Project Warlock
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About the GameOne man and his guns. Become a mysterious Warlock who embarks on a dangerous mission to eradicate all evil. Put your finger on the trigger and travel through time and space to wreak havoc like in the golden days of fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping first-person shooters, hooking you for hours of super fun carnage. Let’s rock and roll!
Explore 60 vast levels in five settings, from frozen Antarctic base to the sands of Egypt to the medieval castles’ courts and graveyards. Find keys to unlock passages, reveal secret caches with ammo and gold, use lifts and hidden buttons to access new areas. Finally descend to hell to face the ultimate challenge and emerge victorious.
Combat tons of enemies from flying demons to five-story robots, splashing walls, and floors with their blood and chunks. Dodge bullets and projectiles, figure out strategies and weapons that work best against each of the nasty villains. Learn their moves and stay one step ahead to survive through the levels. Face mega bosses in vast final arenas to complete each world.
Expand your arsenal with new weapons found along your way. From powerful blades to massive guns, collect and develop your favorite gear and master the craft of carnage. Reach into the vast arsenal of 38 types of weapons and learn their secret tricks to deliver maximum damage, fast! Grab the ammo and spit out a series of bullets, walls of flames, and bursts of magic shots to bring down enemies foolish enough to stand in your way.
Develop your hero the way you like, by assigning upgrade points and perks to the favorite skills between each level. Develop and upgrade spells and weapons to create your unique character through the game, and use their powers to master the game in higher difficulty modes.Features:
- 60 levels
- 5 worlds
- 72 enemies
- 38 weapons
- 8 spells
- 12 perks
Steam User 25
I was hyped, it did not live up to hype.
It is just okay.
Steam User 5
At it's most basic, you could describe Project Warlock as 'Wolfenstein 3D with mouselook, always run, and melee combat" but this would do it a disservice, so let's add 'with overtones of "The Thing", Painkiller, Serious Sam, and Terminator Skynet, oh and Catacomb 3D!'.
The main game consists of 5 episodes, each consisting of 5 blocks of missions. Between each block, you return to "The Workshop" to spend level points, and buy weapon upgrades (a similar system to Doom 2016, where you can choose one of two upgrade paths). The mission blocks in each episode consist of 2,2,3,4,1 missions (with the last mission being the boss for the episode) except for the last episode which is 2,2,3,3,1. Death restarts the current level with no penalty (though there are 'lives' modes), but returning to the workshop will mean restarting the block. This workshop mechanic ensures that you aren't worrying about upgrades during the missions themselves, just ensuring you find all the secrets (wall-humpers apply within, though many are well signposted) as the treasure you find is what counts for experience.
In addition to the traditional FPS weapons (pistol, shotgun, machine-gun etc.) you also get 3 melee weapons (axe, dagger, sword) with varying attack speed and damage, and magic (which has it's own simple unlock tree). Every time you level up, you get a point to spend in damage, health, mana or ammo, and every 5 levels you can unlock a perk (more rocket drops, or higher speed).
Combined, this simplistic skill tree amounts to a reasonable level of replay options, as only through a second play-through can you truly experience everything (you cannot unlock enough points in one campaign run to get every perk/spell/weapon upgrades).
The core gameplay is in maps laid out on a square grid, like Wolfenstein, but very detailed maps, with surprisingly beautiful wall textures, and interesting detail scattered through the rooms, along with hundreds of monster closets routinely linking areas you've already explored. Levels can have up to 3 different keys for doors, though it's not unusual to find secrets bypassing them - a speed running challenge? - and switches can be activated to raise floors or lower walls, as well as to move to 'upper' levels (very much an engine cheat). The total effect is of a competent game from around the time that Doom came out - frenetic and fast paced, but still somewhat limited by technology (think Rise of the Triad).
Enemies too are varied and distinct, despite being sprites, with the first 4 episodes (Medieval, Arctic, Egypt and Industrial) having clearly defined and distinct enemies (unique movements, attacks etc.) The 5th episode has a few more unique enemies, but it's also a mash up of the previous 4 episodes artistically, and so uses their enemies to good effect.
Sound design for the enemies too is distinctive and effective, such that in the final few levels, where pretty much any enemy can be thrown at you, the sound cues are clear on which enemies are in the room. The music too is awesome, an electric guitar heavy affair, which definitely feels the place in the early 90's aesthetic.
Bringing it down to earth a bit: Across 50 levels the mazes can get a little wearing (though certainly not as bad as in Wolfenstein where they all blend into one long maze of grey and blue and red), and while the enemies are varied there are clear 'types' (the weak flying orbs, the tanky fast melee ones, and the big heavy hitters), some can feel a bit cheap (the Anubis and the Grunt in Episodes 3 and 4 respectively are both hit scanners with near instantaneous attacks), but, much like Doom Eternal, the game trains you to beat them before unleashing them in with the rest of the horde.
What is very surprising having completed the game, is how big a difficulty curve there is, even playing on hard mode. For much of the first episode, I completed levels with just the sword, by episode 3 I was mostly using the shotgun and the pistol, midway through Episode 3 (when the first Anubis was introduced) i moved up to the ricocheting SMG (all the better for killing the buggers from around the corner), but episode 4 was the first time I started having to really concentrate, and use all of the arsenal available.
Episode 5 continues that difficulty theme, ramping up the volume and challenge of enemies (and the danger of the traps) enormously, and while the first 4 episode's bosses are bullet sponges, the final boss is downright daft. He has 4 stages, and you can (and i did) wipe out almost all your ammo on just the first stage. Some of that is ammo clipping through the boss (particularly the laser cannon), but he is just extremely spongy. I eventually defeated him only by using the game's equivalent of the BFG (which amusingly I'd never noticed i had before) to get to his 3rd stage, and then using an 'ammo replenish' spell to keep me topped up. Even so, I was down to the shotgun when he eventually went down.
Having said this, the game really does strike the early 90's spirit well in this regard - Doom and Doom2 formed a clear escalation through the missions, and Project warlock has captured this too, it's just strange to be revisiting that escalation in a game 30 years later.
Overall, for a game that starts off downright trivial, the challenge ramp in Project Warlock is intense, and some of the difficulty spikes are very noticeable. However, the combination of early 90's charm, great gameplay and wonderful music makes it easy to recommend this, particularly at a discount. You're unlikely to be replaying this often, but the game is definitely worth at least one run-through.
Steam User 5
If you are looking for something between Serious Sam and Old School Doom, Project Warlock fits the bill.
What I liked:
1. Interesting Weapon Upgrades
2. Varied Enemy design which requires different tactics
3. Lots of Secrets
4. Some interesting Magic options
What can be improved:
1. Progression/skill tree is quite punishing in that its hard to gauge the effect of the upgrade you will be paying for, with no way to gain a refund if you realise that the upgrade is not what you wanted.
2. Not enough interplay between gun play and magic
Not the best boomer shooter, but great if you just want something to scratch that itch.
Steam User 6
Project Warlock is one of the must play boomer shooter games! Here is why:
PROS: With each chapter you finish, the stages & boss fights become more & more challenging. Your character levels up at least by 1 lvl when fully completing chapters, so the difficulty never gets too brutal. The soundtrack of this game is hands down in the top #5 spot of the genre. Visuals are cool but what made the visuals even more awesome were the retro effects that you could choose from and it made this game so much more fun to play when I opted for low pixels & retro LCD visuals, making this game look like it was made in the late 90's. Selection of weapons are amazing and so were the spells. Easter eggs that pay homage to old school boomer shooters like Serious Sam & Duke Nukem were a joy to see.
CONS: The story and main protagonist are a bit boring. For every chapter you finish you can't revisit them in the main story mode which is a shame, because that would be the best way to level up your character.
CONCLUSION: No matter how many times I had to rage quit this game, I came back to it better then before by finding new ways to attack or retreat. What I love about this game is how well made it is, with lots of love & care from the developers. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes retro gaming, indie gaming or boomer shooters.
Steam User 8
Phenomenal FPS with lovely 2.5D graphical overhaul!
My biggest annoyance is the fact that your character does not automatically change your weapon when you run out of ammo and it always becomes a hassle while you are being swarmed.
Steam User 3
It's reminiscent of Wolfenstein 3D or Hexen, but the pixelated graphics, colors, 2D objects and narrow corridors just don't appeal to me.
Great music too.
I'm recommending it anyway because I recognize it's a great game but it's just not for me.
Steam User 2
★★★☆☆ Good!
Action
If you play the game with a right attitude, you will love it. You could call it a remastered version of classics which is just perfect if you loved Doom, Hexen etc. but you already got used to smoother gameplay served by modern games.
The shooting is extremely satisfying, and defeating hords of monsters is as enjoyable as it can get. The player has 13 weapons to choose from and all of them can be upgraded one time, changing drastically how the weapon functions. There are 2 possible upgrades per weapon to choose from, which adds replayability if the player wants to experience all that the game offers.
On top of that, the game has a level up system. When the character levels up, the player can upgrade stats such as up of ammo capacity. And to finish, the player also has access to spells that can also change the way the game is played.
Soundtrack is good. Npcs are nonexistent, but at least the monsters have some variety.