Bloom

So this is it An "old-school fps" with only 2 episodes (containing what feels like unfinished and somewhat empty maps), questionable keymapping decisions, weird ass physics, a soundtrack that ends up giving me a headache rather than pump me full of adrenaline, and mehish gunplay The only positivet I can give is the gore. I love it Not so much the ribcage that awkwardly clips through the torso though What pisses me off the most is that your selling this for $15 when it doesn't even close to that amount. Not with the content it currently has.

[h1] To read the full review, read it over at [url=https://saveorquit.com/2019/03/28/preview-bloom/] Save or Quit! [/url] [/h1] ________ [i] Fight your way through hordes of demon summoners in this retro-inspired FPS. Bloom is a simplistic, no-nonsense, “shoot everything that moves” kind of game and it works. [/i] Bloom is an Early Access retro inspired FPS that takes it’s inspiration from various classics such as Doom, Quake, Blood, Heretic, Hexen, Duke Nukem and the rest of the ’90s FPS giants. Does it really stand up to be compared to such classics? Gather your weapons, as we embark on an adventure full of killin demons and kickin ass as we rip and tear through this game to find out! Full disclosure, the Dev provided me a key for the game, of which I am very grateful for. However he challenged me to play the game on the “Challenging” difficulty. The joke’s on him though, I was at going to at first, but then I decided to play on the “FPS God” difficulty cause I’m a glutton for punishment! So let’s get this out of the way, if you are expecting Bloom to be something like DUSK or AMID EVIL in terms of being a retro shooter…well, you will simply be disappointed. This game is rough around the edges, and pretty ugly… It’s the gameplay that holds it up as it’s solid and a blast to play through! It definitely feels like an indie fps game. If you wanted a great shooter that involves lots of killing demons with lots of weapon choices, you’ve come to the right place! What does Bloom have to offer? Well, let’s break it down! Bloom will have Two Episodes, with it being in Early Access there is only the first Episode to play, but fear not as the maps are big and offer tons of variety that just gets better and better the further you go. There are also plans for an “Endless Mayhem” mode as the Dev has stated. __________________ The first and second maps are pretty boring as they don’t do much that is interesting. The game doesn’t start to pick up until you get to the third map where things begin to feel like they are thought out more and built better along with some experimentation. The first area starts in a forest-like mountain area with demons and cultists hiding in the trees ready to ambush you, then you enter a set of mining caves on the second level. It’s when you hit level three where you find a couple of buildings in a mountain area that it gets interesting. Right after that area, you can see a church in the background up the mountain and enter a fleshy demon hell hole. I do enjoy that all the maps offer exploration and no hand holding. They also have some backtracking, but nothing really major. Mostly it consists of, “hey you got the key now you can go back and open that door” areas. I did mention that the “Exit” switches were not very obvious, and the Dev said he was planning on making it more obvious in the near future. Do you like secrets? Well, don’t you worry as there are secrets! It wouldn’t be a retro FPS without secrets! Find a hidden switch, well it will then open up a hidden door to get a powerful weapon, or some mega health or armor. __________________ Bloom also does a unique thing with its monsters, and the best thing I can compare it to is Painkiller. What I mean by this is that Painkiller (the original one, not the terrible “expansions”) introduced at least 2 new unique monsters in each new level. Bloom does this as well! Every level seemed to give me a new monster or demon to deal with, and they weren’t just simple color changes either! You will instantly recognize some designs from other games such as Doom. Everything from a cultist with a pistol or shotgun, to a floating demon that shoots fireballs, to some big guy that shoots fireballs, to gigantic demons that throw exploding fireballs. I think someone enjoys fireballs, huh? If that wasn’t enough for yah, each level also has a boss you have to deal with or something to that effect as in the second level it’s an optional boss that guards a new weapon. On the harder difficulties, there is a TON of health and you will need a lot of ammo for these fights! I ended up running out of ammo during the Lich King fight and had to resort to punching when he was almost done, and yeah it did cause me to die a few times. Each boss also spawns more enemies, so it is never just a simple 1v1 fight, which is good for keeping you on your toes, plus it is usually your only source of health as every enemy will drop a rose, which is your main health source. __________________ Alright, enough stalling. Let’s get to the real meat of the game, the weapons! How are they? Are they any good? Yes, they are! You get a very good selection of weapons. From your Fists, two-handed sword, pistols, submachine guns, pump shotgun, double-barreled shotgun, electric crossbow, rifle, minigun, plasma gun, grenade launcher, bazooka, laser rifle, ray gun, chain lightning gun plus a few secret weapons. On top of that, a few of the weapons like the pistol and submachine gun can be dual wielded. Every weapon is useful to a certain degree, minus the pistols and fists. I found those to be not very helpful unless I absolutely had to use them, like because I ran out of ammo. The shotguns are VERY powerful, the minigun is great for clearing out large rooms or bosses, lob a grenade around a corner and Gib a group of enemies. Every weapon feels like it’s doing its job, which is the most important thing when it comes to FPS. Worst case, the Dev just needs to make a few tweaks and that could easily improve the weapons if needed. The Dev also added a ring that once you acquire it will allow your melee kills to sap health from the enemy, which is an awesome addition and does help make the melee a little more useful. In terms of pickups are your usual weapons and ammo, health and armor, and keys to open doors and switches to progress. There is also a secret Adrenaline that will increase your max health by 10, and oh boy you will need those! Playing this on FPS God is taxing, as everything hurts a ton! Like I said every enemy that dies will drop a rose that is your health. They only really add a few points of health though, so it’s still better to try and avoid getting hit as much as possible. There are some bigger health pickups, but don’t expect to see those very often. Let’s not forget about the armor that will help with some of that damage, though the color choice for the armor always seems to confuse me and I can never remember which armor gives me how much protection, but that is completely my fault for being dumb. One big thing that seems to be missing though is the lack of “Powerups”, and it is maddening!! There are currently no super pickups like a God Mode or Super Speed or anything. Hopefully, that can be changed as some of the big arena rooms could definitely benefit from a temporary powerup. __________________ Don't forget to read the full review over at [url=https://saveorquit.com/2019/03/28/preview-bloom/] Save or Quit! [/url] [h1] Verdict [/h1] As it is still in Early Access, I can’t really give a final verdict as it’s still being worked on and improved. With how much fun I’ve been having with it though if you are someone that is looking for a pretty solid yet rough around the edges FPS, I definitely recommend checking out Bloom! With the Dev willing to take all the feedback he can get to improve on it and fix things, I can’t really complain too much! The one man Dev team has worked hard on this, and it’s no asset flip! If anything, wait and see what the final product looks like. I honestly can’t wait to see what he does in the second episode for the final showdown!

Well Bloom is pretty good so far, lot of potential. Bloodbath with shotguns, engage psycho mode with a super shotgun eviscerating hordes of demons and cultists. You can also go full maniac with dual uzi's what's not to like ? Now waiting for more content and better optimization. Support this single dev project, buy the game.

DOOM ripoff. If you want something like the old Doom play DUSK.

Fast paced shooting set in a grain, demon-filled world. Listen to the cultist scream as you shotty them in the face. Run, jump and circle strafe your way to victory. This is rad. https://youtu.be/LAMFiMjVZFQ

UPDATE: I dunno what else to say except...you asked for it. Due to all the people who insist that 5 minutes is not enough time to form an opinion on a game, regardless of how immediately bad it is, I have decided to re-buy, re-install, and play 40 extra minutes out of pure spite. Spoiler alert: I was right and you were wrong, the game still sucks. It's not fun. It's not even mediocre. It's just bad. In fact, the extra play time made me even angrier. * game is out of EA and nothing changed. I.e. THIS is the final product. * unskippable text on new game * enemies are ridiculously spongey * enemies are badly designed. There's a skull guy in a flying cage that is 100% identical to non-caged skull guys, but for some inexplicable reason, they take 3 shotgun blasts instead of 1. * game still plays like a unity asset flip even though it's made in unreal engine * game crashes after you die * the devs are either lying or horribly mistaken about the level not being linear. It's very linear. You go in a straight line through a straight canyon into a straight town that ends in a barricade, and then you backtrack in the opposite direction (ZOMG) to a portal that takes you 20 feet over (literally just past the barricade [b]why the ♥♥♥♥ is it even there?[/b]) to a windmill that overlooks a straight cave. Just because you can go inside the windmill (to do nothing) and there are little details on the side does not mean you get to deny that your level design is linear. You want to see an example of a non-linear level design? Look at literally ANY level from DOOM or DUSK or QUAKE or Half-Life or Perfect Dark or Turok or Hexen or Heretic or Blood or Duke Nukem or Shadow Warrior or Daikatana or ... Stop bullshitting. You are all full of ♥♥♥♥. I WAS wrong about the weapons. There is an uzi-like gun and a shotgun, and a crossbow, and enemies seem to drop ammo refills. Wow! ...This doesn't make any difference. It makes the same amount of difference as sprinkling cheese over horse droppings to make them taste "better". The game is still bad. Playing 40 minutes did not change my mind. All it did was waste my time exactly as I predicted. Also, no mouse sensitivity or FOV settings to speak of. ♥♥♥♥ you. So to all you naysayers: never doubt me ever again. When I say a game is bad, especially when I have an exorbitantly small amount of playtime on it, it's because I genuinely found it repulsive. I do not and cannot recommend this game to anyone. [b]TL;DR - I was right.[/b] ORIGINAL REVIEW: This game is awful. The gunplay isn't good and you can just bhop past all the enemies before getting stuck. You have a melee weapon in the form of your fists, but they are completely useless as it is impossible to use them on an enemy without taking damage. You can kill headcrab zombies with the crowbar without taking damage. You can kill just about any enemy in DUSK with the sickles without taking damage. But if you try to go in for a sucker punch between an enemy's attacks, you will not be able to retreat without taking damage, making melee infeasible. The first level is a long, linear corridor and you are given no weapons, meaning you're supposed to take out the enemies with the weak starting pistol that very quickly runs out of ammo (25 bullets and no ammo pickups in sight). All of the difficulties feel the same, and attempting to restart the level after dying locks the game up. You wanna play a retro throwback FPS? DUSK is 10,000 times better than this. Quick Update: okay so melee is possible, kinda. It's very clunky. However, if you were to actually fight like this, it would be extremely boring and tedious because the enemies take too many hits to take down and it's just plain not fun to do. Why even have melee if you're not gonna make it viable or fun? You can't use Early Access as an excuse for this. Issues like what I've listed should've been ironed out and resolved before the game went out of alpha. EA only excuses bugs and minor clunkiness. It does not excuse poor game/level design.

Absolutely Fantastic! First episode includes 8 missions and after the 1st and 2nd mission, the game really develops. The developer is working on improving and adding to the content as well as a 2nd episode, but as it stands it's pretty fully featured and ready to be enjoyed. There is some disparity with the visual design of the game and that might throw some people off, but trust me, if you like Doom clones, you'll love it!

I really WANT to like this game, because I love indie shooters, and I like the aesthetic of Bloom (it reminds me a lot of Dusk, Blood, etc). But this game just has some issues that are preventing me from really enjoying this game... The biggest issue is that there is a shooting bug (same shooting bug that plagues Hellbound, actually), where you often won't shoot when clicking the fire button. This makes combat much more difficult than it needs to be, and often results in unnecessary damage and deaths. This bug NEEDS to be fixed. When I click the fire button, my gun should fire. Bloom also has some wonky resolution issues, where the game won't change to fit my desired resolution. And it also won't turn off Motion Blur, despite me toggling it off in the settings. It just creates a disorienting looking game. These two issues don't necessarily break the game for me, but coupled with the shooting bug, awkward keymapping for guns (there are A LOT of guns to be mapped in this game), and tough level design, and it just results in a game that is more frustrating than fun. If the game gets patched, I'd love to give it a second chance, but there are just countless other indie FPS games I'd rather play over Bloom, in its current state.

I love this game , it is actually evolution to the old fps games , i liked also the music i think it fits perfectly with the game. Can you tell us when approximately the second part will be released?

I didn't need to play this game for very long to realize that this is a rather poorly designed game trying to emulate what made Quake/Duke Nukem any good. The level design is flawed. With Duke Nukem or Quake, you could generally back track, but it seemed like this game was designed in a way that forward progress would be met with you not being able to go back and look for secrets, or just side areas where weapons are located. In the first level you can trigger an elevator that entirely cuts you off from going back, which makes it so you can't search for secrets/weapons if you choose to backtrack. Even DOOM never really cut you off. Interacting with the world is rough. Picking up health or items generally requires you to step on them perfectly, or run over the pick up multiple times before it will actually pick up the item. You might think you picked up the shotgun shells, only to turn around and realize that you didn't pick up even half of the items. It seems like it requires a pixel perfect step to grab the item. When it works, the shooting is actually enjoyable. The particle effects of blood, as well as body destruction is actually impressive and a nice small touch. However, I could not help but become overly frustrated at the amount of times that I attempted to fire my weapon only for nothing to happen. No, this is not a mouse problem as there is no other game this happens on. I thought it might be an issue where the animation to fire for the crossbow/shotgun wasn't finished, but no, sometimes the shotgun's animation had finished completely, yet I was still not able to fire the weapon, forced to spam the fire command before it would finally work. Considering this game likes to throw hordes of monsters at you, not being able to make quick pin point shots reliably because the game doesn't let you shoot isn't good game design. I could not, no matter what I tried, figure out a way to change the resolution. It was stuck at a rather low one, I don't remember what, and I couldn't even bump it up to 1920x1080. A game like this doesn't need to be set much higher than that, but the resolution really made the visuals of the game feel less impressive. Finally I had multiple enemies getting stuck in walls. Walls that I couldn't even provide them with death because it wouldn't let me shoot them. If you're looking for an old style shooter that takes after DOOM, Duke Nukem or Quake, stay away. This is not worth your, or anybodies, time.