Incline Unreal Evolution Mod: Now Released

[Sjukob]

After much laziness and slacking it is finally shat out. It's rather messy, but very informative and at this point I just wanted to be done with it. I hope that whoever reads it finds it helpful and enjoyable.

 

[RoSoDude]

Nice review. Having played Unreal Evolution a few times over the course of its development with different weapon mods, I'd argue you glossed over some nuances with the weapons that run counter to your your statement about obvious upgrade choices and the lack of playstyle freedom:

• The Dispersion Pistol's overcharge mod requires you to forgo the Bio Rifle rate of fire upgrade. Honestly it's a worthwhile tradeoff depending on what you want to go for. While I agree the Bio Rifle is great modded, the retooled Dispersion Pistol has pretty ridiculous DPS
• While the Automag falls off compared to the upgraded Minigun, it does have some benefits. Principally, it's (essentially) available from the very start, while you can only find the Minigun as early as Sunspire. Having a reliable hitscan weapon is invaluable for that first half of the game, and the Automag remains useful when upgraded thanks to its long range capabilities, and still honestly shreds up close with the alt fire if you put on a few rate of fire upgrades. Remember those Mercenaries that piss you off with their shields? That's their dodge equivalent -- they do it much less often if you're pelting them with the Automag
• The Stinger is a personal favorite (even in vanilla, I'm weird like that), and I agree with most of your assessments except as it relates to the alt fire mode. Ash implemented my suggestion to increase knockback on the shotgun blast, which makes it tremendously useful against Slith and other foes that like to get up in your face, and there's pretty much no dodging it point blank. One of my favorite uses of the weapon is to lock down Skaarj Troopers with the primary fire, as its high dodge signal chance pretty much guarantees that they get stuck blocking for you to whittle them down, damage reduction be damned. It eats up ammo quickly as you said, which is one reason to prefer Automag upgrades which are its usual counterpart
• The ASMD's shock combo is better than you give it credit. While it's somewhat wasteful with ammo, it can do devastating damage to groups, and I particularly recommend it for less mobile enemies like the Slith and Krall. It does have one critical flaw -- the penetrator mod MUST be made to penetrate Metal Mario Mercenary shields and perhaps Krall shields as well. Going through Skaarj Trooper shields and the occasional collateral hit is not worth it compared to the Bio Rifle contact mod
  
• The Eightball is really good if you upgrade its RoF and homing capabilities. In general I like to use it to dump on crowds, and frequently use the tighter rocket/grenade grouping available if you hold down the other fire key when loading rounds. Grenades are better for bouncing around corners than direct combat, though Krall usually stay put enough to reliably dump grenades on their heads
• The Flak Cannon is great, not much to say here. I sometimes deliberately forgo upgrading it just for variety's sake, though. Most upgrades are shared with the Eightball, but the nice thing is that if you strictly upgrade the latter, the Flak is still pretty useful
• The Razorjack OWNS. I use it up close to decapitate enemies, which it does marvelously. I believe Ash also made the bodyshots flinch enemies, which helps in open combat. The alt fire curves to track your cursor a bit, which is somewhat helpful for avoiding self-damage and comes in especially handy for slicing up Geodudes Gasbags who are helpless to dodge it. Also, I don't think the mod affects alt fire animation time; it doubles the speed of the equip animation
• The Bio Rifle is obscene when modded, yep. Kinda sucked to use vanilla, but I pulled it out all the time in Unreal Evolution. You have to forgo unique mods for several other weapons to fully upgrade it, but it's a worthwhile choice. I'd also advocate for the charge shot to one-hit kill Skaarj Lords, but I know you're not a fan of that sort of thing
• The Rifle is actually ridiculous with RoF upgrades as long as you get a few recoil mods too. You don't even have to get headshots; just blast away and watch enemies turn into chunks. Especially fun with the knockback mod to send them off cliffs

But yeah, penetrator mod should go through Merc (and Krall?) shields, MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Also, here are all of the weapon mods (in the order they appear in the code, not necessarily the game). It's more fun to discover them during your first playthrough, but it's nice to look over them to plan a second run.

Spoiler

UNREAL​

• Flak Cannon recoil -35% vs Eightball recoil -35%
• Dispersion RoF +30% vs Stinger RoF +30%
• Automag RoF +30% vs Stinger RoF +30%
• Dispersion recharge +25% vs Automag clip +30%
• Dispersion recoil -50% vs Automag recoil -50%
• Stinger recoil -40% vs ASMD recoil -50%
• Bio Rifle recoil -50% vs Razorjack recoil -50%
• Minigun recoil -35% vs Rifle recoil -45%
• Stinger proj speed +30% vs Automag accuracy +40%
• Bio Rifle RoF +50% vs Dispersion OVERCHARGE
• ASMD amplifier drain -30% vs Eightball lockon speed +20%
• ASMD penetrator vs Bio Rifle contact explosion
• Flak accuracy +35% vs Bio Rifle proj speed +35%
• Eightball recoil -50% vs Flak recoil -50%
• Eightball proj speed +35% vs Flak proj speed +35%
• Razorjack equip speed +100% vs Minigun accuracy +25%
• Minigun accuracy +25% vs Razorjack proj speed +35%
• ASMD RoF +35% vs Rifle RoF +40%
• Razorjack RoF +35% vs Rifle RoF 40%
• Minigun spin speed +50% vs Rifle knockback +100%
• [any weapon] damage +10%
• Automag RoF +30% vs ASMD RoF +30%
• Automag clip +40% vs Stinger proj speed +30%
• Bio Rifle radius +25% vs Razorjack proj speed +30%
• Eightball proj speed +35% vs Flak Cannon proj speed +35%

RETURN TO NA PALI​

• CA Rifle RoF +30% vs Quadshot RoF +30%
• CA Rifle RoF +30% vs Quadshot RoF +30%
• CA Rifle accuracy +50% vs Grenade Launcher proj speed +30%
• Grenade Launcher proj speed +30% vs Rocket Launcher proj speed +35%
• CA Rifle recoil -50% vs Quadshot recoil -50%
• Grenade Launcher RoF +35% vs Rocket Launcher RoF +35%
• Grenade Launcher radius +25% vs Rocket Launcher radius +25%
• Quadshot accuracy +50% vs Grenade Launcher detonation immunity

 

[Ash]

Mercenary and Krall shields put a spanner in the works of your target prioritization (unless there's only one enemy). They force you to switch to a new target in the heat of battle, but still keep their positioning in mind for when they start unloading again. Furthermore, their invulnerability forces unique timing with charged shots (and also encourages charged shots). I should really add a timer that prevents them reactivating their shields for a few seconds if they've just used them though, to make this a more sure thing and cut down on the annoyance.
The thing with their hitscan attack is it is entirely dodgeable since they attack in a semi-circle pattern and can't aim up or down. drop down to a lower position, climb up, crouch if standing on slightly lower terrain, or dodge out of their predictable attack arc. It's very dodgeble so I'm all for it. although to be fair a lot of the time they are fought there isn't much elevation variety.

There is a vanilla enemy type (Mercenary Elite) who is very rare but can still attack while shields are up, so that is what you experienced, not a bug.

As of the latest version, if you fully upgrade the automag it becomes better than the (unmodded) minigun. then you are free to fully mod the rifle. You also mentioned how you hate the delay for the automag altfire gangsta mode -- rate of fire mod speeds that up.
Both the automag and the stinger have a sizable list of improvements over the vanilla versions, including a few important bugfixes. They're actually among my favorite weapons now.

Charge up shots aren't so great to use in the heat of battle, but I like them for prepping a powerful attack while in cover, or starting an engagement with one then switching to the ASMD or whatever. The charge attack on the bio rifle is similarly useful in certain situations, like laying traps for massive damage, or firing fully charged into a crowd. Btw rate of fire mods reduce charge up time with these attacks for what it's worth.

All weapons are great, even ones that weren't so good vanilla (stinger, automag, bio rifle), and all become amazing if heavily upgraded. It's nice to have those weapons be viable late game now. And every weapon and fire mode has its usefulness if used in the correct situation.

Too easy you say? Hardcore mode is much harder than vanilla's hardest difficulty. You must be highly skilled.

thanks for the review! Glad you like.

 

[Sjukob]

That was some excessive write up. I want to take a break from posting for a while. I will polish the review and reply to everybody in a matter of week.

 

[Ash]

I adore Unreal visuals

this was brought to my attention:



I'm not usually a fan of reshade, sweetfx and such on old games but it looks pretty great with Unreal Evolution + unreal hd textures mod. Grass looks a little off though.

 

[DraQ]

I adore Unreal visuals

this was brought to my attention:



I'm not usually a fan of reshade, sweetfx and such on old games but it looks pretty great with Unreal Evolution + unreal hd textures mod. Grass looks a little off though.

Heh, that actually reminds me of the fake specular they had in the early alpha.

That grass is

though.

 

[Sjukob]

Ok, so I fixed the typos that I found and poor english at the best of my ability. That list in the end was completely out of place, I devided and put it into corresponding parts of the review. I also complemented the checkpoint system. As for the replies:

The Dispersion Pistol's overcharge mod requires you to forgo the Bio Rifle rate of fire upgrade. Honestly it's a worthwhile tradeoff depending on what you want to go for. While I agree the Bio Rifle is great modded, the retooled Dispersion Pistol has pretty ridiculous DPS

Dispersion pistol also has a ridiculous recharge time, not a problem that biorifle has.

While the Automag falls off compared to the upgraded Minigun, it does have some benefits. Principally, it's (essentially) available from the very start, while you can only find the Minigun as early as Sunspire. Having a reliable hitscan weapon is invaluable for that first half of the game, and the Automag remains useful when upgraded thanks to its long range capabilities, and still honestly shreds up close with the alt fire if you put on a few rate of fire upgrades. Remember those Mercenaries that piss you off with their shields? That's their dodge equivalent -- they do it much less often if you're pelting them with the Automag

As of the latest version, if you fully upgrade the automag it becomes better than the (unmodded) minigun. then you are free to fully mod the rifle. You also mentioned how you hate the delay for the automag altfire gangsta mode -- rate of fire mod speeds that up.

Did you guys not understand that comparing automag to minigun is only part of the issue? I will repeat myself:

1. Altfire is so inaccurate that there's no point in using it against anything but enemies with huge hurtboxes: brutes, gasbags and giants. It will miss skaarj at pointblank range. And even then, staying close to the enemies means taking more risks and for that reason you want to get rid of your targets as fast as possible, i.e. using the most devastating guns, automag doesn't fit the bill;
   
2. It's a very handy thing until you get other guns, but then it becomes entirely obsolete
   There's no point in upgrading this weapon, because after passing the certain point in the game it simply loses it's niche. It no longer can serve as a sniper weapon, because you have ASMD and sniper rifle for that. It is never a good choice to use this gun in close combat, because it gets completely outclassed by guns that are actually good at it, like: stinger, flak cannon or biorifle. You won't even use it as a last resort weapon, because it shares it's ammo pool with minigun, which is a much more destructive weapon;
3. This weapon shares it's upgrades with other weapons that really need it, like stinger. So by choosing to upgrade this weapon you effectively reduce the amount of weapons available to you. Again, don't forget that it shares it's ammo pool with minigun.

Why snipe with automag when you have sniper rifle and ASMD? Why use it in close combat when you have flak cannon and bio rifle? Why does it even exist in the expansion, when you get auto rifle and quadshot in the first level? And lastly, while you can carry 10 weapons in the original campaign, you only have access to 9 ammo types, since automag and minigun share the ammo pool. If you choose to upgrade automag, your stinger will be left behind, effectively reducing the ammount of ammo types available to you from 9 to 8. I say that automag is not viable due to combination of leasted issues, not just because there's a minigun present in the game.

The Stinger is a personal favorite (even in vanilla, I'm weird like that), and I agree with most of your assessments except as it relates to the alt fire mode. Ash implemented my suggestion to increase knockback on the shotgun blast, which makes it tremendously useful against Slith and other foes that like to get up in your face, and there's pretty much no dodging it point blank.

Don't forget what I said about the spread and headshots:

Additionally, primary fire is more ammo effecient even at close distances, because you can always aim for the head, altfire spread is so large that only a couple of projectiles will headshot the enemy even at pointblank distance.

I think that ammo hungry weapons should be used efficiently.

The ASMD's shock combo is better than you give it credit. While it's somewhat wasteful with ammo, it can do devastating damage to groups, and I particularly recommend it for less mobile enemies like the Slith and Krall. It does have one critical flaw -- the penetrator mod MUST be made to penetrate Metal Mario Mercenary shields and perhaps Krall shields as well. Going through Skaarj Trooper shields and the occasional collateral hit is not worth it compared to the Bio Rifle contact mod

May be it can be worthwhile if you can land it. I personally can never do it, because I can never tell when it's the time to explode the ball, plus enemies like to dodge the thing a lot. The penetrating shot is never worth it, because enemies almost never stand in line and contact mode for GES is way too good to give up.

The Eightball is really good if you upgrade its RoF and homing capabilities. In general I like to use it to dump on crowds, and frequently use the tighter rocket/grenade grouping available if you hold down the other fire key when loading rounds. Grenades are better for bouncing around corners than direct combat, though Krall usually stay put enough to reliably dump grenades on their heads

I agree that the eightball is pretty ok, but it has some glaring flaws that just don't need to be there. I can't think of situations where I would need something that can bounce around corners, but good for you if think it's useful. I found homing rockets to be a joke, I never use them. Return to Na Pali rocket launcher has good homing, eightball system is ass! It's so bad that I even forgot to mention it in my review.

The Razorjack OWNS. I use it up close to decapitate enemies, which it does marvelously. I believe Ash also made the bodyshots flinch enemies, which helps in open combat. The alt fire curves to track your cursor a bit, which is somewhat helpful for avoiding self-damage and comes in especially handy for slicing up Geodudes Gasbags who are helpless to dodge it. Also, I don't think the mod affects alt fire animation time; it doubles the speed of the equip animation

Well, you must be way better at shooting than me. At close distances I would rather go for flak cannon or stinger, at least they are reliable, flak cannon headshots are devastating too. As for the mod, I too can't remember exactly what it does.

Mercenary and Krall shields put a spanner in the works of your target prioritization (unless there's only one enemy). They force you to switch to a new target in the heat of battle, but still keep their positioning in mind for when they start unloading again. Furthermore, their invulnerability forces unique timing with charged shots (and also encourages charged shots). I should really add a timer that prevents them reactivating their shields for a few seconds if they've just used them though, to make this a more sure thing and cut down on the annoyance.

I will never agree that enemy invulnerability is a good thing, don't waste your time on this. Doom and Quake didn't need it, because target priority there was achieved by giving enemies various special abilities and destructive attacks: hitscanning chaingunners, devastating homing revenant rockets, archvile ressurection and fire attack, shambler's lightning, fiend's crazy mobility etc. If for some reason the enemy's output is not good enough and you need to allow it to cheat to have some sort of flow breaking invulnerability, then that enemy is not well thought out.

The thing with their hitscan attack is it is entirely dodgeable since they attack in a semi-circle pattern and can't aim up or down. drop down to a lower position, climb up, crouch if standing on slightly lower terrain, or dodge out of their predictable attack arc. It's very dodgeble so I'm all for it. although to be fair a lot of the time they are fought there isn't much elevation variety.

Ok, so why not turn it into a proper attack that works well? I've already said that the machinegun is whatever, since it never connects and even if it does the damage is pathetic. Mind that I'm ignorant of modding process, so I have no idea what issues you run into while working.

Charge up shots aren't so great to use in the heat of battle, but I like them for prepping a powerful attack while in cover, or starting an engagement with one then switching to the ASMD or whatever. The charge attack on the bio rifle is similarly useful in certain situations, like laying traps for massive damage, or firing fully charged into a crowd. Btw rate of fire mods reduce charge up time with these attacks for what it's worth.

Well, yes. Using charged shots to start out a battle is about the only use I've found for them. It's serviceable, but it would've been more interesting for the guns to have more utility or the attacks that are viable in a bigger number of scenarios.

Too easy you say? Hardcore mode is much harder than vanilla's hardest difficulty. You must be highly skilled.

I don't know man, I think I've just got used to Doom bullshit and repeated deaths. As I've said in my review - Unreal is fair, you fight monsters that don't have any crazy shit, except the marines obviously, you always get enough space to run around and dodge, you don't have to rely on enemy infighting or run past hordes to get a weapon that would be strong enough to kill the said hordes. Compare this to many usermade Doom wads, where you you get thrown into the crowds without good weapons and have to rely on infighting to get by, you fight in claustrophobic environments and often have to outright hug monsters to avoid the attacks, the monsters are much deadlier in general: get hit by revenant - dead, get sniped by archvile - dead, eat cyberdemon rocket - dead, some bullshit trap - dead.

After such ordeals the game that doesn't throw anything crazy at you just feels trivial, but I like those crazy things that Doom mappers come up with. It's very sad that I just don't see such depth of combat in other FPS games, even the "oldschool" type of shooters that emerge today don't get it. I want the mappers to prioritize combat above all and then add some visuals on top of it. I'm tired of seeing pretty, but easy to beat levels, I want to see the authors that have a very good and deep understanding of their mechanics and how to make the most of them. I want to see games that are designed around highest difficulty setting with the assumption that you're a nerd that spent 100+ hours on the game and know it's tricks, but sadly I find that higher difficulties are mostly lackluster. And what's even more insulting is how developers turn the highest difficulty setting into a stupid gimmick, like any hit oneshots you: "Enjoy your hardcore experience, nerds!". Anyway, I think that only japanese and some indie developers balance their games around hardest difficulty settings, Unreal Evolution does it too, at least I felt like it was designed around hardcore difficulty and the others were just downscaled from it. I think it's a right approach to take in general, as the hardcore players will be satisfied by the difficulty and the casuals won't even notice it.

Ever heard of Amid Evil? It was so disappointing that I refunded it. It's the only game I've ever refunded on steam. It had some things I didn't like, but above all stood the lack of difficulty, you know when I select the hardest setting I don't need a warm up, I don't want to be drip fed, let's go balls to the wall right from the start! It wasn't the only modern "oldschool" shooter that I played. I finished Dusk prior to that and it had the same issues regarding difficulty, but since it was my first experience with such games, my reception was largely positive, don't think I would want to play it today.

What's even more depressing is that I understand that it took Doom community years, tens of years to understand and implement all the cool quirks and encounters you see today. The regular developers, even the passionate ones just don't have such amounts of time, the best thing they can do is make their games easy to mod and hope that it shoots off someday. For this reason I hope that Doom and Quake communities will live for as long as possible, but I haven't played that much stuff, so there are probably enough maps for me to play until I retire or something.

Thank you too for reading and liking all the stuff I've written. It is the biggest one I've done yet. Don't know if and when I'll do the next one.

 

[Ash]

Did you guys not understand that comparing automag to minigun is only part of the issue? I will repeat myself

i just ignored it cause you were clearly lacking context and I couldn't be bothered to go into it much. sorry. i'll address it now:

Automag altfire is so inaccurate that there's no point in using it against anything but enemies with huge hurtboxes: brutes, gasbags and giants. It will miss skaarj at pointblank range. And even then, staying close to the enemies means taking more risks and for that reason you want to get rid of your targets as fast as possible, i.e. using the most devastating guns, automag doesn't fit the bill;

Automag alt fire had its uses even vanilla...sort of. in UE its base accuracy and fire rate is improved, and both these properties can be improved even further with upgrades. Seriously next time you play put all possble mods on this gun. It's killer.

It's a very handy thing until you get other guns, but then it becomes entirely obsolete

simply not true, at least if you upgrade it, which you did not. rosodude also lacks some minor context as it has been a while since he has done an automag -focused run and I specifically made some changes to it based on his feedback.

There's no point in upgrading this weapon, because after passing the certain point in the game it simply loses it's niche. It no longer can serve as a sniper weapon, because you have ASMD and sniper rifle for that

This weapon shares it's upgrades with other weapons that really need it, like stinger. So by choosing to upgrade this weapon you effectively reduce the amount of weapons available to you. Again, don't forget that it shares it's ammo pool with minigun..

ASMD and sniper ammo are not unlimited.

fully upgraded automag primary fire = higher DPS than unmodified or minimally modified ASMD primary fire. your whole perception of the weapon is based on it being unmodified and therefore having vanilla design with some faithful refinements. modififying the weapon improves its performance significantly.
Since you chose to invest heavily into the stinge, you perceive the stinger as excellent even late game, when in its unmodified vanilla+ state it also just isn't that good much like the automag you experienced, worse even. Both guns are overall around the same class - lower tier fallback weapons but can become beastly if modified. But overall the automag has the edge (it has major advantages - hitscan, higher damage, low dodge %).

Stinger and automag do not strictly share modules. There's numerous crossover in the design. Stinger vs dispersion pistol rate of fire module as one example. damage mod for any weapon as another. You can still have a fully upgraded automag and a partially upgraded stinger (and partially upgraded dispersion pistol).

It is never a good choice to use this gun in close combat, because it gets completely outclassed by guns that are actually good at it, like: stinger, flak cannon or biorifle. You won't even use it as a last resort weapon, because it shares it's ammo pool with minigun, which is a much more destructive weapon;

certainly true it's not the best close quarters weapon. competent if invested in but its better medium to long range. likewise the stinger is better close to medium, but has some slight long range potential if invested in. again, fallback weapons though.

minigun is certainly more bang for your buck. fully modded minigun vs fully modded automag, the mingun wins in terms of DPS shred potential, but there's reasons as to why it can be beneficial to invest in the automag:

-automag is more ammo-efficient (higher base damage, higher accuracy).
-automag is a better snipe weapon (as you said, there is the asmd and rifle (later) so this is only a minor point in its favor).
-investing in the automag makes it a reliable medium-long range hitscan weapon from beginning to end. beginning being extra relevant here as you don't get the minigun nor the rfle till much later and wll be using the automag at least semi-frequently, so it being upgraded is helpful.
-investing in the automag means you shouldn't invest in the minigun since they share ammo. Instead you can put those modules into the rival weapon: the rifle and whatever other crossover there is I forget now.
-It's simply a different build setup than your last playthrough. Even though there is some small truth to what you say and overall modding the mnigun s the superior choice absolutely all things considered (I've always believed it is, but as of latest version only by a small margin -- nowhere near as bad as you make out), it's simply fun to try a different weapon setup.
-And, of course, a fully modded automag is actually pretty damn good and very fun. try it! don't underestimate the alt fire for close quarters either. It's almost like a pocket mingun.

Worst case scenario I could make the minigun have its own seperate ammo type (and adjust auto mag ammo drops to compensate), but I don't think it is necessary at all.

will respond to the other stuff later

 

[Ash]

Dispersion pistol also has a ridiculous recharge time, not a problem that biorifle has.

If anything it recharges too fast. It's essentially an infinite ammo gun and quite powerful especially late game. If you discharge the battery and switch to some other weapons for a bit, then switch back you're at full ammo. rinse and repeat. do some backtracking for whatever reason? when you return you probably have recharged some. As long as you're switching to the DPS in just the right frequency it can be your most commonly-used gun.

Maybe if I decide to update I'll track kills, accuracy, headshots etc and only display them to you and the end of the game. Wouldn't hurt to have some statistics to browse at the end of the experience.

I agree that the eightball is pretty ok, but it has some glaring flaws that just don't need to be there. I can't think of situations where I would need something that can bounce around corners, but good for you if think it's useful.

when are bouncy explosive things you can spam around corners ever bad? can deal damage while never exposing yourself.

Ok, so why not turn it into a proper attack that works well? I've already said that the machinegun is whatever, since it never connects and even if it does the damage is pathetic. Mind that I'm ignorant of modding process, so I have no idea what issues you run into while working.

It actually used to be pretty high damage. I nerfed it. Maybe I went overboard.

I don't know man, I think I've just got used to Doom bullshit and repeated deaths. As I've said in my review - Unreal is fair, you fight monsters that don't have any crazy shit, except the marines obviously, you always get enough space to run around and dodge, you don't have to rely on enemy infighting or run past hordes to get a weapon that would be strong enough to kill the said hordes. Compare this to many usermade Doom wads, where you you get thrown into the crowds without good weapons and have to rely on infighting to get by, you fight in claustrophobic environments and often have to outright hug monsters to avoid the attacks, the monsters are much deadlier in general: get hit by revenant - dead, get sniped by archvile - dead, eat cyberdemon rocket - dead, some bullshit trap - dead.

After such ordeals the game that doesn't throw anything crazy at you just feels trivial, but I like those crazy things that Doom mappers come up with. It's very sad that I just don't see such depth of combat in other FPS games, even the "oldschool" type of shooters that emerge today don't get it. I want the mappers to prioritize combat above all and then add some visuals on top of it. I'm tired of seeing pretty, but easy to beat levels, I want to see the authors that have a very good and deep understanding of their mechanics and how to make the most of them. I want to see games that are designed around highest difficulty setting with the assumption that you're a nerd that spent 100+ hours on the game and know it's tricks, but sadly I find that higher difficulties are mostly lackluster.

Yeah I wouldn't expect Doom slaughterfest-tier difficulty modes from other FPS. It does get pretty extreme at times.

I don't want combat to be the absolute focus of FPS like slaughterfest wads (which basically turn doom into an arena shooter without exception). I love secondary gameplay elements in my FPS too: navigation/exploration, platforming and hazard avoidance, resource management and whatever else. But yes most games these days are dictated all too often by graphics and realism, especially in regards to level design. I prefer gameplay in general to be the priority (but combat certainly the most important aspect overall as a FPS).

I'd imagine the final level of RTNP at least gave you a run for your money. Many people have had difficulty beating it.

And what's even more insulting is how developers turn the highest difficulty setting into a stupid gimmick, like any hit oneshots you: "Enjoy your hardcore experience, nerds!"

Well said.

Anyway, I think that only japanese and some indie developers balance their games around hardest difficulty settings, Unreal Evolution does it too, at least I felt like it was designed around hardcore difficulty and the others were just downscaled from it. I think it's a right approach to take in general, as the hardcore players will be satisfied by the difficulty and the casuals won't even notice it.

That's correct. I've always aimed at the highest difficulty first and toned down from there. Glad you agree that's the way to go, though if making a commercial game I'd give extra special attention to normal too to make sure it is right for those new to it.

Ever heard of Amid Evil? It was so disappointing that I refunded it. It's the only game I've ever refunded on steam. It had some things I didn't like, but above all stood the lack of difficulty, you know when I select the hardest setting I don't need a warm up, I don't want to be drip fed, let's go balls to the wall right from the start! It wasn't the only modern "oldschool" shooter that I played. I finished Dusk prior to that and it had the same issues regarding difficulty, but since it was my first experience with such games, my reception was largely positive, don't think I would want to play it today.

I am yet to get around to fully exploring the new wave of "old school" shooters. Indeed at first glance each seems to lack some aspect that made old school FPS actually great, but I'm remaining open-minded for now and will give each a fair crack.

Thank you too for reading and liking all the stuff I've written. It is the biggest one I've done yet. Don't know if and when I'll do the next one.

GMDX?

0

 

[Sjukob]

I'd imagine the final level of RTNP at least gave you a run for your money. Many people have had difficulty beating it.

The arena fight towards the end was a lot of fun, took me several attempts to beat it. It's the encounter I enjoyed the most in the game. The entire line up for the behemoths in the vanilla campaign was enjoyable as well.

Anyway, I think I've covered all the major things about Unreal Evolution. I don't have the will to autisticly argue over every point I made, not now at least.

I am yet to get around to fully exploring the new wave of "old school" shooters. Indeed at first glance each seems to lack some aspect that made old school FPS actually great, but I'm remaining open-minded for now and will give each a fair crack.

Yes, do that. It's safer to pirate something and then buy it if you like it. Especially if you are looking to dive into some popular trends.

You know, my post about Dusk was probably the starting point of the reviews you see today, with pictures and stuff. I then switched to the arcade games, the ones linked in my signature, but it took a lot of time to write those walls and the games played pretty similarly to each other, so I lost the will to continue, but I might return to it someday.

GMDX?

To give GMDX a proper review I would have to finish it several times and Deus Ex is a pretty big game, and I'm pretty lazy. Besides, as I've told you before, I personally have never considered Deus Ex a game that you can play again right after finishing it. I need breaks, several years long breaks even, to be able to play it again. So I don't see GMDX getting a review (although it fully deserves it) unless some miracle happens.

By the way, you're going to mod Arx Fatalis at some point, right? My experience with the game is very limited, I was very excited at first. The protagonist was acting tough at the beggining of the game and there was dirt and mud everywhere, and you got to kill those ugly looking goblins and other disgusting creatures. The exploration was pretty good too. I thought that it would be like Gothic, but in first person perspective and set underground, and that it would be about people surviving in brutal conditions: poverty, hunger, diseases, monsters and other shit, thought I would get to beat everybody who spoke wrong to me and rob people out of their food, goods and ore, that sounded great to me. I was having fun until it was revealed that the protagonist was an otherwordly saviour of some kind and he started to act like a typical paladin and it hit me that the was the usual fantasy fairy tale. After that my interest in the game dropped so immensely that I stopped playing. But still, I think that it was interesting enough, I suppose that any tweaks you might add will able to hold my attention for long enough time.

As for what comes next, I was waiting for WGRealms 2 update ever since I saw the announcement.

After 9 years WGRealms 2 is getting a huge update on october 15th.

And since my initial plan was to write a wall of text for every member of Duke Nukem's big trio: AMC TC, Alien Armageddon and WGRealms 2, I guess it's safe to say that WGRealms 2 is the most likely candidate down the line.

While I was writting stuff for Unreal Evolution I thought that may be I can do a let's play of sorts about some obscure russian game, like A.I.M. or Ex Machina series, may be even Evil Islands. I even wanted to shill for the upcoming A.I.M. sequel, heck the codex doesn't even have the topic dedicated to it, but for a number of reasons decided that it was not worth it. You see, the said games have a good number of serious issues and while I can tolerate them when playing by myself, gathering enough material for a let's play, showcasing and talking about all the stuff is different, and yeah I'm not doing that.

EDIT:
Oh yeah, almost forgot about this

I adore Unreal visuals

this was brought to my attention:



I'm not usually a fan of reshade, sweetfx and such on old games but it looks pretty great with Unreal Evolution + unreal hd textures mod. Grass looks a little off though.

I think it will cost the game visual clarity. I would rather have less special effects and even outright duller graphics if it means I can see things clearly, and Unreal visuals are nice and clear. Hard to say what will happen to them when those bells and whistles get applied. Besides, how many people that play Unreal have RTX cards, something like 2 or 3?

 

[Ash]

Probably the best playthrough of Unreal Evolution on Youtube:

 

[Morenatsu.]

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!! https://www.oldunreal.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=9944

What's wrong, big boy? Never made a proper mod before?

I mean, really? You are such a big fat crybaby bitch.