The final decade has seen an enormous revival for the style of shooters impressed by old-school titles like Quake. Lovingly known as boomer shooters, these video games got here in all sizes and shapes, from AAA blockbusters to little recognized indie gems. The style’s revival has seen such a optimistic response from shooter followers that we are able to’t appear to go for greater than a few months today with no new indie boomer shooter popping out. The most recent amongst these, the topic of this evaluation, is Wrath: Aeon of Damage.
The place titles within the style have been a hotbed for innovation and experimentation (like Witchfire taking a web page out of extraction shooters), Wrath: Aeon of Damage follows the same path in melding concepts from different trendy genres with its old-school shooter foundations. Together with Quake, essentially the most direct level of comparability for Wrath: Aeon of Damage comes from FromSoftware’s Darkish Souls franchise.
“A number of of the sport’s ranges additionally pay fairly a little bit of homage to its inspirations”
Earlier than we get to speaking about gameplay, it’s vital to speak about simply how effectively Wrath: Aeon of Damage nails its visuals. Fairly clearly impressed by horror shooter video games like the unique Quake, Wrath: Aeon of Damage includes a heavy emphasis on darkish cavernous ranges with sharp distinction supplied up by environmental lighting. For instance, among the higher ranges of the map may have gigantic glowing crystals in its partitions providing up a lot of the lighting within the stage, and the sewers will equally function bio-luminescence for its moody environment. This mixture of lo-fi visuals together with extra trendy visible methods results in a sport the place the environment is spot on.
A number of of the sport’s ranges additionally pay fairly a little bit of homage to its inspirations by effortlessly mimicking their visible designs whereas on the identical time constructing on them. An enormous instance of that is among the sport’s early ranges strolling a effective line between old-school medieval darkish fantasy aesthetics, and a few of its later ranges feeling like they’d be proper at residence as ranges you’d play by in Quake 2. After all, Wrath: Aeon of Damage doesn’t merely copy the kinds of those older titles; it builds on them by making use of recent methods that make spectacular use of lighting, in addition to extra trendy {hardware} and software program permitting for enemy numbers that simply wouldn’t have been potential again within the day. The truth that all of this was achieved whereas the sport makes use of the modified Quake engine makes issues much more spectacular.
“The principle weapons within the sport aren’t precisely essentially the most groundbreaking weapons on the market”
On the subject of the core gameplay, essentially the most distinctive side of Wrath: Aeon of Damage is its save system. Seemingly impressed by Darkish Souls, the save system wants you to both burn up an merchandise you discover in restricted portions—the Soul Tethers—or discover particular save spots that additionally heal you up, appearing just like the Souls franchise’s bonfires. This save system does fairly a little bit of heavy lifting in the case of elevating the stakes of nearly any combat you may get into, because you’ll end up always questioning whether or not it’s a good suggestion to make use of considered one of your valuable Soul Tethers. All of that is additional compounded by the fight encounters in Wrath: Aeon of Damage being surprisingly deadly.
Whereas the enemies in Wrath: Aeon of Damage don’t are typically significantly good, you received’t be seeing them use flanking tactic. For instance, they do handle to pack fairly a punch, and this contains even earlier enemies just like the lavatory commonplace zombie can lure you right into a nook and whittle your well being down at alarming speeds. The sport additionally tends to throw an immense variety of enemies at you, ratcheting up the strain fairly significantly. Fortunately, the arsenal in Wrath: Aeon of Damage is certainly as much as the problem of letting you combat your method by hordes of monsters.
Whereas the primary weapons within the sport aren’t precisely essentially the most groundbreaking weapons on the market, most of them are inclined to observe the essential shooter components of providing up a melee weapon, after which slowly escalating the firepower with a shotgun, the Fang Spitter (assault rifle), the Retcher (grenade launcher), and the Slag Cannon (rocket launcher). There are some takes on traditional Quake weaponry within the sport as effectively, just like the Crystallizer, which primarily acts as a laser beam-styled weapon, and the Lance, which is mainly this sport’s tackle the railgun. Probably the most fascinating weapon in the entire sport, the Mace, primarily enables you to soak up enemy souls that may then be used to energy up future assaults. Nonee of the weapons really feel significantly distinctive however then again, they nonetheless fill out your arsenal fairly effectively, supplying you with a variety of choices for any fight situation you may encounter.
The individuality in offensive and defensive capabilities in Wrath: Aeon of Damage come from the plethora of artifacts you’ll discover all through the sport’s ranges. These artifacts are primarily consumables that provide you with a novel offensive or defensive potential for a short while. These talents vary from easy issues, like letting you get well being off enemies you assault, or a stationary defend that allows you to catch your breath within the midst of an epic firefight, to extra fascinating talents which mainly turns enemies towards one another.
The crowning glory of Wrath: Aeon of Damage is kind of simply its stage design. Made by builders which have expertise in creating maps and mods for the unique Quake, the extent design in Wrath: Aeon of Damage is the place a few of its most fascinating concepts lie. Eschewing lifelike and naturalistic stage design, Wrath: Aeon of Damage as a substitute harkens again to shooters of outdated the place the degrees and zones didn’t have to make any sense in the case of geography, as a substitute focusing purely on offering gamers with difficult encounters and enjoyable exploration. The sport’s ranges additionally make unbelievable use of vertical house, and can see you always hopping round from snow-covered ruins to advanced underwater sewer techniques crammed with demons.
“The extent design in Wrath: Aeon of Damage is the place a few of its most fascinating concepts lie.”
The sport additionally expects you to be hopping out and in of ranges as you discover them, tapping into among the concepts of the seminal Demon’s Souls. You’ll usually end up locked out of a sure place, needing as a substitute to return to the hub world and discover a distinct stage till you discover the suitable key. Whereas this has the potential to get overwhelming and complex, the tight focus of the sport’s numerous ranges usually ensured that I by no means actually had the time to cease and ponder what precisely I’m doing. I used to be too busy making an attempt to kill issues and keep alive, in any case.
Wrath: Aeon of Damage additionally retains up with boomer shooter custom by probably not providing a lot in the best way of a narrative. All you do is go round killing issues, rinse and repeat. You’re not going to get any deep character-focused introspection right here, and also you received’t actually care. You’ll be too busy taking down monsters, throwing potions, dying loads, and going again for extra.
Wrath: Aeon of Damage wears its inspirations on its sleeves. Its use of outdated software program expertise to do unbelievable issues is particularly spectacular, and the pedigree of the sport’s stage designers is consistently at full show. The sport additionally has a well-rounded arsenal of weapons that, whereas removed from distinctive, by no means really feel uninteresting to make use of. All of that is wrapped up in a boomer shooter that manages to look surprisingly distinctive this present day by tapping into classical artwork kinds with its personal aptitude.
This sport was reviewed on PC.
