A Soft Recommendation of WRATH: Aeon of Ruin

[@underthemayo]

Check out WRATH: Aeon Of Ruin on steam at this link: t.co/kYZzzrtue5

[@mintmag8748]

I can tell you why this happened. There was drama and the original developer quite and it was taken over by a new team. Also it's running on the dark places engine

[@Fedor_Kisliakov]

When you said "see you next month", I got confused. Then I realized that February is almost over. Time flies too fast.

[@Dondlo46]

This was so fun when I played it, I like the simplicity of the game and don't really mind how it's designed, visuals and gameplay are pretty fun and that's enough for me

[@MulekeTrairao]

The Blade is extremely useful with bunnyhopping in Wrath, both for fast navigation and combat scenarios. It's the Quake/Darkplaces engine, after all. The speedruns of this game are gonna be insane because of the Blade!

[@DARRKNESS99]

I appreciate that whenever you give a criticism, you give a suggestion for how to address it

[@underthemayo]

Thanks! Especially when I know the publisher is watching I want to help

[@FeRu.Raprodukcja]

I wait 4 years for relase. Boomer shooters are my favourite genre of all modern games and I'm happy to say that it's great fps.....but not as good as Prodeus but it also have nice meaty weapons, góry and visceral action but this was easy to achieve when devs were responsible for awesome mods like Quake 1.5, Slayers Testament, Arcane Dimensions and so on.

[@GameSomniac]

Prodeus is so fucking good 🤘

[@CatsOverdrive]

Inb4 inevitable "but prodeus sucks/bad!" reply...

[@Badhero4]

The “areyoudepressed” save lmao… yeah, I Am. But not about this game. Can’t wait to finish it now that I’ve added five years to my life waiting for it :)

[@SomeGuy1234X]

I’d listen to an asmr of mayo crying in the corner of his room while his friend attempts to console him.

[@Eric_Nomad_Hixtone]

Funny enough in their twitter there was a lore text for enemies too. And it was cool to see Heretics being cacos and why they're like that. But then they stopped. And I'm actually sad there's no lore behind them now

[@GameSomniac]

I was honestly surprised by how much this game kicked my ass when I played it in Early Access. I figured I was gonna walk in with 28 years of FPS experience and just dominate but the game moves pretty fast and threw a lot of surprises which ever since DOOM Eternal, that now seems to be the standard.

[@DarkFire515]

My main gripe with Aeon is as you identified - the movement feels imprecise and sloppy. Not being able to precisely jump because your player character is sliding down stairs or sliding off meshes gets really annoying really fast. I also agree that ammo provision feels inadequate at times. Definitely think it's a fun game though.

[@moures6928]

I really hope you enjoyed the batman games. Can't wait for the videos

I was slightly meh in my first 1-2 hours but now, I'm absolutely loving it. Started to play on hard, well... ammo management was horrible at first, I died tons of times, but as I progressed and got a few more weapons, it became fantastic. Constantly changing weapons, figuring out which enemies to deal with first, keeping the Soul Tethers as long as possible and a few times keeping it too long and... well, I died... and again and again and again and I still couldn't stop playing. Ah, and the blade is so good! I disagree about it being not good. It's fantastic. It does lots of damage, combining with temporary invincibility, killing weaker foes, escaping from tough situations. It's your swiss army knife. The spell system is really good and I found them mandatory on hard. And again, adds an extra layer to the gameplay and I needed some trial and error to find the right places to use them.

[@benturner3458]

Nice one mayo. Awesome vid mate 👍

[@Player-10]

As someone who absolutely loves Quake, its expansions, and Arcane Dimensions' lengthy genius, I see your complaints about length and simplicity as an absolute win. I highly recommend Arcane Dimensions, it is a better experience in my opinion.

[@theblobconsumes4859]

I'm sad that the level design doesn't even come close to matching the absolute awe of Arcane Dimensions.

[@Player-10]

@@theblobconsumes4859 they can't all be Arcane Dimensions, that is for sure. Level design varies from clear (i.e. The Garden) to rambling complexity (The Hollow). Best level in Act 1 is The Priory imo

[@deviantknight7009]

You should review the original Prey, The Darkness 1, Jericho, or F.E.A.R. God the 360 had some bangers

[@Ivanimirus]

I agree !!! Xbox 360 was the best console ever ! I really wanna get Clive Barker's Jericho but I don't know (yet) if i runs on Xbox Series X (but there is xenia emulator which I will try once I get my hands on bullet witch ! ) Oh and Prey is one of my favorite games of all time. Named my original youtube channel in 06 after it. Have it on Series X and will play it soon again !

[@iwuvu5940]

Love the whole gothic castle vibe, so comfy

[@MidniteCathedral]

When I heard Graven turned out mediocre, I mentally mixed it up with Wrath: Aeon of Ruin. Good to hear this turned out better!

[@mdd4296]

Cloaking spider is just Specter in doom 2

[@ninochaosdrache3189]

I do hear the Dread Templar OST in the brackground, you sneaky Mayo

[@user-stanrbm]

I don't like it if I bought an expensive game and it's short. I like long games so I can spend a lot of time.

[@UnL1k3]

A lot of the issues could have been fixed if they actually treated early access like early access. Instead of gathering player feedback as they updated the game in early access, they released one version of the game 5 years ago and left it to rot until it fully released.

[@chibbertooth5521]

The runes you get at the end of each level are called relics and show up in the same tab that details level stats like enemies killed and secrets found. If you mistakenly enter a level you have already beaten you can look at the level name and look at its stats to see if you still need to do that one. I would have preferred that when you are around a portal area in a hub the game would automatically show the level’s name and stats onscreen before entering, but tbf that information is still present in the game you just have to know to sift through the journal. Would have liked to hear about what you thought of the two other sigils that go alongside the Sigil of Displacement you mentioned and the Destruction Mace.

[@civilwarfare101]

I'm not sure if I like the idea of the game lasting that long but at least a good amount of content was made after the game getting delayed so much. I remember as far back as maybe 2020 where I thought the game was going to come out but then it got delayed. Also, I think Arkham Knight is mechanically the best Arkham game but the game is letdown by so many other things. I am interested in your thoughts on the games.

[@bonn7908]

Note about the Blade! I found out that atleast on normal mode, the charged attack insta-kills the heretics (giant floating heads) :D

[@lucaballarati9694]

Good review, but I think there are two things you don't appreciate enough: 1) just how much effort was put into making you tense. Between the sheer NOPE I DONT WANT THAT NEAR ME energy of widows and heretics and the way enemies are constantly hidden behind corners, spawned behind you and bursting out of walls, I ended up feeling engaged even when I found the game easy because I knew I had to check every corner and be ready to dodge at a moment's notice. 2) Just HOW MUCH you can do with the blade dash: on some levels I managed to skip entire sections by jumping up walls or through gaos which were supposed to be impassable, and a lot of times I found the devs had hidden secrets in places that I thought for sure were unreachable. Try to play the Black Priory again and put your mind to getting up every wall and on every roof and you'll see what I mean. You can even find 100 points' worth of Dark Armor if you get to the highest point of the level. 3) The levels aren't "slippery", it's the autorun that's jerky. Just press LShift to walk if you want to be careful. You also missed aflaw: that the bright teal projectiles of some enemies are easily missed in snowy levels because they blend in.

[@underthemayo]

I think I sufficiently praised the game for its intense combat encounters and enemy placement. I didn't look into that function of the blade because I'm not into speedrunning or sequence breaking. I preferred to show off exploration and secret hunting which I think is enough to interest people. And just looking at it you can imagine it'll have some crazy applications to be found. Interesting about auto run, I didn't try walking to solve those issues sliding around on ledges.

[@Nulak]

Good review, thanks.

[@DwarvenMechCommando81]

I can't decide to play this with the more classic style pixel graphics look, or sharper smoother graphics. But I find most of the time pixel graphics show more details. Like cracks in the stone walls, etc. More interesting ground textures

[@lancehaderlie9587]

I would love to hear your thoughts on Witchfire after they release their next big update in March. It's in early access on EGS but I've had a ton of fun with it already and am very much looking forward to their updates and full release.

[@caileanoerkvitz4157]

Hi Mayo. I'm happy to hear that you recommend Wrath, even if it's not perfect. I think I'll give it a go when I have the time.

[@georgekostaras]

Nice I’m always looking for new recommendations

[@NKWittmann]

Bro when we're paying for the game there is no such thing as it being "too long". Only when you've got a deadline to review it probably. There is no world when "the game should have ended at 12 hours instead of 20", only if the length decreases the quality in any way. That's how Quake and Doom still get custom content. Hardly a flaw.

[@underthemayo]

Bro I totally disagree. A tight well paced campaign experience crafted to maximize the gameplay is a wonderful thing. I wouldn't want the original god of war to be 40 hours. I wouldn't want resident evil 1 to be 40 hours. They don't have the gameplay to sustain that length. They are instead tight campaigns with great replay value. Wrath doesn't have the gameplay to support its length.

[@werdna_sir]

Hard disagree. A short, tightly focused experience is far more attractive. They're also the games that get replayed more.

[@trenth3492]

I dropped wrath cause I felt underwhelmed during act 1. Glad to know it gets better. I’ll probably see for myself how much I like the rest of the game.

[@daveweaver3886]

Thanks for the review man, this game is right up my alley. Hopefully the developers take your criticisms to heart and update this in the near future. I'll definitely grab this when it's more around $10-15.

[@s7an10]

14:35 IIRC, Wrath had that jump and "crouch" (not that obvious) mechanics found in other games.

[@blipblap614]

I recently replayed Half-Life, and it took me a minute to remember that. "Oh yeah: duck jumping. Thanks, Quake engine!"

[@jayeugene333]

Is there going to be hard copy disc release for PS5??

[@underthemayo]

Not that I'm aware of.

[@jayeugene333]

@@underthemayo Dang. I love these types of games, but I like hard copies. I got Prodeus on disc, so maybe they'll do something in the future. Thanks for letting me know👍

[@DouglasLippert]

@@jayeugene333you’re living 10 years in the past. :)

[@jayeugene333]

@@DouglasLippert The way I like it. Lol

[@michaelkitchin9665]

I hope you didn't pick this up on PS4/PS5. Episode 2 is completely bricked for me due to scripting errors.

[@gorofujita5767]

10:10 >"Wrath turns into like a 20 hour campaign over 3 worlds, when it should have been like 12 hours" Heresy. Do not ever demand _less content._ If anything, say we should have had like 6 or 8 worlds instead (while maintaining the same 20 hours of content), to keep the pacing of the game faster (i.e. changing levels quicker) to have things always be interesting and never boring to the player But to the suggest we should have gotten less? What is this, a return to 2013 and COD-like 6 hour campaigns at full price? Nope.

[@underthemayo]

A tighter more focused and replayable campaign would have been preferable because there's not enough gameplay and enemy variety to stretch across. "Longer playtime" does not equal better experience. Not everything has to be 50 hours. I'd hate for resident evil to be that long.

[@gorofujita5767]

​@@underthemayo >because there's not enough gameplay and enemy variety to stretch across Then those are the variable they should improve. Wrath works great with the large sprawling levels, and that's something so rare these days that we should collectively demand more and better, not less and worse. Also, nothing is stopping them from continuing adding content (including enemies) post-release. Many games have grown exponentially post-release via patches and other addons (look at the neverwinter re-release). Some people point out how a certain game may drag on for too long on XYZ aspect, and while I sympathize with that feeling, the correct-est fix to that is to make the dragging parts more organic. Ion Fury's later levels come to mind, as they're boring not because they're long, but simply because they're haphazardly designed. And improving the design would be much preferable. Sometimes spending 20 bucks or so in a game which is great, but lasts you like 3 hours and ends abruptly in a cliffhanger, feels like a sudden kick to the nuts.

[@underthemayo]

@@gorofujita5767 sure just "add more gameplay" as if that's easy and not expensive and time consuming. Im not asking them to make it shorter, or add anything. The game is done. And if you think they're gonna add enemies and fresh gameplay to justify the run time, you overestimate how well this game performed and you don't know how things have been going for 3DRealms.

[@aeropul2627]

You should review Amid Evil. I had fun with that one and I think other people would too if they knew about it

[@Mankey619]

Its super to end this month is by watching you play Wrath Aeon Of Ruin. This game is definitely the spiritual successor to Quake. Afterall this game is using the Quake engine.

[@SaverioStyle]

You can tell that this game is good because it has no air control.

[@underthemayo]

It does when you use the blade though

[@PaneyeOfficial]

The disappearing bodies and lack of permanent aftermath (blood and gibs), for a quake tech game, is unforgivable

[@underthemayo]

Fair criticism

[@PaneyeOfficial]

@ULTRAOutdoorsman in quake darkplaces you can make it all permanent including gibs and blood. No excuse in 2024

[@krakan4566]

I am curious to see what else you *softly* recommend to us mayo man :)

[@spartanezleonid3972]

I think this is the best retro shooter ever. Thanks for the review!

[@alexchichester]

Mayo's opinions are the most trustworthy in the biz (even for a sponsored vid... even for his initial Doom Eternal impressions)... srsly

[@btchiaintkidding7837]

the movement in the game feels off for some reason, especially the jump. i really cant put my finger on why tho. it is oddly floaty and overall movement slippery slidey but not in good way like blood or doom. it is actually absolutely ruining my enjoyment of the combat cuz the movement feels oddly unpredictable

[@chaser1254]

Finished it today... My god - such a great arsenal! Ive been using ALL the weapons from start to finish, but the levels... levels, from act 2 are a joke. Who came up with the idea to make them sooo fucking long! Waiting for custom fan levels to fix this game for me, because im not going to replay it with base acts.

[@thewhyzer]

"20 hour experience." "It'll probably take you 3 days to finish." Well, it is obvious that playing games is your dayjob, lol.

[@MasterSoto]

Good review, man. I disagree about your AI argument, though. This is a shooter inspired by games like Quake, Doom, Hexen and Unreal. None of these games have noteworthy AI, so I don't see why Wrath needs to be different. Well, Unreal had impressive AI for its time. DUSK, Ion Fury, Amid Evil etc. were also not different. You need to see it from thr perspective of those games and not modern ones.

[@underthemayo]

They could at least not get hung up so much on geometry. The running guys literally all line up single file a charge at. Just a little more please.

[@MrBlonday]

Anyone know when this is coming to console? Just says not available on xbox :o

[@Jayy997]

When I hear about the poor AI and enemy movement it turns me off straight away. Then you went through all the other flaws which should damn the game to the "don't bother" bin. How can you even soft recommend a game that doesn't get the fundamentals right when that is pretty much all there is to the game?

[@underthemayo]

Levels are generally well put together. Great secret hunting. Fun spell system. Enemy placement is solid for combat rooms. Resource management is good. Smart save system. There are far more positive sides to this title. Many games have simple AI and are still fun. I wish Wrath had better AI but they way they USE that AI works for the most part.

[@DL-rz4ko]

Is there a weapon wheel for controller players?

[@Rou_Zza]

For me personally, the base experience is pretty good, but it's stretched out so unbelievably thin it just loses all flavor after like 5h. It's like a drink that's 10% alcohol and 90% water and ice, you're just endlessly walking through these gigantic maps fighting the same group of generic dumb enemies over and over and over and over again. Great visuals, great atmosphere, good weapons and movement, insanely boring and repetitive gameplay

[@underthemayo]

Imagine a tight 10 hours.

[@clvr51]

So...are you saying it's good but it gets a bit *long in the tooth*? Sorry not sorry lol

[@the_travelingbreeze]

Are you depressed?

[@alexunderros]

This is the dumbest critisism I ever heard - it didn't end after the 1st boss. Wut? Basically you just said that EA version should have been the whole game. Reeeeeeally smart

[@underthemayo]

Game is too long.

[@alexunderros]

@@underthemayo no it's not. Levels are too long - on that I may agree. It could have been better to have 10 half-an-hour maps per hub. 1 hour maps are exhausting. But "game is too long"? What is it? Why?

[@btchiaintkidding7837]

​​@@alexunderros the combat loop is too simplified to stretch the game so long. maybe it is ok to keep the game going after the 1st boss in the nineth hour lol, but they really dont do anything later either to spice up the combat. and considering how relentless the enemy spawns are and sheer numbers of enemy that you fight each level it probably gets too exhausting after a while, especially even more so if you are trying to dish out a review for your fans no wonder he will kinda feel burnt out/bored on the game. the combat is too simple, relentless, no sense of pacing, enemy spawns at every convievable oppurtunity so the criticism is understandable "game is too long" criticsm in most cases usually is d^mb but it kinda makes sense here

[@anonytuser711]

It was too open. I got tired of fighting the same 3 enemies. Even though it was Quake inspired, I didn't enjoy it.

[@the_travelingbreeze]

I hope the devs cut the fat out of the game and shorten it too. Better to leave us wanting more than wanting less.

[@aj_gotsmoke]

Play Blasphemous 2 bro you'll enjoy every single thing in it, trust me they really improved that game

[@ДмитрийЮрасов-с3ф]

In 2021 I lost all hope that Wrath is going to be released at all, and now YT recommends this guy who does not like that there is too much content in the game. Immediate dislike

[@Final7even]

your FOV is nauseating.

[@enzogrilo6932]

Rip off of doom?

[@underthemayo]

No, this is more in the spirit of Quake.

[@ThePrimordialChronicles]

Oh boomer shooters, how similar you each and every single one are.

[@Snowmaninadesert]

i guess there is something to be said about how similar a lot of boomer shooters are but, if your not all that interested inde fps games are booming hope you find something else you would enjoy

[@Always.Smarter]

it's almost like they're part of the same sub-genre

[@btchiaintkidding7837]

they really are not

[@UrineDeity]

Damn i forgot i had this game.. im going to binge this i stead of selaco lol