Neo Retro Shooters - The intricacies of the renaissance of the "genre" known for gibs, quips and labyrinths.

So some developer has gone full retard and thinks doing a retro starship troopers game that looks like it belongs in 1997 is a good idea

Its going to be an utter dumpster fire. Take a good look at that gameplay and how it looks and then note that according to the steam page it will require 12gb of ram to run and recommends 16

Nigger fucking what?! That right there tells me everything I need to know to avoid this game like the plague. If it looks like that and requires that kind of ram the optimization is going to be absolute dogshit
 
WonderWino said:
So some developer has gone full retard and thinks doing a retro starship troopers game that looks like it belongs in 1997 is a good idea

Its going to be an utter dumpster fire. Take a good look at that gameplay and how it looks and then note that according to the steam page it will require 12gb of ram to run and recommends 16

Nigger fucking what?! That right there tells me everything I need to know to avoid this game like the plague. If it looks like that and requires that kind of ram the optimization is going to be absolute dogshit
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Might as well just play Starship Troopers. Looks better and will probably run better.
 
Brain Problems said:
Scummy beyond belief. I just finally got around to trying nBlood and it blows my mind how shitty FS/ReFS is in comparison to a free fucking mod. JewTari/NightDive deserve every ounce of hate over this. It would have been bad but tolerable if previous cucks owners like myself (who bought it in the hopes of showing that maybe they should actually make a new game lol, lmao) got a free upgrade but this is bullshit. I've said it before but between this and System Shock 2 NightDive has basically evaporated all their good will almost instantly.
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It's such a shame. Blood is probably my favorite game on the Build engine apart from AMC Squad. The weapon and enemy roster have such a good dynamic and I love the horror film homages. If Caleb had been voiced by anyone else than Stephan Weyte, it would have been cringe. Not keeping the Fresh Supply owner discount was a pretty scummy move, especially since RS has both bugs that have been in the game for almost three decades AND bugs that were previously fixed in FS. Deathwish and Marrow are both fun, but those campaigns are already free. The vault content and remastered cutscenes are nice, but don't really add THAT much value to the finished project. The net code in multiplayer is still an absolute wreck, to the disdain of the single/double digit amount of people who play Blood in multiplayer. Sort of a non-issue as none of my friend group had any interest in co-oping Blood on Extra Crispy with me, but it kind of defeats the purpose of integrating cross platform multiplayer. I also find it strange that they used art for the Refreshed Supply cover that has both a revolver and Caleb with hair, neither of which are in the game, including the remastered cutscenes. And don't tell me that's the flare gun because the design is based around an old brass Army flare gun and is shaped more like a blunderbuss.

Fortunately, you can still the find One Unit Whole Blood edition on InternetArchives and just run that with NBlood/NotBlood/BloodGDX/Raze, etc. Don't give Warner Bros a cent if you can avoid it.

WonderWino said:
So some developer has gone full retard and thinks doing a retro starship troopers game that looks like it belongs in 1997 is a good idea

Its going to be an utter dumpster fire. Take a good look at that gameplay and how it looks and then note that according to the steam page it will require 12gb of ram to run and recommends 16

Nigger fucking what?! That right there tells me everything I need to know to avoid this game like the plague. If it looks like that and requires that kind of ram the optimization is going to be absolute dogshit
Click to expand...

It's being made by Auroch, the same people behind WH40K: Boltgun, a very mid retro throwback shooter. I hesitate to call it a boomer shooter because it's map design is based around combat arenas like nuDoom and map exploration/secrets are basically non-existent. This Starship Troopers game looks like it runs like ass even in the promo material. I think the only saving grace of this game is getting FMV cutscenes with Casper Van Dien. I will never fathom how you fuck up a Starship Troopers game, but several studios have managed it so far.
 
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BiggestKai said:
I've heard of Sonar Shock but apparently it has its performance issues.
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Brain Problems said:
it's doubtful I'll go back to it any time soon unless I'm insanely bored at some point but there were no performance issues to speak of that I can recall
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I reinstalled it just the other day and had another go:
The freezing was absolutely intolerable. It doesn't kick in until you lift the lock down and the game "actually starts", but it's exactly as bad as it was before upgrading my GPU recently.
The fact it starts happening in the same place for the same reason every single time tells me it's the game. I've seen people say it stops when you get to other floors, but shit, imagine trying to play System Shock 1 and the game starts micro-freezing every couple seconds if you're anywhere on the Medical deck.
 
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WonderWino said:
So some developer has gone full retard and thinks doing a retro starship troopers game that looks like it belongs in 1997 is a good idea

Its going to be an utter dumpster fire. Take a good look at that gameplay and how it looks and then note that according to the steam page it will require 12gb of ram to run and recommends 16

Nigger fucking what?! That right there tells me everything I need to know to avoid this game like the plague. If it looks like that and requires that kind of ram the optimization is going to be absolute dogshit
Click to expand...
>Auroch
Oh, the Boltgun devs.
 
Pierre D'Olnique said:
I have come to the conclusion that I just simply don't like Blood and it fucking sucks. I don't know where all this glazing is coming from, it's one of the most frustratingly awful and cheap games I've played, and I enjoyed the initial release of Serious Sam 3.
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Frankly, it was all downhill from Duke 3D. I don't know what special sauce it had but it fucking worked ...well, about 2/3rds of it.
Blood is probably fondly remembered due to its good atmosphere but the actual gameplay leaves a lot to be desired.

Serious Sam is another series that I have a bone to pick with. It has excellent graphics and atmosphere and the shooting is satisfying but I hate the "Smash TV" style encounter design.
I wish that someone would make something else on the Serious Engine - I really fucking like it.
Nitro Family looks even better but it still lazily spawns enemies in. Still wanna play it at some point though.
 
Pierre D'Olnique said:
I have come to the conclusion that I just simply don't like Blood and it fucking sucks. I don't know where all this glazing is coming from, it's one of the most frustratingly awful and cheap games I've played, and I enjoyed the initial release of Serious Sam 3.
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I cannot pretend the difficulty balance is fair in the base game (not enough health, pitchfork starting every map is tricky) but if you haven't done so, playing on the medium difficult with highest enemy count via the custom difficulty option is the best way to go. Curious what your age is too because I think it still plays fantastically today and just like with other shooters from the day, has its balance, level design, weapons, and enemies even better understood for autists who have focused on it for 30 years and made their own maps for it (Death Wish, What Lies Beneath, Rage Against Machine, Marrow etc.)
 
To be fair, Build shooters had issues with hitscan enemies. I found Shadow Warrior's arsenal was gimmicky and not too good and the enemies too strong or annoying (like how the basic enemies are suicide bombers that ALWAYS leave a ghost behind to attack you). The Redneck Rampage one featured almost as much brown as the average popamole shooter of the late 2000s.
Finally, Blood's atmosphere is excellent and the weaponry is cool, but once again, it has issues with hitscanners: most of the enemy cast is easy compared to these darn cultists, that can turn around 180 grades to shoot you with pinpoint precision from across the room.
 
Brain Problems said:
I cannot pretend the difficulty balance is fair in the base game (not enough health, pitchfork starting every map is tricky) but if you haven't done so, playing on the medium difficult with highest enemy count via the custom difficulty option is the best way to go. Curious what your age is too because I think it still plays fantastically today and just like with other shooters from the day, has its balance, level design, weapons, and enemies even better understood for autists who have focused on it for 30 years and made their own maps for it (Death Wish, What Lies Beneath, Rage Against Machine, Marrow etc.)
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I'm 34, and enjoyed pretty much every actual oldschool FPS that came my way (what I could get from pirated floppies and CDs). Grew up with Duke3D and Quake, neither of which had bullshit oneshots* or really cheap chip damage**.
*In the literal first map I walked into the first building and instantly died from full health and armor, only later did I learn that the omnipresent cultists also lob fucking TNT at you with surgical precision.
**Also in the first map, most of the damage I took was from fucking rats. Supposedly you're meant to kill them instantly by simply stepping on them, but that didn't work and I found myself 30+HP down (didn't even count the armor lost) after merrily walking into a pile of five. Duke3D had protozoid slimers but also gave you an option to literally stomp the shit out of them with your boot. And then the second level had fucking bats, with my only option of dispatching them being the shotgun, for which I barely had ammo.
 
Pierre D'Olnique said:
I'm 34, and enjoyed pretty much every actual oldschool FPS that came my way (what I could get from pirated floppies and CDs). Grew up with Duke3D and Quake, neither of which had bullshit oneshots* or really cheap chip damage**.
*In the literal first map I walked into the first building and instantly died from full health and armor, only later did I learn that the omnipresent cultists also lob fucking TNT at you with surgical precision.
**Also in the first map, most of the damage I took was from fucking rats. Supposedly you're meant to kill them instantly by simply stepping on them, but that didn't work and I found myself 30+HP down (didn't even count the armor lost) after merrily walking into a pile of five. Duke3D had protozoid slimers but also gave you an option to literally stomp the shit out of them with your boot. And then the second level had fucking bats, with my only option of dispatching them being the shotgun, for which I barely had ammo.
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Yeah, it isn't easy. The game wants you to approach things semi-tactically. You generally can't just bum-rush rooms because Cultists have insane aim and damage. You also get a feel for what mappers like to do with regard to enemy placement. Not saying it's fair but maybe just drop the damage difficulty and keep the enemy count high and that way you can try and figure the system out without getting one-shot every time you turn a corner. I won't defend rats though, they're very annoying to deal with (pitchfork and just keep a bit of distance on them or find a higher plane and poke em to death).

TNT is your friend, you can right-click to set a timed fuse so you can lob it off walls, around corners. Save scum. Your flare gun auto-targets nicely and will melt cultists if you shoot them, run out of sight for a second, and wait for the satisfying sound of them burning alive. I really don't know what else to say. If it doesn't click for you it doesn't click. I just know it's my favourite of all the Build games by far.
 
Newcomer 42 said:
To be fair, Build shooters had issues with hitscan enemies. I found Shadow Warrior's arsenal was gimmicky and not too good and the enemies too strong or annoying (like how the basic enemies are suicide bombers that ALWAYS leave a ghost behind to attack you). The Redneck Rampage one featured almost as much brown as the average popamole shooter of the late 2000s.
Finally, Blood's atmosphere is excellent and the weaponry is cool, but once again, it has issues with hitscanners: most of the enemy cast is easy compared to these darn cultists, that can turn around 180 grades to shoot you with pinpoint precision from across the room.
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Speaking of build games and bad hitscan code the worst example of that i've seen from the build games has to be redneck rampage. Its a pretty funny game sometimes but holy shit the hit detection on enemies is absolute shit most of the time. Especially with smaller enemies like mosquitos and those shit throwing whatever the fuck they are (also fuck whoever thought that god awful sewer level was a good idea right up the ass with ten feet of curare and hot sauce tipped wrought iron fence posts)
 
 
Finished HROT last night. I recommend it. I wouldn't call it a Quake-like but more of a Chasm: The Rift, especially with how the levels are laid out. I do have a minor gripe with the sound effects. The weapons sound rather weak. The pistol sounds very pitiful and so do most of the arsenal. At least the RL is punchy and the explosion sounds are decent.
 
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