PixlBit

Let's face it, old school fps games are almost an entirely different genre to a lot of newer fps titles. Hell, within the fps genre, there are a lot of different subgenres to begin with and it can be confusing. You have your horror fps titles like F.E.A.R., Resident Evil 7, Clive Barker's The Undying, and plenty of others. Then you have your modern military shooters, your open world fps games, and many more.

The retro style of shooter has seen a resurgence lately. These are games that are inspired by the shooters of yesterday, where you move fast enough to break the sound barrier and shoot anything that moves. Or doesn't. Point being, these are games like Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior, Doom, Painkiller, Serious Sam, and Wolfenstein 3D. Just this year alone we've seen at least 4 that I'm aware of.

I thought I'd share them with you.

Project Warlock

 Project Warlock is a game very much inspired by Wolfenstein 3D or Catacomb 3D, except it's still playable for those of us who like our games to feel less dated than the references Eminem makes in his career. Or less dated than Eminem's career in general.

What it takes from Wolfenstein is the labyrinthine level design and general feel, but it adds a whole bunch of new additions. Firstly, there's a levelling system, there are spells and weapon upgrades, and the maze-like structure is actually intuitive and relatively easy to navigate. It also just feels good to play if you're only used to modern FPS titles. It's a touch difficult, and weirdly enough it has a lives system which is an odd choice, but it works for this game.

Also, the weapon variety is insane. There are 38 weapons in this game apparently, and it mixes spells with more traditional weapons like axes, throwing knives, chainguns, SMGs, dynamite, shotguns, revolvers and the like.

It's a really solid title if you're into the genre, and if you're not – why the hell are you reading this Blog?!

Amid Evil

 

Do you like Hexen or Heretic? So do the developers of Amid Evil! This is maybe my favourite of the games on this list. Fair warning though: It is bastard hard. Even on easy difficulty. If you're ok with dying a whole bunch, then boy are you in for a treat.

The graphics give me Turok vibes, although the maps aren't as confusing as some of the Turok games can get. They're maze-like, but more in a Dark Souls way than in a “Oh my god I hit a switch and now I have to spend 3 hours searching for whatever the heck that switch did” kind of way. Maps loop in on themselves, or are completely open.

The weapons are pretty awesome as well. I'm not very far in (again, it's bastard hard), but so fare I have a sword that shoots a straight line projectile, a staff that shoots homing projectiles, and my personal favourite: a weapon that pulls planets out of the motherfucking sky that you can shoot at your enemies.

When I said the game is difficult though I meant it. Enemies hit hard and can take a beating. The game feels fair, but if you're not into torturing yourself then you might want to look elsewhere. If you like nineties shooters to be as difficult as you remember without a lot of the other bullshit that goes along with some of those games, then this is a pretty safe bet.

Ion Maiden

 

I played 2 levels of this game and gave up. I want to like it. The shooting is responsive and fun, it's by 3D Realms and is made in the build engine but has some gorgeous sprite work, and the weaponry is varied and fun to use.

The problem is that the game retains a lot of the exploration quirks that pissed me off about certain older games. I swear I've spent half of my time with the game feeling lost and not knowing where to go next. Sometimes the path forward is so counter intuitive that you end up searching every single inch of the map looking for where to go next. The map design looks good on paper, but it's a bitch to actually navigate.

That said, there is still a good game here. A lot of people seem to like it, and you might too. So give it a go if it goes on sale or something. 

Dusk

 

Finally there's Dusk. Now, Dusk is pretty darn great. It's made by the same developers as Amid Evil, but rather than taking inspiration from Hexen, they basically made what is essentially the love child of Quake and Blood, which if you know me, know that that's basically my shit.

It takes it's horror seriously though. There are times where it is straight up unnerving and creepy, but most of the time you're blasting through enemies and escaping firefights by the skin of your teeth. Early on it's not that difficult, but it does get hard later. It's always fair, but it's just a warning: all of these games are inspired by 90's shooters, and they take the difficulty of those games too.

Map design is pretty well done. Areas are either mazelike or really open allowing you to circle strafe around enemies and avoid projectiles. I rarely ever felt lost though, which is a testament to how well these levels are laid out. Even when I felt lost, a quick search of the map would usually send me where I needed to go.

Dusk is a pretty damn solid experience, and I recommend it whole heartedly.