Okay so *now* I've finished the video. I have to commend you for the consistently good writing, not just for the hypothetical Phantom Fury plot but also like, the video. I really think you should take a shot at making a short Serious Sam mod campaign with your own plot, or something like that. Anyway, the game. The plot also fails to tie a lot of its elements together in the end, since I genuinely feel like it had all the pieces for a much better twist. Stuff like the mutants and Heskel supporters are bizarre and really make it seem like GDF was far more corrupt than just one mole within its ranks. It all makes the betrayals essentially an entirely needless twist, since the game has a much better one set up by accudent - what if the mutants were, say, failed attempts to clone Heskel, by the few remaining fanatics you meet throughout? Once that's revealed, we can have a revelation that there was a *successful* clone of Heskel, who planted Shelly with some sort of tracking device, making her the mole (unwittingly). Heskel yoinks the demon core away, bam! Foreshadowing paid off, finale estabilished. I don't remember if they even explain the origin of the mutants in the game. Overall, frustrating. I was working on a game much like this, inspired by the DNF 2001 leaks, though I ran into time issues. I want more - for the lack of a better term - Half-Life likes, and I'm consistently really miffed how boomer shooters have decided to stick entirely within 90's id Software design. Let's face it, Doom and Quake were often basically glorified tech demos for idTech. This game could've been exactly what I've been clambering for for years now. Sadly, in the writing department, Bombshell has once again proven to be more of a dud.
thank you. I like your pitch, as well, in fact they could've easily turned this into another Heskel-centric villain plot with the few elements it has from Ion Fury/Bombshell, but again, I think Slipgate basically sacrificed any care for continuity just so they could make a DNF 2001 styled game. Stuff like that annoys me to no end, if anything, they should've made this an original IP. That wouldn't erase any of the problems it already has, but it'd be subject to much less canon scrutiny. There are some computer logs in the game that mention the mutant experiments being a byproduct of fighting some kind of cult in a conflict called the "Tempest War" but it's not exactly meaningful lore because it never really gets brought up as to why the GDF are transporting mutant experiments now if the conflict is over. Also doesn't explain why there's things like a Psychic Giant in the Chicago level. I think based on stuff from the reveal trailer, they really wanted to tie this game to the SiN universe more explicitly (watching that trailer again gave me extreme whiplash), but even that doesn't make sense considering SiN takes place about 60 years earlier than when this game is alleged to take place. It's quite an incoherent mess.
@@SeriousSacor The "Tempest War" is a reference to Tempest Rising, an RTS game that isn't even released yet, which has been said to take place in the same universe. So yeah, another unnecessary throwaway reference.
@@SeriousSacor Basically nu3D Realms wanted to create a shared "marvel cinematic universe" for all their games, and this was the first attempt seeding that, but then Embracer sat on a nuke and I doubt anything will happen now (and makes me worried for Tempest Rising being shit too).
39:45 I've been using UE4 for a hefty chunk of time and even though lighting in UE4 is often times costly (especially if there's an abundance of dynamic lights and when re-rendering the game) you can still cull outside light sources and geometry when entering the bathroom and vice versa. And as for the light switches 70% of the game uses prebaked lighting with the exception of interactable objects and specific setpieces
Good video. Interesting take, I was honestly turned off from this game after hearing about the demo and its launch state, but you convinced me to give it a shot after all. Especially since I'm really looking forward to retro shooters moving more to the early 3D Half-Life/Deus Ex/System Shock 2 era over being stuck trying to recreate Build Engine era games forever. I like Build Engine games a lot, but late 90's - early 2000's FPS games are closer to my heart overall (plus I think that the amount of Build style throwback games is very close to reaching a point of "Way Too Many")
It's a really weird case of a game filling an "FPS adventure" niche where you're going to all sorts of locations in this early 2000s 3D style, and to my current knowledge, there aren't many really doing this sort of thing right now. If there is an Indie FPS that does something similar to this, but better, I beg of anyone to direct my attention to it. I am always impressed by what people can do with the Build Engine, and GZDOOM, for that matter, but they're never exactly what I'm looking for when it comes to 3D FPS adventure titles.
@@SeriousSacor Like you said, it’s trying to do the Duke Nukem Forever thing where there was meant to be tons of different locations (casino, Vegas, dam, Area 51 etc.) and I think there’s a chance more games will go after this in the future, seeing as there’s still interest in the pre-release DNF builds
Oh-ho! “Some problems that need… IONING out”! Oh you devil! Because… oh! I’ve got my eye on you! “Ioning out” I’ll have to watch you! You’re a menace! But seriously, a fine video indeed imho. Do you kids still use “imho”? Either way, 👍👍
