NuMetalManiak

Review of Death in Excess by @NoReason

as with Remnant, it was only a matter of time before those lovely OTEX resources were used again, and Death in Excess does that. Imagine Sunder but with those textures and you basically have Death in Excess. these are, of course, slaughtermaps, done with extreme macro-detail and loads of locales all look like they'll wet your pants off, combine that with slaughter gameplay and you're probably just gonna turn on god mode or no monsters just to admire this shit. this is eighteen levels (MAP01-16, plus 31 and 32) with progressive difficulty, so naturally the levels go from small to big, hard to harder.

the big issue is when the frames start dropping, causing levels to be nigh-unplayable for me until I switch settings. MAP32 and MAP16 were the big offenders there. they are the big marathon levels that evoke a lot of Sunder vibes, especially MAP16 with its sneaky inescapable pits, platforming segments (please DO NOT attempt to go across them if your framerate won't cooperate, it will not work out for you) and marathon-style gameplay, combined with six keys and all. the rest of the levels have several other vibes going for them, some feel like Rush, others feel like Slaughterfest 20XX levels (kinda bad when you think about my opinion on forced arena fights, I'm not gonna go into detail there but at least here you don't have to wait as long as others). MAP15's idea is splendid for those who had enough, but those who perservere will be rewarded with MAP31. MAP31 is deceptive, having a boss shooter at one midpoint and platforming segments at the other afterwards, with one that will ruin your concentration but only if you want that secret exit.

needless to say, bigger is not always better when it comes to architecture and the sheer number of things that ruin framerates. just some food for thought.