Gorescript

Gorescript is a single-player FPS in the vein of Quake or Doom but it has quite a bit to offer beyond a simple nostalgia trip.
Pros:
-Great level design. Levels feel fluid, fast, and fun - never boring
-Soundtrack. Glitchy eletronic music that sets a dark and nervous tone for the game.
-Weapon balance. Every weapon is purpose-built. Old school FPS players will enjoy swapping guns as the situation demands.
-Extra features and game modes. 5 difficulty levels, permadeath, speedrunning leaderboards, and the very interesting blackout mode. Loads of replay value.
-Jump kills. I never knew I wanted to Goomba stomp baddies in an FPS until Gorescript. Super fun and interesting addition, and a great way to save ammo.
Cons:
-Minor glitches. You can occasionally find yourself temporarily stuck in the ceiling after a jump. I never got stuck permanently and it was not disruptive to gameplay.
-Strafe running is under-utilized. Level 1 teaches players to "Strafe run" - use circle-strafe techniques to get enough speed to cross small gaps. This is very rarely needed in the rest of the game and it feels like a forgotten technique in later levels.
Overall, I highly recommend this game! Easily the most exciting and interesting single-player experience I have had in 2017!

Introduction
Gorescript is one of those few Steam titles that does what it advertises on its Store Page and somehow still manages to surprise you in a pleasant manner. At a superficial glance I was expecting a barebones, generic fast-paced shooter in 3D and I witnessed instead, a true love letter to the old school PC shooters I used to play as a kid. Written in pixelated blood, naturally. The developer is a fellow Romanian, but I won’t be biased regardless. Truth is that for a Steam debut, Sergiu Bucur shows great promise. He went for a simple, yet effective formula. A no-frills experience that emulates gaming times long gone, without feeling like a cash grab as some of Gorescript’s direct competitors.
Story
The game does share its DNA with some true classics such as Wolfenstein 3D (1992), DOOM (1993) or Quake (1996). Those went on to become staples of the first person shooter genre, while Quake also managed to incorporate an intriguing multiplayer component. Gaming history indeed. Yet Gorescript just pays homage, it doesn’t wish to copy anything from its “ancestors”. So you don’t have a story about demons or aliens. You don’t even know the names of your arcade-looking opponents nor does our nameless and silent protagonist, feature any form factor.
Players experience the gameplay from a first person perspective, in which you can see only the hero’s weaponry and its violent interaction with all those that stand between you and the level exit. Not much to go on, but you can always imagine that you’re some avenging entity killing PAC-MAN mutants, since the three enemy types you shall encounter, resemble either the iconic dot gluttons or that game’s chasing ghosts. The arsenal is fortunately more diversified as is the level design itself (in spite of only 18 levels, so far). You don’t really need a plot, in the case of title which evokes simpler PC gaming times. At least, I wasn’t bothered by it.
Graphics
I was tempted to name it as another quality Unity-powered indie release, but inspecting the game files and then visiting the game’s Steam Community Hub, the developer himself describes it as “Custom C++ game engine ftw!” and boasts the fact that Gorescript can probably run even on an older low-end PC. It really stays true to the “source material” but I actually enjoyed what I saw. Minimal style, sure. Both chromatically and from a 3D asset perspective, the game clearly focuses on pure action.
No time to stop and stare. In fact, you stop while you’re in a room filled with enemies you have yet to silence and you can probably bet that you’ll be dead within seconds. Even though this may not pose the ideal conditions for screenshot opportunities, I did find even the cleared rooms (they use “gore” in the title for a good reason) to have a beauty of their own. The game ran flawlessly on 4K@60fps. The fonts may not have scaled as much as I would have liked them to, yet they weren’t too small either.
Audio
It’s always the audio department that suffers the most in the case of this particular type of shooters. Other than a slightly repetitive soundtrack, you don’t have much variety in terms of sound effects and I hope you didn’t expect any voice acting from a strange cast of characters who aren’t even properly introduced to us. If the OST bothers you by the time you’re reached the last Gorescript levels, just mute it and listen to your own tracks of preference.
Gameplay
Few levels or not, they are sufficiently spacious and most of them enable the well-known tactic of “fire & forget”. In other words, being vastly outnumbered you have little choice but to constantly be on the move, shooting while shifting from one room to another. The weapons and their fire rate can be used to your advantage since your foes could never match the reflexes of a human mind. Experienced or not, you’ll have to adapt or Gorescript shall prove to be an even shorter trip than it already is. A rare gameplay mechanic in this title has to be the RPG-like map and inventory system. Across the levels are scattered certain power-ups which act as equipable items. For example, if you wish to jump, you better find a special set of boots. Yeah, Gorescript really doesn’t want you hopping around. Rocket jump at your own discretion.
You’ll still die a lot since the avatar you control can’t take many direct hits from the cyan triangle cyclopes or their deadlier cousins, the green three-eyed snails. Those two types of foes use a ranged attack. The third and so far last one, is a red globe creature which just bites, if you get too close. As I mentioned already, no matter how many of these pixelated monsters try to swarm you, the weapons prove to be quite effective at crowd control and ammo crates are aplenty (if you play on Normal difficulty, at least). The first firearm you pick up is a SciFi shotgun with an unsually long range. All the subsequently unlocked weapons, have a drawback of some kind. Such as low “bullet” spread or large damage radius which can harm the player, if they don’t keep a safe distance.
The melee option you can choose when low on ammo, is a warhammer & shield which reminded me of Space Hulk: Deathwing. You’re far better off just shooting while running than hitting an enemy with a blunt weapon while all his buddies take aim at you. Speaking of the difficulty itself, you can up the ante by playing with permadeath enabled and a special “Blackout Mode” which lets players fight in near total darkness, in exchange for a score multiplier. Of course there’s a highscore to keep track of everything and a leaderboard to ensure bragging rights, if your skills aren’t too rusty. I admit that my reflexes have gotten soft after years of favoring RPGs and RTS’ over most FPS’ and their various shooting subgenres. That doesn’t mean that I couldn’t enjoy Gorescript to its full potential. The game’s difficulty slider can accommodate all potential players.
Verdict
Sure, this isn’t STRAFE, but it is priced accordingly for what it offers. You get Cheevos, Cards to forge some nice badges and a game that’s all about shooting first and not asking any questions. The fact that you can run it even on that lousy laptop you drag all the way to college for “studying purposes”, is just icing on the pixel cake at this point. I hope the developer shall add new levels in a future update.
Strong Points
+ Perfect fast-paced gameplay.
+ Steam Trading Cards & Achievements.
+ Beautiful graphics despite the minimal style.
+ Inherently difficult and with options to increase it further more.
Weak Points
- Limited sound selection.
- Needs more levels.
Rating 85/100

This review was submitted for SUPER Giveaways through the generous contribution of GhostalaÜ.

I don't think I have said that a game is a DOOM copy in a long time... but here we are. It is very, very inspired from the 90's DOOM game, from the fast-paced action, lack of reloading, and hoards of enemies to kill with a large arsenal, all the way down to the map style and level design. It brings all the thrills back from the 90's and packages it with some modern technology such as dynamic lighting, true 3D models, better animation, and an amazing soundtrack. If you loved DOOM back then, you will absolutely love this game now. Hell, even if you didn't love DOOM, you'll still love this game.
P.S. I remember when this game was released on the Google Chrome store, and I played it then and loved it. It has grown so much since then, great job, dev!

This game is really very good!
Put the guy from doom on floppy disks in a digital world with robots and this is the game you will have!

Gorescript - The Nostalgic Trip With A Twist
Gorescript is a FPS game that is inspired by the old classics of the FPS genre that defined what an FPS game could be. If you're a fan of games such as Doom or Quake you will feel right at home with this game and might even get a nostalgic trip out of it. Now I know what you're thinking, and no this game isn't exactly like Doom and Quake, it has its own style of graphics that appels more to that of a kid demographic but still keeps the feel of a shooter game like Doom.
Lets get right into the first point of this game. The Nostagic Trip. When I first started playing this game I instantly got the vibes of Doom rather than that of Quake. The reason for this is probably because I had grown up playing Doom and I had never even touched Quake in my life until recently. In Doom there was no such thing as jumping whist in Quake this machanic existed. What if I told you Gorescript has both mechanics in it? Later on after one or two levels you can find yourself getting boots that changes the gameplay from a Doom feel to a Quake feel by allowing jumping.
Now you may be wondering how long would a game like Gorescript take to complete? Well the answer to that would have to be a few hours. Now while hearing a game only takes a few hours could scare off some people who want this game to last a bit longer than a one and done thing and this game can last that long! There are so many differant modes ranging from Easy to Masochistic mode and there is also special modes that can be toggled onto your current difficulty, these being Blackout and Permadeath mode. Oh and did I mention that they have a level editor?
Finally if you love games like the classic Doom and Quake than this game is a hands down must get. Gorescript is a great experience that even features a built in level editor incase you would like to expand the game a bit and allow for your own twist on things. You can replay old levels over and over again and still have a new experience due to there being randomly generated items each playthrough hidden inside of secret areas around the map.
My Final Verdict for this game is a 9/10!
If you are wonder why I rated this game so high please look at the Pros and Cons listed below.
Here’s a Review Video that I had made awhile back but isn't as updated as this review:
Pros:
- Steam Achievements
- Trading Cards
- Leaderboards
- So Many Settings
- So Many Difficulties
- A Level Editor
- 6 Differant Weapons
- Secret Areas
- Special Permadeath and Blackout Mode
- Unlimited Replayability
- Great Soundtrack
- A Unique Art Style
Cons:
- There are certain ledges you can get stuck on but its possible to get out of those.
- Lack Of Enemies, If there would be more enemies than what is presented I think it would make this game have a bit more of a likeable variety compared to "Oh, its the triangle eye again, Time to dodge these eye beams"

This review was made possible by IndiePromo.
I received a reviewing copy of this game for free. However, my review is honest.
Skip to the bottom for my Final Thoughts
Gorescript is a difficult and fast paced first-person shooter game resembling classics such as DOOM or Quake. The gameplay wasn't quite what I expected, but it was a fun game, albeit a little difficult at times, nonetheless.
Graphics
The graphics in Gorescript are voxel based and almost minimalistic, but that doesn't stop the game from not looking nice. Although the rooms and walls can be a bit bland and even confuse you as to where you are at times, the overall graphics of the game aren't hard on the eyes but aren't anything to brag about either, but chances are admist all the fast paced combat, you won't have time to really take in the visuals of the game.
Audio & Soundtrack
The music in Gorescript, although repetitive at times, is nicely done and fits the overall fast paced nature of the game and sci-fish theme. Some levels reuse music from the previous levels, but there is a little bit of diversity between levels. The music genre is electronic but is a bit too hardcore for my personal preferences, but to each their own. There is no voice acting to speak of, and the sound effects are scarce with the only noticeable ones being the gunshots and hammer swings.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Gorescript was a little bit foreign to me at the beginning but I quickly got used to it. The gameplay wasn't what I was expecting at first, and I never really played any similar games like DOOM, Wolfenstein, or Quake, but I found myself enjoying the gameplay. As previously mentioned, the combat in Gorescript is very fast paced, and even the most miniscule mistake can land you back at the start of the level. I found myself shifting between two gameplay styles while playing. At first I took my time and cleared rooms one by one, but that requires planning and rationing of your limited shotgun ammo. Then, after I realised that clearing rooms, although is the safer option, doesn't really fit the run and gun fast paced nature of the game, and so I began rushing through rooms, only killing when absolutely necessary. The latter option is hands-down the most fun and more difficult gameplay style that I used on most levels to varying success.
There are different weapons in the game, but I couldn't really find a way to access them. On multiple levels, there are different weapons you can get to as a kind of secret item, but I could never find out how to get to them, so I stuck to the two main weapons; your shotgun and your hammer/shield. The shotgun has a very limited number of bullets but is very powerful, so I used it excusively on ranged enemies. The hammer is a faster weapon with no ammunition, but deals less damage and requires you to get up close and personal with your enemies. The hammer does come with a shield on the side, but I never really used it in combat.
Storyline
There was no story to speak of, which could've made the game more interesting.
Final Thoughts
Overall Gorescript was a neat first person shooter that I had a great deal of enjoyment playing. If you enjoyed playing the classics that defined the first-person shooter genre such as DOOM, Wolfenstein or Quake, then I think you would also enjoy playing Gorescript. Although the visuals and audio aren't the greatest, they aren't a hinderence to the game.
Rating:
Graphics: 6.5/10
Audio: 7.0/10
Gameplay: 8.0/10
Storyline: N/A
Overall: 7.1/10
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Review copy provided by developer
If I have to choose between a game with a great look and one with a great feel, I’m going for the feel every time. I shouldn’t have to choose, of course, but the point is that mechanics are almost always the most important part of your title. A first-person-shooter needs solid movement and gunplay, along with enemies that challenge the player to make the most of them. Gorescript does just that in a big way, but as I alluded to it’s very much a choice of feel over looks.
There’s literally no plot to Gorescript, not even an indication of why it’s called that. You are somebody with guns, and there are 18 levels floating in a starry void crawling with monsters to gib. Your course is clear, inevitable, and splattered with many shades of viscera as you weave between foes and fill them full of bullets and bolts and rockets. We’ll never know why you’re doing this, or why these things hate you so much, or why your rocket launcher is holy, and I’m pretty okay with that.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend the original DOOM had some kind of amazing plot, but it had amazing mechanics and the inspiration Gorescript takes from it is clear. Movement is just as ludicrously fast and precise here as it was then, all the way down to strafing diagonally making you run faster. The maps are striking homages to classic level design, featuring wide-open arenas, monster closets, narrow labyrinths, and hidden passages galore. Mouse aiming is fully enabled but the maps follow the old rules of no rooms over other rooms and there’s no jumping without a very hard to find item, preserving that old DOOM feel almost to a T.
Aside from the all-too-familiar health, armor, and ammo pickups there are items to find, usually secreted away in hidden areas behind secret doors or hard-to-find passages. These go into an inventory alongside your minimap and can be used at will to give health or armor boosts or enable special effects like lifesteal on hit, double damage, or jumping. It’s a nice little extra layer to exploration that rewards you with more than just your basic resources, and they’re helpfully marked on your map by default but still require plenty of poking about to reach which alleviates much of the pace-breaking issue with secret hunting.
There are enemies as well, and while they perform their function as meaty obstructions admirably there’s an obvious weakness here. You’ll encounter a tanky, large-mawed meatball with a melee bite, a triangular eye that fires slow-moving shots reminiscent of imp fireballs, and a large three-headed critter that soaks up damage and lays down a spread of three big bolts. Together these foes form an interesting cross-section of challenges when viewed from the friendly end of your weapons. You shotgun and blaster make short work of triangles but the other two are too meaty to dispatch easily. The railgun does work if you line up multiple foes for each shot, and the rocket launcher can eat through health but works best against groups. There’s even a nice riff on a BFG that has its own firing mechanics and strategy to it.
That’s all well and good, but those three enemies are it. For the two hours and change it’ll take you to finish the game once, throughout all of those 18 levels, there are three monsters to fight. All the great level design (and it really is great here) can’t overcome that lack of variety, which brings me to the other obvious knock against the game. You see that stone texture on the walls? That’s everywhere, forever. Plain stone walls, plain stone floors, plain stone ceilings, with occasional green or red tinges to give them a hint of variety. Your enemies, items, and weapons are similarly plain and blocky, lacking even detailed animations or destruction physics to give them character beyond their basic shapes.
The only respite you’ll find from blasting the same three enemies over and over is a gimmick boss on the 9th level and a real boss for the finale (which can be hilariously cheesed if you can jump). It works, honestly, if you appreciate the throwback gunplay as much as I did and power on to the end. But at the same time, the exclusive focus on gunplay suffers from the bland visuals and shocking lack of enemy variety. Right down to the sound design the game is split like this, with an appropriately thumping techno soundtrack and absolutely anemic weapon sounds. As long as you can get past the looks of Gorescript, though, it’ll bring back that feeling you haven’t felt since first loading up DOOM.
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