Project Warlock - retro inspired FPS, but expanded with character progression and upgrades

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Played this on a friend's toaster similar to mine for a few minutes. Performance was slightly below playable, but my initial disbelief quickly turned into reluctant acceptance when I found out it's Unity engine.

Retro aesthetic going back to Wolfenstein 3D and early Amiga fps games... but with higher hardware requirements than Crysis, lol.

This is kind of weird because I would consider my computer to be borderline toaster by now and it runs it pretty damn well. /shrug

I'm being reminded of how rusty my FPS skills are right now. Like, I'm not getting fucking clobbered but it's like finding your sea legs again after years of disuse. I like the music.

 

[Grauken]

The game is actually pretty easy. They need to give us some more difficulty settings. I'm on the world 3 and not died yet.

You mean the third level of the first episode or the third episode? I was thinking this was easy as well and then the first boss monster killed me in seconds

Game is fun so far and the music is just heavenly

 

[Great Deceiver]

FPS is fine, but the game has frame pacing issues. Forcing V-sync at the driver level did the trick for me.

The game is pretty good, much better than I had expected. I feel kind of bad for taking a dump on the artist last year - his style works pretty well. And the music is great.

This and Amid Evil are my favourite recent 'retro' shooters by far. I like Amid Evil much better, though. It has much more interesting level design.

But, considering this game was basically coded by one 19 year old kid with all of the art being made by one other guy, it's very fucking impressive. Congratulations.

 

[sser]

The game is actually pretty easy. They need to give us some more difficulty settings. I'm on the world 3 and not died yet.

You mean the third level of the first episode or the third episode? I was thinking this was easy as well and then the first boss monster killed me in seconds

Game is fun so far and the music is just heavenly

Yeah that first boss is a real kick in the nuts cause you pretty much breeze your way to him.

 

[soulburner]

Hmm, are you really sure an Intel HD 4000 will run this game with an acceptable framerate?

 

[Haba]

 

[lightbane]

Gameplay video without comments.



Looks more like an updated Wolfenstein 3D than Doom to me. I suppose we'll eventually get actual indie Doom clones in 5 more years or so.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

I anyone wants to have more than one life on hardest difficulty - I can make it happen for you =)

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

I actually kind of wish they had granularized the various difficulty settings (lives, damage taken, etc) instead of just package-dealing them

quick bit of (probably obvious) advice, though - turn down mouse sensitivity a bit in settings

 

[Sacibengala]

The game is actually pretty easy. They need to give us some more difficulty settings. I'm on the world 3 and not died yet.

You mean the third level of the first episode or the third episode? I was thinking this was easy as well and then the first boss monster killed me in seconds

Game is fun so far and the music is just heavenly

The third chapter. The first boss I thought it was easy. But I was full axe mellee on him (My build is mellee). Second boss was not easy because it is not explicity about how to kill him, and I do not use the life bar on enemies, so I lost almost all of my ammo. But the nail gun do the trick.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

So far this is a really solid game. I like the upgrade system for weapons. The Toughness perk is too good NOT to take, though, which makes me think it might need some tweaking - dunno. On lower difficulties I imagine Toughness doesn't matter QUITE as much, but it would absolutely be a must-have for the hardest difficulty.

Also, the Sorcerer is absolutely kicking my ass and I cannot figure out how the hell to stay away from him when he enters his third form. Dude just flies right over to me and bitchslaps me as soon as he enters third form.

 

[Sacibengala]

So far this is a really solid game. I like the upgrade system for weapons. The Toughness perk is too good NOT to take, though, which makes me think it might need some tweaking - dunno. On lower difficulties I imagine Toughness doesn't matter QUITE as much, but it would absolutely be a must-have for the hardest difficulty.

Also, the Sorcerer is absolutely kicking my ass and I cannot figure out how the hell to stay away from him when he enters his third form. Dude just flies right over to me and bitchslaps me as soon as he enters third form.

I gut him with my axe. mellee is the way. Or my game bugged, I don't know.

 

[Dayyālu]

After finishing the first chapter and starting the second one, it's..... uhmhnhhmmmm.

Tons of people in the thread have already indentified the basic problems of the game, but I'll add my points:

+ The graphic style is bad but serviceable in motion. I agree that such a style made possible a great variety of enemies, but the great variety means nothing if they aren't employed skillfully and if they don't feel different. Succubus may be different from Ice Psych Man but the only real difference is that the Succubus takes one magnum shot and the Ice Psych Man two-three. Same with small melee enemies or others. Still have to see the other chapters though, things may improve. Biggers enemies with more creative routines show promise, at least.

+ The level design is bad. At least, first chapter. It plays like some random SLIGE map or a 14 year's old first .wad. It's boring, repetitive and visually indistinct. The first fight that gave me "hey, this one is not dying to random fire!" was on level nine or ten. If I wasn't curious about the game, it would have been an istant drop. The first boss is legit hilarious, 'cause I died the first time trying to check the attack patterns an' shit. Second time I took out SMG, didn't even move, dumped 200 rounds on him and finished him with the double shotgun, in roughly 30 secs and with almost no damage. Iffy design.

+ Weapons variety is nice. Weapon unlock system is weird but good enough. Magic system is useless and could be cut with little loss.

The level design steadily improves though in the Antarctica levels, at least its simply acceptable instead of actively painful. It's a commercial game clearly inferior to the vast majority of Doom's wads, but it shows an inkling of promise, that I'll admit. Let's see how long if it improves further (and this begs the question, why giving you shit levels at the start?)

EDIT: Forgot. Also take the goddamn guy WHO DID THE GODDAMN MUSIC TAKE HIM IN THE FORESTS AND PUT A 9MM IN HIS BRAIN. I am joking, but in a shooter I need to feel pumped, not being reminded of SS1's elevator music with a meaningless random soundtrack of digital beeping.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Just finished the first episode as well. It was really fun. Loved it. Died twice, once in the first level (that was full of nasty surprises with new and tough enemies bum rushing you after an elevator ride) and second time during the boss. The stat and perk system makes the game a lot easier than it probably should be, but I can forgive that just because of how fun the game is and that's ultimately the most important thing. Weapon variety is good but the upgrade system is a bit weird since in some cases it just replaces your old weapon with a new one. The game has two different playstyles: you can pick between Doom (guns) and HeXen/Heretic (spell, magical weapons and melee). I disagree with Dayyālu that magic is useless simply because we both only finished the first chapter and haven't unlocked the full arsenal. Beating the first boss gives you access to a spell called Storm Rage that shocks enemies with heavy metal lightning magic. I think the issue here is that the pacing of weapons given to you seems to be a bit weird since beyond the initial rail gun magic staff, the first episode just gives you a bunch of guns and no other magical weapons or gizmos apart from Storm Rage after the first boss.
Oh yeah, and, most importantly, shooting with guns feels and sounds so good. The sound design is so satisfying and crunchy.

 

[Ivan]

SS1's elevator music

 

[Dayyālu]

The stat and perk system makes the game a lot easier than it probably should be, but I can forgive that just because of how fun the game is and that's ultimately the most important thing.

On that, I agree wholeheartedly, the perk system makes an easy game even easier.

Weapon variety is good but the upgrade system is a bit weird since in some cases it just replaces your old weapon with a new one. The game has two different playstyles: you can pick between Doom (guns) and HeXen/Heretic (spell, magical weapons and melee). I disagree with Dayyālu that magic is useless simply because we both only finished the first chapter and haven't unlocked the full arsenal.

Glaring example of bad design: I played a fifth of the game without access to even basic spells, thus my playstyle will focus on what is given to me already and considering weapon upgrades and spells come from the same pool of unlock points why I should waste points on spells, that I can't try because wait, no external saves? As you said, the pacing is seriously off. Seems to improve on the Ice Ice levels, tho.

Easy solution, give a separate Spell and Weapon unlock system and the pick-ups give points to both. Guarantees variety and you'll enjoy the spellcasting when you get it, quite late in the game.

Oh yeah, and, most importantly, shooting with guns feels and sounds so good. The sound design is so satisfying and crunchy.

I'm sorry, but this is where I disagree completely with ya. Enemies have barely any sound design. Weapons feel weak and underpowered (case in point, try shooting the SMG and enjoy the brrrrrrrrpt of air escaping a balloon). Music is atrocious.

Sound design needs to be massively improved: music first of all, giving extra meat to the weaponry, and then enemies.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Glaring example of bad design: I played a fifth of the game without access to even basic spells, thus my playstyle will focus on what is given to me already and considering weapon upgrades and spells come from the same pool of unlock points why I should waste points on spells, that I can't try because wait, no external saves? As you said, the pacing is seriously off. Seems to improve on the Ice Ice levels, tho.

Easy solution, give a separate Spell and Weapon unlock system and the pick-ups give points to both. Guarantees variety and you'll enjoy the spellcasting when you get it, quite late in the game.

Yeah it's a bit odd. It reeks of the dev implementing guns before magic at that early stage of the games development cycle and it's an odd oversight to not go back and remix the power ups given to the player once the magic was implemented. It's also poor thought on the dev's part considering how magic spells scale from spirit (damage and duration goes up and mana cost goes down the more you invest in the stat) but there isn't really much reason to put points into it during the first episode.

I'm sorry, but this is where I disagree completely with ya. Enemies have barely any sound design. Weapons feel weak and underpowered (case in point, try shooting the SMG and enjoy the brrrrrrrrpt of air escaping a balloon). Music is atrocious.

Sound design needs to be massively improved: music first of all, giving extra meat to the weaponry, and then enemies.

Simply can't agree at all. I use an unupgraded SMG and it mows down everything barring the giant yetis who shoot ice at you. The sound is really blasty and crunchy too, which I love, but I'm playing with head phones on so idk how it is if you're using a normal sound set. I also love the sound of shooting with the shotty and hearing the shells hit the floor. Makes it so much more satisfying. Music is hit and miss; some good and some forgettable. I wish it was all good but it's not really deterring me from enjoying this game as it didn't stop me from having fun in older FPS games either that suffered from a similar problem of having a very inconsistent OST; a problem due to having so many levels and trying to have a different song for each one.

Anyhoo, finished the 2nd episode with zero deaths (though the boss fight was very close, it came down to me having 6 health out of 200. I think one of the bigger issues this game has with difficulty is that it's way too generous with the item pickups. The levels aren't especially long but the items are plentiful, and there are perks that basically double the amount that you get (not sure why you'd take them though, I'm constantly juggling to get rid of different ammo types). It feels like the developer is afraid to make the game too punishing. I do commend them for the monster variety, however. It's ballsy to build up an arsenal of monsters and then throw them entirely out the door and create a new one from scratch for each episode.

The game also has some really weird references to obscure games. One of the achievements I found was called Shadow of the East.

 

[Dayyālu]

Simply can't agree at all. I use an unupgraded SMG and it mows down everything barring the giant yetis who shoot ice at you. The sound is really blasty and crunchy too, which I love, but I'm playing with head phones on so idk how it is if you're using a normal sound set. I also love the sound of shooting with the shotty and hearing the shells hit the floor.

Regarding performance, most of the weaponry is even too effective. I'm talking about feedback, and most weaponry sound weak. I mow down things with something that doesn't sound like a machinegun but a airsoft weapon.

Music is hit and miss; some good and some forgettable. I wish it was all good but it's not really deterring me from enjoying this game as it didn't stop me from having fun in older FPS games either that suffered from a similar problem of having a very inconsistent OST; a problem due to having so many levels and trying to have a different song for each one.

Point taken, but some themes truly have the "chiptune from Indieland" character that makes me retch.

Anyhoo, finished the 2nd episode with zero deaths (though the boss fight was very close, it came down to me having 6 health out of 200. I think one of the bigger issues this game has with difficulty is that it's way too generous with the item pickups. The levels aren't especially long but the items are plentiful, and there are perks that basically double the amount that you get (not sure why you'd take them though, I'm constantly juggling to get rid of different ammo types). It feels like the developer is afraid to make the game too punishing. I do commend them for the monster variety, however. It's ballsy to build up an arsenal of monsters and then throw them entirely out the door and create a new one from scratch for each episode.

The game also has some really weird references to obscure games. One of the achievements I found was called Shadow of the East.

The design steadily improves in the Ice Levels, I have to admit. Less SLIGE and more open areas and interesting combinations. It's still incredibly easy, due to the combination of powerful weaponry, weak monsters and as you said generous pick ups. It seems that the dev didn't want to punch anyone after that crazy trap in the first level (seriously, he drops you in the middle of a monster closet with TWO explosive barrels, that was ballsy).

It's somewhat clear the game was progressively done and he didn't came back to improve the first episode as he got a better understanding of design and mechanics.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Regarding performance, most of the weaponry is even too effective. I'm talking about feedback, and most weaponry sound weak. I mow down things with something that doesn't sound like a machinegun but a airsoft weapon.

Me too, I think the sound is good.

Point taken, but some themes truly have the "chiptune from Indieland" character that makes me retch.

Some of them have weird 8-bit chiptune bleeps and bloops and then some of them sound like they are using the Yamaha YM2612 sound chip. It feels inconsistent as the artists (two of them) are experimenting and trying to find some sound they wanna go with. Eventually they seem to find their voice with the 3rd episode. More on that in a moment.

The design steadily improves in the Ice Levels, I have to admit. Less SLIGE and more open areas and interesting combinations. It's still incredibly easy, due to the combination of powerful weaponry, weak monsters and as you said generous pick ups. It seems that the dev didn't want to punch anyone after that crazy trap in the first level (seriously, he drops you in the middle of a monster closet with TWO explosive barrels, that was ballsy).

It's somewhat clear the game was progressively done and he didn't came back to improve the first episode as he got a better understanding of design and mechanics.

I just finished the 3rd Episode and it's just so much better than the 2nd Episode which was better than the 1st. My problem with the resource pick ups got addressed there as ammo and HP became less abundant and the Perk that doubles ammo pick ups began to make more sense to me. Level design becomes increasingly complex and the boss fights in the 2nd and 3rd Episodes also show better thought than the 1st one which is just a silly race to kill him before he kills you. The arenas in the later bosses are more sensible and gives you more cover to avoid their attacks, but the constant spawning enemies force you to move and not stay in one place. And the music was, as I previously stated, composed a lot better there. There were still some occasional beep booping but the songs felt thematic with the Episode setting and weren't jarring, some of the songs in this Episode were quite good.

 

[fourrainydays]

You will see why weapons are so effective and pick ups are more frequent at later levels, big heavy hitting brutes have stages of health, minions start to have longer health bar or other abilities and the game is not afraid to throw a bunch of them at you. I kinda wonder how a melee build is going to survive some of the fights at later levels. And I think the dev is clearly trying to have a different sound for the same old staple weapon (like shotgun and minigun).

Another good thing about this game I noticed is that the monster closet is not nearly as bullshit as quake or episode 3 of doom, the dev generally give you room to deal with them. You might find them a little bit too easy sometimes if you play careful enough tho.

Also I wonder how everyone thinks about the brightness in this game, I think it is way too dark for my taste, I have to crank brightness all the way up, and even that is not bright enough.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Also I wonder how everyone thinks about the brightness in this game, I think it is way too dark for my taste, I have to crank brightness all the way up, and even that is not bright enough.

Many areas have seriously bad cases of "Can't see shit Cap'n" syndrome. The light spell is helpful in some cases, but since using the light spell obviates actually killing shit it isn't as helpful as it COULD be. Reminds me a bit of Doom3 in that way, though at least you could clobber things with the flashlight in Doom3.

 

[Dayyālu]

Finished the second episode, and methinks I had enough. It's not bad per se and it noticeably improves, but it's still....rough.

+ The Ice Levels have two good fights (both including several Shamblers) and some nice levels, particularly when at last you get out of shitty endless corridors and it lets you breathe and fight. It's an improvement on the first episode, and I enjoyed the more open maps. Then we go back to corridors.

+ Weapon balance gets worse and worse more you get and more you unlock. Some unlocks are downright puzzling in wasting your upgrade points and giving you nothing in return. The Autoshotgun isn't automatic, it merely gives you a very small improvement in firing rate in exchange for 7 unlock points. Whohooo. Again, more focus on sound design, the Nailgun sounds like a kid drumming a pencil on a desk.

+ Ep. 2 boss isn't bad, a tad bland and less "cinematic" than the Sorcerer.

Plus, bugs. Several enemies going through walls, you get can endless exp from abusing levers that unlock secrets, gotta restart some levels because scripts are broken... I guess I'll revisit this after a comprehensive balance patch is out. For now, it's a valiant effort from a newb dev, but it's still very, very rough.

 

[CyberWhale]

Just found this. TBH I wouldn't mind a blobber with these kinds of graphics. Sure, the pixels are a little too big and more approriate for a handheld console (PSP or Switch, for example) but you get accustomed to it. Definitely prefer this over bland static images and/or moe anime turds.

 

[luj1]

Good gameplay concept I guess but the fuck is up with these Metal Slug graphics, what an awful combination oh my gerd

 

[Puukko]

Played for an hour so far and really liking it, it's scratching several itches I've had for a while. Graphics and music are solid, though granted it does look like something you'd expect to play on a mobile device at times. I'll see about forcing vsync to improve responsiveness - game also doesn't seem to support resolutions above 1080p? Just Unity things, I suppose.

Being mostly made by a 19 year old, too. Hella impressive.