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I finished Wrath: Aeon of Ruin yesterday and have mixed feelings on it. Some thoughts:

It's a really impressive game. I like the visual and sound design a lot, the dozen-and-a-half monsters are unique and easy to read, the weapons are well-animated and satisfying to use. The soundtrack (by Andrew Hulshult) is great and fits well with the game, all guitar drones and synthesizer.

The level design is both excellent and frustrating. The levels are large - something I like - and often ornate (especially in the first episode / hub). There were a lot of fun arenas and corridors to fight in. The levels all worked as intended, as far as I could tell; I didn't experience any bugs.

I have two big problems with the level design.

1: there was some all-time bad monster placement. In my 20 hours with the game I think there were a half dozen times where enemies appeared around me and instantly killed me, with little possibility for survival. Spawning a high-tier enemy directly behind the player can be amusing or scary the first time it happens, not so much the sixth.

Problem 2: some of the maps punished the player for finding secrets. I can remember one instance where I was low on health and found a secret that gave me health and armor - cool! - only to then die to enemies teleported in around me because I had triggered the secret. What that taught me is to not search for secrets, to avoid exploring the maps.

Wrath is a game made by developers, mappers, and modelers from the Quake 1 singleplayer modding community. The problems I have with Wrath are problems I also have with many Q1SP community maps.

I really, really want to like the game more than I do. The player is fun to control, the arsenal is fun to wield, and the enemies (when placed well) are fun to fight. It's a fun game to to play. Unfortunately it crosses the line from challenging into frustrating one too many times for me.

I think I would enjoy the game more on a second playthrough. Like many games like this once you know where the instant death hazards are it becomes more fun to play.

I'm finishing Wrath: Aeon of Ruin (PC, 2024) today at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. Three maps + a boss left; could be a short session.

Picking up Morrowind (PC, 2002) today at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. More quests in Firewatch, maybe some of the main quest.

Wow Wrath gets pretty difficult in the third episode. Challenging monster placement, less health items, more enemies spawning in close-quarters.

I'm #streaming Wrath: Aeon of Ruin (PC, 2024) this morning at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. This session: finishing the second hub and starting the third.

#streaming more Wrath: Aeon of Ruin (PC, 2024) today at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. Going into level 5 of the first hub, then on to the first boss and second hub.

I'm starting a game of Wrath: Aeon of Ruin (PC, 2024) this night/morning at https://twitch.tv/andreaen.

Wrath is a Quake-engine (Darkplaces) first person shooter game released last year. Its gamecode is based on GPL2 sources released by id Software and so is available under that same license. I've been reading its code for a while as a learning tool & so I'm excited to properly play the game now.

#streaming Morrowind (PC, 2002) again tonight at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. This session: more Firewatch mages guild quests, experimenting with enchanted items, maybe freeing more sleepers.

#streaming more modded Morrowind (PC, 2002) tonight at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. This session: the Firewatch mages guild quests & surrounding areas.

I'm #streaming some Quake mod testing tonight over at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. Will play through id1 then maybe Than's deathmatch dimension; I expect to have to stop and fix things.

Finished Moonring tonight & loved it, some thoughts:

Super vibrant neon art style. Took a while for it to stop fatiguing my eyes. Cool use of color palette shifting to indicate the phase of the moon. Some nice small touches too - the equipment you have is reflected on your character sprite, for example.

Awesome atmospheric soundtrack by Fluttermind, Baddoar, and Khand. Really good sound FX too; great rain sound and a lot of nice authentic sounding bleeps and bloops.

What playing Moonring reminded me of the most was the first time I played FF1 and Dragon Warrior for the NES when I was younger. Very oldschool game design. I've never played any of the Ultima games so I can't make that comparison myself but I'm told Moonring was inspired by them (and I can definitely see it).

It was, for the most part, pretty difficult. Challenging but not frustrating. (The relic dungeons and the final semi-hidden dungeon were right on that line).

Anyway I really enjyoyed it. It's free and available for Linux, Mac, and Windows if anybody would like to give it a try; you can find it here: https://dene.itch.io/moonring.

#streaming Moonring (PC, 2023) tonight at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. Nearing the end of the game.

Back to Moonring (PC, 2023) tonight at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. Will be spamming Roche's bell a lot this session.

I'm picking up my Morrowind save again tonight at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. Might go free more sleepers, might explore more of Tamriel Rebuilt.

#streaming Moonring (PC, 2023) again tonight over at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. Made good progress last time - stole a boat, defeated a few bosses. Maybe this session I can challenge a relic guardian?

#streaming more Moonring (PC, 2023) tonight over at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. This session: progress? Will try to find a boat.

I'm #streaming Moonring (PC, 2023) today at https://twitch.tv/andreaen. Still exploring the world and learning the game.

I'm starting a game of Moonring (PC, 2023) today over at https://twitch.tv/andreaen.

This is a very cool looking (very neon) Ultima-like RPG that I've wanted to try for a while.