Selaco

Selaco may legitimately be one of the best shooters to ever come out. As a complex shooter, Selaco excels in many, many aspects. I'll go through each below: GUNS: Selaco retains the gun philosophy of games like F.E.A.R. and Doom, where each weapon is extremely viable and impactful. Each gun can hold its own versus any of the enemies that the game throws at you. Due to this, you have a lot of freedom in deciding which to upgrade and primarily use throughout the game. Notably, all of the guns have additional modes of fire that can be found in addition to the list of upgrades you can already access, making all the weapons feel "fresh" in some regard. This "freshness" is elevated further through the weighty, yet flexible gunplay that Selaco touts. Shooting an enemy never ceases to feel good, even after 15+ hours; the hit feedback is simply fantastic and is exactly what I want in a shooter like this. Enemies sustain different body damage based on the type of weapon and the way it is used. Regardless, the aftermath is very messy. Painting the walls, floors, and furniture with alien blood has never been made so easy, yet addictive. ENEMIES: Selaco attempts to emulate the enemy behavior of games like F.E.A.R., where enemies are designed to adapt to the player in many different ways. Squads may retreat back and hold an area if it gives them an advantage. An enemy soldier may rush toward you while his buddy flanks around from the other side. Soldiers additionally move in and out of cover, mimicking player behavior to a good extent. The voice-lines also add a level of immersion to the game through their sheer variety and presentation. You feel like you're attacking intelligent enemies. No two scenarios will ever feel quite the same, which really adds to the replayability of the game. INTERACTIVITY: This is an aspect that honestly blew me away. I was not expecting the level of interactivity that the player has throughout the game. You can pick up, move, touch, throw, break, eat, drink, play with, etc. many assets throughout the game. I found myself intently exploring and searching through the environments thoroughly because I'd never know what I'd find. The game further encourages this exploration and interaction through its wealth of secrets (some more hidden than others) throughout. In my own playthrough, I was constantly rewarded for my thorough exploration and attention to detail. Interacting with the environment was surely a high point of the game. As a side note, many of the game's assets are fully destructible. This gives combat additional weight, as you'll find yourself shooting through office spaces, restaurants, and the like with furniture and such getting destroyed left and right. Enabling permanent "aftermath" in the settings further enhances the impact and immersion. LEVEL DESIGN: Selaco has excellent level design. The levels are notably expansive and diverse, with, often, many routes to venture through. You'll run through offices, stores, military bases, streets and many other environments; each area felt fun to navigate and explore. You may, understandably, feel lost at certain points in the game's many structures, but the map that you are provided with quickly dissuades these feelings and solves the problem. I had a rather smooth experience navigating through each of the levels, with only minimal reference to the map. Some reviewers claim that it's much too easy to get lost . . . to which I say, "use your brain, buddy." Traversal through each section felt natural, with some back-tracking that felt reasonable and realistic. ART: Selaco has an art-style that some people will love, and others, not so much. In my opinion, the art is fantastic. The game, having been built with the original Doom's engine, looks and feels like a modern upgrade to Doom whilst having kept the core of the presentation the same. Assets are obviously not intended to look "hyper-realistic," but they still all have a high level of detail. The detail does not have dips in quality either; the developers did a great job of ensuring that everything looks good. MUSIC: Gosh, the music is just fantastic. Not a single bad tune in here. High-energy, electronic tracks make a chaotic gunfight extremely satisfying, while more chill tracks enhance the exploration experience of the game. I spent quite a chunk of time just relaxing to the atmospheric music and playing Burger Flipper (you'll understand once you discover it in-game). SOUND DESIGN: Gun sounds are impactful, player/enemy footsteps and movements sound good, asset destruction sounds and feels satisfying, and the ambient noises do a great job of making you feel like you're in the presented environment. The overall sound design is high quality. LORE: Selaco makes excellent use of its data-log system to provide information about the world, as well as various character interactions throughout. You'll find information about your weapons, enemies, locations, and more in your data-pad, which you can access whenever you want. Sometimes, an important pass-code will be hidden in a data-log that you find on the ground, which will unlock a room that gets you an upgrade or other reward. All of these tidbits of information are presented through excerpts that fit the world of Selaco. There's some humor in here, as well as tragedy. Though I'm not typically a fan of far-future settings, Selaco honestly felt rather grounded to reality (as much as it could be, I suppose), despite taking place in the year 2255. The level of technology present in the game felt rather fitting without delving too deep into sci-fi territory, which I was happy to see. As of this review, only Chapter 1 of 3 has been released, so I hope to see the story continue to be fleshed out. POLISH: This category serves as a "catch-all" for all of the miscellaneous, great things I have to say about Selaco. Everything looks, sounds and feels like a high-quality experience. The secrets are numerous and interesting. The quality-of-life is perfect; they really make you feel like they thought of everything. The UI of the game is great; it gives me all the information that I want to see without bloating the screen or being ugly. Navigating the menus and the data-pad is also extremely easy and satisfying. Additionally, there is a wealth of settings that you can fine-tune to create the experience that you want. I 100% recommend looking through the settings menu before starting a playthrough. The game also gives you five main difficulties that you can further tune into your intended experience. Completing the game once will give you even more settings to mess with. This studio is extremely competent, and I trust that they will continue to polish the game even further. OTHER NOTES: While this game is labeled as a "boomer-shooter" on the Steam store, Selaco falls more into a middle-ground between immersive sim and boomer-shooter. You're not going to be shooting enemies constantly. There is sometimes a decent chunk of time between enemy encounters, which is further extended through thorough exploration of the levels. I don't consider this a flaw, however. Selaco separates itself from arena-shooters and boomer-shooters by putting more of a focus on methodically introducing you to the world. Enemy encounters make sense and are specifically positioned through the levels in a realistic way. FINAL THOUGHTS: It's astounding to me that this game is going to have three, full chapters. At the time of this review, only Chapter 1 is out and the game still feels pretty complete. I paid 12 dollars for this game, but I'd still buy this game for its current early-access content for 25 dollars. Everything here is fantastic. You're getting a high-quality experience with immense replayability and a dedicated dev team that knows what they're doing. If you're a fan of games like F.E.A.R., Half-Life, Doom, Crysis, and the like, you'll most likely enjoy this game. Thank you for reading!

I could tell you about all the cool and magical things this game does. How it looks way better than it has any right to look and plays like a dream. But i wont. Get it right now and have a jolly good time. 10/10 GZDoom magic. "SELACO IS MAGIC" -Civvie11

its fun but im really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid and get lost constantly

The developers of Selaco have done an amazing job making an ancient engine produce modern effects while adding interactivity to the virtual world. However, I didn’t like Selaco personally. I understand the game is in Early Access, it might be improved, and overall, it’s not terrible. That’s why I’ll leave a positive review, but I’ll explain exactly what rubbed me the wrong way. [b]The good:[/b] [olist] [*][b]Certain tracks in the soundtrack.[/b] My favorite is the melody in the safe zone. The futuristic vibe with a laid-back rhythm sounds pleasing. [*][b]Weapons feel distinct.[/b] It’s fun to experiment with all the guns. [*][b]Optimization.[/b] It’s fantastic, which is shocking given how much has been crammed into the game’s engine. [/olist] [b]The meh:[/b] [olist] [*][b]Level design.[/b] No standout features. So far, I’ve seen chaotically placed rooms with occasional open areas. Some ideas, like random sliding cabinets (their purpose is unclear, almost hinting at platforming), feel undercooked. Levels are visually bland, cluttered with unnecessary nooks that imply tactical depth but add nothing since enemies just mindlessly charge at you. [*][b]Pacing.[/b] It’s inconsistent. Is the game pushing for slow exploration and careful shootouts or fast-paced battles with constant repositioning? On high difficulty, enemies hit too hard in direct confrontations, forcing you to play tactically. But they seem to see through walls, making environmental tactics futile. On medium, fights become tedious due to endless hordes. On easy, it’s just boring. [*][b]Lore notes.[/b] Same problem as the flop shooter Syndicate: some logs have interesting story tidbits, but the game doesn’t encourage pausing to read them. [/olist] [b]The bad:[/b] [olist] [*][b]Inconsistency kills immersion.[/b] The “rules” keep changing mid-game. For example: green-lit doors are openable, but some unmarked doors open too (defeating the color-coding). You can interact with soda cans (heal HP), but nearby food tins are just decor. Proximity mines and regular explosives share the same sound cue. Explosions sometimes trigger a yellow vignette effect without HP loss, while other times you take damage with no visual feedback. Environmental details like wall niches (usually hiding vents/secrets in games) are often just pointless clutter here. Level transitions are abrupt, sometimes blocking backtracking despite the game teasing secrets. Easily miss doors leading to new areas if you don’t squint at the map. [*][b]Terrible sound design.[/b] Enemies move silently or stomp loudly, but broken audio positioning makes sounds play from the wrong directions. Some effects are spatial, some mono, some feel inverted. As someone who relies on audio cues, this confused me constantly. [*][b]Weird progression.[/b] Some weapon upgrades seem useless, others require grinding for resources. Not sure about total playtime, but at my resource gain rate, I’d need 20-40 hours to max one gun. How is this supposed to work? [*][b]Enemy spawns.[/b] Sometimes they pop up silently behind you; other times, they burst through doors/walls noisily. Feels artificial. Would prefer static placements over chaotic teleporting squads. [*][b]It’s boring.[/b] Despite the “interactive” flash, Selaco feels worse than Duke Nukem 3D or similar games. The protagonist lacks charisma; enemies are generic troops and robots. Just dull. [/olist] [b]Final thoughts:[/b] Selaco is arguably one of the most tech-advanced boomer shooters thanks to its shiny interactivity. Strip that away, and you’ve got an outdated FPS with clunky level design, weird choices, and no standout moments. Not a bad game, but its future is unclear. Maybe I missed space levels with zero-gravity laser fights against giant spider-mechs… but I doubt that’s even in the game. The peak “interactivity” will likely remain flicking light switches and dragging explosive barrels to yellow-marked walls.

Я столько раз вспоминал добром Selaco в заметках, посвящённых другим Wad'ам для Doom, но про саму игру сказать словно бы и нечего. Selaco это лучший геймплейный опыт в контексте шутера от первого лица, что у меня имеется — стрельбы настолько же сокрушительной, насколько проворной, опьяняющей и будоражащей одновременно, я не встречал более нигде. А ведь это чёртов Doom с его 2,5D — пальба по спрайтовым человечкам, да такая, что и в лучших произведениях жанра не сыщешь. До Selaco я подобные конверсии и за игры, честно говоря, не считал — полагал такое забавой для одичалых скуфов, что Doom с 1993-го знают и помнят. Selaco, конечно же, не обходится без собственных проблем — многие отмечают контринтуитивный журнал и относительно запутанные уровни. Строго говоря, игре действительно не нужны открытые локации, а тем более возможность возвращаться на них, однако на общей линейности игрового процесса это почти не сказывается. Ну и также признаюсь, я не прочёл ни единой записки — в System Shock 2 прочёл все, а вот Selaco отчего-то совершенно меня к этому не расположила. Может потому что весь сюжет это фикция в одну строчку "на наш прекрасный город напали террористы". Хотя обставлен игровой мир вполне симпатично. Так или иначе, Selaco замечательная, а кто говорит иначе, с тем я чаепитие не устраиваю.

Having played this from the early demo days, its suffers from the same issues now as it did then. While the game itself is fun, you aimlessly spend a lot of time just wandering around lost, even with the map. I spent 50 minutes wandering around looking for a lever that was hidden behind a pipe. No in game lore or pick up with this information that would mention this, no glowing indicator just have to know. I still haven't figured where my next objective is as the green door indicators that are supposed to lead you get me nowhere. With so many games out there, especially in the boomer shooter genre, there are other games that are much more forward and have a much better navigation system than Selaco. Wait till its on sale or prepare to wander aimlessly through a game that could be so much more. 4/10

Brutal Doom mod on steroids and a 12 pack of Redbuls. My personal impression is that Selaco is exactly what I wanted from Brutal Doom. Even more than that. We don't need to be able to pick up every piece of furniture , every sheet of paper and every cup or soda. But here we are. The devs really understand what made Brutal Doom great - the destruction, the particles and the splatters that you leave behind you. So they gave it all they can. Smart enemies, destruction and gore and blood everywhere. I play this game on Ridiculous settings, which you know from Brutal Doom that it means everything is flying everywhere there are body parts and blood on the ceiling dripping. And on my system it dips to arroung 60 fps from stable 144 when I look at all the carnage from a fight, so it probably needs better optimisation, but eh, it's Early Access after all. I have a great feeling about this game. It has Worshop support, great boomer shooter visuals, movement is tight, the weapons are great. Just a wee bit of optimisation and it will kick ass so much, however as a disclaimer I do play on Ridiculous level of detail and that could make any PC melt. Also I wish there was more enemies. Therer are a lot of times that I just walk arround the empty map looking for where should I go next. So eighter more or respawning enemies, or some better way of knowing where to go next.

One of my favorite fps games! hard, challenging and fun! 10/10 can't wait for chapter 2!