Project Warlock

Dangerous Scissors

My friend who I play CS 2 with said if I post a review on this game and it gets 202 likes and 69 Awards that he will buy me a RTX 3060 and 2 Kilos of canned ham. So I'm just gonna leave this here. Help a brotha!

I don't even remember how I got this game, but it was a pleasent surprise! if you want a doom 1 clone with a little bit more spice and character skill customisation then give this a shot. The only thing I found a bit lacking sadly was the music.

It's fun game, keeps me on my toes when I am low health. I like to play it time to time. It easy to pick up after a few days. Simple, Fun, Easy to learn.

Wonderful indie game. Glad I played this game. Had to write this review (cause I forgot to) in response to playing the sequel, which i will write a review for when i finish.

Pretty good

This game is boring.
Gunplay is half time bad half time ok. Enemies have small differences
Levels are visually nice but not all of them are as nice to play
Leveling system is boring
Sounds are okay
This game is like boomer shooters that never developed and stayed in first half of 90s and copying doom 2

It's a good game though it does have problems. First i don't think the lives system is necessary to the game, outside of one time the only times i died were in the last world due to cheap design, that being instant death falls which i always hate instant death as it never feels fair in any game, i was playing on normal. instead i would recommend getting making lives respawns and ever life you get adds a permanent respawn to every level and enemies stay dead on respawn or making it optional without moving to casual or hard. You have to choose student as your first skill, the sooner you get it the better as it's just a free stat upgrade every level. The magic weapon never ended up being all that useful as it's just better to use magic for spells especially the spell that just gives you ammo. I would also suggest separating magic and weapon upgrade points, even if many of the spells aren't useful at all. also i wouldn't make light a spell and you should just have it, i know it's free but it just shouldn't be a spell. A lot of the secrets feel like you just have to rub up and use every wall in the game. There is supposed to be a tell, but some of them don't have it worst the secrets in a secret. i also hate the secrets that are just a bypass to a key door, i often have to get the key anyway and rarely it's to bypass to said key and if i want every secret those are worthless. the secrets that are just shortcuts back to where you needed to go anyway shouldn't be secrets and should just be given to the player. in fact some levels feel like they haphazardly through in secrets without must thought. the other design that sucks is when there is a point of no return as you can't replay a level and would have to restart that section if you want the secrets you've missed. also some secrets have gone off randomly and wouldn't add to my secrets found tally and some would go off when i pushed a button that opened it but i have no clue where it is. one stage said i had 4/5 but every guide says it only has 4 secrets. final thing on secrets is that the last world has a button you can endlessly press to get infinite secrets. speaking of the last world, it felt like it wasn't playtested much at all, prior worlds didn't have instant death pits and was good on preventing such things, add spawners spawn too fast that you have to use a fast firing weapon to kill them or get them before they notice you and for that final boss it started good but became awful when it did what every player would want a final boss to do, become an add spawner, in seriousness that was a terrible idea and made the boss just suck. the game is fun, but on subsequent playthoughts i'll either stop before the final world or only play in stage select. i hope these issues are fixed in the sequel as i got this with the sequel.

It's pretty easy to see this as "Ray-traced Doom" but the game builds its own identity very quickly. Project Warlock is very, very good. The map design is great, the visuals are good, the combat is fun, and the creative design is enjoyable.
There are a lot of games you can call "modernised doom" but this one nails that premise exquisitely. Everything about this style of game is done well: The weapons system allows for choice and variety but never leaves you empty handed or defenseless, the map design has the nonlinearity of Doom with memorable and challenging combat scenarios, the enemies are creatively designed and each one presents something new, and every single kill is satisfying; the animations are perfect. Even the secrets are implemented well.
The two main drawbacks are the bugs (mainly the one where the player is liable to phase through elevator floors) and the sound design, wherein certain enemies have disproportionately and agonisingly loud noises associated with them, to the extent where even a low volume would hurt my ears. Neither issue is prohibitive. I also found some other bugs but they weren't that bad.
Good visuals, good combat, fun gunplay, creative design, good music. A huge recommend for anyone interested in this style of boomer shooters.

All in all a good time. After the first few levels I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but it started to grow on me pretty quickly. It's basically done in the style of classic Doom with a large variety of enemies and bosses. I get the feeling that its designed for speed running based on how quickly you can move around the levels. The only thing I didn't like was the weapon upgrade system. The upgrades themselves are awesome but it locks you in to one of two possible upgrades. I guess to increase replayability but to be honest I doubt I'll revisit this one any time soon. The boss battles start off strong but tbh by the end I was kinda just ready for it to be over with. Whereas some of the enemies are quite interesting and have a variety of abilities they basically move straight at you and attack whenever close enough. Hopefully enemy AI is improved in the sequel.

My eyes, my frigging eyes!!!

Quality boomer shooter. A lot of different mobs. Great trigger time. Shotgun is good.

Get Psyched!

Project Warlock: "8-Bit" Of Fun
7.5/10

This is a pretty fun and mindless shooter where the good luckily out weighs the bad. The game goes hard on the old school retro 8-bit aspect, from the stylized graphics to the groovy soundtrack. I really enjoyed the whole nostalgia aspect mixed with a more modern and responsive control scheme. Its got plenty of weapons to choose from and a fair share of abilities and upgrades to customize your game play. it's pretty much incorporates all the standard tropes from old school boomer shooters. Run & Gun. Pick Up Ammo. And discover hidden areas and treasures. Over all its a pretty enjoyable game loop, but far from perfect.

Switching weapons is broken for both controller and keyboard mouse. There are multiple forms online where both players complain about the unresponsive mechanic. Honestly, that's BS for any game, especially a boomer shooter. It really breaks the game flow. Luckily you can map guns to the d-pad and double stack the buttons which gets the job done, but is still not ideal. With so many people bringing this bug up its a bit pathetic the devs never fixed. It shouldn't have been an issue in the first place.

I also fell off the map a few times cuz of bugs & looking for secret passages is a bit unrewarding and tedious. I never found any clues or indicators that there was a secret around me. Instead, i had to blindly run along side the walls just smashing the interact button until a passage opened. It sucked. It really sucked a lot of the fun out of the game.

Also, I thought the game was pretty easy. I played on "hard" and breezed through pretty much the whole game. I probably only dies 3 or 4 times tbh & I'm not some sweaty gamer. Though, the final boss was challenging and fun. So that's a plus.

Regardless, I'd say this is worth the buy. You can play it in short burst, its entertaining, and pretty short. Its not perfect but it does enough right to create a fun game loop.

this game is really fun, I love the cool weapon upgrade system as well.

Wonderful game

Runs awful. Graphics settings are so janky and 'retro' my older brother looked at the screen in disgust. Needs to at least perform as good as its predecessors, like Duke and Doom on modern systems.

Nice fun retro boomer shoot

cool ok boomer retro shooter reminds of doom x doom2016 with gfx from quake1 very recommend

Based game. One of the treasure pickups in the hell levels is a star of David

Good fucking game

Gameplay is fast paced and exciting, music absolutely slaps, masterpiece

This game is not it. Turd of a game that was inspired by the boomer shooters we love but learned nothing from them.

Pros

Cons
-cramped levels. Having the ceiling be right above my head feels so bad and should have been avoided for most levels
-leveling system has no impact
-ui unclear
-ground clutter in levels is AWFUL. Enemies leave behind a body , random useless box, single block high ceilings and you've got a cramped atmosphere
-secrets: identify this purple glowing hole in the wall zzzz
- questionable magic use in game. Prior to the upgrade to regen magic I'm never using magic as a warlock.
-where is the blue key? In front of the blue door of course
-enemy design random
-wall textures super ugly and lack character

Really interesting enemy and boss designs. I like how you can build your character in a couple of ways that may favor magic or more conventional weapons. I like how the levels aren't very large in hindsight, so when I did die during a level it was easy to realize where I messed up, what I had to do, what was in my way, etc. Overall, I really enjoyed this game, and hope the sequel gets out of early access sooner rather than later.

simple , nostalgic , yet nice progress system and quite hard for casual gaming - its good

Scratches the Doom-like itch with some interesting additions to the subgenre

nice throwback to the good ol days of sprite shooters, with some modern twists.

A GREAT spin on the shooters of old. This game has an awesome selection of levels and chapters that all feel unique while also adding in additional tweaks that change up the formula a little bit.

*Adding in a leveling mechanic lets you distribute a stat point to 4 stats to better suit your play style (a grip here I'll get to in a second.) letting you go from ax murder to gun god with increased ammo capacity to arc mage casting spells. The downside is that your stuck playing a classic shooter for a little bit before the leveling system kicks off.

*Having a "HUB" area to come back to that has several stations. 1. Leveling station as mentioned above, 2.Spell Station (where you learn new spells and upgrade existing spells as you find/learn them), and 3 a weapons upgrade station that allows you to spend an upgrade token to make your existing weapons do other things. Example: You can turn your pistol into a .50 Cal Handcannon (Huge damage but increases ammo use OR a Flare gun reduces damage a smidge for setting the target on fire and doing damage over time. (Downside at time of writing I don't know if these can be reverted to a regular handgun and also not sure if you can try the other version of the upgrade so make sure your sure of your choice.)

There are 5 Chapters with each Chapter having 5 levels and these levels have 2-4 separate stages. Meaning there is a ton of content to shoot your way through. HUGE PLUS.

TLDR: If you love old school shooters like Doom, or Wolfenstein 3D this is basically a great throwback but with some modern takes like new lighting and upgrading.

very fun and intense game, had to take break playing it.

Kill or be killed

Awesome boomer shooter

Boomer shooter with some "build" progression (AKA you can choose your upgrades). Very nice. I liked exploring the levels to find all the secrets.

I am a 55 year old biker and trucker father, and probably one of the oldest people playing this game. I am a single father to my Son, who is 14 now. My son got this game for from his uncle, so we installed it on his computer and he started playing. By the end of the week he had 24 hours on this game. This was horrible for me, as it was already hard for me to find ways to spend time with my son, as he is always out with his friends or just watching YouTube. So i decided to make a Steam account and get this game to see if I could maybe play alongside him. I loaded into the game and started playing but I was stuck on what you where supposed to do. I asked my Son for help and he hosted a game for me to join. I loved it as it was the best time I had spent with my Son since my wife had died. This game has ever since brought me and my son closer again and now we actually spend time together outside the house together as well. This game reminded me that there's fun to be had in everything, and it has brought both me and my son many happy memories.

Thank you

This game rocks!!! It is a thrilling adrenaline rush with lots of great weapons and run variety.

Each level is about 5 mins long and has a unique piece of Soundtrack and let me tell you the Soundtrack is phenomenal.

Short and sweet shooter. Pretty basic but a bit too easy, I was playing on hard and can easily one-shot 80% of enemies.

Only became somewhat of a challenge on the last episode.

If Wolfenstein 3D were a fantasy rogue-like. Everything about this game rocks. Just buy it, it's cheap enough for the gamble.

In this game, a throwback to games like Wolfenstein and Doom, you use both magic and guns to make your way through various levels of high octane firefights. I found the magic lacking, so I just ended up using and upgrading my guns. I like the combination of cartoonish sprites with violent deaths, clever animation.

This game is very high quality for its price. An excellent and well made simple throwback shooter with just enough of it's own ideas to keep it fresh and interesting. The weapon upgrade system and fun secret hunting keep me coming back to this game to play through it over and over again.

I would definitely say that this shooter by far is my favorite single-player experience from the FPS/Boomer Shooter genre from the crazy great dynamic and unique music to the way you can change your arsenal and abilities this game has extreme replay ability the Ballistic Bow Upgrade and Thunder Wave combined offers a brutally devastating combo to pair onto all of your enemies I also think the Magnum is crazy good especially on Head shots. P.S. I'm at the half way point I think on the game playing on Hard Difficulty and I will be playing the hardest mode that they offer soon after campaign completion wish me luck.. Alas this game surprised me it is truly a hidden gem! Everything about this game is truly inspiring I wish more companies was like this you can tell they love making bad-ass games

Nice boomer shooter!!!!!!!!

i love the game but with a a ryzen 7 5700x and a rtx 3080ti and 128 gb ram i seem to get a lot of frame drops

pew pew and zap zap... until it's done!

A passable boomer shooter with a fantastic soundtrack but plenty of issues that make it annoying to play at times - both general bugs but also some terrible game design decisions.

I'll start with the good stuff.

The music was great and I (eventually) started keeping track of some of the tracks I enjoyed: E4M4, E4M5, E4M9, E4M10 (guitar/screamo), E5-M3 (creepy mysterious pinging track). The music probably held up my interest the most throughout the game, and there's a ton of good stuff in there.

The general gameplay was relatively engaging, especially when getting some of the better weapons (minigun/storm lightning FTW). Lots of enemy variety, along with phases to some enemies that is well represented visually. The different stages are very different from each other which means freshness was preserved - but I enjoyed the Egypt themed ones the most.

The secrets design was OK. I felt like in the beginning the secret walls made sense more and the hints for being able to find them visually were more evident. Towards the end I just spammed space around walls to find them, which isn't nearly as fun.

Now for the bad.

I have a "top of the line" rig with a 4090, I shouldn't have to turn down my graphics to the lowest setting to play this caliber of game at 60+ FPS. However, that's exactly what I had to do. I assume it is something related to how the fog is rendered, because it absolutely tanked my performance in some sections. However, lowering to low wasn't a huge graphical difference, so I was fine with doing that to recoup the glorious frames.

Performance was at least fixable, but a lot of the other downsides were not. I constantly ran into bugs where I would escape the playable map. Sometimes I'd take an elevator and it would transport me to below the map. At times, a button wouldn't probably trigger a platform to rise and I'd accidentally walk into an ocean with no return back to the map. There's a lot of rough edges like this.

The level of bugginess was so bad that I started questioning whether the invisible enemies later on in the game were intentional or a bug. I still don't know. But, if it was intentional, it was annoying as hell and not fun - at least have some hard to tell visual indicator.

As for actual gameplay - the most egregious thing is locking you into an upgrade you can never swap. This is dumb. They cost the same, let people switch between them for fun - it makes no sense to introduce this constraint. It wouldn't be so bad if some of the upgrades weren't complete crap - like the SMG (or whatever it was) upgrade that makes its projectiles ricochet which _also_ harms the user.

Also this game's BFG was the most underwhelming weapon I've seen.

Towards the end the enemies became a bit too bullet-spongy and not as fun to fight. Maybe because I didn't select the right upgrades.

It's fast, the artwork and music are really good, the controls are solid. There is the reward for play in the exp/levels/perks. It's intuitive, Wofenstein/Doom-like with a touch of classic Dark Fantasy.

Criticism: The unrelenting contrast of all the black outlines on everything in the graphics can be straining over time; The movement, while appropriately Doom, might be a bit too fast for the tight corridors and above-mentioned outline-contrast.

This is a game I'll be playing as much as possible just to see where it goes, enemy and art-wise.

Top modern, pixel "boomer-shooter" without the cute.

better than ''project warlock 2 spin-off''
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best music
best graphic
best gameplay
best enemies/boss's
best weapon
best weapon upgrades
best secrets
best fun
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100% replayability


game score 10/10

very nice

oh god its so good, i was a little turned off at first when i saw there was no jumping, but damn you can fucking book it in this game regardless. its also the very rare game where melee is a perfectly viable option, by the end there i was wreathed in magical protection and charging down enemies at full speed with a claymore.
stellar boomer shooter

Tired of jumping in an FPS? This is your game.