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Modern Retro Shooters / Quake Spiritual Successors
Wonder If A Specific Retro-shooter Thread Is Warranted?
#10166 posted by Shambler [92.29.26.135] on 2017/08/27 11:32:00


It is! Separate thread because there's a lot of these sort of games, the ethos of them is particularly relevant to this board, and it's inhabitants seem to have some good varying opinions on the matter.

Quake as the eptiome as 90s action FPS:

Very direct control and physics
Simple streamlined gameplay
Brutal visceral and gory
Weird fantasy / gothic / industrial theme
Grungy, coherent graphics
Cool map designs / architecture (for the time)
Varied but consistent bestiary
Etc
(many of the above adhered to and greatly enhanced by subsequent custom content)

We all like these aspects, we all like these aspects in other games, we all want to see more of those games, possibly combined with modern graphical styles (Quake Chumpions MAPS might be an example of how far this could go) and maybe very limited modern additions (crouching? an inventory? coherent story? - but nothing that gets in the way of solid action). We perhaps want the next Quake / 90s action FPS spiritual successor...

Modern Retro Shooters:

...and lo, there's a neverending stream of modern retro games many of which are unabashedly marketting themselves as 90s action FPS spiritual successors and particularly highlighting speed, direct control, simple action, limitless violence. Do they have what it takes to hit that mark though??

Strafe
http://store.steampowered.com/app/442780/STRAFE_Millennium_Edition/

Amid Evil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo7X7b6pPng

Dusk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsu9uDMlIMM

Hellbound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyabhVn1SfQ

Apocryph
http://store.steampowered.com/app/596240/Apocryph_an_oldschool_shooter/

Ion Maiden
https://twitter.com/voidpnt

Neverdead
http://store.steampowered.com/app/681000/NEVRDEAD/

Gorescript
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpZ1Wa0OIoQ

Intrude
https://bagogames.com/intrude-review/

Hermodr
http://store.steampowered.com/app/490360/Hermodr/

Devil Daggers
http://store.steampowered.com/app/422970/Devil_Daggers/

Gibhard
http://www.gibhard.com

Revulsion
http://store.steampowered.com/app/719180/Revulsion/

Witchfire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zqjNkdXT94

PLUS MANY MORE LINKED IN THE THREAD BELOW....

Without wanting to opine too much, there seems to be a general trend of possibly not hitting the mark despite some attempts to do so, with a huge variety in how much potential those attempts show, as well as how close these games are to realising the overall harmonious game quality of a typical best 90s action FPS. I.e. Some games seem to do some aspects right, but don't seem to get all the aspects in balance and appealing together.

Discuss....
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Coce. 
Google HROT?

Also re: Queak inspiration, watch the last 20 seconds of the vid.... 
#440 
Did it, and found nothing, because in the video it is written HORT, not HROT. With Hrot it is easy. 
 
Queak inspiration, watch the last 20 seconds of the vid....

Yeah, the looks are different from iD maps, but the textures look 100% percent that they come from a Quake custom map. More than inspired, copied from a .wad found somewhere. 
Okay So.... 
https://youtu.be/1v_X2v255W0

RetroFPS REAL TALK and final Ultrashill thoughts. I'm done with this for now. 
@Shambler 
My two cents about retro games in 2020:

3D Realms is doing a great job with Wrath, Graven and Ion Fury. Recruiting veteran mappers to do what they do best.

New Blood, apart from Gloomwood (made by a veteran Thief custom-mapper), all other games in their catalog feels more like a satire of old-school games, they remind me of those joke-wads from Doom community. I don't like it. 
 
Gloomwood looks cool. More like a Thief-style stealth game than a true FPS. But it's surprising the janky model/animation quality doesnt seem to have improved at all since Dusk. I know its still a one-man or at least very limited team, but you'd think they could hire or commission a modeler with the money from Dusk. 
Tribal. 
Ion Fury....I wouldn't get on with the build engine and sprites, but definitely got a strong theme and purpose.

This...

New Blood, apart from Gloomwood (made by a veteran Thief custom-mapper), all other games in their catalog feels more like a satire of old-school games, they remind me of those joke-wads from Doom community. I don't like it.

...is spot on too. I got the same feeling scrolling through 90% of the Realms Deep stuff on Steam. 
Finally For Now. 
A request please:

If anyone does find any properly good / inspiring retro FPSes that are of the ilk that Tribal listed above, please do still link them with shots and gameplay footage etc. The concept is still valid... Thanks. 
@Shambler 
If you're looking to get really fucking mad, look up Effigy, Endless Hunger and Perilous Warp. Utter fucking tart that people DROOL over, it makes me seriously wonder what these people get out of these games. Do they just hear buzzwords and dribble out a gleeful response? It's baffling. 
See Above For Perilous Warp 
And see further down the Effigy comments list.... 
Effigy 
let's hope it is an alpha and the brushwork simple blockout and not something which seems to be even worse than Dusk. Also, i think someone linked a video to it here before. 
Prodeus EA 
One of the 0.5% of RetroFPSes to actually show some potential including an aesthetic "theme" and some actual "design" is in Early Access...

https://store.steampowered.com/app/964800/Prodeus/

Cheers vigil for linking it on Discord. 
TDDaz Seal Of Approval.... 
https://twitter.com/tdDaz/status/1326638392361226240

Gotta say, those shots show things like "theme" "atmosphere" "architecture" "harmony of aesthetics" and other such rarities. Even the hud is pretty tasteful. 
On Reflection. 
I've decided that Hard Reset, as minor and limited as it is, is a true retro-FPS.

Does it blend old skool simple / fast gameplay with modern production values??

Does it actually have a theme, purpose, design, satisfying weapons and a decent bestiary??

Yes to both.

It has many issues: Movement is a bit sluggish, enemies are a bit bullet-spongey, almost all the cool architecture is a pure un-visitable backdrop, it's very arenay in places and quite 2-D in others, and if you care about such things the inter-mission story / dialogue is beyond terrible, it's also pretty damn short including the DLC.

But I had fun with it. The double weapons and their plethoric upgrades are actually nicely done and fun, the enemies at least have a theme, the backdrops are really cool and the overall graphics are good.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/407810/Hard_Reset_Redux/ 
 
it's dirty cheap now on gog: https://www.gog.com/game/hard_reset_redux 
OTOH. 
Here's some utter TURD that has been ruining poor viewers' eyes on Discord recently:

https://youtu.be/BIOJ6QURT5k

Nail And Crescent aka we have one torch model and one SNG ripped off from Quake Chumps or somewhere and think that a load of box rooms and plain pillars are enough to make a game BECAUSE RTX. Minecraft HD-textured box-cow ahoy!


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9F6I4gpeaEGcPDIvFC82pA/videos

Psymmetry aka all the effects and none of the level design whatsoever. Snapmap ahoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/807900/Hellver/

Hellver aka a pre-alpha test for devil fucking daggers being played on the gameboy or a pocket fucking calculator. Eye prolapse of horror ahoy! 
 
Nail and Crescent is claiming to be still WIP and really just a pack of content to make quake1-style levels in Quake2RTX. So, it makes sense that they don't have much content to show yet and also that they don't have any real level design. Maybe it's not ready to make a whole trailer, though. 
 
And maybe they should just port quakespasm to RTX. 
 
They need a third party audit on all that goddamn specularity on every surface. 
 
Wow, that Hellver looks like it has EGA graphics or something.

Nail & Crescent looks like some bad case of everything looking like wet clay, look at those nail ammo boxes, it's like they are oily or greasy, oh god.

What do you say about Core Decay?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1260940/Core_Decay/

Although it doesn't present itself as some Doom/Quake "romeric" shooter for "true warriors". And gameplay wise it seems different. 
 
Core Decay I have been following a little bit on twitter and I think it looks neat 
Yeah Seems To Have A Theme And Purpose To That One. 
Seem to recall enemies looking pretty naff tho. Haven't been following it closely. Feel free to post the latest media links if it seems worth it. 
Latest Media? 
Last thing that was released is the the announcement trailer below. Not seen much since.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjAvdzQhPQc 
Quakecast Interview On Core Decay 
This is before Ivar got the publishing deal but lot's of info.

https://quakecast.podbean.com/e/quakecast-47-ivar-hill-core-decay/ 
OCRUD 
Core Decay looks interesting, but from that footage, it also appears to have a mild case of what I call OCRUD (Obsessive Customization Requiring Upgrades Disorder) which is what most modern games suffer from (including a lot of retro-wannabes.)

In my opinion, if an FPS has OCRUD, it fails the "retroness" test due to "simple, streamlined gameplay" being ruined by upgrade point systems. And as someone who first got into FPS games back in those "retro" days, I can tell you that, contrary to what many devs seem to think, the fun of it didn't come from managing an entire bloody economy of upgrade currencies, or customizing your character to look like a damn unicorn...

But to be fair, Core Decay looks like it's trying to be a bit different, not explicitly "retro" or a "revival of the good ol' shooters." 
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