GHOSTWARE: Arena of the Dead

[h1]👻10項目短評️9️⃣9️⃣[/h1] 😓　ブーマーシューターではない 😄　Unreal Tournament 🙂　独特の世界観 🙂　お値打ち価格 🇺🇸　英文多め 🥱　探索パートは退屈 😑　描画は（意図的に）旧式 😑　戦闘が少なく面白くない 😑　再起動要するバグ 😑　特に若い世代にはウケない [quote]Steamキュレーター[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33120141-%25E3%2582%25B2%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2583%259F%25E3%2583%25B3%25E3%2582%25B0%25E3%2583%2581%25E3%2583%25A3%25E3%2582%25A4%25E3%2583%25AB%25E3%2583%2589/]ゲーミングチャイルド[/url]では、近日発売予定のゲームの紹介を、あなたのアクティビティにお届けします。ぜひフォローしてください。[/quote]

If you look at the trailer n' screenshots from the Store and the first thing that comes into your mind is "Oh wow, Unreal tournament 99 / 2004 - Quake 3 Arena!!" Leave it!, it ain't like that, not even close. Can be fun? Yes, however for me, it just doesn't have the core, nor the essence of those games. It tries, but it keeps chaning, the combat... it ain't right, dunno. I can't say that it feels "sluggish" because it doesn't, but at the same time, it does not feel good at all, like, only by playing you'll feel the "ummmm, this is odd". You want something to be "retro", shoot, don't have nothing to do, for the lulz? Get it. You want an UT experience? I reiterate, pass on this.

I really wanted to like the game. But it's just... not good in the end. Good points: Cool aesthetic I like the searching for secrets and finding side lore The guns are neat Bad points: The dialogue is bad. It feels like it's written by someone who doesn't speak English as their first language, It's not Engrish, but it just... doesn't flow, it's hard to tell what characters are trying to say. The plot is kind of meandering, it feels like the dev changed his mind about what he wanted to write halfway through. On that note, the style of the game also changes halfway through, from arena shooter levels with some exposition/exploration in between, to a more Doom-style "play through levels and shoot the baddies" type game. None of the upgrades you get really do anything at all. The bosses are all mid at best, their attacks don't really make sense, and for the last boss he autohits you multiple times and has the ability to oneshot you. There is no way to block or avoid his attacks. On that note, the last boss is the worst part of the game, the only way to beat him is to kill him before he kills you, there's no skill involved. And the game just straight up rips away the ammo you've stockpiled when you zone in so you only get a handful of shots. it just feels like the dev wanted to do a bunch of additional things and they didn't end up working out but he left them in anyway.

Honestly, this is probably the most mid game out there. The shooting is serviceable, the story is serviceable, the exploration is serviceable, and the dialogue is kinda bad and I could only eyeroll at some of it. Nothing much stands out (Besides something I'll get into later). And it's kinda boring too because you do a arena combat, maybe a boss fight, then you need to explore those maps being empty to get the unlocks needed to progress. The only thing that kinda stands out is there these "meta" in-game websites to explore to get more power ups too while giving you clues about the story. Honestly this game is more nostalgia bait that I can not make myself finish.

Wish I could leave a neutral review, but that isn't an option. I was under the impression that controller support would be implemented when this game was out, because I was told on the discussions forums it would be. They backtracked on that and decided they wouldn't bother with it, which was part of the reason I bought the game unfortunately. Lesson learned. Ignoring that, lets talk about the game. While the gameplay is decent, I found the game to be a bit too clunky to be enjoyable. Checkpoints are rare and I felt the game was difficult, but after the controller support issue I felt like it wasn't worth trying to get it to work. This game feeds off the nostalgia cravings while not entirely hitting the mark. Not a bad game, not a good game, just meh. Due to the controller issue, I probably won't be seeking titles from this developer/publisher again.

i like the game hated how it felt tho

Эту игру тяжело рекомендовать, поскольку она совсем не то, что показано в трейлере. Вот, что хочет олдфаг испытывающий тоску по зарубам под техно/индастриал Q3 и UT? Конечно заруб под техно/индастриал в ещё одной игре и вполне себе справедливо их должно ждать такое от игры в названии которой есть Arena, а если туда ещё сюжет завезли, то вообще хорошо. На деле у этой игры кризис самоидентификации, она не арена шутер, не бумер шутер. Просто шутер, при том не самый интересный и даже кринжовый. В какой-то момент этой драмы думаешь, а нафига я в это играю? Дойдя то титров, моя единственная мысль была - ну и фиг с ними всеми. На деле среди пузатых олдов есть спрос на игру, похожую на Unreal, с похожей атмосферой и даже на вторую часть, хоть она была не такой как первая, но определённо имела очень крутой визуальный стиль. Разочарование.

cool idea in concept, buggy mess.

Would I recommend this game to any FPS or boomer shooter fan? No, probably not. Then again, I do however wholeheartedly recommend it to the kind of player who likes games that allow the player to dig a little deeper into the lore and worldbuilding than normal. Ghostware may at first glance look just like a boomer shooter homage to the arena shooters of old, and while that is indeed true, there is also a lot more to it than just that. In fact, much more, but only if you are up for the very much optional task of hunting down and piece together the full story from many lore-fragments uncovered over the course of the game. After having completed the main game loop twice and spent little over 10h total in the game, finding all secrets but one, I have come to the conclusion that I really like this game. The backstory, plot and lore has many similarities with another game I like, Bedlam (now sadly delisted from Steam). Turns out, what drew me into both games was the genre blending gameplay, the complex story elements involving transhumanism and jumping between realities. If you decide to give this game a chance, you should pause a few minutes and read the lore bits every time you uncover one. The meta story that slowly grows bit by bit by doing so, really lifts the gameplay experience.

Super unpredictable and creative genre fusion of arena FPS, liminal space horror, Metroidvania and branching narrative adventure game. The tone is very silly most of the time, but the plot is surpisingly mysterious and intriguing. There is also some poignant commentary on nostalgia and social interaction in the gaming space (or lack thereof.) It is banking pretty hard on the 90s nostalgia, some of my favorite homages were to Counter-Strike and The Matrix. However, there are also some newer jokes for modern gamers and older references like to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A game made by practically 2 people and help won't be perfect, but overall it's amazing how coherent this experience feels. The disjointed genres feel intentional, like The Wizard is stringing you along through whatever he pleases. Some of the voice acting is awkward but again that feels like a part of the 90s charm. Fortunately, Molly is a likeable protagonist and is well voice-acted for the most part. She has these fun interjections between dialogue lines that are barely audible and not captioned. For some reason I liked that a lot. Concrete issues I have are mostly nitpicks. There's a flashlight in the "Trespasser" minigame, but not in the main game where I would have loved to have one. Some minor visual glitches and this weird bug where the menu wouldn't respond. The Arcade mode is fun, but really does feel like an afterthought in some ways. You can't play the CTF mode, and none of the characters have as many lines as Molly does so why would you play anybody else? It is pretty cool that your viewmodel hands actually change based on who you play as, though. I have seen the dev explain why there's no multiplayer, but it still feels like an obvious component that would be included. The arcade mode would have more legs if we could host and join real matches with friends. Despite the flaws I would HIGHLY recommend this game and I think it's a shame it's not more popular. I guess it's probably because there are no achievements... The sheer creativity and passion on display is reason enough to play through the story at least once - it takes around 3 to 5 hours depending on how much extra exploring you do. It gave me this eerie feeling that couldn't have been made by a person, like this game just materialized out of digital nostalgia.