Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance

Very bizarre game, meme game from the 90's Purchase at your own risk

Yes.

This is an ancient abandonware game from 1996... full 30 years old at the time of this review, and, unsurprisingly, does not in any way shape or form compare well to contemporary video games. Now, if it was 1996, I'd be telling you to play Hexen II which came out a year earlier, or Quake, which came out the same year and is vastly superior. This was an "ok" game in 1996 and, unless you've been in a coma, you might be aware it's now 2026. This is a fantasy sword & sorcery brawler with DooM era mechanics (billboarded sprite enemies instead of true 3D, etc) and very lightweight RPG elements... but the theme and design aren't the problem, it's the age. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. The game only displays in 4:3 pillarboxed aspect ratio, due to the age of the game, it predates the 16:9 widescreen gaming standard established back in 2006. It's possible they're marketing this towards people using an old CRT they found in a dumpster, or this game is being specifically marketed towards people gaming on PC's from 1995... either way, this isn't really acceptable in the modern era of PC gaming. It's obviously not going to look right on a modern 16:9 gaming display. Due to the age of this game, and the lack of modernisation, the graphics appear quite dated. This compares poorly to more contemporary games with professional standards. Given that gaming is primarily a visual medium, this is a bit of a problem, so should be taken into account when considering whether to get this game. There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was [b]only 4 players[/b]. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 130 million gamers on Steam and well over 140,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. Next is pricing and value. Is this game worth buying from among the 140,000+ games on Steam? Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance has the laughable price of around $8 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the sheer number of completely free, much higher quality games on Steam. For comparison, the $8 asking price for this game could get you games like "Pillars of Eternity II", "Grand Theft Auto V" or "Monster Hunter World". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this. Charging $8 for an abandoned 30 year old game is just a cash grab, seriously. And speaking of lack of ethics, they're also removing the game from Steam. No reason for this was supplied, it seems an attempt at FOMO to try scare gamers into buying software that's been dead for 30 years. There's enough defects and quality problems with this game that it's really impossible to recommend to gamers. Only for nostalgia buffs, and you'll quickly find out, well, you can't go home again.