WRATH: Aeon of Ruin

Beautiful to look at, but getting lost killed it for me. I've just come out of playing Quake and its expansions, including Dimension of the Machine, and I've been meaning to get around to WRATH: Aeon of Ruin for ages. It had been sitting on my 'I'll play that eventually' list for quite a while, and given how much I enjoyed the dark atmosphere, level design and exploration in Quake, I thought WRATH would be right up my street. Unfortunately, after around 3 hours of playing, I've come to the conclusion that this just isn't for me. And it's not the combat that's the problem. It's the level design and navigation. There is a lot to like here. The atmosphere is excellent, the visuals are suitably grim and creepy, the weapons feel great and there are some genuinely impressive environments. It absolutely looks and sounds the part. But the levels are simply too large, too interconnected and too easy to get completely lost in. The Undercrofts was where this really started to wear me down. I found myself repeatedly backtracking through huge areas, trying to remember where I'd been and, more importantly, trying to work out where I was actually supposed to go next. Then I r…

Game is a total C**T , Worst enemy types in a video game ever. Garbage. Go play Quake isntead.

Really appreciate the intention to create a Quake-like FPS, but I didn't feel immersed or captivated, and didn't see any chance of that happening later. I think it was that the environments are too vast, and the enemies lacked that certain coolness factor. But it's worth a try if you like old FPS games. I chose not to request a refund, as I wholeheartedly support the goal of making awesome Quake-like games, and there will be many players who enjoyed this result.

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin is a game that excels at moments and kinda did not manage to keep it's quality to the end. The artstyle, visuals and sounds are really nice. This is peak retro. Enemy design is good as it has a lot of mechanically different enemies. The damage splattering on death is a bit overused through. Weapons work well and are nice to use and a good selection. First, a word on the save system. The game has a rather special save system which can be avoided with a menu setting. The player can only save on a limited number of shrines and with save items that can be found. The menu setting allows to save without using one of these items. So the game can be played both as a classic quicksave-everywhere game as well as a game with more rare save points. And that becomes important. The levels. The levels <3 The levels aren't just linear corridors and arenas, there quite a bit of exploration involved. That leveldesign with the limited save system creates a lot of tension, and it feels really good to carefully explore the nicely crafted levels. The levels, especially in act 1 are almost Arcane Dimensions level of quality. With the later levels, this sadly changes a bit and it is…

Has some of the best level design you will see in games. Sadly, the enemy roster is too homogenous across worlds (most enemies will stand still while they shot from range). The weapon roster is fine but not really too exciting. Still worth your time and money if you love secret hunting and exploration with boomer shooter combat. Just a shame because it's merely great when with just a little more it could have been the best. Good on deck, just set a weapon wheel in one of the trackpads

Not great, not terrible.