Oil ? What Oil ?
Story:
You play as a super soldier, who is given a bunch of weapons and a simple task, take back stolen oil which was taken by an evil army of demons. In reality there's no story whatsoever, it's just a bunch of different levels that don't have any connection and the story description comes from the store page as there's nothing in the actual game.
Graphics:
Visually Oil Invasion is a mixture of two styles that don't really mesh together. The enemy designs are cool, but they look like sprites taken out of a DOOM wad and the environments look like they're 3D stock environments, like a very basic farmhouse, a fairy fantasy dungeon and a medieval fortress.
It really feels like a bunch of stock maps stitched together and while I liked the enemy designs I can't say for the environments. They're very generic and just not fun to explore, especially the last mission which is a giant farm where it's borderline impossible to find the key to advance.
Audio:
The audio design is pretty bad across the soundtrack and the sound effects. There's only one track playing throughout the entire game and sometimes it just won't play at all. The song itself is very much just a stock free song and that fact that it plays on loop is pretty grading.
But what I cannot stand is when sound effects stack upon each other and then increase in volume. Most enemies in the game don't even make any noises, except the ones that shoot and as soon as they spot you they stay locked in and will shoot you through walls and the audio effects stacks, glitches out and becomes so loud it will feel like you're going insane. I also have to say that most of the games share the same sound effect, like dual uzis and a mini gun sharing the same sounds.
Gameplay:
Oil Invasion is a DOOM inspired shooter even down to the gun being in the middle of the screen. You run around collecting keys and gunning down enemies to reach that sweet stolen oil which is located at the end of the level. However sadly this is nowhere near as fun as playing DOOM.
I'll begin by saying that the shooting is probably some of the stiffest and annoying shooting I've ever encountered in any game by far. The camera turns so slowly and on certain levels you need to have quick camera movement to deal with some enemies. However there's an upside to this. There's only three enemy types in the entire game, two of which deal basically no damage and sometimes don't even bother coming after you, however the third type which is the heavy gunner. melts you like there's no tomorrow.
Shooting also feels off, purely due to one reason and that's because you have to be on the same level as the enemies. When you shoot you have to be on a straight path to them, if either you or the enemy is slightly elevated the shot will not connect and when fighting in an area with tons of hills or stairs then you will simply not be able to kill the enemies.
Also since each area is basically a stock map, it doesn't feel like a proper FPS map. There's so many levels where you can easily cheese it and skip towards to the exit. Actually cheesing it is far much simpler than doing some of the intended things, especially the platforming.
With how stiff the movement is, the platforming is even worse. You can't control yourself once you jump and certain levels have instant kill pits and you jump quite far, so it's really easy to overshoot platforms. So you have to sort of awkwardly jump between them, so it's easier to try and go around it.
Verdict:
Oil Invasion is a rather poor attempt at making a DOOM inspired game. Gameplay is very stiff, shooting unresponsive and tons of incredibly tedious design choices make this brief campaign just annoying to get through. Considering how many free and great alternatives are out there, I suggest playing those.
Final Rating:
2.5/10
Pros:
+ Enemy designs are decent
Cons:
- Shooting feel super unresponsive
- Stock assets feel out of place
- Audio design is glitchy and grading on the ears
- Platforming is awful
NOTE: I was provided with a key by the developer/publisher for review purposes on the behalf of the group Completing the Backlog. This did not impact my opinion on the game.
If you liked this review please consider joining https://steamcommunity.com/groups/completingthebacklog
