![]() ![]() The game features a handful of extra attack items for the toolkit and a variety of new foes to test steel and spell against, chief among them the Sorceress herself, who periodically appears at highly inopportune times to taunt, trap, and torment you in a far more active and painful way than Korax was ever inclined to get off his scaly ass and manage. It shows that taking the template of a project and giving it so much extra polish and attention is in itself a success and should be cause for celebration every time.Ī veritable PWAD cryptid, Veil of Darkness is a complete hub for Hexen, introducing a few new elements and an updated perspective on the original's classic gameplay loop, while remaining true to its real soul - its immersive world. Hardfest 2 represents the evolution of a team and the continuation of a concept honed to a razor edge. Scoring such a massive megawad is no easy feat and I'd fully expect these two to be mentioned alongside the midi masters like Jimmy and Stewboy in the coming years. The musically dynamic duo of Korp and LPad return, along with some first-time guest composers, and put in some of their best work to date. There are some intriguing wildcard entries in the set like the mostly-monsterless Acrophilia, a rocket-jumping tour de force inspired by the Quake Explore Jams, and the avant-garde Weeping Angel, a captivating experimental adventure through a crumbling tower lost to time, bridging dimensions and packed with enough architecture and doomcute to provide a welcome reprieve from the chaotic combat. ![]() Unlike the original, which stuck to the standard roster, custom threats are included and used to great effect, while occasional appearances by the infinite rocket launcher inject new life into encounters. It's an eclectic progression, rich in variety and each meticulously constructed, playing host to prolonged showdowns with Hellspawn that push you to survive and stick in your memory. True to the template of slaughter sets past, the maps are disjointed vignettes spanning traditional technological complexes and curious collections of city streets and mansions, but also stretching beyond the farthest reaches of the known universe to mind-bogglingly titanic alien monoliths. By and large, these maps are massive, starting off modestly but gradually approaching Sunder in terms of size and time to completion. The number of maps is effectively doubled in this iteration, and these aren't breezy affairs, as the Slaughterfest name drop wasn't intended to be a token comparison. Hardfest 2 is the follow-up to the series debut from last year that does everything a good sequel should do: expand and refine what made the original tick, and then some. Look, you like killing demons, right? Do you like killing lots of demons, relentless droves numbering in the thousands? Is your mind open to movement-based challenges, or intense resource management? Have you played the Slaughterfest series and thought "why did it have to end?!" If so, you're in for a treat, one that'll take time to digest and will most certainly leave you satiated. It's a curve that continues to climb ever higher, an escalation with no end, yet we continue to press on, just to see how far we can take it and, in turn, how far we can take ourselves. likely comprised of immense mobs of monsters. You could probably leave it at that and it would still sell the concept of this project to an entire subset of the community (as it did, being a sequel) but let's put it in perspective - if we're not engaging with that instantly recognizable flavor of Doom gameplay for that quick moment-to-moment gratification of removing all obstacles from our paths, we're doing it to push ourselves past a series of difficult encounters and feel that palpable satisfaction of accomplishment, the traversal of a truly imposing barrier.
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