Project Warlock

I'm a big fan of this game. I feel this is the kind of game I want to create. There are probably better boomer shooters out there, but this one made me think a lot in 2018.

Cool shooter but in some places it's too complicated and hard to find where to go in the labyrinths.

Real Interesting.'
XP/Upgrades/Skill + Limited Lifes (If right difficulty.) - Very interesting.'
Old School Gold Style Gameplay, Goodness.

Went back after a negative experience and played a bit more. Knowing just how amazing the sequel is, I can cut this game a bit more slack. It was very obviously a learning experience ON TOP of having REALLY good movement and game feel. Still felt claustrophobic in some places and you REALLY have to anticipate monster closets going off as soon as you hit a switch or pick up an item. Still hate the lives system but I'm learning it's not THAT big an issue. Sequel gets rid of that in favor of the classic F5. It's not perfect and nowhere near as good as its successor, but for a first entry, It's pretty good.

Pros:
- retro graphics that really feel like from '80-90
- wide range of all types of weapons, from swords through rocket launchers to laser beams guns
- a lot of monsters, varying in every episode
- great music, like every level has different track. Bonus: while paused, you can check the title of the track, nice add on
- You can upgrade your weapons and make them into something completely new, changing their appearance and functionality
- a lot of classic retro shooters references, it's so good
- mana system and using spells - there is only a few of them, but it doesn't matter, it still makes the gameplay fresh and gives the opportunity to choose a right one for your playstyle
- cool fight bosses, however...

Cons:
- ... they are just too easy to get through. Like, with right weapons upgrade you can beat most of them in a minute, in a first try
- life system - on normal you have limited lifes, so you better not die - after losing all of the lives you are made to start the game from scratch. Yep, you heard me right - you lose all unlocked weapons, skills, spells etc, and start from the first level. Main creator states it's for the sake of retro gameplay and to make every death painful, just like in Doom or Wolfenstein 3D. But, here is another huge disappointment:
- no saves - This is the thing that concerns me somehow. 'cause even in Doom or Wolfenstein 3D you could SAVE. Like, you didn't have to, you could have just play without saving and being dependent from gained lifes through gameplay (thus starting almost everything from scratch - ALMOST, cause you could play from your desired episode, not from the first episode) but there was an option to do that. Nevertheless, game is most of the time a cakewalk, so there is only a very small chance you would start from the beginning, but STILL.
- Some levels are starting with a group of enemies shooting at you all at once, which is kinda unfair when it comes to limited lives.

In conclusion, it has it flaws - but it's a love letter to old shooters and with it's smooth gameplay it's a must play.

Very boomer shooter, lots of spells, lots and lots of weapons with game changing upgrades and a bunch of obtainable passives through the stat system, me like.

For it's current price it recommend buying it if you have the slightest interest in games like the older FPS
At the time of writing this review I've finished the campaign and it's pretty good, weapon upgrades were interesting although I wished I could use both the upgrades in a single play-through, at least it gives a reason to replay it tho I doubt I will end up doing that, but the bosses were just bullet sponges not offering much if any challenge.
The performance did start to go down in the later parts of the game when entering the city levels and became almost unplayable when loading the Hell levels which could very well be a problem with running the game over on Linux as I'm running well over the recommended specs.
I can't really recommend the horde mode as it was a slog to play, due to not only a tedious start, but also a 30 second unskippable timer between hordes, bad performance and enemies getting stuck in barrels making the hordes take even longer, the reticles were a pain to try and use as a lot of them seem to not be centered, still the campaign levels were good enough that I'd buy it in a heartbeat.