Adrift across the Ageless Sea, The Outlander finally finds himself stranded on the shores of a dying world. Before him stands The Shepherd, a guide looking for a hero to save this world from its Guardians. The Guardians, once this world’s protectors, have fallen into corruption and have ravaged the world. Now The Shepherd has tasked you with bringing the Guardians, and the monstrous army at their beck and call, to heel.
While Wrath Aeon of Ruin‘s story may have more than a touch of the familiar Dark Souls themes to it and its world design, the game is anything but another Souls-like to come home to console. Heavily inspired by the great FPSs of the 90s, Quake in particular, Wrath Aeon of Ruin is a fast-paced, gib-heavy FPS set in a dark fantasy world that is overflowing with atmosphere and monsters to splatter.
While most modern retro-inspired FPSs take their inspiration from the greats of the past, Wrath Aeon of Ruin is one of the few to take more than just its inspiration from the likes of Quake, DOOM and Duke Nukem 3D. Wrath Aeon of Ruin, you see, is a retro-inspired FPS, running on retro technology. To be precise, the developers have opted to build Wrath Aeon of Ruin on the bones of the original, now free, Quake 1 engine, bringing more than just a little old-school authenticity to the table and all the wonderful BSP-based level design that I love so much.
So let’s get these aspects out of the way first. For the most part, Wrath Aeon of Ruin looks great and captures the dark fantasy feel wonderfully through its visuals and environment design. The detailed but somewhat sparse look of FPSs from the 90’s shines through in the blocky, edgy design with expansive and towering environments making up the bulk of the world.
That level design is one of Wrath Aeon of Ruin’s strongest aspects, presenting an intriguing, visually beautiful and distinct world across its various levels. While each level tries to be distinct with its aesthetic, the dwarfing sense of scale remains throughout, and not just in its verticality or towering monuments. Wrath Aeon of Ruin’s levels are huge and each one takes quite some time to play through.
There’s an element of non-linear level design as the levels branch off in various directions, coming back together at key points or opening up shortcuts, with each level bringing, yet again, that Souls-like feel in its structure.
Each level can take quite some time to get through, upwards of forty minutes apiece and that’s before you even factor in the secret areas to find.
Enemy design is another of the highlights of the game. They’re wonderfully monstrous though the Quake inspiration shows through immensely, especially with the flying enemies and sound effects. And the only thing more fun than their horrific designs is the wonderful way they die. Whether you’re blowing off arms or watching a pustulent monster explode in a circle of its own green goo, Wrath Aeon of Ruin makes the enemy’s deaths a fun moment for the whole family.
Wrath Aeon of Ruin puts its own little spin on the weapon selection. There’s nothing here you haven’t seen before, but the setting makes good use of how the weapons are powered. The game version of the minigun runs on dead enemy teeth while the grenade launcher is powered by those same pulsating, postulant globules that enemies throw at you, making for an icky AOE explosion. Each weapon also has an alternate fire mode, making some of them incredibly OP. The double-barrel shotgun alternate fire mode is more powerful than pretty much all of the other weapons in the game.
Combat is designed to be hard and fast. Enemies are aggressive and quick, both with melee attacks and projectile throwing, cannon fodder zombies aside. It’s meant to evoke the best moments of Quake, DOOM and boomer shooter gameplay in general, relying on precision shots and constant, strafing movement. And it almost succeeds, the bar for some unfortunate issues. . .
First off let’s take a look at the level design and visuals. While we’re used to cutbacks being made for the Switch, it’s still daunting when a game whose art style is designed around a nearly thirty-year-old engine features low-res assets. When you get up close to the walls and enemies of the game, the low-res textures and models are very noticeable. There are also lighting inconsistencies with some objects, specifically vases, appearing pitch black even beneath a light source. It just looks odd.
Then you have the combination of level design and enemy encounters. While the layout is impressive, the architectural layout rarely lends itself well to the desired gameplay style. In short, the environments are designed for looks first versus function. There are far too many short corridors or ledges above lava that aren’t designed for the fast-paced combat the game wants you to enjoy.
Often you’re left between an enemy and a hard place as there’s nowhere to manoeuvre, leaving you to take a beating and hope you survive or hope you don’t drop into a pit of lava in a heated moment and fry, as there’s no way out once you’re in. In theory, spawning enemies at the beginning and end of a ledge above a fiery pit should make for a tense moment, but ultimately it just feels poorly thought out.
Wrath Aeon of Ruin runs at a pretty brisk pace. Its technical performance can’t be faulted, but there are control issues that also mar the experience. There’s input lag on the jump button which, while not game-breaking, is annoying when you’re trying to jump over or onto things. Most annoying is that Wrath Aeon of Ruin’s controls haven’t been fine-tuned for a console.
Wrath Aeon of Ruin really does feel like a keyboard and mouse is the desired way to play it as the movement and look controls aren’t finely calibrated for the fast paced combat. There’s no precision sweet spot here I’m afraid as the game is either too sensitive and fast on movement and looking, or too slow.
Ideally you should be strafing all over the place, hitting headshots with ease but that precision is missing here as the controls feel too twitchy at the higher and default settings, leaving you to either draw enemies around corners into kill boxes or stand still to take a shot, leaving yourself open to mass damage. It’s worse when you’re facing off against the games faster enemies as you will most often be missing your shots and thus wasting precious ammo. There’s still a lot of calibration work needed here for it to feel comfortable to play on Switch.
Wrath Aeon of Ruin may be an uneven FPS experience, but there’s still a fun, impressively designed on older technology game here. Just be prepared to persevere through some of its more challenging moments.
Wrath Aeon of Ruin Trailer
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