This feels familiar…
It is no secret that I am a huge fan of the shooter genre, specifically those aping the classics from the mid-90s. These are known as boomer shooters now, which is silly, we are not boomers. Should be called Gen X shooters, but that isn’t as catchy. I digress, this brings me to the game at hand, Wrath: Aeon of Ruin. It is easy to get all these releases confused. They all carry the same stigma and a lot of similar design philosophies. It takes a lot for them to stand out, which is fitting considering it was the same in their prime. Wrath: Aeon of Ruin does some interesting things, but the port to consoles seemed to do more harm than good.
This latest entry into the genre was developed by KillPixel Games and Slipgate Ironworks, the latter are known for other 3D Realms’ titles such as Phantom Fury, Rad Rogers, and Ghostrunner. As for KillPixel Games, this is their first effort, which makes it all the more impressive. Much like games of that era, Wrath focuses mostly on tearing through levels and killing plenty of enemies. It is light on story and heavy on the action, which is just how I enjoy these types of games.
MSRP: $29.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $24.99
Players take on the role of a nameless character simply called ‘Outlander’ that is tossed into an unknown world. You are immediately met by the Shepherd of Wayward Souls who tasks you with taking down the Guardians of the Old World, because…why not?! That is pretty much it. It serves as a catalyst to move fast and mow down enemies, and there isn’t much else to think about.
There are a few things that make Wrath stand out. One is the way it handles checkpoints and level progression. See, unlike other games of this type, Wrath is more akin to a Souls like game. Each level checkpoints at the beginning of each level with only one other checkpoint throughout the stage. You can also earn what are called Soul Tethers, which can be used as a one-time checkpoint. This means dying outside of any of these, constitutes a restart. It is unforgiving to say the least.
This doesn’t even factor in the difficulty itself. The game has an “easy” mode, which is misleading. This is more the normal difficulty in most shooters. Even on easy the game is stingy with its health and ammo, making it almost feel survival horror-esque.
Even though the game carries the aesthetic of other classic shooters, it is actually more of a modern design choice. It lays out the usual tropes of fast action mixed with pixel-style visuals focusing on a more medieval design. It looks really good, and the frame rate holds up extremely well, even with tons of enemies and action on the screen. While it holds up, there are sections of the game that simply feel recycled. This is especially evident when exploring areas looking for secrets. Still the game design is really well done.
Controls are a combination of awkward and solid. The guns feel good, but the aiming is a little floaty for my tastes. It took a lot of tweaking just to get the action to feel right. The melee also lacks a punch behind it. It was hard to know when my attacks were landing and impossible to land a hit without taking damage.
There is a lot to like in this package, but it is weighed down by the annoying checkpoints and difficulty. The awkward level design when exploring is also frustrating, and it turned me off wanting to do much outside of finishing each level. The checkpoints issue can be overcome by toggling on the infinite save spots in the options, but they really need to re-label the difficulty modes. There is no easy option here.
Wrath: Aeon of Ruin is a solid entry if not a forgettable one. I wanted to love it more than I did, but in the end just found myself pushing through just to see it end, and not necessarily because I was enjoying myself.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
