Recent retro shooters, which to play first?

[Dr. Cheesesteak]

So, I've only recently got back into retro shooters, i think b/c it seems there's been a trend of them in the indie scene the past year or so.  Or at least that I've noticed.  I've recently got Hedon (which I'm loving) and Demon Pit (yet to start).  Just today I purchased Amid Evil, Dusk, and Blood: Fresh Supply (I realize that's a remaster).

What are your guys' thoughts on these?  Any you feel I should play first as like a "must play"?  Anything I should be aware of beforehand (bad features, issues, something that sets a game apart from the genre, etc)?  I'm aware I'm missing Ion Fury and others I'm sure, but of the 4 non-Hedon ones I have, what are your thoughts?  Thanks!

[spineapple tea]

I would do blood first. Amid Evil and Dusk would be up to you for order.

[ketmar]

Ion Fury.

[qdash]

Dusk

[Noiser]

Dusk is a great one

[Juza]

Wrath: Aeon of Ruin just released. It's on Early Access, but it's already amazing.

[hybridial]

I would say Blood as well, its an all time classic and its handy to have all the classics under your belt before playing the spiritual successor games. 

 

And if you have any issues with Fresh Supply, I've not played it much but I've heard it can be a bit buggy, you can use BloodGDX or nBlood which are pretty solid as alternatives. 

[ReaperAA]

Seconding Ketmar. Ion Fury is fantastic.

 

Of the ones that u own, definitely go for Blood (I use NBlood source port to play it).

[Tetzlaff]

If you like Quake, play Amid Evil.

[Dr. Cheesesteak]

Dang, I like the variety of answers.  Seems like I almost can't go wrong w/ what I play next lol.  

[Jello]

I would go with Dusk first if you like Quake. Amid Evil if you like Hexen's atmosphere, and later 90's FPS games like Unreal. Ion Fury if you like Duke/Shadow Warrior. I didn't include Blood with the Build engine games, because to me it feels like it's an entirely different game. They're all great games in their own right. My personal favorite is Dusk for the atmosphere and feel of movement; it feels like playing Quake again, but personal preferences vary. 

 

Nevermind; I missed that you just bought Blood as well. Play that first, it's the best of the Build engine shooters. And Dusk is heavily reminiscent of Blood; it's basically a cross between Quake and Blood, with some Doom and Chasm thrown in.

[Immorpher]

32 minutes ago, Dr. Cheesesteak said:

Dang, I like the variety of answers.  Seems like I almost can't go wrong w/ what I play next lol.  

Indeed there are a variety of nuances between the games that appeal to some but not others, just like back in the day. It's just nice to have such a variety again. All of the recommendations have been good so far in terms of appealing to the whole gamut of retro FPS fans.

Now a game that is very niche. For people who don't mind original Wolfenstein type game play but with much more horror is Cthon. If you check it out, what you see in the videos is pretty much the entire game. Doesn't appeal to many, but the atmosphere is right down my alley :)

[Tetzlaff]

3 hours ago, Jello said:

I would go with Dusk first if you like Quake. Amid Evil if you like Hexen's atmosphere, and later 90's FPS games like Unreal.

 

Amid Evil wears it's Heretic/Hexen influences on it's sleeves, but in my opinion the level design and gameplay is heavily influenced by Quake. The interconnected spaces, verticality, the non-linearity in connection with key puzzles. Also the movement feels very Quake-like, but smoother. Don't see any resemblance to Unreal.

[Slipgate Tourist]

The official Blood FS campaigns followed by the Death Wish mod which was recently updated to play nice with Blood FS. IMO DW is the best thing ever build with Build, Blood itself is a close second.

 

Ion Fury is very well made too and certainly worth playing if you like Build games. But it got quite repetitive after a few episodes, it should have had more varied weapons, enemies and locales. I also thought it was on the easy side. I hope future expansion packs remedy these issues.

 

Wrath: Aeon of Ruin is my most anticipated game but I'm going to try to wait for the gold version.

 

I love that these old engines are used again to make commercial titles.

 

[Jello]

2 hours ago, Tetzlaff said:

 

Amid Evil wears it's Heretic/Hexen influences on it's sleeves, but in my opinion the level design and gameplay is heavily influenced by Quake. The interconnected spaces, verticality, the non-linearity in connection with key puzzles. Also the movement feels very Quake-like, but smoother. Don't see any resemblance to Unreal.

I was more referring to the feel of the movement in the game. You can tell it's on the Unreal Engine, they almost always have a "floaty" feel to the movement, for lack of a better word. I haven't played a whole lot of UE engine games, Unreal, Unreal 2, UT and UT 2004, the Bioshocks, Postal 2 and 4, and probably more that I can't recall, and I certainly enjoyed them. But the controls just feel odd. Dusk feels more heavy, like Quake was. I prefer the heavier feeling of the Idtech engine. That's what I meant when I compared it to Unreal, it "feels" like a UE game. Dusk "feels" more like an idtech game, to me at least.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

How do Dusk and Amid Evil fare when it comes to running on old-ish hardware?

And can you make your own maps, or is it the typical "what you get is what you get" deal?

[D4NUK1]

4 hours ago, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

How do Dusk and Amid Evil fare when it comes to running on old-ish hardware?

And can you make your own maps, or is it the typical "what you get is what you get" deal?

Well, dusk it's playable in my AMD ATI HD5400 and Dual Core so it's run good in there.

Amid Evil runs playable in 60-75 fps in my i5-2300 and Nvdia GT 430, so it's you got better that that, it's play fine.

Amid evil it's not modeable, but recently released 5 pre alphas states. Dusk it's lauching SOON a SDK to mod the game and make to maps to mods.

[Jello]

3 hours ago, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

How do Dusk and Amid Evil fare when it comes to running on old-ish hardware?

And can you make your own maps, or is it the typical "what you get is what you get" deal?

Not sure about Amid Evil, it's running on UE 4, so even though it looks retro, it can be demanding on your system. Not as bad a "modern looking" game, but more demanding compared to a Unity game.

 

On the other hand, the Dev for Dusk has stated multiple times that he wants the game to run on older hardware, even including a "Low Spec" setting in the options. And it runs on Unity. However once you get to episode 3 and the levels start getting more complex, it does get rather demanding.

 

I would say try them, Steam has their two hour refund policy. If you can run the first few levels of each perfectly fine, you're probably ok. If you find you have to dial down the graphics in the first few levels to get an acceptable framerate, it's probably best to just refund.

 

As far as making levels, I know the Dusk dev is working on an SDK for it that should be released "soon". For making maps it's recommended to use a Quake mapping program like Trenchbroom or Hammer. Amid Evil I couldn't say. I attempted mapping on the UE years ago, and I can't say it was intuitive. Felt like mapping for the Build Engine... I.E. "bashing my head against a brick wall". 

[ReaperAA]

10 hours ago, Slipgate Tourist said:

Ion Fury is very well made too and certainly worth playing if you like Build games. But it got quite repetitive after a few episodes, it should have had more varied weapons, enemies and locales.

 

Personally speaking, I didn't really find Ion Fury to be much repetitive at all. The only part that felt kinda repetitive was the 4th zone "The Six Undergrounds".

 

The weapon in IF are solid (much better than Duke3D and Shadow Warrior imho). Even the enemy roster is also fine in itself, but the issue is that the high-tier enemies appear a bit too late into the game.

 

10 hours ago, Slipgate Tourist said:

I also thought it was on the easy side.

 

Really? Even on "Maximun Fury" difficulty? Ok well its definitely easier than Blood on "Extra Crispy" or even "Well Done". But its definitely harder than both Duke3D and Shadow Warrior on their highest difficulties.

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Dusk - Fun little mechanics in some really creative environments. Some of the weapons at first I thought were god awful and pointless actually have quite a few scenarios which they benefit from greatly. Trying not to spoil much here but I think almost none of the guns are useless. Another cool thing to note is, some powerups here have references to other videogames. ;)

 

Amid Evil - If you like boring levels with challenges that get just a tad absurd as well as the lack of ARMOUR, go ahead. Otherwise, I don't recommend Amid Evil. Compared to dusk, I think this was a step back. Firstly, there's timed puzzles that to me feel really tight in room for error. Another issue is, once you gain access to choose your own adventure, quite a lot of enemies hit like a tank ON EASY. However I'd be wrong if I said I didn't love some of the level design in this one, espeically the mind f***ery of the final area XD.

[Jello]

40 minutes ago, DynamiteKaitorn said:

Dusk - Fun little mechanics in some really creative environments. Some of the weapons at first I thought were god awful and pointless actually have quite a few scenarios which they benefit from greatly. Trying not to spoil much here but I think almost none of the guns are useless. Another cool thing to note is, some powerups here have references to other videogames. ;)

 

Amid Evil - If you like boring levels with challenges that get just a tad absurd as well as the lack of ARMOUR, go ahead. Otherwise, I don't recommend Amid Evil. Compared to dusk, I think this was a step back. Firstly, there's timed puzzles that to me feel really tight in room for error. Another issue is, once you gain access to choose your own adventure, quite a lot of enemies hit like a tank ON EASY. However I'd be wrong if I said I didn't love some of the level design in this one, espeically the mind f***ery of the final area XD.

I agree, Dusk really hit a home run with the weapons. Amid Evil tried to catch up later in it's development by making some enemies more or less vulnerable to certain weapons, but it felt tacked on. Like they realized once someone got the voltride, they wouldn't use the staff of the azure orb. 

 

In Dusk I used every weapon to the end, with the possible exception of the scythes once I got the sword. Even the dual pistols were useful to the end of the game. The only weapon that I tended to avoid was the mortar, usually going to the riveter if I needed an explosive weapon. However it was extremely useful in the fight with Mama, Big John, and Jakob. I could see the crossbow and hunting rifle as being slightly redundant, as I generally used them for the same role depending on how much ammo I had for them. But it does seem like more thought was put into their actual role than was put into Amid Evil's. I like Amid Evil, but it seems like Dusk is the better game.

[Dr. Cheesesteak]

I played a quick bit of Amid Evil and Dusk tonight, just about a half hr of each.  I liked both.  I'd say I liked Dusk's gameplay and intense atmosphere better, but I kinda dug Amid Evil's narrative and puzzles.  I'll play both eventually, but I think Dusk may be next up when I should beat Hedon this weekend.  It's interesting to see analysis on the differing aspects of these games.  I hope to be able to a real discerning eye for these things in the genre one day.

Also, I started Demon Pit.  Didn't even realize it's just a pure arena shooter lol.  Fun stuff, tho. I am excited for Wrath, but will probably wait til after it's out of Early Access.

Also, I forgot to mention, I also already had Project Warlock before I bought the other group of games, but have yet to start that.  What are ppl's thoughts on that game?

[Teivman]

I would recommend Hrot. but it isn't out yet.

[seed]

After the "big 3" Build engine games - Duke, Blood, and Shadow Warrior, go for Ion Fury, Amid Evil, and Dusk.

 

Which one you'd be interested in more comes down to your own preferences. Amid Evil takes a bit of influence from Heretic/Hexen stylistically although the gameplay has, overall, little in common with the series, whereas Dusk is much more in the vein of Quake, so if you enjoy that game, you're going to enjoy Dusk too. Ion Fury is closest to Duke from what I've seen, but harder, more modern, better looking, with big-ass maps.

[HavoX]

+1 on Blood as well.