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Modern Retro Shooters / Quake Spiritual Successors
Wonder If A Specific Retro-shooter Thread Is Warranted?
#10166 posted by Shambler [92.29.26.135] on 2017/08/27 11:32:00


It is! Separate thread because there's a lot of these sort of games, the ethos of them is particularly relevant to this board, and it's inhabitants seem to have some good varying opinions on the matter.

Quake as the eptiome as 90s action FPS:

Very direct control and physics
Simple streamlined gameplay
Brutal visceral and gory
Weird fantasy / gothic / industrial theme
Grungy, coherent graphics
Cool map designs / architecture (for the time)
Varied but consistent bestiary
Etc
(many of the above adhered to and greatly enhanced by subsequent custom content)

We all like these aspects, we all like these aspects in other games, we all want to see more of those games, possibly combined with modern graphical styles (Quake Chumpions MAPS might be an example of how far this could go) and maybe very limited modern additions (crouching? an inventory? coherent story? - but nothing that gets in the way of solid action). We perhaps want the next Quake / 90s action FPS spiritual successor...

Modern Retro Shooters:

...and lo, there's a neverending stream of modern retro games many of which are unabashedly marketting themselves as 90s action FPS spiritual successors and particularly highlighting speed, direct control, simple action, limitless violence. Do they have what it takes to hit that mark though??

Strafe
http://store.steampowered.com/app/442780/STRAFE_Millennium_Edition/

Amid Evil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo7X7b6pPng

Dusk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsu9uDMlIMM

Hellbound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyabhVn1SfQ

Apocryph
http://store.steampowered.com/app/596240/Apocryph_an_oldschool_shooter/

Ion Maiden
https://twitter.com/voidpnt

Neverdead
http://store.steampowered.com/app/681000/NEVRDEAD/

Gorescript
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpZ1Wa0OIoQ

Intrude
https://bagogames.com/intrude-review/

Hermodr
http://store.steampowered.com/app/490360/Hermodr/

Devil Daggers
http://store.steampowered.com/app/422970/Devil_Daggers/

Gibhard
http://www.gibhard.com

Revulsion
http://store.steampowered.com/app/719180/Revulsion/

Witchfire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zqjNkdXT94

PLUS MANY MORE LINKED IN THE THREAD BELOW....

Without wanting to opine too much, there seems to be a general trend of possibly not hitting the mark despite some attempts to do so, with a huge variety in how much potential those attempts show, as well as how close these games are to realising the overall harmonious game quality of a typical best 90s action FPS. I.e. Some games seem to do some aspects right, but don't seem to get all the aspects in balance and appealing together.

Discuss....
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BTW 
The presentation is very lo-fi, but considering this thing is 90% the work of a single developer I think that's totally the right decision. 
DUSK 
@StillTooLazyToRegister - I agree somewhat, your assessment seems more realistic than the steam reviews.

Level Design - I disagree with many reviewers on this point. Dusk's poor level design is probably its greatest shortcoming. As a result, the game is boring, easy and exploitable (I was a able to bypass a keyed door by stacking barrels).

Visuals - yep.

Weapons - Overall, they feel pretty good with nice feedback.

Sound & Music - Sound is good. The music is the most polished thing in the game.

at the moment it's good, not great. Has potential.

I would say at the moment it's not good but has potential.

I've seen this game called a "love letter to oldschool FPSes". IMO, it's more of a doodle on a post-it note than a love letter.

I'm somewhat puzzled. DUSK has good steam reviews as well as positive reviews from the likes of LGR and GGManLives. I must be out of touch or missing something; as a massive fan of retro shooters DUSK is not hitting any of the right notes for me. 
The Current Trend For Retro Shooters 
is really just a race to the bottom for most devs, I think. The vast majority of their target-audience haven't played any 90's shooters for 20-odd years, so they'll be satisfied with a few cheap visual hooks and some silly monsters. Obviously like any trend this will bottom out leaving some room for the devs who are putting the time in to make a genuinely good game, but by that point a lot of the people jizzing over things like Dusk will have happily returned to the AAA thrills of Call of Duty 83768. 
 
more like target-audience haven't played anything in the 90s by not existing and wanting to live in the mystical "90s are best" time. 
 
dae le h8 90s kids amirite 
Proof Dusk Is Good Game 
 
It's nothing new, there were loads of shitty FPS in the early 90s too that were obviously just made to jump on the Doom clone bandwagon. Taking that into account I'm going to say that the current string of shovelware is the true retro FPS revival but that's going to be an opinion that grates with just about everyone else here. 
DUKS (Not Quack) 
Full disclosure... I hang out in the New Blood Discord all the time and have been playing DUSK since pre-orders became available on Steam last year.

DUSK is the real deal. It isn't perfect. It sure as heck isn't Quake... but it's worth your time. DUSK could easily be mistaken for cynical nostalgia bait, but the creator has a real love for his inspirations. The winks and nods are there, but it never devolves into cheap pandering. The game has it's own voice and doesn't rely on references.

It's fun to play because the developer obviously has fun making it. There is an emphasis on FEEL which I appreciate. One might take for granted the SMOOTHNESS of movement but it's something that received a great deal of attention.

Not everyone will dig the level design. It's more Build than it is DOOM/Quake, with semi-realistic environments that never become so abstract or puzzling. I find them atmospheric and fun to explore nonetheless.

The music is 10/10. The ambient tracks are my jam.

I'm a picky gamer who is easily fussed so of course I have my gripes. But the only real caveat I can offer is that DUSK is simply too easy.

"Cero Miedo" is DUSK's UV or Hard equivalent. It never demands enough of the player for me to slip into a flow-state. When I think about level sets like Ancient Aliens or Arcane Dimensions, I remember specific fights so engaging that my keyboard and mouse dissolved in my hands. You know what I'm talking about. DUSK's combat unfortunately never rides that hallowed line between fun and frustrating. It is FUN however. It's challenging enough to keep me interested and like I mentioned before, it just feels great to control.

There is "Intruder Mode" which I recommend. You start every level with only sickles. Even on this mode, "Cero Miedo" is still too easy. "DUSKMARE" is DUSK's gimmick difficulty. You die in one hit. Challenging yeah, but not a replacement for proper difficulty through encounter design.

It's an easy recommendation for FPS fans. Especially now that Steam has refunds, you literally have nothing to lose. ;p

BTW I have pre-alpha access to AMID EVIL and it is incredible. It's already more challenging than DUSK and looks gorgeous in motion. Videos really don't do it justice. Look out for that one. 
#118 
looks and sounds like shit. pass 
Revulsion 
Some anon posted it earlier in the thread, but Revulsion seems to be coming along nicely. 
Revulsion.... 
....is a good description of what I feel looking at that. I did enough fucking Lego as a kid and don't want my FPS games made out of it. 
Quake Vs Modern Retro: 
Reborn 
Reborn just publish it's steam page!

the trailer looks and feels awesome

http://store.steampowered.com/app/789820/Reborn/ 
Not Very Modern Retro Really. 
But does look promising. 
Reborn 
Looks good, not really retro but more of an evolution 
The Wastes 
http://www.moddb.com/games/the-wastes

Technically more of a total conversion / mod than new game, but looks kinda cool and is promoted as a throwback 
Box Rooms Botmatch Ahoy. 
 
Re: The Wastes 
I'd make maps for that. The car stuff looks pretty decent. The tire marks are a fun touch. Not liking the puffy blood effects tho. 
Re: The Wastes 
If there are any questions regarding content creation, I can answer them if you like. We'd totally love to have workshop integration at some point. 
 
Indeed, our color palette features a variety of brown colors! So does Quake actually. I didn't think you'd mind, Anonymous-Proxy guy. 
@eukara 
Feel free to post your workflow here. Are you using Q3Radiant or similar to create the game? Since Dusk is using a TrenchBroom variant for their user-content creation would you consider the same thing? 
@dumptruck_ds 
While I got introduced to mapping with Q3 Radiant, I ultimately had spent most of my time working with Hammer and so did my colleague Megan. We came out of the Half-Life modding scene and so we adapted J.A.C.K. a few years ago. It seemed like the best idea at the time and it certainly bridged the transition to Q3 BSP for her. However we'd like to move away from it in and we encourage usage of Radiant instead due to the lack of updates and support for certain features we've been waiting for.

Some more technical background info:
We're a two head team. I do some mapping, but most of the heavy lifting is done by Megan, as is the rest of the content work. I am responsible for the programming mainly (everything but the engine). Technically the engine is FTE QuakeWorld, but we have a custom configuration setup that only implements the idTech 3 formats and focuses on that toolchain. It's the first real game made using FTE I believe and a lot of functionality was implemented by Spike for us upon request. Things such as OpenAL reverb presets (for environmental sound effects) and our custom model format, based on IQM.

I hope that people other than us will take advantage of that in their Quake mods, but so far priorities have not shifted from 'the usual' yet. Maybe one day.

The game will ship with its own SDK, containing game-logic, source texture files, as well as the input model files for our model compiler.

We hope to shape the game during its lifespan a bit game-play wise. It'd be incredible if we get it right the same day the game comes out, but it's unlikely to happen. Certainly balancing is one of the many problems in a game with 30+ weapons, vehicles and an abilities system. I fear we'll get some flak from the competitive scene if they ever come across it, but that's honestly not the audience we are looking for. 
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