PowerSlave Exhumed

Should have been left in the grave.

Pure 90s juice!

[h3]I have mixed feelings about this game, but it is overall positive. [/h3] [hr][/hr] The game feels more of a proto-metriodvania than what I was told by Civvie11 (as in more like the linear sections of Order of Ecclesia). There are many standout individual levels that are great to play. the Deserted Slave Camp, Canyons of Chaos, Karnak - I like the more puzzle-like design that loops into itself. I even like the Sunken Palace, it was memoriable (I enjoyed the exploration aspect and not having to deal with many enemies. Fishes are not that hard to deal with). The Checkpoint system is great, as it basically removes save-scumming and encourage you to play well throughout. The big issue I have are the enemy placement: I have no issue with the enemies individually, but when combined with narrow and linear designs of some maps - they become unfun to fight. This is espically true for the Mummies (which is basically Doom's Revenants - being spammed 50% of the time with homing projectiles down a corridor is hell) and the Teleporting Cat-Creatures (Pinkies on Steriods - hyper-aggresive and will keep attacking non-stop up close). Plus not having a shotgun equivalent in this games makes dealing with them a pain (Ring of Ra is the closest to a shotgun, but you get that so late into the game. There is the Flamethrower but it is more of a medium ranged weapon that burns enemies over time. I ended up using the Grenade and the Serpant's Staff a lot for burst damage purposes, but it is always at the cost of potential self-damage). But this issue might have been my fault as I played on the Hard difficulty, which increases enemy health and added more enemies. Maybe I should have started on Normal (which was the default difficulty of the original console games). In conclusion, I do not regret playing this game - I still like the game even with its flaws.

Good and woefully underrated fps metroidvania hybrid that understands how to handle ability gating, level design and how to make abilities satisfying to use better than most conventional metroidvanias. Could have been more non linear than it was. Set in a mythical egypt visually it's mostly very well executed and fun even if the game does start to feel quite samey about halfway through before picking back up towards a strong ending. The music ranges from a little generic to quite good and memorable, sound effects are good and punchy across the board. The fps elements are satisfying and the player is given a good set of weapons and they're all enjoyable to use. At first the enemy roster and placement seem very well dialed in, letting the player skip repetitive fighting when backtracking but later on it goes back on that. The forementioned samey stages also harm memorability a bit, making soome of the backtracking later on a little tedious, even if there really isn't that much of it anyway. Ultimately though it's very enjoyable and fluid.

Un FPS teinté de mécanismes d'exploration empruntés à Metroid prenant place dans le décor de l'Egypte Antique, ça vous intéresse ? Parce que c'est ce que Powerslave Exhumed compte vous servir ! Remanié avec brio par Nightdive Studios et leur moteur Kex Engine, le jeu fait peau neuve : Meilleure distance d'affichage, textures lissées et plus détaillées, effets de lumière modernes, le tout servi avec des commandes et un système de visée dans l'ère du temps. Tout le reste est identique à la version d'origine (basée sur la version Playstation 1 et Saturn combinées) : musique, armes, level design, bestiaire, sensations. Que demander de plus quand on affectionne particulièrement les jeux rétro ? Outre l'ambiance égyptienne géniale qui en soi est trop rare dans le paysage vidéoludique, le jeu tire son originalité dans la conception de ses niveaux qui se veulent piégeux et gorgés de secrets à la manière d'une pyramide. Durant l'aventure, vous serez assez souvent amenés à détruire des vases, des pots et autres contenants de la sorte. Là où les choses fâchent, c'est qu'ils ne vous donneront pas forcément ce que vous voulez. Comprenez que vous pourrez récupérer des orbes de puissance (qui servent de munition universelle pour toutes les armes) ou de santé comme vous pourrez hériter d'un gros insecte ou de projectiles mortels qui pourront vous balayer en une demi seconde. Réfléchissez bien avant de les détruire donc. Cela ne s'arrête pas là : les niveaux sont pensés pour vous piéger et vous pourrez ainsi vous retrouver découpé par des lasers ou carbonisé par des boules de feu qui sortent des murs sans prévenir. Si tout ça n'a pas su vous enterrer, ce seront alors les ennemis qui se chargeront de vous prendre en embuscade au détour d'un couloir ou suite à l'actionnement d'un levier. Les niveaux ne sont pas forcément entièrement visitables du premier coup et vous forceront à revenir plus tard pour en percer tous les secrets. C'est en effet aussi la grande différence de ce FPS comparé aux autres de son époque : c'est un Metroidvania. Vous devrez collecter différents pouvoirs divins durant votre aventure et revenir dans certains niveaux pour pouvoir continuer le récit, explorer des zones optionnelles ou secrètes. Seule ombre au tableau pour moi qui concerne surtout le level design : vous vous sentirez parfois bloqué dans un niveau pensant avoir loupé un artefact essentiel pour pouvoir progresser. En réalité, vous aurez déjà tout pour avancer, mais il faudra seulement persévérer pour franchir certains obstacles qui demandent une certaine dextérité. Bref, c'est un peu trompeur, mais on pardonne au vu de l'âge du jeu. Concernant le bestiaire, il reste relativement restreint, avoisinant les dix ennemis différents au total. Il est cependant très bien utilisé dans le jeu et vous forcera constamment à bouger pour éviter de mourir trop rapidement. Certains passages sont d'ailleurs assez frustrants au vu de leur caractère trop exigu. Ajoutez à cela une hitbox pour votre personnage beaucoup trop large qui parfois se voit touché alors que le projectile ennemi passe littéralement devant ou en-dessous de vous. Malgré ces quelques défauts, ça reste une très bonne expérience qui se boucle en six heures environ en difficulté "Difficile". Reste pour les plus téméraires la difficulté "Pharaon" afin de mettre vos nerfs et vos réflexes à rude épreuve ! A consommer sans modération !

Tags: 1PS - First Person Shooter Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library TLDR: Remaster of a bad quality doom-like. Avoid. When I tried the game I found that the artifacts were just an excuse to have you backtrack to previous levels you already cleared to unlock the game map, allowing you true progress. The game has a puzzling, keyhunting, platforming, and low quality gunplay with trash mobs, the graphical presentation while close to being true to release is not much to enjoy, finally, I found the story campy and poorly presented.

Just as good as it was in 1990's

Pharaoh difficulty is unbalanced, the room designs and enemy placement do not function well. Playing on anything under pharaoh though the game is a masterpiece, great level design that makes sense, well applied metroidvania mechanics for progression, good arsenal that gives you stronger weapons throughout the game, the ammo system is one of the better ones for these boomer shooters since its universal and you can choose what to recharge and use, the movement is fun and gets more fun throughout the game. Enemy variety, claustrophobic level design in many parts and unbalanced homing projectiles (together with a weirdly large player hitbox) are the main issues that keep this gem from being a 10/10, its definitely in the top 10 shooters from the 90s imho. The remaster and port are good, working perfectly and refreshing the graphics without changing much.

grande flash back

I've played PowerSlave, the original, a couple of tries. I only wanted to play Exhumed, just to see if the remastered experience would take away the absurdity of the original in any way. Well it only barely did that, if at all. This game was released in 1999, under the radar, as games like Quake III Arena, System Shock 2, Counter-Strike, Aliens vs Predator and Unreal Tournament were stealing the spotlight. Shooters in those days, were ready for quick run and gun. They probably didn't have the patience to deal with an obscure game, that still played like an old DOOM game with the engine that helped make Duke Nukem 3D gain fame. PowerSlave: Exhumed, is the definitive way to play this game as, as it gives some newfound life where I'd be hard-pressed to recommend toying with the original. That isn't saying much however, when you factor in how non-linear its gameplay is, how uninteresting the weaponry are, while having a cool setting, PowerSlave doesn't do anything interesting with it. It's really just one of those games that went under the radar and probably for a reason.