Wizordum review - a kind of magic

What would happen in an alternate timeline where Apogee continued releasing first person shooters through the 90s and Hocus Pocus turned into an actual proto-Heretic FPS? Probably Wizordum. We take a look in our early access review.
Wizordum is available on Steam: store.steampow...
#wizordum #fps #doom #heretic #hexen

[@marten3675]

Thanks for the crisp review bro

[@HexenStar]

Actually, Apogee continued working with the Wolf3d engine, even long after Doom was on the market.
They also licensed it to many obscure FPS makers back in the day, who created plenty of Wolf3d clones,
which were like toilet paper throaways, and usually just as hideous, lol.
As surprising as it may come, but sadly, ID-Tech1 (aka Doom engine, as much as i love it) was only utilized
a mere handful of times for a commercial full-fledged project, compared to Wolf3d engine which was
surprisingly resilient and was refusing to keep quiet in the grave, even when for all intents and purposes
it overstayed its welcome.
Last but not least, this game (Wizordum) has little to do with Wolfenstein+clones, and aesthetically speaking -
nothing at all. And in terms of art-direction and aesthetics - it's got more going on than all ID-Tech1 games
combined (okay, maybe sans Strife, lol, cause that one just might tip off the scales). Both Heretic and Hexen
combined - look hideous in comparison. The only similarity to the older gen is that you don't jump. Otherwise,
full mouselook and elaborate level and set pieces clearly point to a much more potent technical foundation.
I would qualify this game being for those who like pixel art, fantasy genre, and say a hard "no" to a forced
Mario and Doom in the same package. Even though i think a jump function would've only made the game
better, improving exploration and level design options. Even Apogee themselves got the memo eventually.
It was just too late for them at that point.
P.S. The score thing had nothing to with leaderboards. It was not Tetris. It had to do with a tally screen
at the end of Wolf3d levels (and that of other, later games that gleaned this number). Wolf3d had crazy
number of secret areas, which were more often than not placed with no hints whatsoever, - so that finding
all of them in all levels required either some heavy memorization or heavy mapping. Or both. So, bragging
rights for a 100% completion were a totally legit thing. It was a perfectly legit achievement. Kind of like
finishing "Another World" or "Realms of the Haunting" without outside help. Remember, no internet and
no youtube back in the Wolf3d days.

[@voxelsmash]

I'd happily live in a world of Blake Stone-clones, rather than Doom-clones. But that's just me.

[@HexenStar]

@@voxelsmash That's right. It is.