but there is no penalty for dying and it's planting it is unlimited for some reason
-saving the game only saves your skills, items and level you are currently on, if you reload you begin at the beginning with everything reset, silver sapling is not a savegame.

I could go on all day about the level errors, collision, bugs and glitches galore, this game has it all.
ohh yeah I forgot the most important thing! the main menu DLC button brings up a menu of garbled and flickering random text...

I could write a huge detailed review here but it's easier just to say that's it's everything you could want from a modern Descent game.

Worthy of standing with the Build engine big boys Duke 3D, Shadow warrior, Blood Redneck rampage and Tekwar.
yep the full version is good too

P.S. The perpetually butthurt internet hate mobs can blow it out their ass.

Aside from not having Dinput support (CD has this) and Xinput wrappers not working forcing me emulate keystrokes through gamepad inputs using 3rd party software, The game is 10 sanics out of 10, Classic 2D Sonic perfection.

movement and turning is a little loose/unresponsive in the teaser besides that it's very faithful to the classic Descent gameplay.
Go back Overload while you still can.

GOTY