[Ninety-Six]

What's funny to me is that the only thing that really reminds me of Duke 3D not counting the blatant shoutouts are the walk cycles of the enemies, which remind me of the lizard troopers...


....from the unofficial HRP.

[Sangman]

So not sure if any of y'all actually played the demo. It's alright, I enjoyed it but it's pretty bare bones. Looking forward to the full version which hopefully will have more to offer.

Maybe I just view the demo more favorably than I should because the Phantom Fury one lowered the bar so much.

[Phredreeke]

ck3D, on 07 October 2023 - 07:57 AM, said:

The irony being he got banned in part for getting mad when explicitly denied the authorization to rip and spread Ion Fury's .art assets.

[MrFlibble]

Sangman, on 11 October 2023 - 01:13 PM, said:

So not sure if any of y'all actually played the demo. It's alright, I enjoyed it but it's pretty bare bones.

I thought that the level was pretty solid, it's got all of the good stuff (you explore the buildings and some back alleys, there's a neat variety of everything) and seemingly no real drawbacks. Pretty short, yes, but quite packed with secret areas. Not much combat though. If the devs can do this on a larger scale that would be interesting, to say the least.

I was a bit surprised that you can't nibble junk food for health, I guess Ion Fury spoiled me A lot of phone calls though.

[OpenMaw]

I just played through The Last Exterminator. It's... Fine. The engine is certainly impressive, and they have a style they're going for.

I don't think the music is all that great. There's something with modern game devs and music. You go back and listen to the Doom, Quake, Duke soundtracks and you hear atmosphere. With the exception of Dusk, most of the modern throwback shooters simply lack a solid score, in my view.

The bug guys are a nice idea. The level really needed a second enemy type though to mix it up.

I'm not big on the female protag. There have been a few of these, and frankly they mostly are the same damn thing. Slightly snarky with a vague toughness. How about a tough lady who channels Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor, or some of that tough-as-nails grit that Lauren Bacall had back in the Bogie pictures? Know what I mean? So many of them seem to be "Hah! I'm tough! And I say slightly sarcastic THINGS with this elevated tone! Take that, bad guy!" If you're going to give your character a voice, give them a personality. Lo Wang is a Engrish speaking goofball, Caleb is sadistic, grim, and rife with gallows humour, Duke is pure macho toughness with masculine aggression and wit. So on, and so forth.

I think the biggest problem the game faces is being generic. I don't see anything here that is particularly stand out. It's competent, but it really needs more identity. I think part of it is... Okay you've got a roach/bug theme for the badguy... How about weapons dealing with extermination? Ya know, bug bombs, a-salt shotguns, make shift flame throwers, foggers, pest spray.

[MrFlibble]

I've not checked Caesar's Revenge for a while, but it actually made it to a release in late August:
https://store.steamp...aesars_Revenge/

[Morpheus Kitami]

Late, but if you're going to use real photographs for your sprites, why make the enemy sprites so small? Somehow they feel tinier than the stuff in Doom. (Or maybe I'm being thrown off by the last game I played having massive sprites for the day)

[MrFlibble]

I bought Caesar's Revenge and played it, it's fun! Although the game itself does not try to mimic the 90s shooter mechanics, it goes for a more modern and original kind of gameplay with a focus on fast action. You begin every level without weapons and there are no mid-level saves, each level gives you a specific arsenal, and there are secrets which are not exactly easy to find. On top of that, there are some pretty interesting and challenging achievements, and the game overall looks and plays very well IMO. It feels tailored for replayability and general good fun, in some ways different from the "boomer shooter" classics but still keeping the spirit that you can feel in competitive completion of Doom levels and stuff like that.