Bloom: Roots of Renewal

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"Bloom: Roots of Renewal" is a student project from... somewhere... it's supposed to be a "study" of boomer shooters but it fails to hit the right spot that boomer shooters should. The retro low poly graphics come off as inauthentic and general lack of polish and optimisation make this somewhat unpleasant to play... and part of the whole retro appeal with boomer shooters is they should run smooth as butter, unlike the way those games first ran on our old potato PCs, before we got jobs and had more money than time. The theme for the game is weird, too... I don't think what Quake and HeXen lacked was a more botanical theme. Why is this fun, exactly? In terms of visuals, this features fairly low quality low poly 3D visuals which will deter a lot of gamers, understandably. Gaming is a visual medium, and while some developers struggle with creating high quality visuals, failing to do so is a disservice to gamers. It's very difficult to recommend bad looking games. Not every "free" game really is. There's often MTX, or content locked behind DLC, or donations being requested, or any other number of things that could mislead gamers, but in this case I'm glad to say this really doe…

free and fun little Heretic/Hexen inspired shooter made by college students

Bloom: RoR is a basic, fast-paced shooter with a ton of graphical glitches. The amount of missing textures I found was honestly pretty funny. The main menu buttons will stay selected even when your cursor isn't hovering over them. I had fun with this game, but it's not great. Also, the achievements and progression tracker are pretty broken. Still, it's worth trying out 5/10

Bloom: Roots of Renewal is a compact first-person shooter that combines the speed and straightforward action of classic FPS games with a colorful fantasy world overtaken by dangerous supernatural growth. Developed by WolverineSoft Studio and published by WolverineSoft, the game emerged from a student-led development effort at the University of Michigan. Its relatively modest scale is important when evaluating the experience, as it was designed by a team of students over a limited development period rather than produced as a large commercial shooter. Even with those limitations, the game manages to establish a clear identity through fast combat, exploration, varied weapons, unusual creatures, and environments built around a mystical forest threatened by an ancient evil. The story provides a simple framework for the action. An unnatural bloom has spread through the forest as sinister forces awaken, transforming once peaceful areas into dangerous territory. The player must travel through this corrupted landscape and ultimately search for the Tome of Power within the ancient Archives. Rather than filling the campaign with lengthy conversations or cinematic sequences, the narrative mos…

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