So I've revisited this game, and I feel like there should be more reviews for this game.
For those who don't know what this game is, it is a top-down shooter developed by Raven Software, which was mostly known at the time for developing games like Shadowcaster, Heretic, Hexen Beyond Heretic, etc.
It is powered by Raven's in-house vampire engine, which was also used for developing Mageslayer and *maybe* Necrodome. This game would also become Raven Software's first game that doesn't use a first-person perspective.
Now the engine is what interests me as well. If you use the cheat that enables first-person view, you'll see right away that it's technically a 3D engine with 2D sprites (similar to Doom Engine games and BUILD Engine), but with the camera view in top-down perspective. It's a shame that a level editor wasn't included because I would've loved to potentially make levels for it.
Now I have heard some downsides regarding this game, like the game's progression is one thing; think of it like it's the Hexen of Top-Down Shooters. I haven't played through enough to give my opinion on it.
The second downside that I also haven't tested is that it's multiplayer. I was going through the comments section of a review video (probably the only one I can find as of this writing) and stated that an introduction to this game was attempted in a couple of LAN parties circa 2003. It was said that the view is just too constricted and was easy to get snuck up on and taken out without really being able to know what was going on. Plus, it was said that the weapons were unbalanced and had a couple of overpowered weapons (Minigun, Rocket Launcher, etc.), and the equipment was not being utilized because of how difficult it was to cycle or deploy effectively. It was also stated that the levels were too big for less than six players.
Now I will state that don't judge it's multiplayer by it's comment, as it is just someone giving their thoughts on the multiplayer. It's always best to try it yourself and see what you think. I've tried to get multiplayer working without the hassle of VPNs, but fighting DirectPlay under TCP/IP to get a dedicated server nowadays is like trying to win the lottery at this point.
If only IPXWrapper either allows direct IP connection or at least supports the use of DOSBox's IPXNET servers for Internet Play. There are people who don't want to resort to VPNs; I've tried. The closest I got for this was WIPXEMU by Kjliew, but while it was communicating with IPXNET servers, hosting and connecting didn't work. I guess that's something to revisit another time.
If you wish to try it out for yourself, get it on an abandonware site and throw Dgvoodoo2 in for now until, out of the blue, it gets released on GOG. If you wish to watch a review, I have one here by Salokin.
WATCH HERE!
