Saccharine

An enjoyable short little shooter; took me less than an hour to beat but it's a Christmas game so really that was a fine length for a game to play before heading off to bed.

Mega jolly, mega festive.

A highly enjoyable distillation of everything that makes good boomshoots fun to play. Punchy weapons, silly humor and never outstays itself. Well worth a play!

Got this and beat it on Extreme all over again. While I don't notice any differences from the free version other than the "Retro" music option, which is absolutely awesome, the game is fun enough to be worth every penny.

Fairly short, but you can't go wrong for a few bucks of Christmas-themed comedy in an FPS! I also happen to know the VA for Sanya, and they're so nice to listen to honestly :3

[h1]The video gaming equivalent to a TV Christmas special[/h1] The Steam Store page doesn't really hide how short it is and admittedly, I'd struggle to recommend it at its base price. For a $3.9 CAD purchase (or $3.11 if you own Project Absentia), you get what can best be described as a standalone Doom mod with a handful of tricks up its sleeve Honestly, the main reason this had caught my attention is because it's the first commercial product to use the UZDOOM codebase. which is fairly significant if you follow the Doom modding community. If you're unfamiliar, GZDOOM was the go-to for making more advanced Doom mods and/or standalone games running on the Doom engine, but some time around May of 2025, project lead Graf Zahl pushed out some AI-generated code in the github repository, and everyone else on the team voiced their disagreement with his actions. Le No Chicken in his infinite wisdom said, in his exact words: "feel free to fork the project under a", and every other project member did. I don't think I can really comment on the artstyle, since it seems like a deliberate choice, being invocative of older Flash cartoons back when animated videos could be compiled for less than 10 megabytes. I grew up in that era, so I have some appreciation of the artstyle, but I also acknowledge that it isn't for everyone. Other than that, I can't help but think that the more advanced features of ZDOOM-based level design are heavily underutilized, though I am willing to praise the interactivity of the game world, being invocative of what the Build Engine offered [spoiler]unfortunately, you can't admire yourself on the mirror with E, or drink coffee from the various pots found in the game[/spoiler]. Another critique I have with some of the design decisions is that killing the first boss you encounter immediately ends the level, rather than unlocking an exit switch. This can be pretty annoying when you realize that you missed more secrets than you have liked, and now you are kiting him while humping the walls like 1993 Doom Other than that though, there are some positives that I would like to point out. While the hitscan weapons are fairly basic, the foam dart launcher, RPG, and firecrackers are pretty satisfying to use, and I love how the Red Ryder BB gun stand-in is also the stand-in for a Quake Engine railgun. I can't say i enjoy the Fondue gun, since the projectiles feel way too slow with the player version, while the mice you grab them from have the same projectile speed as an Arachnatron. One detail I thought was cool with the gameplay is the incorporation of score items, and hitting specific milestones increasing your max health. I would like to see more games with a focus on racking up points and getting rewarded for doing that, and I wonder if something similar will be planned for Project Absentia. And honestly, I think this was a much better way to do score than how the shooters of old did, since losing a life just means you play with a pistol start, and being able to save your game trivializes this. All in all, I can see this game being a fun and harmless gift to anyone who enjoys old-school first-person shooting. [spoiler][strike]And a question to Waffle Iron Studios: What did you guys do to the Phoenix Plush's voice box? >:o[/strike] Phoenix's voice box is back as per the 2026 boxing day update[spoiler]

I was looking for Christmas games to add to my yearly playlist. This is certainly what I asked for and was entertaining to knock out. No achievements, but I will find myself coming back and playing this as a meme, especially with friends.