The AMC Squad is an epic story-driven FPS running on the Build Engine. It combines gameplay mechanics of retro-shooters with aspects of modern titles, complete with a story-driven narrative that spans over several episodes. Each episode is a full-length campaign featuring multiple varied locations to explore and many hidden secrets and collectibles to discover. Experience an overarching story that is loosely based on the worlds and settings of other classic Build Engine games. Pick from more than 8 different character classes, each with a unique loadout of items, weapons and abilities, and fight a large selection of different enemy factions that threaten the safety of the game world.
Short Review of Episode 1:
A very interesting and ambitious mod to say the least.
My absolute favourite aspect of the mod is the additional gameplay depth granted via new mechanics: sliding, leaning, sprinting, wall kicking, karate kicks, alt fire modes, alternate ammo, weapon upgrades, rolling/dodging, weapon reloading, melee weapons, temp weapons, basic loadouts, interaction with more object types, PDA/scanner & inventory.
These mechanics are what drew me to the mod in the first place but I was disappointed to find a notable portion of these mechanics were not utilized in the level design to their full potential, but they all had their uses at some point regardless.
There are new effects also such as dynamic skyboxes, footstep sounds, new sprite anims, camera effects, ridiculous but very welcome cutscenes and so on.
The level design is a mixed bag of quality and style, more good than bad, and when it is good it's top-tier, but when it's bad it's Duke Nukem: Forever bad unfortunately.
Voice acting is bad for the most part, the story however is very developed for Duke Nukem, the writing at times is good enough and it's worth reading all in-game text if you care for a fleshed out world, What is unique about the story is it is told from the perspective of the AMC team, all of which you control (all at least in episodes to come), sometimes even in the same level. Other FPS games have done this (Project Eden) but AMC TC does it well.
A problem with this concept is standard aspects gameplay you'd expect in a FPS such as ammo conservation, and long-term reward for finding secrets are non-existent due to constant switching of characters.
Sound design and music may not be original, but it is fitting.
This is better than some professionally designed FPS games, and I wish James and crew luck with releasing the mod in it's absolute entirety...they'll need it.
Edit: episode 2 has released since I last made comment, and whilst it is more of the same (which is good) with the exception of some improvements and unique creative scenarios, I'm updating this to a 10/10 out of the dedication of the developer & the principle alone.