Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: Project Warlock
Developer: Buckshot Software
Publisher: Crunching Koalas
Genre: FPS, RPG, Arcade
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: June 05, 2020
Price: $14.99
Also Available On: PS4, Steam, XB1
Project Warlock is a first person shooter with retro-inspired pixel art style. I'm not a big FPS fan, but this game really caught my eye. The game is heavily-inspired old school shooters like Doom and Wolfenstein (the ones from the 90s), and this game pretty much play like those games, albeit with more modern flare as you can adjust how retro it can look by activating filters, adjusting color settings, activating motion blur, etc.
In this game, you play as a gun-wielding warlock out to get rid the world of evil. Clichéd story, yes, but games of this genre are not really known for their story. Anyway, you will get to travel through 5 worlds, consisting of different biomes each with unique sets of enemies and style. There are 5 levels per world, with varying number of stages, with the fifth being a boss fight. Each of these stages will have you navigate your way within a maze-like corridors, rooms, and open spaces while battling hordes upon hordes of enemies. These enemies vary greatly in design and attack styles, so you will surely be on your toes at any given time. Your goal for each level (except for the boss fights) is to reach the exit. The levels have multiple sections that get gradually opened up by getting unlocked with keys that you have to find. These keys are of different colors and will unlock doors of the same color. The rooms that they open usually have monsters waiting to ambush you.
Speaking of monsters, the most fun part of the game is the gameplay, and the bulk of the gameplay for this game is to kill all the monsters that get in your way without you getting killed first. And to do so, you have to get the most out of your weapons. Each weapon that you discover within levels, given that you end up not dying after doing so, gets permanently included to your arsenal. You can swap weapons on the fly by pressing either the L or R shoulder buttons. Unfortunately, instead of instantly switching to the next weapon, you are first presented with a weapons wheel where you have to then choose the weapon that you want to use. This weapon wheel is a bit awkward and a hassle to use since it just slows you down and when you try to switch to another weapon, the game doesn't pause. It slows down a bit, but some enemies are fast enough to either shoot at you from a distance or clobber you up close while you are busy swapping weapons. You have to know when and where to do it, or else you die. Most definitely you will have a favorite, but there will be a time when you will run out of ammo for that particular weapon and you will have to choose another, so you have to at least know how to use all of your available weapons and know which one is the most effective to the enemies that are trying to kill you to maximize your ammo.
Defeated enemies would usually drop items, like money, ammo, or mana/health (healing) items. These items are also scattered throughout the levels, but you have to be careful because enemies usually lurk around and will readily attack you at first sight, especially within newly-opened rooms. Aside from the loot drops, you also get to collect Upgrade Points, which is signified with a star token either just placed on the floor or found within secret rooms. Yes, there are secret rooms within levels, and they are easy to spot if you know where and what to look at. If you see a portion of the wall that looks a bit off or colored differently or cracked, press A while facing it and voila, you discover a secret room. The number of such rooms are indicated per level, and it's up to you to find them all, or just ignore them. If you want to find all items or you need more ammo or healing items, the secret rooms are there to the rescue.
After beating a level (meaning beating all the stages within the level), you end up in the Workshop, where you get to spend your acquired Upgrade, Stat, and Perk Points. Upgrade Points are used to upgrade weapons and buy new spells. Stat Points are used to upgrade your strength (melee attack), health, spirit (mana), or capacity (ammo). Every time you level up in the game, you get one Stat Point, and every 5 levels you reach, you get one Perk Point, which you can use to unlock additional perks, or skill modifiers, like being able to sprint faster, get more out of healing items, etc. Once you're all done upgrading, you get to play the next level, so on and so forth.
Since I don't have much experience with FPS games, I didn't feel much nostalgia while playing the game. I didn't get to play Doom and games similar to that much. In fact, I kind of struggled while playing my first 2 hours of the game. Not the first two hours of the game, but I got stuck at the beginning, for more than 2 hours. I just couldn't quite understand what I needed to do to finish the level, and I thought that the enemy placements were unfair. But I eventually get past the first stage, was able to level up, and I was able to manage beating the succeeding levels. The levels got really challenging, especially the last few ones. And also the boss fights, those are extra tough, because not only the bosses themselves are tough to beat, an almost endless barrage of enemies join the fray and I had to constantly move and fight them off. I really enjoyed blasting through the many enemies, and the more I play, the more I get used to using the various weapons and watch those enemies get ripped to shreds with bullets and flame. I didn't use spells much, but they were there when I needed them. There is also melee attack in this game, but for me, after the first few levels, I rarely used it anymore.
Overall, Project Warlock is one good game. The developers really made good use of the game elements from the old school FPS games that inspire them. The game really does look and feel like an old school game, and if you didn't know that it was first released in 2019, you wouldn't know it. It plays well on Switch, both docked and undocked. It runs at 60fps most of the time, though it would frequently slow down when there are lots of action happening on screen, but it is really not game-breaking. Also, the soundtrack is top-notch, with varying style that match the different worlds in the game. So, if you are a fan of the genre, make sure to play this game, and enjoy shooting your way past enemies with your favorite weapons. Blast them all to hell!
REPLAY VALUE: High
PROS
- Excellent retro-inspired pixel art style
- Excellent soundtrack consisting of different styles that match the different worlds of the game
- High degree of customization options for the visuals, like filters, motion blur, color saturation, etc.
- Challenging even on casual mode, but not unfair
- Wide range of weapons to use
- Wide variety of enemy types
- Very good use of HD Rumble
- Ideal for handheld gaming
- Good price point
CONS
- Bland story
- No multiplayer mode
- No big map available
- No gyro aiming (good thing the Y-axis for aiming can be locked, making aiming simpler)
- The weapon wheel is awkward to use
- Melee is almost useless after the first few levels
- Levels cannot be replayed
- Frame rate drops when there are lots of action and enemies on screen
RATING: 4/5 Guns and monsters
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