WRATH: A Tale of Two Experiences

Initially, my experience with the game was frustrating because I played on Hard difficulty. It wasn’t the tougher enemies that bothered me—it was the severe lack of ammo. This completely took away the joy of feeling like a total badass, which is essential in any great Boomer Shooter. It just didn’t click.

That said, this game truly pushes the Quake 1 DarkPlaces engine to its limits, and it shows. The enemy design and behavior are impressive, and the world and map design feel more engaging. However, this balance breaks when you play on Hard, where the lack of ammo becomes an overwhelming frustration.

After restarting on Medium difficulty, the game feels much more balanced. The ammo-to-enemy ratio is better, and I can finally appreciate the strengths of the game. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the right difficulty setting can make all the difference.

I love Quake 1, one of my childhood games, this is like reviving that, loving it so far.

Pretty boomer shooter with wasted potential

I played through half of the game and just didn't wanna bother going any further. Unfortunately, even tho I wanted to disagree with the negative reviews, they were right about almost everything.
There is already enough of them talking about the multiple issues this game has, so to not waste anyone's time I'll try to not repeat them and instead add my own thoughts:

- for some reason there are only ambiance tracks in ALL levels?
It's the same track that starts playing from the beginning of the level. It doesn't change throughout it. Fighting a horde of enemies? It's still all the same. Dull calmness and serenity. Aren't banger, blood pumping tracks a crucial part of boomer shooters' identity? Even the bosses don't have their own battle tracks! It's just ambience!!!
- the bosses themselves are really boring
First boss - big woman floating in place. Big woman throw wave of balls at you. Big woman throw homing balls at you. Literally the entire battle?? Honestly speaking the worst boss I've ever encountered in an FPS
- the enemies are really dumb (even though others talk about it I still wanted to mention it too)
They kept falling off ledges all the time and even when they don't do that they're not much smarter, their behavior is really similar to each other - stand and shoot or run at you (and yell), or a combination of both. Some exceptions are present but there's very few of them
- constantly overflowing with shotgun ammo and often not enough ammo for other stronger guns
Which leads to me often just quick swapping between the shotguns on bullet sponges which isn't fun whatsoever. I wanna use the railgun more! The crystallizer gun (or whatever its called) is my favorite one in the game! I need more bullets!

A few nitpicks I have that don't make wrath better:

- the main menu is just a still drawing of some random environment and doesn't have any music whatsoever which pisses me off
- no summary screens for levels. Once you leave via the exit portal there's nothing, it's just awkwardly spits you out into the hub world
- no map, which would really useful considering the immense size of pretty much all levels
- the bestiary just shows drawings of enemies and I think it would be pretty useful if it instead showed actual useful information

Finishing thoughts
The game was stretched out too much and the messy development process made for a very messy game.
I really liked the visuals, the weapons mostly and the movement tech with the blade. But that's pretty much it. The first episode was pretty fun. At the second episode the game started taking a downwards trajectory.
I feel like some of the problems I've mentioned could've been remedied with updates but it seems like the game has been abandoned immediately after release.

Don't bother yourself with this game like I did. It may look cool on the surface and it kinda is but overall sucks ass. Go play something else, like Hedon: Blood rite.

Obviously put some work into this. As good as big name developers!

It's pretty good, level design was a little confusing at times, but otherwise pretty fun. Some of the tanky enemies felt like they weren't taking damage sometimes due to there being little to no particles when they are shot, mainly when using the revolver or fang launcher. Saving system was meh. Very exited for the VR version though.

Dark fantasy, low poly, and an excellent feel.

I wanted to love this game, and to disregard what so many others had noted about the "long levels."

I felt for the first five levels that people had simply not been generous enough with their time, and had grown impatient when they should've been more present. They wanted Wrath: Aeon of Ruin to be blistering while it was content to plod and create a mood. Which it does, and it excels in this regard.

It is a looker.

Unfortunately this falls apart in the second act. Enemies keep spawning, I keep clicking, and I lose interest. I don't think it's an attention span problem. Wrath: Aeon of Ruin has spread excellent mechanics far too thin. The idea of an hour long level seems enticing, until it becomes repetitive. It's a fine game, and had the length been cut in half it would have been an excellent one.

A re-release with some heavy handed tweaks would salvage and surpass this rough gem. Now, I can not recommend.