Can this retro-style FPS make the competition QUAKE in it’s boots?
You are Outlander. Once adrift upon the Ageless Sea, you now find yourself on the shores of a dying world. From the consuming darkness emerges a figure cloaked in white, the Shepherd of Wayward Souls, who burdens you with the task of hunting down the remaining Guardians of the Old World. You must journey into the vast gloom to explore ancient ruins, discover forgotten secrets and battle the horrors that lurk within.
WRATH: Aeon of Ruin may not be a name that rolls of the tongue like DOOM, QUAKE or HEXEN but it is definitely in the same league as those. It uses the Quake-1 tech to provide a retro experience that you would fully expect and it doesn’t disappoint in providing that. But is there more to it than meets the eye?
At first, you only get a melee weapon to deal with your foes and it can be a bit of a pain, but once you start getting guns, then the game opens up to the classic boomer-shooter genre we all know and love. Sure, it may be outdated now in comparison to today’s shooters like COD and Halo, but there’s still something charming about these types of games and this one is no different.
The only issue I seem to find is that maybe WRATH plays it a bit safe overall. It feels more claustrophobic due to too many corridors and while the big combat areas are superb, it doesn’t offer any more variety than what came before it. The format is what you would expect and there just aren’t any real surprises to be found, which isn’t the end of the world, but it also doesn’t help it stand out from the crowd.
The framerate never dropped, load times were minimal and I didn’t come across any bugs during my playthrough. The visuals have that QUAKE charm to it and the soundtrack is impressive to boot.
The Verdict
The only real issues with WRATH: Aeon of Ruin are that it doesn’t offer anything new to the genre, while also making areas too claustrophobic. Other than that, it’s another superb boomer-shooter for fans to enjoy.