Alright, nigs.
The ebin new BOOMERshooter Boltgun came out and went through the rounds.
Did you subject yourself anon?
Firstly I think the common criticism that the game is too easy is pretty apt, even on highest it can be a fucking breeze and the way all levels are constructed It gives me the impression that it was originally made to pistol start every level, there should really be an option to do that instead of having to exit to menu every time you change level.
Besides that I feel the level design can be a bit fucky, they encourage secret hunting and such but you can also sequence break pretty hard at times with some simple parkour on the more open levels. Then there's also a few times where you can get lost if you don't pause and memorize the key doors when you pass them.
Visually and sound wise I feel that it's pretty good, the taunt button is alright but the voice acting or at least the filter they use turns it really shrill and cringe when it should probably be a bit more deeper and imposing.
The combat is fairly simple but the armor system they've implemented where weapons have a strength level and enemies have an armor level but it feels like it doesn't always work like it indicates it should, some weapons do shit damage to things that DO match the armor value and some weapons do decent damage even though they're well below the armor range, the grav-gun is of course the last weapon but it has STR 3 while it does absurd damage, but then there's a tooltip that it does more damage depending on the mass of the unit you shoot? The Volkite Culverin has an immense STR but does shit damage to anything that isn't chaff, I don't know, feels a bit half baked.
Then there's the Omnissiah blessing, secret available on every level boosting the weapon currently equipped for the remaining level, the only issue I have here is that they're fucking obtuse for what it actually does on the given gun and some power ups are way stronger than the others. For the boltgun it ups the strength one level (It also does this for some other guns but not all) and expands magazine (fine you can clearly see what it does and the benefit it provides), the shotgun gets ricocheting pellets (alright fine), then there's the Volkite beam again that just generates a small explosion while you're shooting? I have no idea what it actually does but it feels underwhelming, especially that it still does shit damage to the beefier units and massive to small, it specifically does terrible damage to lesser plague toads which really irks me(i find there are no good answer to them if you just want to delete a few quick without having to bring out something overkill instead). Then there's the plasma gun that ups the fire rate and removes damage for overheating, now this is just fucking ridiculous, it goes from a pretty mid weapon to an absolute fucking beast, and it's just the third gun. I still think it's the best blessing so far.
As for unit variety it's pretty exhaustive but not that distinct, there are lots of units with overlapping niches and every enemy moves towards you in a really simple pattern, the melee units rush towards you, the mid range enemies are a bit faster and the long range are pretty slow. Nurglings and Plague Toads jump around like cunts, Terminators teleport around and the rest just shuffle around in varying speeds.
All with a range of chaff units that die to a bolt or two and the fatter shits that can take a few smacks. The roster isn't very mobile either on the whole, on some of the really large arenas they can not keep up at all when you sprint around, trivializing most encounters in that form. I don't know, I think the arenas where enemies teleport in are randomized, it always feels like the arena design and the enemy composition is at odds with each other every time.
The mini bosses also don't bring much to the table besides being damage sponges you either avoid until last or take care of immediately and clean up afterwards, the keeper of secrets teleports around, throws spells and has an Arch-vile attack that ticks damage immediately on contact, which just rubs me the wrong way. Then there's the great unclean one that constantly shits nurglings (which is the most annoying enemy in the game), pours massive amounts of bile projectiles that stick to surfaces and sword swings that throws a crescent aoe which widens and speeds up during travel. The Keeper you can just run away from and snipe and the Unclean one you can just circle strafe, simple as.
As for the combat itself it doesn't really encourage aggressive play styles like it reasonably should as you can get really fucking smote if you put yourself in a bad spot, the chainsword is only really used to finish of wounded enemies but at the same time there is no reward for doing it and there is almost never a need to conserve ammo and you're not invulnerable when doing it, the argument could be made that it's good for mobility as you magnet to whichever enemy you point at from a fair distance, but at the same time you're already ridiculously mobile as is.
As it stands now it feels more like they wanted to make a classic doom but the overall level design and enemy roster doesn't facilitate that sort of play in a good way, it definitely doesn't feel as tight and it could definitely have stolen some of the Nu-doom ideas instead. Sometimes when you enter a small room and get ambushed it's best to just take a few steps back and throw explosions at the problem while they beeline for you, when you get ambushed and CAN'T simply back out because of level design you can just pull up whatever big dick you have saved and clean up in seconds anyway. There is very seldom where the arena, enemy placement and composition matter. There's never an "oh I'm ambushed but If i reposition like this I can play out the fight like this" it's all just point and shoot. All the enemies lead their shots as well even if they don't have vision of you and that's just fucking annoying, as soon as you round that corner and the cultist/demon/csm gets vision of you they'll throw rounds in your face, sometimes it feels like they shoot even before vision and that just feels awful.
Then there's the final boss of every chapter which is the same every time (missed opportunity), Chaos Sorcerer in terminator armor, same as the Keeper with some new spells, stay back and plink at the bitch, sometimes he throws a shield (which protects and regenerates) on himself that links to another random enemy you have to kill first, it's usually just some chaff shit so doesn't hinder you much either.
All in all it looks nice and feels nice at times but I think it had poor directing. It does many things pretty okay but there are a lot of design decisions that are just baffling.
Worth a pirate if you like the "new retrofps wave".