The Age of Concord - How Bad Can it Get?

 I was not part of the populace that wasted money on this game, nor was I willing to waste my time in buying it while subsequently getting an obligatory refund for said game. I was one of the vast majority that watched this game come and go like a terrible fart in an elevator. It can hardly be considered a fart in an elevator, it was gone 11 days after its release! This should have been an amazing example of what not to do when creating a game, and yet it seems to be the example that so many developers and publishers have followed ever since. 

There are so many aspects of Concord that led to its extremely short lifespan: Catering to activists and their insecurities, releasing it with a $40 pricetag when its superiors were free to play, spending $400 million dollars and ten years to develop it and coming out on social media to shame their audiences for not wanting it, all of it should have been setting off alarms in Sony's head. This was a failure on such a colossal level, people barely even remember why we hated Atari's E.T. in the first place. This stomped every single competition on the road to the very bottom and it did so with such amazing ease that they never even bothered to rerelease it as free to play. 

No one has come to the conclusion that, perhaps, they should have been listening to the public. You would think that there was a PR department looking through the comments and gamer buzz to see what players were doing at the time. The problem was that this was all developed in the vain of Overwatch because of its amazing popularity and the fact that it made Blizzard all kinds of money. The fact that Blizzard still ruined Overwatch and fired all of its lead developers in the process doesn't even enter into the equation. The fact was that the moment they made the decision to try and remake Overwatch when it was popular meant that they were already behind the times. Gaming culture changes like the wind and waiting ten years to release a game to catch the "current" zeitgeist of entertainment is like trying to grab water on its way out of the faucet. By the time Concord was released, that ship had left the port years prior. 

The greatest games come about when a developer or a team of developers share a vision to bring something to gaming that wasn't there to begin with. Even if it's not an especially unique idea, if the vision is strong enough with the gameplay, there is a very good chance that it can be a huge success. These are games that come from a desire to exceed expectations in both design and aesthetic, making a vision come to fruition and polishing that game to a beautiful sheen. 

So, why is it that there are spiritual successors to Concord already? The game bit the dust and we're already seeing others come out of the woodwork that look eerily similar. Not only are they creating disgustingly unimaginative characters and boring as hell gameplay, but they are also doing the same cardinal sin of going after the gaming public that they need to sign their paychecks. If you do not have gamers playing your game, your game is going to fail. Period. 

Highguard made the same mistakes in spades. Every single aspect of Concord was brought back to the table, including the fact that they had no idea what gamers were asking for. They certainly weren't asking for a 3v3 hero shooter with gargantuan maps that they can't populate properly. Every single character basically plays the same aside from arbitrary abilities that unlock every so often. Beyond that, you get cookie-cutter weapons and ride horses that are astoundingly difficult to shoot from. The characters are unimaginative as ever. They either have modern day haircuts and/or look like they belong to other games, only made worse. 

Whoever is signing these developers' checks should make a clause in their contracts that obligate them to shut the hell up on social media! These people look so pathetic when they go on the internet and just whine and cry about how they wasted half a decade or more making this game. They will swear that the game they made was awesome, but then go into how they never got any outside influence of any kind, so they had no idea that no one was asking for it. After the ridiculous fallout of Concord, that should have set off some serious bells that this was all a very bad idea. Even if they were so deep into its development, they should have cut their losses or at least not put so much into it from then on. 

No one forced them to put the game at the end of the Game Award Show. They thought that including elements of every popular hero shooter was going to win them fans, but it just made it more generic. It made it fodder for memes and gamers coming out and calling it a sequel to Concord. This should have come as no surprise but it caused their development team to go radio silent soon after the Game Award announcement. All of a sudden, all of the echoes in their chamber started to truly doubt their creation. The release started with a promising 100,000 gamers playing it, but that number was brought down to a dismal 1,000 to 2,000 players within weeks. They accused gamers of not giving it a chance but that's all they gave it. The game was apparently so boring that people couldn't even make it past the tutorial which is REQUIRED at the beginning. It's evident that no one on the team had played a game in their lives or someone would have told them that this was a huge mistake. 

If one live service game wasn't bad enough, now they've announced the gameplay and character roster of Horizon Zero Dawn's new game, Hunters Gathering. In this post apocalyptic world, apparently it's fruitful enough for one woman to eat her way to a diabetic amputation. The characters still look amazingly generic and unappealing. Nothing was learned from Concord's cataclysmic failure. Of course gamers aren't going to give this game a chance, nor should they. It already released trailers and every single one of them is just getting disliked at an amazing rate. The publishers can stick their fingers in their ears and go LALALALALALA all they want, but no amount of blaming gamers for their failure is going to make up for the money they are about to lose. This is not making assumptions at this point, this is just common sense and gaming Darwinism at work. 

The boy can only cry wolf so many times before he loses his voice, and gaming companies are about to learn their lesson one game at a time. These games are not free to make and every single dollar may as well be burned for all it matters at this point. Give the money to charity if you want it to actually make a difference in the world. Stop wasting gamers' time. The only good thing coming out of this mess is the hours of content it is giving youtubers to make amazing videos. If that's the gift you want to give to the world, spend another 100 or 200 million dollars for our ironic entertainment. Stop torturing and crunching your developers and at least buy them some water. They're going to need it.

Retro Rewind - Be Kind and Lose your Mind!

 Back in the hayday of movie rentals, back when Friday nights were prime time for movie rentals, you were given the keys to the movie kingdom. The joys of going through those sections of your favorite film genres cannot be described in words. You just need to have some coin and a rental membership, and you could discover a new favorite. Of course, you could also find a movie that you turn off immediately because it plays to your worst fears, but those just happen. This game captures the feeling of working at Blockbuster, much like I did in the mid 2000's before its inevitable death. It has all of the charm and only some of the pitfalls. 

You are given your own movie rental store and you need to build it up from scratch. In true simulation fashion, you start with small facilities that can be expanded, and with limited options for decorations. The most important thing in the start is just gathering up as many movies as you can and getting shelves with which to stock them. You start out with horror and drama, but also have the option to purchase adult movies from the strange guy in the back alley. That's not as scummy as it sounds. At first, I thought that dealing with him could land me in some trouble, but I never saw any... well, not directly, but we'll get into that. 

The new release days are some of the best sections of the game. It's just fun to get a good 5 or 10 of them to begin with and see them disappear off the shelf as you gain more and more customers. The more time that elapses, the more genres and new releases that come your way. You need to get at least a few of the new movies on your shelves the day they come out, because customers will ask about them quite often. Once they become regular movies, falling out of their first week, you can keep a couple of them, but it's best to get rid of the excess by putting them in bargain bins. You need to make way for more movies, which will be coming very shortly. 

Designing your store and coming up with the section placement is not very important in any other way than space. With a smaller space, getting the shelves right will open you up to getting more movies and that means more money. You don't need to worry too much about decorations to begin with, because getting five new releases at a time means that you get a poster along with them. As you go along, you are able to play around with the style of each section, giving them a lot of character that goes to your taste. It's very easy to over-decorate, but once you get it right, it will draw more customers.

Customers don't shoplift, thankfully, and I hope that never becomes a mechanic of this title. They will, however, break the movies that you go through in your returns. Some of the movies are late as well, and both of these elements will cause an extra charge to your customers. It is best if you charge every customer for breaks and late returns, because even if they don't end up paying, you will get that money back in some form or fashion. As you go, they will multiply before you know it. You go to sections to recommend movies to them based on genre, age and whether they have a good rating from critics. It's a charming little tidbit to recommend titles, but you also don't need to get too involved with it. Sadly, you're not able to watch the movies other than a small trailer-like video on your decorative TV screens. Even then, it only shows the horror and sci-fi short movies. 

Employees are a mixed bag. Once you get to a certain level, you can employ one person to either work the front counter or movie returns. You want them to handle the cash register, that is definitely one of the more mundane aspects of this game, much like it is in real life. Go figure. These employees could fall asleep and you'll need to wake them up. Sometimes, they'll straight up call in sick and you need to pick up that extra slack. If it gets too blatantly obvious that they're misusing that privledge, it is up to you whether you want to fire them and hire another one. One of the employees actually blackmailed me into giving him a raise or he would tell the police I was dealing in the blackmarket videos in the back alley. He was given the raise, but immediately fired. Whether that was a real threat and they could actually call the cops, I didn't have any repercussions in the whole ordeal, so that's up in the air. 

Along with the movies, you also deal in snacks and drinks. This can be a simple snack shelf at first, but then you get drinks, slushies, popcorn and even cotton candy. All of these things enhance your profit margin. Each is a small hike, but once you put them all together, you see the difference. Selling your previously rented games in the bargain bins will also draw in a nice hefty profit, especially after all of the income from the initial rentals. 

The real meat of the game comes from both the cash register and the movie returns. At first, without employees, you need to shift between these two jobs. You have extra time in the beginning and end of the day to do the returns, but they keep coming throughout as people drop them off. Whether you like sectioning these movies or not will ultimately dictate your enjoyment of this title. If this is your bread and butter, this game can get rather addictive. 

Another great part is how quirky the world is around you. You could see a UFO abduct someone outside your window. On Friday the 13th, there will be weirdos outside and sometimes inside your store, staring in at you with hockey masks on. I think it's a movie reference or something, who knows? The little interesting tidbits like this are a ton of fun to observe while you work. With the weather change and the seasons passing, it can become a nice little ambience game at the same time. It's just all around pleasant. 

There are glitches here and there. Sometimes the word bubbles don't go away and sometimes your employees will walk through you while you're working and screw up your flow. None of this is a deal-breaker. This game is easy to figure out and it's all just fun busy play. It will either resonate with you or it could be a snorefest if this isn't your thing. It could even be fun to stock the sodas and make the slushies, but always remember to drink water.

Helldivers 2 - Eat Democracy Justice Explosions!

 Sometimes, it is interesting to see when a game gets references correct. In this day and age, you wouldn't expect to see a game that brought back the concepts of both Terminator and Starship Troopers. They did this in the same game. This is especially amazing because this is the mid 2020's and this is a Live Service Game! Such a thing should have been cast to the bottom of the pits forever, using the logic we've seen thus far in so many different games that tried the same idea. Well, Helldivers found a way to make co-op gameplay awesome again with a third person horde shooter. How did they do that? Well, let's get into it, shall we?

You are the new recruit in the amazing army of Super Earth! You are a Helldiver, an expendable asset of the government sent into warzones to take out the enemy. Now, we can go into the fact that, like Starship Troopers, the idea that these entities are not enemies but harmless races existing on their own planets could be viable. However, this time around, the "automatons" are at least able to perform space travel. So, this time, it is more possible for the robots to go through space. Kill the robots and make sure that they can't go to any other planet. While the bugs can't go through space, logically, kill them too because they're icky. 

The real thing that people love about this game is the comradary you feel when facing down an entire army with just two or four of you. In your arsenal, you possess a main weapon that you choose from the beginning. They give you a small bunch of options for your weapons and supplementary items to help you. Through continuous gameplay and victories, you'll earn more points to get better stuff as you level. 

Now, with an online play comes the inevitability of the troll. You will join games and assholes will do nothing but kill you. The problem with this game is that they do not penalize you for this. So, if you are not the host of the game, you have no choice but to quit the game or continue to be killed by the ones trying to help you. The best thing you can do is find the good players that are actually there to help you complete the mission and NOT just be there to farm for Super Cash, and friend them for future missions. 

Then there is the Super Cash system. The game uses in-game currency such as this, planet samples and your normal money you get paid for completing missions and side missions. This can be complimented with real money from your real pocket and that's really how microtransactions should be done. You can choose to take the short cut to get cool items, or you can just grind the game as much as possible to gain it what many would consider "the right way". So many games such as Shadow of War or Star Wars Battle Front 2 (2017) seemed to miss this concept and worked this into a requirement to get through the game. Battle Front 2 made it to where you either spend your real money, or put in 50 or more hours to get the items or characters you really want. Thankfully, Helldivers 2 doesn't make you grind QUITE that much. There are still commitments, but it's not nearly on that level. 

Helldivers 2 does one thing right in particular. It is fun to play and it is fun to share this experience with your friends. It may need to be online, but you also can solo missions. In the early levels, your best bet is to connect with random users, even with the aforementioned trolls ruining the experience, and gain levels. If you attempt to solo missions at the very beginning, you will probably have a very negative experience in doing so. You need new technology such as improved turrets or what they call "Watch Dogs" which are turrets that float over your shoulder and help you shoot things. 

There are three types of enemies that you can face, and each of these types have very unique qualities that you need to make sure you understand. You can fight the bugs, or Terminids. These are more susceptible to fire and gas attacks that nullify them and burn them up into exploding into bloody green splats. The bots, or Automatons require you use more destructive means like explosions or electricity to take them out. The Illuminates are aliens and those levels are, as far as I'm concerned, the less interesting matches. They are more humanoid and tend to use more alien technology like electric turrets. Each and every single enemy can be viewed as very different in both their means of attack and their means of barring you from your mission. 

We're not getting into the time that Helldivers 2 decided to sabotage their own work by nerfing everything and getting their game banned in multiple territories. They made some very poor decisions and nearly killed their own game that people were already enjoying. They came to their senses and fixed the game before it died, basically painting a perfect picture of when game publishers should back off and let the gamers cook. HD2 is a fun experience, but it can also get a little grating with the difficulty too high and solo gaming when you most certainly need a full team. Even when things get tense and chaotic, though, that can be some of the most fun you have in this title. Getting technology such as combat jeeps with turrets, tanks, or even mech suits to bring into the game is basically a requirement when you get to the higher difficulties. Take the game for what it is: Probably one of the better experiences you'll have in modern gaming. Take this with a grain of salt, but also remember to drink water.   

Dante's Inferno (PS3) - Slash, Burn, Repeat

A lot of people like to toss around the phrase "God of War Clone" but if a game stands on its own merits, wouldn't that just be more of a good thing? Dante's Inferno wasn't exactly an original title, in fact it's based off of one of the oldest stories in recorded history, but it still has plenty of content to sink your teeth into. It's full of fascinating lore and ridiculously grotesque demons through a realm that is not very savory. Hell really looks like Hell, all the way down to the levels you have to go through. All of them are based off of the sins that humans are guilty of. Dante himself is a bit of a "simp" but his heart is in the right place.

Dante is a bit of a badass in some instances, though. He starts off as a soldier in the crusades and ends up dying by some random soldier stabbing him in the back. After dying in such an embarrassing way, though, he automatically owns Death himself and steals his scythe. This scythe is the main weapon you have throughout the rest of the game and you have an entire array of others in your arsenal with which to use. After a lot of upgrades, the shining cross you use as a projectile becomes a little broken and overly powerful, but that plays into a nice power fantasy. There are combinations and different skills you can use to either condemn souls to hell for powerups or forgive souls to help you in the long run. Dante becomes a bit of a divine entity in and of himself because of his enormous power by the end of it. 

This is barely even scratching the surface, as the minions of hell are vast and really nasty. This is especially true when you arrive in the Lust Level of Hell, where it's quite easy to become scaroused. The main villain of lust is definitely not for the prudish at heart. She is a sight to behold and if you find yourself finding the Rule 34 for this particular demon, be sure to check into nice pricey therapy because something is AWESOMELY wrong with your brain. 

The mechanics to battle the forces of Hell are also quite vast. This includes being able to take control of huge beasts with which to stomp and smash your enemies before cooking them with fire breath. The boss battles and mini-bosses do get a little heavy with the Quick Time Events, but that's not a huge element of surprise. It's just a passing annoyance to get to some awesome kills. There's even a giant head at the gates of Hell that look after all of the new souls, you end up ripping his head off of the boat over the River Styx before just throwing him in. 

Compare this to God of War all you want, this game still goes hard and is good in its own right. If you play this game first, you'd probably never know it was popularly considered a knockoff. The game goes hard and it does not censor itself for anyone. The cutscenes and the girlfriend are all very NSFW and in the most glorious ways. It can be disgusting at times, especially if you don't want to see demon babies coming at you. You know, they just called them the unbaptized babies that died in infancy and called it a day. There are all kinds of unsettling things like this in the game, it's really just a matter of getting used to it. 

Some of the puzzles are a little tedious. The puzzles aren't hard to figure out, it's just moving everything into place can be seen as a bit of a waste of time, especially when you're just in it to killing the minions with your powerful scythe! Along with the puzzles, there are plenty of platforming sections that are also a tiny bit annoying at times. This is especially true when you are on a timer and the platform continuously falls out from under you. Fire traps and low levels of healing fountains can be a bit of an issue, especially in the middle sections of the game. With the Holy abilities, you can heal yourself through combat and that does sort of get the power fantasy broken elements ramped up. By the end of the game, you're just sort of skating through the minions with very little effort. 

The whole time, you're just looking for your girlfriend, with whom you were unfaithful. She dies and ends up resenting you throughout your journey through Hell. If I'm being completely honest, she becomes sort of a noncharacter as time goes on and her whinging starts to make me skip the cutscenes. The fact that Satan becomes especially interested in her is a bit farfetched. Out of all of the boss battles, Satan's is a bit disappointing, but I won't spoil too much. The game is still a good six or seven hours of bloody tearing through demons without the need to be Doomguy. Dante and Doomguy would be an interesting teamup to take down Hell itself. The demons will keep coming, though, so there is plenty to grind through. Virtua Dismemberment!

Enter the Gungeon - We put Guns in your Guns!!!

What happens when you enter the Gungeon? Do you think you’re ready for what goes on in the Gungeon? Well, you’re wrong! You’re not there to survive, you’re there to conquer! You’re there to kick in the door and throw down! Set your lasers to kill, rain your bullets, and start shooting those bullets that shoot guns! And…wait, what? 

Yes, that’s right, after you very quickly enter the Gungeon, you are transported to a world that is solely based around armaments and firearms. All of your opponents are bullets, shotgun shells and grenades of some assortment. The gameplay is so high octane, if you’re not getting your pulse going, you better do it fast! The game is so fast paced you have no choice but to dunk your head in the deep end and start shooting it up! 

The rules and controls are simple and explained to you using a very quick and easy tutorial. In fact the tutorial is fun and innovative. The humor the game uses is not exactly subtle, but then, neither is the game. It throws you for a loop and starts shooting pretty damn quick. The controls are intuitive and easy to manage, so long as you keep shooting and dodge rolling. 

The guns you pick up is half the fun! Seriously, I was not kidding when I said that there is a bullet that shoots guns. There’s a meat gun that shoots blades, there’s even an AK-47! Well I guess that last one isn’t exactly new, but still! You are given all that you need in the beginning to win this game, so long as you use it right. You will be put through bullet hells, explosions, destruction of all kinds, and come out feeling more awesome because of it. You get better at the game because you want to get better at the game, you want to explore the tunnels of the Gungeon and find out what other guns you can shoot, and what other weird hostiles you will encounter.

As soon as you think you’ve seen it all, BOOM! There’s so much more to see! More bullets, more bombs, more explosives flying all over the place and you’ll even see a bird with a gatling gun! Don’t try to understand it! Don’t think too hard! Logic has no place here! The time you take trying to think is time you should be firing that weapon into your enemy’s face! Every level has its own quirks that you can have a nice chortle at. Not only is it enjoyable from a gamer’s point of view but anyone watching you play can have fun too.

The wild running and gunning gameplay is so charming that you won’t even worry about the graphics, which are more of a new age 16-bit style. If anyone is concerned about the graphics then you are missing the point entirely! The artstyle and environments are so well placed and atmospheric that they do not distract you. Though, that is also a downfall for you, the player. As the background also has pitfalls and water that you either need to jump over or teleport over. If not then you fall down them and lose a life, oh well, this stuff happens.

You have several classes to choose from in the beginning, and half the fun is trying to find one that suits your type of gameplay that you enjoy. Try them all, or try one if it suits your needs, it doesn’t matter. All these classes do is promote replayability, and that is important when you look at purchasing a game. Each one of them have their own perks, pros and cons that you can use to your advantage. The game is also a rogue-like, so anytime you die and come back to a level, the entire level has changed and you're back to square one. Every time you get to the boss, the boss has changed and they get rather ridiculous in their punny names. It's all so childishly charming, you can't help but laugh at a few of these weird moments.

If you haven’t noticed, this game is awesome on pretty much all levels. It controls well, it’s colorful, it’s high intensity, it’s challenging, funny, and just all around a great time. It involves guns and explosions but it is not gory or overly violent. Anyone can play it. So wait, since you’re still reading this review, that probably means you haven’t bought this game yet. What are you waiting for? If you haven’t gotten this game you are missing out on a pulverizing piece of powerful punch that you don’t want to pass up! In fact, you’ll need to start practicing your ambidexterity right now, so open a new tab, and get on steam while still reading this review in a different window! Get the game! Get the collector’s edition!  

Mortal Kombat Special Forces (MK Legacy) - Metal Arms that Bore

 Believe it or not, there was a time where Mortal Kombat was at a very low point. Before the 3D PS2 era, there was a time when Ed Boon and John Tobias parted ways because the franchise was holding on by a thread. This was brought into clear focus when Annihilation hit a box office crater and Mortal Kombat: Subzero met with overall mixed to unfavorable reviews. They tried to bring this title into the new era of 3D by putting Special Forces on an isometric view and added combos via Jax's metal arm attacks and even gave him guns and explosives. Try to hold your surprise when I tell you: It didn't pan out well. 

This game was included in the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection, thankfully, giving me a chance to play through it. I say "thankfully" because it gives me a chance to review it. What I wasn't so grateful for was the game itself and how it played. This game is beyond boring. The levels are whirly and nonlinear, which isn't always a bad thing, in fact it can be a very good thing when you look at Doom. With the implimentation of keys and elevators, Special Forces pads out its runtime by making you explore every room and look for ways to unlock the way to the next section of the level. 

The combat is one of the worst parts about the game. Trying to avoid damage is nearly impossible in several cases, especially when the opponents have guns. The combinations you receive through leveling up are hardly worth the trouble when you have three or four opponents all at once. You get better results from just using the heavy kick attack and causing them to pause from pain. This grows especially tiresome. The hits lack any sort of impact and the blood is not plentiful enough to make it a rewarding experience. 

This was brought about in the very early era of 3D gaming, so the lack of graphics can be excused. The highly mundane backgrounds and uninteresting levels just add to the woes. When you're stuck in a certain part of the level and are forced to look through every single nook and cranny, you start to think about how awesome another MK title is. This is especially true when this came with titles like the arcade original Mortal Kombat and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. That menu to turn off the game starts to look very attractive, as it can let you escape this horrid title. 

It's obvious that they were wanting to explore different avenues in the series. Like Subzero's N64/PS1 title, this game wanted to give you a different experience and a vehicle to introduce new characters. This is the introduction of both Tremor and Jarek, before Jarek was in Mortal Kombat 4, which is its own can of worms. Even with some influence on the series, it's obvious that several things went wrong in the development. John Tobias did his best with what he had, trying to bring about technology which was still in the experimental stages with a group that had very little experience in 3D game programming. In their duct tape and bubblegum, they tried to paste together a good game and sadly, the good intentions did not create a banger. 

Sadly, this was the title that caused Tobias to leave the franchise entirely. Boon carried it on and brought about the trainwreck they eventually made the series, but there were several titles that came along the way. Some of those titles included Mortal Kombat 9 and X, so it's hard to say that they weren't working. They were obviously doing what they could to make the franchise a success again. The experimentation may have brought about little gems like Shaolin Monks and Deception, but the road can hardly be considered smooth by any meaning of the word. Jax's character suffered for it, but all can be forgiven. Tobias lost out on a grand old time because of a rough patch and it is to lament. Still, at least he didn't have a hand in making Mortal Kombat 1. Virtua Burn!!!

Warhammer 40K Boltgun - Rip the Heretics!

Brutal Doom, while the creator can be seen as controversial, had a very large impact on the FPS genre in several different ways. It brought about brand new life to one of the greatest games ever made and showed people that there is gold within thar hills. This apparently caught the eye of Games Workshop and had them imbue it with their own property. The result is Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun to the delight of many. There is more to this game than just big creatively crafted weapons, big explosions of blood from enemies, and low demanding graphics that still look stylistic and beautiful. There are a lot of great features in this game that will allow gamers to return again and again. 

The levels can be considered more linear than Doom, but even then, they are still smooth to play and fun to look at. Whether it be a sinister looking metal forge or a winter land temple, this game has it down pat. The enemies can be a little hard to see in some instances, especially when they are tiny and hard to shoot. That is more a feature than a glitch, but it is worth noting. When you see a bridge that's blown out, you can still jump from platform to platform while blasting your boltgun and shotgun into enemies' faces while doing so. There are secrets (though some of them are rather obvious) and there are plenty of places to explore while trying to dodge fire from entire hordes of foes. 

The graphics need to be praised for several reasons. It is amazing that, with the most minimal use of a computer's storage, they stylized this in the vain of Brutal Doom and pulled it off in spades. We've run into huge 3D games that take up 50 to 100 gigabytes of space while not having even half of the charm of this one title. The controls and the aim of your weapon are fluid. If you are being killed, you feel like this is you failing to kill your enemies, not something that the game did wrong or a glitch that killed the experience. Sure, you can argue that they copied a small Doom mod and thus already had an prototype to work from, but the fact that they used it and did so with such craftsmanship, just goes to show that they know what they're doing. Anyone can try and copy a game's merits, looking at the dollars it made, and still fail to capture what people liked about it in the first place. 

The boss battles are quite bullet spongy, but they are also awesome to look at. They are also a great deal of fun to kill. There are a lot of tiny enemies to kill around them, more often than not, but that is just when you hunker down and find a strategy to bring them down. This includes running, hiding, grabbing the health drops and sneaking hits on them as you circle strafe. That's what those mechanics are there for. 

There are some amazing weapons on display here. The saw sword is used to amazing effect and it's the first weapon you have from the very beginning. It is also the right mouse button, so you only need to target a single enemy and power up your chain blade to whir them into a puddle. The boltgun, which the game is named after, packs a serious punch. The sound quality and the impact of the enemy's bloody chunks make this a very rewarding experience. 

The flame spouter is not the greatest. Honestly, it should have more of a flamethrower quality with a bit more damage to enemies. You need to target enemy vehicles or fuel barrels before its use becomes warranted. The plasmagun and the grav gun are fun to use, and it's a lot of fun to see the amount of damage it punishes the enemies with. There are a lot of weapons to go into, but out of all of them, my favorite has to be the Vengeance Launcher. They could have just given you a random grenade launcher, but instead, they give you something that fires dark matter explosives. This will destroy anything it touches, or even gets fired close to their proximity. They will explode and you just feel warm all over. That may be radiation, you might want to get that checked out.

The very idea that all of this came about from a hardly 3D game is baffling. Obviously, a sequel is planning to come out. It has already been scheduled on the very specific date of 2026. If they keep to its roots and give people the weapons, gore and captivating settings, it can be an even better title than this one. Will that happen, well, probably not, but it would not be a terrible thing to be more of what we like. Boltgun attracts a specific fanbase and if you please the FPS crowd, you have your potential Game of the Year practically in the bag. Other gaming coporations, take note. We all know you won't. Virtua Bankrupt.