Project Warlock - Classic FPS Hexenstein

I saw this article pop up over the weekend but only took the time to watch the trailer this morning, and I urge everyone to do the same - this looks awesome, and screenshots don’t do it justice. I know @MrTibbs mentioned this in the indie thread but I think it’s going to deserve it’s own space.

The trailer mentions no save points, and I’ll admit that gives me pause, so maybe this is something designed to play through in one setting, possibly even a roguelike, but I’m coming up short on details. It looks fun as balls, though. And they had me at “character building” and screens like these:

It comes out in a few days on GOG exclusively at first, and then spreads to other platforms from there one presumes (such as Steam). No idea what the price is, my guess is $15-20.

I’m not fond of the cartoon style for the texture work, but I will wait for impressions. If the gameplay is great, I can get over it.

This looks fun.

This looks like my jammy jam.

No save points within levels, or no save points ever? Also, here is the trailer:

Cool to see a thread for this, Scott_Lufkin, and I love Hexenstein as a term!

The developer, a super talented 19 year old, released a humorous promo video yesterday detailing the game’s origins.

That’s a great video. This kids going places.

Can you just minimize the game and keep it running overnight?

Why? You can save at the workshop, and the missions take 2-10 minutes, seems like it’s not really a big deal.

Yes and no. The missions take 2-10 minutes if you finish them. You might die repeatedly on a given level.

Anyway, it’s possible it is no big deal, but once you take away the option to save you will have some unhappy gamers. That’s predictable.

As long as I can retain the weapons and items I had when I first entered a new level, replaying without the ability to reload wouldn’t be an issue for me in old FPS style games. Part of the enjoyment of Doom, Duke, and Blood was alternating between carefully exploring every inch for secrets and easter eggs and completing the levels as fast as possible to beat the developer’s par times. Before scripted sequences began placing a greater emphasis on spectacle or slow-paced world building (like Half-Life), it was easier to do.

Oh great, I only have to play for half an hour without saving!

/roll eyes

Not being able to save mid level is already bad enough, but it’s even worse, you have to play several levels to save.

I don’t know what happens with these developers, they all say things like “play my indie FPS, it’s super old school shooter, like playing in the 90s!” and then go and make a very different thing like doing a roguelite.

Maybe I’ve already mentioned this, but it reminds me of shoot ‘em up marketing. Every indie game says they’re old school, but with a modern twist! It gets kind of annoying for fans of the genre. You can expect more of it in the future.

The presentation of this game is a lot like Vlambeer’s Gun Godz. (Apparently that’s getting a Steam release.)

This kid is Polish so my guess is that this will be a great game.

Yeah. Me too.

Like me.

Agreed. This might be a day one purchase.

Welp, it’s out. Anyone bite yet? Initial reviews are super positive.

Honestly I’m waiting for the Steam version. I like GOG, but 90% of my games are on Steam so I like to have one place to go to look for and launch stuff. I’d get the GOG version if I had nothing else going on atm, but I totally have a ton of other games to play right now. I’d love to hear impressions though. Maybe I should hit up YouTube.

If you fail a cluster, or whatever, you do at least keep the xp - accumulate until you level, which gives you a stat point to spend in the workshop - and I think upgrade points - actual pickups you find, used to upgrade weapons and spells - you gained throughout. Oh, you get xp from killing and picking up treasure, I believe. Pretty sure I kept the weapons I found.

Most Perks have requirements but can be gained every 5 ability points you spend from leveling. Or at leas the first perk comes at level 6, after having gained 5 points. Requirements are stuff like “need 3 strength, 3 life”.

It looks like you can replay pods or murders or whatever of levels over too, although I have not tried yet. which is good, as I apparently missed something nice in the first one. Edit: nope, I my glance was misinterpreted. You cannot replay stuff.

I like it so far.

GGGManLives has a video review up (he really likes it).