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Now that the "objective description" nonsense is over, allow me to talk to you about the best damn shooter I've played in the past ten years by breaking it down by category and episode.

A) Weapons and Mechanics:

The weapons in Dusk are work horses. All of them are satisfying to use and get the job done. Standouts are the crossbow, double barrel shotgun, and the riveter. Dusk lacks a "BFG" or signature gun that I can only relate to Dusk, but each of the guns is punchy, sound great, and feel effective. The visual design of the weapons is pretty solid across the board, but I find the riveter and detonator muddy and they don't stand out among explosive-type weapons across other games.

The movement, the movement, the movement. The movement of Dusk mirrors that of Painkiller. There isn't a trick to it (e.g., strafe-jumping or bunnyhopping in Quake 3 and Quakeworld respectively). Jumping in one direction progressively increases your speed. You have air control, and can change directions on the spot without losing speed. Dusk rivals all other shooters in terms of speed and maneuverability.

2) Visuals:

Can't say the actual graphics are all that and a basket of sunshine in terms of fidelity. It's on par with late 90s to early 2000s shooter graphics. The notable part of Dusk's visuals is the atmosphere and the aesthetic. Dusk oozes an amazing horror atmosphere across multiple environments. That's best described by the episodes, however.


EPISODE 1 - THE FOOTHILLS:

Dusk shows a strong start without playing it's entire hand. Feels significantly similar to Redneck Rampage and Blood. Starting off with one of the most intense intros I've seen in a long time; with the player fresh off a meat hook with three chainsaw wielding killers hastily approaching. Dusk milks this environment for as long as it feels fresh. The most notable complaint I have is access to every weapon in the game. It definitely feels like weapon progression does not happen from this point onward. Apart from the riveter (which is available as a secret) every gun in the game is accessible at some point.


EPISODE 2 - THE FACILITIES

This episode is where Szymanski shows you that he has a few more tricks up his sleeve. Beginning with very Half-Life-esque soldier enemies, this episode gets interesting very quickly. Taking on a more industrial, military, and laboratory vibe, this is where you realize that not everything is quite as it seemed. This episode introduces my favorite classic FPS enemy since Quake's shambler.

Allow me to paint a picture. You're walking through the gritty industrial hallways of the Facilities. Up until now it's been relatively standard when it comes to opponents. There are cultists, soldiers, and maybe a couple haunted scarecrows. Nothing could've prepared you for what was to arrive. You come across a bloodied wall informing you that you are not to trust your eyes. Suddenly, bloodied footprints make their way across the floor, seemingly from nowhere. All you can hear is the shuffling of a creature you haven't encountered before. You fire the shotgun in a panic, revealing-- with a shrill noise guaranteed to unnerve you --the form of the wendigo, antlered and ribcage on full display.


EPISODE 3 - THE NAMELESS CITY

As a fan of Lovecraft (his writing alongside the aesthetic) I have to sing my praises for this entire episode. Dusk puts on display several absolutely astonishing Lovecraftian environments as the backdrop to a high-speed deathmatch game, and makes it work no less. From sunken towns with vicious sea-dwelling monsters, to fleshy caverns filled with enough terrifying sound design to give your dreams nightmares, Szymanski displays a mastery of environmental storytelling, atmosphere, and level design. Dusk ends with a couple of amazing boss fights, including an appearance by a Lovecraft favorite (voiced by old-school FPS veteran Stephan Weyte no less).


Dusk is a must play for anyone who enjoys fast-paced, brutal, and classic shooters with intelligent level design and story told in the environment instead of ham-fisted cutscenes. Even if you have to play on a lower difficulty and take it slow, Dusk is worth playing for the dripping atmosphere, rich environmental storytelling, and amazing design. This is my favorite classic FPS game since Quake.

Warfork is one of those games I'd recommend to everybody out of sheer hope that they persevere and the player-base grows. It is, however, a steep learning curve and a good way to get your confidence in your skill throttled.

If you played any arena shooter with Quake (particularly CPMA-style) movement, then you'll be right at home. The game is blindingly fast; containing a dodge and wall-jump system that increases the speed and vertical nature of the movement tenfold. You will be rocket jumping off walls and flying through the air without stopping any time soon.

Clan Arena is the mode to play. If you love the movement style over other arena shooters, then you'll find yourself enjoying the typical modes just as much. Clan Arena shines heads and tails above these modes otherwise, due in no small part to the movement system. Warfork's movement system is taken full advantage of in this mode. Taking no self damage, players move at a blistering pace through the air while rocket jumping and bouncing off walls. Duels and the typical death-match modes are very much still enjoyable here.

There's little to complain about that will come down to anything other than sheer preference between Arena Shooters, and effort required to break through the skill curve. Regardless of personal preference (I prefer my duels a little more CPMA), Warfork is really the best Clan Arena shooter.

Back when I initially played System Shock 2, I started a game without getting anywhere about six different times. For some reason I couldn't get into it, and I just didn't understand. One day, it just clicked, and I completed the game the same week. I sunk 2 hours into Prey months ago, and upon a quick restart (and a speedrun glitch to skip the intro tutorial) I finished it in a couple of days with about 13 hours of playtime just recently.

First and foremost, Prey is about player choice. You can go in guns blazing and probably turn out okay at the other side if you have the proper supplies and equipment, or you can sneak around and take out your enemies one by one. Personally, I'm a fan of melee-psionic builds a-la the "Shock series," so I enjoy messing around with the Typhon abilities. Building your character in a smart pattern and properly using supplies means any style of gameplay can work.

Combat itself is okay. Nothing groundbreaking is happening, but it's definitely better than the games that inspired it. Melee feels weightier than most shooters. Level design and mechanics mean any approach to combat has a solid chance at being effective, from shooting, to smashing, to throwing sofas at your enemies.

All you really need to know about writing is that Chris Avellone was involved. The main story doesn't seem as indepth as it should, and a lot of focus is on character development through audiologs. The ending-- without spoiling it --was fantastic in my opinion, and gave the story some context that made it overall much more enjoyable. I can understand why it's a little divisive, however.

I have two major gripes with this game. Those are the friendly AI behavior, and the enemy design. Once you actually meet up with survivors on the station, they start to talk and talk and talk. Seemingly at random, they'll chime in while you're trying to talk to someone else or listen to an objective. I found this highly annoying, and found myself wanting to leave these areas as much as possible. As far as enemy design goes, I think the mimics are amazing. I found myself double checking and questioning myself even with the addon for mimic detection. When it comes to the Typhon overall, I think the enemy design was rather uninspired. Every enemy in this game, save for those possessed by the Typhon, are black shapes. They aren't unfun to fight, and are creepy enough, but don't hold the same character that System Shock or Bioshock enemies did.

Overall I can definitely recommend this game highly. It may not click with you on a first try, and the beginning is definitely steep, but it's a solid FPSRPG with the immersive sim philosophy that I absolutely adore. Honestly, this might be my favorite game by Arkane Studios.

Verdun, released in 2015, is a First-Person Shooter set in WWI on the Western Front. With a large emphasis on realism and trench-combat, Verdun is a rather punishing game when compared to it's more contemporary counterparts.


Verdun's gameplay is unforgiving, and fairly balanced. Rather than alternating sides across rounds or whole games, the main gamemode, Frontlines, is a tug of war based around both attacking and defending regardless of what side you're on. This mode is easily my personal favorite, with plenty of variation in strategy required, and playstyles available. The other gamemodes include Rifle Deathmatch, a free for all deathmatch mode with only the various rifles in game, and Attrition, a mode more in line with traditional team deathmatch modes. Finally, there is a PvE mode known as Squad Defense, which is one squad playing the defensive role in Frontlines against AI opponents. Out of all of these, Attrition is the only mode that you'll find trouble getting games in.


The weapons are faithful to the source and pretty balanced. The standard rifles are all similar with the primary differences being iron sights, ammo count, etc. Being that it is an instant kill for a majority of shots from rifles, they are your workhorse weapons. Machine guns are useful for a pre-set ambush and sniping positions. Past that, each side has a squad with a close-quarters weapon, and a more mobile automatic weapon. The most notable weapon is that of artillery. Artillery (primarily mortars) are appropriately powerful, and will make up a solid amount of the offensive pushing power of your team.


Graphically, this game isn't exactly the Sistine Chapel of video games. The textures aren't amazing, the foilage is so-so, etc. One thing Verdun excels in is gore. Despite it's relative bloodlessness compared to recent games like Doom, the gore is is far from over the top, but still brutal. Shooting a soldier in the face might simply remove his entire head in more cartoony games, but in Verdun it'll remove a solid half and leave you with hanging eyeballs and brain-bits. Amputation is fairly regular, particularly when hit by artillery.


There are a few relatively glaring issues. Primarily, the presence of bugs and weird gameplay ticks that pull away from the experience. The lack of bullet penetration, and inconsistency of terrain collision is detrimental at times, especially the latter. The former is supposedly being updated alongside the release of the games successor, Tannenberg. Artillery can be frustrating to deal with, but ties in to the setting. A big problem is the presence of jump-shots. You are able to aim and fire with no accuracy-reduction in the air. It detracts from the fun of the gameplay and the atmosphere of the setting when a French soldier flies around a corner and pops you in the face with a hundred percent accuracy.

Outside of bugs and unintentional problems, the biggest issue with this game is the squad progression system. Playing with people consistently will net you rewards to your squad. Stuff like the ability to see nearby enemies on the map and more powerful artillery. This system creates an inbalance, however slight it may be, by rewarding players who already gain the tactical advantage of working and communicating with a steady team.


On the subject of Tannenburg: I believe the Frontlines gamemode is too fun for Verdun to be completely abandoned for it, especially considering the quality of life changes that are supposedly coming to Verdun in addition to the release of Tannenburg.


Ultimately, Verdun is a fun, WWI, trench-based romp with fairly minor issues. While containing a progression system both individually and within squads, the lack of difference between most weapons and few gamemodes can make the game feel repetitive after longer periods of play. I will continue to sink time into Verdun when I can, as it is plenty fun enough to make up for the issues I have with it.

Base Squad 49 is a top-down shoot 'em up game released in May 2016 by Rai Studio Games. Made in the Unity engine, the game is based around shooting at mutants to keep them away from your base. The game contains a simple upgrade system of walls.

There are a lot of ways to describe Base Squad 49, and few of them are good. The game's graphics are very poor, with little detail put into anything. Despite these graphics, the game manages to run terribly, with plenty of frame drops. It doesn't take long for the screen to get very cluttered in blood that doesn't seem to go away. The sound gives me a headache, and the firing noise doesn't get quiet when you turn the in-game volume down.

The gameplay itself is mind-numbingly simple. You essentially hold down the left mouse button and put your cursor over monsters, and if you're incapable at even something as simple as that you can always rely on the turrets put up for you. It's also very buggy, with bullets deciding to stop short for short periods of time, what appears to be an inability to buy the weapons in the game, etc.

Base Squad 49 would barely be welcome on a website like Kongregate or Newgrounds with some major bug fixes and optimization. I could barely stand the ten minutes I did play, and I have no desire to sink any more time into it. In those ten minutes I manage to get half the achievements, there is little to no depth to be found here.

Pros
• The upgrade system exists, but it's not even on the level of some of the more popular Flash games out right now.
  
  
  Cons
• Art style is bland
  
• Sound design is poor
  
• Buggier than an ant farm
  
• Provides no challenge whatsoever

Final Thoughts:
You can find much better games online for free. I couldn't tell you this has any potential for a good game with a gun to my head.

Rating: 0/10

This review was written for and is published on the Lit Reviews [LR] curator page.

Sid Meier's Pirates: Exclamation Point is an action-adventure game released in 2004, as a reboot to the original 1987 game. The player character is a pirate on the hunt for his family members who were kidnapped by a Spanish nobleman. You choose a nation to align with, be it the English, Spanish, Dutch, or French, and set sail to save your family, alongside plundering and pillaging, of course.

One thing this game can tout is the amount of freedom in your choices. You can go along with the main plotline, saving your family members, or you can simply be a pirate, plundering merchant ships and pillaging cities and villages. You can also choose to avoid combat, instead being a merchant and sailing from port to port, buying and selling various goods. If you decide that's not your speed, you can ally with a nation, build up a fleet, and set out to take ships and cities from enemy factions, with a simple turn-based strategy land-assault on the cities. All of this is inbetween the sword-fighting with arrogant captains of the guard, courting and eventually wedding daughters of the cities governers, and building up your ship and her crew.

The individual gameplay elements are varied, if a little bit simple. Sword fighting, for instance, is a small minigame with high, middle, and low attacks and blocks, where you try and counter your opponent and push him back. Courting the daughters of governers comes down to showing up to give gifts, participate in different events, and go to ballroom dances, which consist of a simple rhythm game. Ship battles are the most fleshed out, with direct control over your ship, three different ammo types designed to take out cannons, crew, or the ship itself. The ship can be destroyed and salvaged for goods, and the crew can be killed and the ship captured, either through one of the ammo types, or boarding and fencing with the ship's captain.

The pace of the gameplay can be a turn-off; it's very slow, with travel between certain cities taking months of in-game time. The story itself isn't very focused and is more of a set up for your adventures as a pirate, with the saving of family members only really contributing to a final "point" screen. This screen is a fun little screen to me, it shows beyond the pirating part of your character's life, giving you a sense of how they do with what they've gained during the adventure itself. If you've played Mount and Blade, you'll be reminded of the retirement screen. But apart from this screen, the decisions you make don't seem to have a lot of impact. Everything from marrying someone to saving a family member is solely rewarded with points towards the end, and a cutscene.

Pros
• This game couldn't have more freedom if you had a bald eagle on your shoulder instead of a parrot.
  
• Sheer gameplay variety
  
• Retirement screen adds more replayability, especially if you're the kind to want the high-score in games.
  
• Good ship to ship combat
  
  
  Cons
• Simplistic story
  
• Minigames are pretty basic, if somewhat addicting at times
  
• Lack of impact from character actions

Final Thoughts:
It's one of my favorite adventure games, easily up there with the original Legend of Zelda. If you like pirates, ships, and the freedom to play however you want, this is easily worth the buy, but if you like an indepth and focused story, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Rating: 8.5/10

This review was written for and is published on the Lit Reviews [LR] curator page.

Quake is a first person shooter released by id Software in 1996. One of the earliest 3D shooters, Quake became the basis for shooters beyond it for years to come, like Doom before it. Quake was also one of the most popular games to mod. Aforementioned mods also spawned franchises that are still popular today, such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress.


Quake's artstyle is one that immediately stands out, it's very Lovecraftian, with indescribably horrifying monsters and huge creepy castles.The sound design is great too. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame was brought in to do the music and sounds, and they're absolutely fantastic. With creepy ambient sound effects, and horrific monster voices, the whole game's atmosphere is practically made by the sound design. The biggest problem with all of this, is that the Steam version doesn't contain the soundtrack, so you need to download a patch to add them back in, or simply put the original cd in if you have it.

Back to the aforementioned castles, the levels largely consist of maze-like castles and fortresses filled with secrets and monsters. Powerups, weapons, and shortcuts are all hidden behind secret doors and in the shadows. The level-design overall is par for the course when it comes to old-school id, meaning it kicks major ass.

The weapons are pretty varied, with shotguns, nailguns, rocket and grenade launchers, pretty much all the tropes that these games invented, Quake has. It has a few powerups too, these being the Quad Damage, Pentagram of Protection, and the Ring of Shadows. Enemy variety is also fantastic, with some enemies that are explosive resistant, others that need to be blown to smithereens, otherwise getting back up and continuing the fight. The multiplayer isn't really active, although it's still great for lan parties.

Pros
• Solid, if simple, gameplay
  
• Great map design
  
• Artstyle was original for games back then, and is still somewhat original today.
  
• Sound design on the level of games like Thief
  
• Weapon and enemy variety
  
  
  Cons
• Soundtrack is missing in Steam version, requiring a patch to add it back in.
  
• Multiplayer isn't very active. Understandable, as the newer games have expanded upon it.

Final Thoughts:
Quake has a fantastic artstyle and horrifyingly awesome sound design. It's officially 20 years old as of today, and it remains one of the best arena shooters of all time.

Rating: 10/10

This review was written for and is published on the Lit Reviews [LR] curator page.

Wasteland 2 is a post-apocalyptic CRPG created by InXile Entertainment. The long overdue sequel to the 1988 game Wasteland, it takes place in the western United States, in Arizona and later California, after that brutal 1998 nuclear war that totally happened. You create a squad of characters, all new recruits to the "Desert Rangers," a group trying to bring a semblance of lawfulness back into a desolate wasteland.


Wasteland 2 can be seen as the spiritual successor to Fallout, as it's viewpoint, combat, and general feel is much closer to that than the original Wasteland. The combat is somewhat similar to the original Fallouts, although much more focused on in this game. Instead of controlling a single character with companions being completely AI, the game allows you to control each character on their turn. This adds more of a turn-based strategy feel in the combat; it's more about positioning and tactics than straight up firepower and ability to withstand said firepower. Fallout Tactics holds a similar, albeit clunkier, playstyle. The different skills are pretty good for the most part, although some weapon types do stand out as more useful.

The freedom in this game seems scant at first, as you are immediately forced into the Desert Rangers and sent off on a mission, but diverges almost right away with multiple choices as to where to go first, who to help, etc. Only one time limit is imposed, and this time limit simply alters the game rather than ending it outright like in the first Fallout. Folks who prefer the darker side of life also have the option to go rogue in one of two ways, but I'll leave those up for you to discover. It's not completely open world, but more a sequence of maps linked by an overworld map.

The graphics get the job done, but they're by no means stunning. Running in the Unity engine, the optimization is okay. The general aesthetic is certainly good, but it doesn't quite jump out at me like Fallout 1 and 2, or even Wasteland 1. The primary complaint would be the character models, they're not too distracting, but they aren't exactly the fluffiest sheep in the barn. To say it bluntly, the character models are bad, and at times don't even match the portrait of the character in question.

Pros
• Combat system is complex and strategic, especially compared to it's predecessors.
  
• Freedom to approach situations, although combat is less avoidable.
  
• The world itself is good
  
• Variety
  
  
  Cons
• Character models aren't very good.
  
• Some skills aren't as useful as others, although most are fun to use.
  
• Can be difficult for a first-time player.

Final Thoughts:
Fans of its forebears will find it pretty enjoyable, and certainly a worthy successor, and anyone who needs that CRPG itch scratched will be plenty happy with it. Those who like fast, action-packed games will have to look elsewhere.

Rating: 9/10

This review was written for and is published on the Lit Reviews [LR] curator page.

ZombieRush is a sidescrolling game about zombies, buzzsaws, and dead pterodactyls. Made in the Unity engine, the graphics options are basic, and the resolution is low. With only two keys, both for movement, it's pretty basic.


The lack of graphics options is apparent at the start. The resolution only goes to 1680 by 1050, and the quality settings are extremely basic. It ain't exactly the sharpest knife in the spoon drawer, as far as the graphics themselves go.

The gameplay itself is very simple, and not in a good way. You have two keys, both for movement going up and down. I'm not against simple gameplay, but the latency is incredibly frustrating; I can't tell you how many times I died purely 'cause I didn't start moving the second I pressed the key.

The quality overall is on the level of a cheap flash game. You might derive some enjoyment out of it, but it's largely boring and repetitive. I could only stand to play three levels, and even then it's tiring.

Pros
• Cheap. If you want something mindless, this might hold you over for ten minutes.
  
  
  Cons
• Graphics are low quality, with limited options
  
• Latency in control
  
• Does nothing to increase the odds or spice up the gameplay; repetitive.

Final Thoughts:
This is, at best, a minor distraction for someone with money they don't know what to do with. Get it on sale if you must.

Rating: 3/10

This review was written for and is published on the Lit Reviews [LR] curator page.

Mount and Blade: Warband is an RPG and medieval combat simulator. Boasting combat with over a hundred units active at one time, the battles are absolutely enormous. The game also places emphasis on interacting with the various factions in the game, ultimately siding with one or starting your own, if you're so inclined.


The most apparent thing as soon as you start up, the graphics ain't exactly all that and a bag of potato chips. The game is fairly ugly, even by 2010 standards. The size of the world and the battles make up for this in spades. With battles to be fought, wars to be won, cities and castles to conquer, and fair maidens to court and marry, this game has nearly everything I want in a medieval game.

The combat is somewhat clunky, but much more enjoyable than a majority of first-person combat systems. You can attack and parry in four directions (up, down, left, and right), shields block as long as you are looking at your attacker, but break after enough damage. Overall, the combat is fun, exhilarating, and, assuming you don't turn down the difficulty options, challenging. Dueling more than one target can range from difficult to nigh-impossible.

The real meat of the game comes to building armies and sieging other kingdoms. Your army starts out fairly small, maybe twenty-five unless you pile all your points into charisma and leadership, and grows to upward of two to three-hundred soldiers the longer you go. You can become a vassal to one of the kings in the game, assisting him and other lords with things from conquests to simple bounties. If you don't like the idea of serving under an existing king, you can choose the more difficult option of raising an army and starting your own kingdom, or assisting claimants with the right to rule certain kingdoms with overthrowing the current king of said kingdom.

Pros
• Deep and satisfying, if slightly clunky combat
  
• Large world, with lots of things to do
  
• Large-scale combat, with lots of soldiers
  
• Characters have decent backstory to them, especially the companions and claimants.
  
  
  Cons
• Graphics are pretty bad, even from a 2010 standpoint
  
• It can be hard to get your bearings on a very first playthrough.

Final Thoughts:
Overall, anyone into medieval combat and the time period in general will have a blast. Fans of action-RPGs will enjoy this too. There's a multiplayer that many people absolutely love, but I have little-to-no experience in it, so I can't supply much more than that.

Rating: 9/10

This review was written for and is published on the Lit Reviews [LR] curator page.