Retchid

Bad animation, little hit reaction and boring enemy design make the opening of this game a chore. It's absolutely nothing like System Shock, more like a cheap Doom 3 knock-off. Maybe worth it for 5-10 bucks if that's your thing, but definitely not for $25.

An EXCELLENT homage to Doom 3. It really feels great to be playing an hps horror shooter like this. Secrets are everywhere but not tedious to find. Combat is exactly what you'd expect. Atmosphere is spooky and dark. AND your flashlight is on your helmet, what else could you ask for!?

... reconsidered refunding because of Early Access status, So, I'll keep it and hope it improves. But I am still not recommending Retchid due to its EA price. The price is $10 too much for this Doom 3 want-a-be.

Retchid is still in early access when I'm writing this, so I'll temper my sentiments, but I really wanted to enjoy it and didn't. If the consensus is that the selling point is "spiritual successor to Doom 3" then the premise is good. Nothing about the execution lived up to my hopes. The gunplay is stiff and unsatisfying. Other reviewers have talked about how there isn't enough ammo (and there isn't) but I also felt like there weren't enough enemies. Doom 3 follows Half-Life design logic where new enemies spawn in old areas if you're supposed to be doubling back that way; it keeps things peppy and lets you know you're on the right track. Retchid doesn't, and even new areas are enemy-poor. At times it feels like a walking simulator. When you do meet enemies, they're glass cannons with laser-accurate shooting, and they can hit you from above when you're underwater. That's brutal because you can't fire back with any kind of accuracy. Unless they're shooting, they also don't make any noise when they're running up on you, which feels bogus and cheap rather than challenging or scary. The level design was all kinds of frustrating. Doom 3's level design is deliberately obtuse, but the levels are tighter there than they are here, so you can just follow one wall if you're really stuck. This is more like exploring an abandoned mall... one where everything looks the same and signs often have typos. Doom 3 would also occasionally stop you from going backward, meaning that if you're fumbling, you're fumbling forward; as far as I can tell, Retchid doesn't. What it DOES have are areas you can drop into but not climb out of, so you better really want the thing you jumped in there for because you're going to do five minutes of walking to get back. That takes all the fun out of exploration. All in all, if you get lost, you STAY lost. I even disliked things that are, on the face of it, clear upgrades from Doom 3. You can use the flashlight AND shoot... but then why ever turn the flashlight off and experience the ambiance? Your suit air is unlimited, so take as long as you want to admire the the exterior sets... only to realize that much of the appeal of doing so in Doom 3 comes from how brief your glimpses there were. There's water... and all it does is make existing gameplay harder without adding any kind of fresh mechanics (at least in the parts I played). I didn't finish the available levels because I got jumped by a squad of guys right outside a save point one too many times. It'd be the better part of half an hour to get back where I was, and I realized I just don't want to keep going. Misc. gripes not mentioned elsewhere: The voice making announcements every 20 seconds is annoying; I'd suggest cutting it way down to maybe once every 10 or even 20 minutes to sell the idea that you're alone. I don't like that the flashlight beam comes from the upper left; if it's handheld then it should come from a lower corner, and if it's suit-mounted then it should either be straight-on or there should be another one in the upper-right corner. I don't like having fixed save points and I don't like the "find the key card" puzzles; both feel like difficulty curve cop-outs rather than legitimate challenges. And there's a place in the maternity ward where the arrows to two rooms are reversed. I know video games are hard. I wish the team good luck.

[b]UPDATE:[/b] after further testing, the save system could definitely use an overhaul even if it's just more autosaves. I love the Doom 3-style difficulty and gameplay, but dying and losing over half an hour of progress just because you forgot to find a save room before a boss fight isn't fun. Well done. This game needs more attention! It's a spiritual successor to Doom 3 that improves by being slightly faster-paced and less linear. The guns feel right and the enemies are pretty creepy, perhaps even more so than Doom 3. Levels are designed well and interesting to explore. Areas for improvement: [list] [*] [b]Story:[/b] does not need to be deeply intricate, but should be more engaging (e.g., Doom 3, John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars). Cutscenes, better fleshed-out characters, environmental storytelling, and NPCs would be welcome. This will help make it more immersive and feel less like you're just playing through a set of levels. [*] [b]Save system:[/b] this could use an overhaul. I understand what the devs are going for design-wise, but it doesn't blend well with the gameplay style. Something more akin to quicksaves or frequent autosaves would be much better and encourage more exploration and risky fighting styles. [/list] Overall, great project so far. Really looking forward to seeing where it goes, especially starting so strong.

This game is great if you like classic shooters, specifically Doom 3. A lot of shooters are just not fun for me anymore and the ability to play something that I enjoyed many years ago in a modern form is really great. I'm most of the way through episode 1 (on E1M6) and I really like it so far. Areas for improvement - Would be nice to know how to convert the sensitivity from Quake -> Retchid - Framerate seems to cap itself at 60 unless I set it to an arbitrary cap, like 240 (would be nice to truly have a truly uncapped framerate) - Customizable crosshairs; the option for a simple + would help a lot

Прекрасная смесь из Doom 3 и Quake 4. Сейчас уже не хватает подобных игр.

A definitive winner, this game is unabashedly taking the elements of the very best Doom games and puts them together like a delicious stew. A sprawling map design with side passages, short cuts, plenty of secrets like in the good old Doom 1 and 2, a visual style of scary sci-fi horror as in Doom 3, and terrifying soundtrack reminiscent of Doom 64 to match. There's a solid stock of weapons and enemies so far (including a full blown boss fight) but hopefully will be expanded upon. Level designs are incredibly intricate. The only downside so far may be a few of the design choices.. it overly relies on enemies that are just guys with guns (about 80%) placed on ledges or behind grates where they are barely visible where they take potshots with surgical precision while you have not a single weapon that can handle long-range engagements. There's so many shooting enemies in fact that their weapons cannot be picked up, so the developers must have known that would ruin the balance. Combine that with F-You traps of enemies teleporting to you, extreme health pack scarcity as well as a progress system that relies on save points, and you have a bit of a wonky difficulty curve. Perhaps that too will be smoothed out. I was able to beat the first chapter without too much trouble but it can be frustrating if you get down to low HP, can't find any health and your last save was too long ago.