So I finally got around to play this, having lots of fun!
All new art fits seamlessly with the original assets, you did a a great job at this. (I wonder what it would look if the sprites were at a higher resolution, I remember possible plans for this being mentioned somewhere here?) Love the NPCs' behaviours and animations (as
Forge said above, the smoking idle animation is hilarious).
I got through the first two levels of the new episode. I must say the layout sometimes confused me, especially in the first level. I found all the secret areas while circling around in the search for at least any key, because I overlooked the sewer passageway leading to the red key. The area with the boxes you get to either through the manhole or one of the buildings is very dark and the passageway is easy to miss. I also did not exactly like that some parts of the level were at some point shut off with the Battlelord face doors, and after using the yellow key I had to circle around trying to find the way to the newly opened entrance in the area that got shut off.
Personally I have nothing against changing pathways through a level as the player progresses through it, but in this case it felt very confusing, and not exactly motivated. For example I did not really understand what happened when I used the yellow key, except that the Pig Cop boss apparently emerged from somewhere while some further destruction was done to the city. But there was no vantage point from which to observe this, especially since I had to take cover from the Octabrains that spawned with the boss.
The first level is generally very large and saturated with content. At times it almost felt like the size was still not enough to put in everything the authors intended, making it feel like a theme park ride, rather than a city invaded by aliens. I think this could have been easily split into two levels, with more balance between portraying half-ruined cityscape and some gimmick areas.
I did like the use of railgun snipers on top of the buildings, and the ability to sneak up behind them. If only the city streets were more spacious and less mazelike. I liked the starting pool area, the video game store, the gun shop, the motel interior and the tennis court area, and of course the bar and the square in front of it. But again as I said this abundance of content could have been easily split into several levels.
I didn't get the reference with the purple clad woman in the secret room on the roof with pipes (I actually reached it by jumping on palm trees in the courtyard). And are these supposed to be
StarCraft Confederate Marine Armour suits?
The second level has a strong
Shadow Warrior vibe to it, I guess it's no coincidence that the Sushi bar contains an
SW reference. I didn't understand why the only way to get into the building from the helicopter pad was by breaking the window — I expected the doors to open. The flooded city is pretty creepy. I like the layout however it does not lend itself to easy exploration because everything is rather dark and you can only hold your breath for a limited time.
I was also able to populate the city with some underwater people by shooting down troopers that spawned in the air after I picked the jetpack:
Yeah that guy is smoking.
The sushi bar is great but the Battlelord encounter is kinda odd. It spawns pretty much off-screen and while this gives you a good cover the battle is much less dramatic. I just fired a few RPG rounds at him while taking cover behind the wall, and then tossed an auto-turret to do the rest. Actually, Bombshell's arsenal generally feels way more powerful than that of Duke.
Scuba troopers are cool but underwater fights are a bit clumsy in software mode. The air bubble mechanic is quite neat, I appreciate it as a nod to
Powerslave.
Loved the area with the Pig Cop jeeps, it had a very strong feeling of something that came directly from a 1997 game or so. The fights themselves were kinda easy as the jeeps travel a predesigned path and I could stay out of their range while firing RPG rounds. For comparison the multiple boss battle closer to the end of the first level was pretty unforgiving.
As for the character swapping mechanic, the AI sidekick seems to tend to run in on the enemy and kick it while firing. It may be a good player strategy but in this scenario it increases the risk of friendly fire. I was also a bit disappointed that when you swap characters you swap all stats too. I was hoping that if the sidekick is on low health you could swicth to him/her and pick some medikits if the AI can't do that.