WRATH: Aeon of Ruin Review

Today we're reviewing WRATH: Aeon of Ruin, a boomer shooter launching today after a really long early access period. I think it was worth it.
Thank you to the publisher for providing a review copy.
Steam Curator: store.steampowered.com/curato...
Twitter: / maddmike_722

[@blai5e730]

I'm enjoying it... went through the Doom/Quake/Hexen releases so it was nice to see this game plays faithfully as a boomer shooter. I agree about the difficulty, I'm playing on "Casual" and it still goes hard enough for these 62yo fingers and there's a butt-load of secrets to find for the curious.

[@Harvester88]

I still hope they are doing the VR port for this game. This in VR would be really sick.

[@thewhyzer]

Can the DarkPlaces engine do VR though?

[@tackydesign6064]

Great review. will definitely be buying. Really like your review style. subbed!

[@R3GARnator]

Sometimes you just want some fast food. If something is someone's favorite genre, not sticking out but also not having any glaring issues is enough. Whereas, Hellscreen tries to be innovative, but has a garish color pallet and other issues. I'll get Wrath when it shows up in a Fanatical Choose Your Own Bundle.

[@lucaballarati9694]

This reviewer is wrong: Wrath is not a generic Quake-like. It's way more tense and frantic even on easy due to the mean enemy positioning and spawn combined with an inability to savescum every encounter, and the platforming shenanigans you can get up to have been greatly underestimated by all reviewers I've seen so far: it's surprisingly easy to sequence break certain levels.

[@Not_Nyx864]

Love me some boomershooter

[@spartanezleonid3972]

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

[@metalliqaz]

good review, love this game

[@HansAlRachid]

If ever a game's early access campaign made me lose faith in the concept, it's this one. Very glad to hear it turned out well for the most part, but _man_ it'll take a while before the frustration over the way the devs handled development and especially communication has left my system and I can give it a fair shake myself. Oh also, great review as always!

[@CMONCMON007]

I know it took really long but at least they were giving bi weekly updates communication wise

[@thewhyzer]

Hub Base Level Selection does not evoke Quake "to a T". Quake didn't have a hub. Closest would be the Hexen games, followed by Quake II. Edit: Oh yeah, this DOES evoke the "memory" of that new Quake Remastered episode hub, but that's new, not classic.

[@Maddmike]

Interesting. Remastered was my first exposure to quake so I didn’t know that wasn’t original, pretty weird feature for a remaster lol

[@idealsAREisomorphic]

Bro, the quality is good, you’ve been reviewing for 6 years and nobody gives a fuck. How do you find strength to keep going?

[@Maddmike]

This year I’m doing a three hit combo of better thumbnails, higher frequency uploads, and better audio editing. Hoping that pushes me over the edge and, if it doesn’t, I’ll probably go back to just reviewing retro games every other week or so for funsies

[@idealsAREisomorphic]

@@Maddmike good luck man. Appreciate your work.

[@TJ-ck3fp]

agree, criminally under-viewed channel

[@MrLeyr]

​@@Maddmike would be a shame to lose this run you're on atm if the year doesn't go how you want it, but I'd totally get it. I'm not really one for reviews, but I've binged a load of your backlog for the concise and immensely well-presented stuff you've put out. So just popping in to say appreciate all you're doing.

[@lucaballarati9694]

I'm really disappointed by your take that the game is generic if well done, and especially by how much time of the review you devoted to just saying "the game is what you'd expect" I think, most of all, you haven't explored the depths of the Ruination blade: that boost isn't *only* horizontal, and combined with crouch jumping it can get you up walls the Devs never intended for you to be able to climb. I was able to skip big sections of levels and get to some otherwise unaccessible secret with creative use of this mechanic, and I'm sorry to see no reviewer talk about this.

[@Maddmike]

Thank you for the candid feedback. Will be chewing on this and will keep in mind for future boomer shooter coverage.

[@electricmeatpuppet]

It's a really cool game, but kinda falls slightly short for me in some parts with the dev hell scars showing. The first world is the worst, with the game getting MUCH better after that point. The abusive monster spawning and lack of ammo kinda makes it feel a bit repetitive and tedious at some points. Some of the weapons are redundant and could have been tweaked to be a better (pistol and cyst launcher are garbage.) Overall cool aesthetic and style but you need to either crank the music (very low default) or mute it and chuck on some good doom metal.