GHOSTWARE: Arena of the Dead

It's a lot of interesting ideas with not the greatest execution. Story really fell flat imo, but the gameplay is serviceable enough to get through (third boss is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ though holy why). Movement is fast and has a couple interesting things going on but the stages are narrow and rarely let you do anything other than crouchslide and bhop for .25 seconds, so it's like a set of jangly keys rather than anything actually utilized. Buggy cutscenes and npcs referring to dialogue you haven't seen yet take you out of it pretty quickly too. Soundtrack is really damn good but I didn't hear it for the first half of the game because the default settings put it way below the other tracks, and I only noticed after a few hours. Worst bug I experienced was with the second boss where I tried to switch to the railgun after having used it in the previous room and for some reason from that point onward I couldn't shoot, thus forcing me to start the level over since I couldn't fight. In that same level the level select screen reports there being secrets but I was never able to go back to the level, so having that in a game that's structured around returning to levels to collect secrets is super cool and didn't annoy me at all (lying). It's an idea collage that struggles to tie them together. It's left me with a lot of wishes for what it could have done, but didn't. Only recommending because I respect what the intent was, but if I could I would put this as 'mixed.' Shoutout to the bathroom in the facility that tanks your fps when you first enter it btw, not intended I know but it was really funny to me.

The game has interesting concept and setting but it also has moments where it plays like an early access title, something about it just feels unfinished. I was starting to think about refunding the game after the first ~30 min thinking that its a pure arena shooter but then the game got slightly better and closer in structure to "traditional single-player FPS". It is not the worst shooter I've played this year but I did start to feel boredom while playing it before I've finished the story mode, which in itself is about 4 hours long. There is also separate arena mode with some modifiers and options for customisation but I imagine that fighting the same bots across few maps also gets stale pretty quickly. I definitely recommend waiting for sale on this one.

I'm deeply mixed on this. On the one hand, I didn't *not* enjoy playing this game in the moment. On the other...it's really not good in any of its elements. At its core, it feels like there's two different games fighting each other here: the retro arena shooter run by the psychosexual incel pervert, and the story-based cyberpunk shooter about a hacker fighting the big corporations. Both of these are peak turn-of-the-century FPS fare, and had either been given full focus, I think the game would have been better for it. Instead, we're just left with an incoherent mess in both story and style. It's also quite buggy: dead bodies turn into weird particle effects, items and people clip into walls, and the AI is just rock-stupid. Like seriously, 3/4 of all the enemies outside the arenas can be picked off from a doorway with the starting pistol and a mild amount of patience. I'd say it's worth checking out on discount -- again, I had a decent enough time -- but I can't give it a wholehearted recommendation.

I really enjoyed the game, but wish the dev would re-consider achievements as they've said they won't add them.

This has a nice short Unreal Tournament like story that is around 5 hours, this game is for love cool looking characters, teenage me would 100% have lost his mind over this. The arena mode is a little bit shallow, but I am not knocking the inclusion, it somehow makes you feel more immersed. We really are back in the 2000s, it's either it's either drum and bass or heavy metal like the good wizard intended. The game is a little bit too pricey for a very short game, but I had to admit I enjoyed everything of the game, the atmosphere, searching levels to find new links in the internet it all just felt cool... Still too pricey though.

I recommend it! A nice, short little shooter that has some classic game play built in. I enjoyed the story, the metroidvania aspects too. It's a little bit of a bummer that the secret ending is bugged and impossible to get, as I had just naturally explored enough to find it, but I guess that's just sometimes a thing with smaller projects. This one is def worth a play, especially if it's on sale!

Обман ожиданий, но такой, с закруткой сюжета, ещё и двумя концовками если не зевать. Стрельба простецкая, поэтому практически все боёвки во второй половине становятся уж очень простыми. Это частично компенсируется сюжетными поворотами и собиранием кусочков лора в единое целое. В целом игра неплохая, да и проходится за пару вечеров.