The Compleat Retro Shooter thread

I’ve been waiting for it to be finished since a while.

That game looks like it’s right up my alley. Wishlisted, even though it says it’s not coming out for another 233 years. At least it will launch before the System Shock reboot.

EEEEE

Powerslave/Exhumed wasn’t all that great of a Build game. More Witchhaven than Duke.

Huh, I know folks who said it was a ton of fun.

Excellent. This is based on the Metroid-influenced Saturn and Playstation versions, which few people have played. The more widely known PC game started out as Ruins and was much closer to a traditional FPS - it was basically just a straight Doom-inspired shooter with a Egyptian coat of paint.

A few years back, Digital Foundry went into detail about distinct each port was:

RagnarRox, a Youtube critic I really like, will be covering the game later in Feb.

Yeah, came here to post something similar. If you only played the old PC version, then you played an inferior product. It was a decent key-find level romp FPS based on Build, but it was nothing special. The console versions had a lot more going for them.

That’s pretty much what I played. I watched Gman play the new one on YouTube, looks a lot more fun.

I love that Powerslave doesn’t hold your hand and instead gives you broad clues about where you should be heading to next and trusts that you’ll work it out. The powerups really open things up. It’s an awesome game.

It bugs me a little that the torches aren’t voxels. I know they weren’t in the first game either, but seeing them break the laws of physics by jutting out at some impossible angle detracts from the art style. I wish checkpoints would still work after quitting the game. The biggest issue is that the player’s hitbox feels wildly off. There’s a disconnect between your FOV and the space you take up in the environment which for me means evading enemy projectiles is difficult. It’s probably a legacy thing from back when it was like 240p but it feels like the player has a peanut head and a giant’s body.

Finding powerslave mildly confusing. On the 2nd area, there were occasionally things that looked like powerups that I couldn’t pick up. Not the checkpoint beetle thingy.

peacedog, are you sure it’s not ammo? Most of the little orbs are universal ammo but confusingly they only replenish the weapon you have equipped. I spent a while struggling to find rounds for the M60 and the grenades before realizing I needed to fight against my instincts to run over the pickups while using a puny weapon.

I’m not sure of anything. . . but it wasn’t one of the blue tinged orbs (versus the red that heal) if that’s what you mean. It was fancier. I would swear it was a weapon powerup, because I thought I got something else just like it on the level and it said “weapon powered up” or something. But moving over it does nothing.

Do the weapon power ups just improve the active weapon? I should RTFM clearly.

Richard Ledbetter is usually not one to dwell on the past or over classic games over at Digital Foundry, except for the notable exception of the Quake remaster recently and now Powerslave / Exhumed.

I have to admit, I’m kind of intrigued now. I never heard of the game back then, perhaps because I was a PC-only gamer, and the best versions were on consoles back then.

Maybe when I’m done with the Quake Remaster, this will be worth a look.

Ohhh, Exhumed! Now I know what everyone is talking about! That’s what it was called in the UK and I remember it being praised a lot back in the day. In fact, it’s one of the few old FPSes that I wish I’d checked out at the time.

Okay so within one minute the phrase ‘I’d describe it as a proto-Metroid Prime.’ Sounds like something to add to my wishlist. Man, the PlayStation architecture/geometry looks pretty miserable compared to the Saturn’s!

Steam’s having another demo fest event. Turbo Overkill’s the one I’m most interested in because of the mobility options and OTT gore. It’s from some Doom modders that worked on Total Chaos.

This one looks pretty unique, though not very retro.

RagnarRox on why Powerslave is a essential remaster:

Bah.
I bought it but can’t play it because there is no Y-axis inversion option for the mouse.
Oddly, they have that option for the controller, but not the mouse.
Hopefully they’ll patch that up, because I’ve been looking forward to this.

I saw that in a user review and didn’t believe. Wow.