Reviews - brobbeh

Fantastic episode that deserves way more attention.
Tons of new enemies, art and a new villain with great char design that fit Hexen spot on. The level design is quite incredible, with each map bringing fresh ideas, traps and monsters. All have a different visual vibe and none of the maps went on for too long.
The pacing is similar to an arcade game with a boss fight every hour or so - they are a ton of fun too.
Not gonna lie, I think this was even more fun than the original Hexen episodes.

I only have one complaint and it's that the automap wasnt quite working (only a fraction of the level was showing). Add to that getting lost because the hub is huge and a dozen keys and quest items along with infinitely respawning monsters eating up your mana and it can get frustrating figuring out what to do while never left in peace. (Apparently there is a console command to turn off respawning somewhere)

Fantastic mod idea made with a ton of love. Reusing old doom maps but with a ton of random events and modifiers makes them feel completely fresh again along with TONS of new content with over 100 artefacts in the style of Risk of Rain(RoR) and lots of weapon mods.It's not without flaws but hopefully some will get squished in the final version.

Pros:
- nails the "just one more run" feel, it's really hard to put down!
-A TON of content, it's cool to unlock new passives (some are locked behind achievements/ milestones). I've played a good 25 hours or more and I still discover a lot of stuff and must have only found 70% of the relics (passive and active).
-A smart economy. Killing extra monsters gives souls which can be used to buy loot or access to bonus rooms. However staying in a map longer to get extra souls constantly makes the game difficulty increase.
- Revy the shopkeeper is great (as well as his/her reggae loving buddy) and it is always exciting to check what he/she has to offer.

Cons:
- The randomness needs some reigning in. Right now the game is closer to a gambling machine. You can start with a thrice curse useless gun or with a hegemon mod machine gun that ll tear everything apart. It's cool that starting loot varies but the quality should vary just a little. Best to just restart your run if you start with crap.
- Likewise, the balance of relics is all over the place. Some are godlike and will make your run much easier. Some will straight up instantly ruin your run such as one that randomizes your stats so most likely you'll know walk as fast as a turtle. Hopefully the devs can look back at RoR which had pretty good design philosophy on artefacts where some were more useful for some builds but usually always worthwhile to get. Here there are quite a few passives you ll absolutely want to avoid! Worse is that you'll often be under heavy fire so good luck identifying what you're picking up!
- Unfair situations: more issues with the heavy randomness of the game. Enemies spawn can spawn anywhere near you (or in Limbo, spawns in specific spots) but what monsters is completely random. That means you can have a cyberdemon spawn right behind a door or in a tight corridor in pitch black. Once you are at curse level 9 or higher entering any room in limbo is a gamble and you might die within literally 1 or 2 seconds of entering. Feels pretty unfair and unsatisfying every time it happens.
While it might sound not "doom" I suggest nerfing specific monsters just for the sake of the infinite mod. A slightly slower reaction speed and missile speed on cyberdemon would do wonders here, as they are originally designed for large open space or for big infighting situations. They don't play well in this mod at all.
- Rarity: Mod packs and infinity runes are left to complete randomness. You might get quite a few modpacks for your weapon and actually feel progression through your run or get zero... Some control on the randomness and ensuring an occasional modpack appears ( maybe 1 per map is pre set randomly?) would help a lot.
The biggest offender are infinity runes. They are excruciatingly rare and all key game progression is locked behind those. You can either pray RNGesus or beat a challenge mod. Beating a challenge is for top skill players only so progression feels completely locked to any more casual players making progression feel stagnant very quickly. Solution: What if runes were meta unlocked based on combined scores of all runs? Reach 20k points from all your runs and unlock a first one, another at 50k and 100k. This would limit how many players can get "easily" but still allow them to progress with time and unlock key stuff like the store.
- The store: it's a key element of the game loop but is locked behind 2 runes and took me like 10 hours to unlock. It makes souls relevant and the game is a LOT more fun with it. I really wish it was just locked behind a soul gate requiring 200 souls or so.
- It often doesn't respect the player's time. Beyond the grinding for runes, a key issue is going in limbo room sets, losing a bunch of health to traps only to get a dead end with a clip of bullets and an armor shard. Sometimes you fight a horde of monster and the reward is a 30 seconds Quad damage... Completely useless AFTER the fight.
Solution: Rework a bit the loot to ensure minimum value for room sets. While players understand the risk of going through traps, the simple fact of wasting 3 minutes to get basically nothing 35% of the time becomes really grating after a bit.

"Brobbeh that's much more critics than praise, do you hate this game?"
No it's genuinely great and has even more potential. All the pieces are there, it is mostly a question of balance and tweaks of values and conditions at this point.
Game is totally worth playing and feels like a full fledged game I wouldn't have mind paying 20-30$ for easily! Looking forward to the next version! One of the most incredible and ambitious mods I've seen!

Incredible work!
A couple gameplay issue here and there but overall really great how it does feel like castlevania but 3D. Honestly, this is the best 3d castlevania I've played. Much closer to the original soul of the serie than any of the official 3D titles.

Got frustrated at a couple parts ( the first level actually felt like one of the hardest, maybe I just couldnt find the health pickups in that one).
Finished on hard with 140200 final score. :)