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Retro FPS Renaissance

Your favourite throwback shooter so far?

  • Ion Fury

    Votes: 88 38.1%

  • Amid Evil

    Votes: 17 7.4%

  • Dusk

    Votes: 59 25.5%

  • Wrath: Aeon of Ruin

    Votes: 11 4.8%

  • Prodeus

    Votes: 56 24.2%
  • Total voters
    231
Elektro Demon

Elektro Demon

Banned
Do you know that we're currently living in a retro shooter renaissance? I don't know if you are familiar with the term "throwback shooter". It's basically a shooter that mimmicks the old school gameplay and design formula. Often times, it's made in a prehistoric engine like Ion Fury for instance. That game uses the Build engine, that's a 20 year old engine. Throwback shooter has become it's own subgenre nowadays.
Examples of games I'm thinking about.

One of my favourite examples of throwback shooters is this, Amid Evil. It uses the UE4 engine but the weapon models and pickups are 2d sprites. I just finished this recently, it's close in style to Hexen or Heretic. Really awesome. Soundtrack by Andrew Hulschult.



Another example, Dusk. It's fucking brilliant. Made by just one guy, in Unity, David Syzmanski.



I have to mention these 2 games that are not out yet, well at least not in their full state. Both have 2020 release dates, and I just think they look amazing. I would call these 2 next games, a second wave of throwback shooters.
First one is a game called Prodeus. It's supposed to come out in 2020. It looks amazing. Just look at it. Soundtrack composed by Andrew Hulschult.



I'm most excited for this one. It's called Wrath: Aeon of ruin and it's supposed be released in 2020 as well. This one is published by 3dRealms and it's actually made in the quake 1 engine. It looks like the quake sequel we never got. Soundtrack by Andrew Hulschult


Hell Hunt, looks great, but it's still very early in it's development.


Hellbound, made by Saibot Studios, small indie team from Argentina. Demo available on Steam. Planned release: 2020.
 
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Elektro Demon

Elektro Demon

Banned
OmegaSupreme said:
The steam sale is going on. If you guys had to say which one of these is the best which one would you say?
Click to expand...
Well Wrath and Prodeus are not out yet, they're still in early development. I personally never play anything that isn't a full release. So that leaves you with Dusk, Amid Evil and Ion Fury.
Out of those 3, my fav is Ion Fury. All are good, but Ion is the best so far.
 
Phase

Phase

Member
That feeling when arena shooters aren't old enough to be "throwback" yet

giphy.gif
 
drotahorror

drotahorror

Member
DUSK is my favorite. Love the horror vibe.

A couple more if anyone's interested:

Nightmare Reaper


Actually really dig this, tons of weapons and addictive gameplay.

Project Warlock


Another one with some cool ass weapons and addictive gameplay.

Both of these have skills / loot that gets better as you play.
 
Elektro Demon

Elektro Demon

Banned
Today, a demo of Trepang2 is released for anyone interested. It doesn't really belong in the throwback shooter category but I feel it should be mentioned here cuz people liking old school shooters are probably gonna love this as well. It's a throwback to FEAR, and it's slow mo shooting is balls to the walls.
 
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Cravis

Cravis

Member
I’m loving this resurgence. I’d have to say my personal favorite, based on time invested, is Ion Fury. Love the setting, love the weapons, love the level design.
 
Bootzilla

Bootzilla

Banned
I backed Prodeus so I'm definitely looking forward to that one. I don't know if it counts but I really liked Overload too.

Ion Fury has my interest piqued but I'm waiting for a sale.
 
Cravis

Cravis

Member
Thanks to this thread I picked up Nightmare Reaper. Definitely right up my alley.

I’m looking forward to Ion Fury hitting consoles so I can get enjoy it on my couch.
 
Elektro Demon

Elektro Demon

Banned
Keep an eye out for this thread, I plan to keep it updated with games of this type. I now consider myself an indie retro fps connoisseur.
I've found another one. It's called HELLBOUND.
Developer: Saibot Studios (Argentina)
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Planned release: sometime in 2020
Demo: Yes
Try the demo guys. It's short, but damn it's fun.
Hellbound basically has no shame in admitting it's main source of inspiration is Doom. Even the letters are ripped straight from Doom. I enjoyed the demo, it's a bit rough but good.
Soundtrack is metal AF, but you can hear the low budget production. Not bad tho. Also the chaingun has a very weak sound. It sounds like a kitchen mixer for dough instead of a punchy high fire rate weapon.



 
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Danny Dudekisser

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
I'm looking forward to a lot of these. The only one of these throwback shooters that I've played so far has been Ion Fury, and that game was just fucking awesome. I guess I didn't realize how much we'd lost in terms of design and mechanics over the years. I've got Dusk, but haven't played it yet. Wrath and Prodeus both look rad.
 
O

orborborb

Member
Played them all through, Amid Evil was the only one that seemed to meaningfully improve on the games that inspired it (in some ways), but I can vouch for all of them being worth playing if you enjoy these games (except prodeus and hellbound which I am a little skeptical about but haven't tried yet, and project warlock which I didn't care for)
 
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petran79

petran79

Banned
I'd like an atmospheric game like Realms of the Haunting, with both fps and adventure elements. It seems such games are either walking simulators with puzzles or horror action games. Not both
 
drotahorror

drotahorror

Member
DGrayson said:
Just played and beat dusk over the holidays. What a great game
Click to expand...

IMO, the cream of the crop right now when it comes to throwback fps'.

My favorites that I own (have played a few more but not put the same kind of time into)



1. DUSK
2. WRATH Aeon of Ruin - I know this is early access but what is there is so good, and is my #2.
3. Project Warlock - Just really enjoyed the gameplay of this one.
4. AMID EVIL - Very solid, beautiful game, crazy art direction.
5. Ion Fury - Looks insane for a build engine game. Overstays it's welcome, but still a good purchase and easily worth it's asking price.
6. STRAFE - One of the first of these throwback / retro shooters to come out. It was ok.

I have played Nightmare Reaper and it's very solid with great gunplay and neat graphics but haven't played enough to form a valid opinion. I've played a bit of Hedon and it was really interesting. I think you can get it for free or you can buy a better? version on steam. I didn't like the Hellbound demo. I plan to dive into Overload when the time is right.
 
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JOEVIAL

JOEVIAL

Has a voluptuous plastic labia
Literally just started playing Dusk not more than an hour ago. Absolutely digging it so far! Love me some 90's shooters so yeah I am all for this renaissance! Really looking forward to Prodeus.
 
Elektro Demon

Elektro Demon

Banned
Here's another one. It's called Wrack. Just accidentally saw it on yt. It's actually one of the earlier throwback shooters but it has a very interesting graphics style. It's cel shaded basically.
Didn't play it yet, but I definitely plan to.
Gmanlives raged because of the lack of quicksaves in the game and the developers patched in quicksaves in. Interesting piece of trivia.


 
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B

Bathtub Fart

Banned
drotahorror said:
DUSK is my favorite. Love the horror vibe.

A couple more if anyone's interested:

Nightmare Reaper


Actually really dig this, tons of weapons and addictive gameplay.

Project Warlock


Another one with some cool ass weapons and addictive gameplay.

Both of these have skills / loot that gets better as you play.
Click to expand...


I tried project warlock and man was it a snoooooooze for me
 
Belmonte

Belmonte

Member
Dusk have brilliant level design. It is complex enough to be among retro FPSs without felling shame but at the same time, intuitive enough to not even need a map. And every chapter is better then the last one, so it only gets better. The last levels have some of my favorite moments in the game. Definitely ends with a bang!

I found Project Warlock very interesting. It isn't in the same level of Dusk or Ion Fury, but it tries two things very hard to make it work, which is RPG elements -very easy to degenerate the gunplay- and classic Wolfenstein type of levels, where everything is flat -much harder to make complexity-. And IMO, for the most time, it succeeds.

From chapter 3 onward, the levels gets more interesting and the designer tries some cool solutions to the flatness. Secrets, switches which reveal more of the level, some smart card searching...etc. It is arguable if he justified the flatness of the levels with all these elements, but his solutions are very interesting.

IMO the dev controlled very well the degeneracy of the RPG elements. Some weapons/builds got a little too overpowered but this is expected when there are XP to gain, but it felt on purpose.

I like how many enemies sprites there was also. And they are very well animated.

Elektro_Demon said:
Here's another one. It's called Wrack. Just accidentally saw it on yt. It's actually one of the earlier throwback shooters but it has a very interesting graphics style. It's cel shaded basically.
Didn't play it yet, but I definitely plan to.
Gmanlives raged because of the lack of quicksaves in the game and the developers patched in quicksaves in. Interesting piece of trivia.


Click to expand...


Seems cool! Another upcoming FPS to give it a look.

Unpopular opinion: Despite being in almost every beloved FPS of the past, quick saves hurts the gameplay. It destroys the tension since it trivializes a lot of encounters and resource management. It is basically a cheat built in the game. Checkpoint system is superior, even if it was born in consoles where everything was casualized.

I understand its purpose in the classic games since a lot of them have "gotcha" moments, where you will die or at best, had a lot of your resources -health mainly- spent the first time you play a level. But I prefer we don't have too unfair encounters and scrap the quicksave entirely.

Star Wars: Dark Forces FTW. :messenger_bicep:
 
Elektro Demon

Elektro Demon

Banned
Belmonte said:
Seems cool! Another upcoming FPS to give it a look.

Unpopular opinion: Despite being in almost every beloved FPS of the past, quick saves hurts the gameplay. It destroys the tension since it trivializes a lot of encounters and resource management. It is basically a cheat built in the game. Checkpoint system is superior, even if it was born in consoles where everything was casualized.

I understand its purpose in the classic games since a lot of them have "gotcha" moments, where you will die or at best, had a lot of your resources -health mainly- spent the first time you play a level. But I prefer we don't have too unfair encounters and scrap the quicksave entirely.

Star Wars: Dark Forces FTW. :messenger_bicep:
Click to expand...
It's an unpopular opinion alright. But I respect it.
I like it and I couldn't imagine a retro shooter without it. The main problem with it is save scumming. But having a little self control goes a long way.
 
DunDunDunpachi

DunDunDunpachi

Banned
Belmonte said:
Unpopular opinion: Despite being in almost every beloved FPS of the past, quick saves hurts the gameplay. It destroys the tension since it trivializes a lot of encounters and resource management. It is basically a cheat built in the game. Checkpoint system is superior, even if it was born in consoles where everything was casualized.

I understand its purpose in the classic games since a lot of them have "gotcha" moments, where you will die or at best, had a lot of your resources -health mainly- spent the first time you play a level. But I prefer we don't have too unfair encounters and scrap the quicksave entirely.

Star Wars: Dark Forces FTW. :messenger_bicep:
Click to expand...
Yes! Taking this a step further, I miss FPSs where you are spawned at the beginning of a single contiguous stage and if you die, you're sent back to the beginning. DOOM was like that. Quake was like that (I think?).

Back to your point, I like the idea of checkpoints being intelligently placed in the level to challenge the player, or even spaced further apart on higher difficulty rankings. Quicksaves allow the player to goof around with the immersive physics (Crysis) or RPG systems (Elder Scrolls games), but they also trivialize the difficulty. I was playing through Halo with my son a few weeks ago and I liked how dying sent you both back to a checkpoint. It meant you had to master each little engagement without getting torn up. I think Serious Sam used checkpoints, which fit in nicely with its waves upon waves of enemies.
 
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