[quote]Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If you like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades [/quote]
It's no secret that I did not like the modern Doom games. I do not like the fact how the ammo count in those games is restricted to force a specific playstyle based on target prioritization onto the players. Those games are made for a specific audience, which I am not a part of it. That's why I was thrilled when I saw how Turbo Overkill plays like.
As the game has no strict limits on ammunitions, I could just turn my mind off and enjoy playing a FPS game after long hours of work. It was initially very fun and the combat felt good, but then I started to realize that I'm losing steam as I go through the levels. The initial feeling of fun quickly went away and gave its place to utter boredom. And it didn't take long for me to pinpoint the reasons why I was feeling that way.
[h2]Oh joy, the level keeps going...[/h2]
Honestly, to me it feels like Turbo Overkill has incorrectly understood the assignment. It does follow the usual "platforming -> battle arena -> repeat" formula of its inspiration source, yet believes having lots of enemies, battle encounters and lengthy levels are the priority, instead of offering a carefully curated experience.
Let's start with the levels themselves first. Turbo Overkill's levels are very big and very long, with a few having a lot of verticality to them, and it will take even longer for you to complete them if you try to go around and hunt for hidden collectibles. All of this results in each stage taking an average of 30-50 minutes to be completed on a casual playthrough, while playing on Street Cleaner (hard) difficulty. This will definitely prove to be a problem for those who are not used to such level lengths or have a limited gaming time.
And then we have the levels being very same-y and straightforward, with nearly every new gameplay addition failing to break the tediousness. You have access to abilities like rocket jumping and even acquire a grappling hook at some point, yet none of them are used to reward exploration and player curiosity. Every suspicious path you access by abusing MC's moveset turns out to be a main path you would have eventually got to, and the collectibles are sometimes placed in locations that barely classify as being "hidden". You even get to drive vehicles at some points, yet even those sections can bore you out as they still feel like the same thing you've been already doing for hours.
[h2]Come on! Kill me! I'm here![/h2]
Now, I could excuse the level design if the combat felt great, but it doesn't. Granted, there's a lot to like about the combat and those who just want to go shooty shooty bang bang will love the game. But personally, the more I played the game, the more I was bored with it.
Take the enemies for example. Despite the limited number of enemy types (considering the length of the levels) the game quite literally uses hundeds of them in each level; And what's worse is that it feels like they were spread around without any planning and logic. some enemy formations get used over and over again, and there are times when the game has you going against melee enemies in arenas that allow you to hit them from a safe place and see them run around like headless chickens without fighting back.
Speaking of which, the enemies don't respond well to your actions either. You will repeatedly enter rooms with loads of the same enemy types either wandering around or being frozen in place, not noticing you getting close to them or wrecking havoc on the other side. And when they do notice you, the AI and pathfinding is sometimes so atrocious that prevents them from properly following you around (especially through doorways) or repositioning themselves to attack you.
[h2]Chainsaw go BRRR[/h2]
The game has a healthy number of weapons with very fun to use alternative firing modes, but the problem is that a lot of them lose their purpose after a while. The chaingun makes quick work of mini and main bosses, the sniper is highly situational, the upgraded shotgun is perfect for enemies that do AOE damage, and you can just chainsaw the rest.
I'm not kidding. The chainsaw leg is very powerful, with even its base form being able to make short work of a lot of the enemies. And when you add its speed, the split-second invincibility and augments like health/shield generation to the mix, it literally becomes the go-to weapon in the game. The moment you realize how broken it is, you are not going to bother shooting at the enemies, making most of the combat very repetitive and boring.
And then there's the problem of poor damage feedback. Enemies barely react to the fact that they are getting shot, which in addition to very weak shooting SFX for a bunch of the guns (and especially the shotguns) makes for rather disappointing gunfights. And I haven't even talked about the bugs and the checkpoint system!
[h2]Me and my ♥♥♥♥♥♥ luck when it comes to bugs...[/h2]
The game runs well as a whole, but from time to time it just bugs out. You might see NPC dialogues staying on the screen, your gun might stop firing mid-combat, you might see enemy bullets going through environment, sometimes the grapple will fail to function, and sometimes the visuals go haywire on lower quality settings, engulfing the screen in visual effects that hinder visibility. And then we have the whole thing with the checkpoint system.
The checkpoint system is inconsistently weird. It either places you way back and before lengthy encounters (which means a simple platforming error can have painful results), or puts you in highly unfavorable situations. You might reload from the last checkpoint, just to get an enemy in you face or see the enemies you had killed in the previous room have respawned. You might use your bullet time to collect an item, just to die afterwards by mistake and find out you have no more power to get out. That's why the game gives you the ability to quick save and quick load. However, it still won't allow you to use them at times.
[h2]Why does everyone put important story details in comics?[/h2]
The other thing that severly disappointed me, was the story presentation. The story in Turbo Overkill does look simple and the whole thing can be summarized with "Corrupt corporation's AI went rogue, go kill it" but it does try to do more than that, and I couldn't help but be unsatisfied with its presentation.
Johnny Turbo (the protagonist) is neither charismatic nor actually badass, and aside from what you see in the cutscenes, not much of his past and connections get revealed. Furthermore, the levels have audio logs hidden in them which contain recordings from other characters, some of them directly addressing Johnny and the rest being third-party conversations, left behind by people that you have no idea who they are. Therefore, the story developments will not make much sense and will be hard to follow... especially with audio logs having no subtitles. That is, unless you have read the free prelude comic.
The comic actually builds up Johnny's character, reveals a part of his past, does some worldbuilding and introduces other people who appear in the story, giving more context to the whole thing. And not putting all of that in the game itself is such a weird decision in my opinion. Most people are not going to bother with a comic; They just want to hit "Play" and launch the game. So having all of this and not incorporating it in the game itself is a huge mistake in my book.
[h2]TL;DR[/h2]
Starts very well, but gradually devolves into a repetitive & boring experience due to a lot of factors such as very long levels, lack of proper gameplay variety and broken status of one of the weapons.
