Before I start off: I really do like the game, and if I had not been hit by the "level load" bug (apparently fixed in the Galaxy version already), I'd probably be fighting the end boss right about now. Anyhow - every criticism I pen here is an attempt to make a good game better.

- Improve the minimap. As it stands, it's barely useful for anything. For one, I would suggest an option that stops the map from rotating (makes it extremely difficult for some people, like me, to use it for orientation). For another, I would suggest adding some POI markers (color doors at the very least), and use fog of war to mark already explored territory. As Wolfenstein-y as PW is, a functional minimap could really improve getting the hang of some larger and more elaborate levels (e.g. the Sewers level in episode 1, a Treasury level in episode 3).

- Slightly rebalance the difficulty curve. The first levels feel distinctively harder than the rest of the game: You have fewer weapon options, no skills/attributes yet and limited ammo pickups. You are also just starting to learn the game (attack and invulnerability frames, etc.). I mean, it's not unfairly hard, but the difficulty drops significantly as soon as you get the shotgun, and then spikes sharply again at the first boss, only to drop afterwards again.

- Still on rebalance, speaking of the first boss: I found him so far (haven't gotten to the final boss yet) to be the worst boss of them all. His attacks are poorly telegraphed, and as such, avoiding them is luck-based. Even hiding behind solid objects is a crapshoot, as the beam randomly ignores them. Phase 3 feels almost as if a sadistic dev had been tasked with designing it - it's another instance of unavoidable damage, only now you cannot even rely on luck to not get hit.
All in all, the only time I died was at that boss, and I died so often that I decided to restart the game because I wanted to try out different upgrades anyhow. Had I known that after that boss, the game is entirely smooth sailing, I would not have bothered (currently standing in e4m8 or 9 with 22 lives or so, and I missed about half the secrets so far).

- The .50 caliber upgrade for the pistol increases its ammo usage. Still worth it (for me), but it would be good to mention such alterations in the upgrade tip, since it alters the weapon well beyond of what is advertised.

- I honestly do not know what the save system with its dependence on lives adds. It's not "retro shooter" at all, it emulates a tired necessity of old consoles, and only consoles. From Wolfenstein to Doom to Quake, DN3D and Marathon: Every fps sans Turok, afair, came with a solid manual save system. I want one for PW, not least because you could beef up the later-game difficulty a bit without having to fear that players rage quit the game because the game fucked them out of their Continues.

- Provide a bit more feedback for the melee weapons. I was able to figure out that the Axe has a slight cooldown after being used, but the dagger eludes me: It just doesn't do anything for the first two or three attempts at stabbing.

- Find a way to improve navigation between weapons. Over-all, I think the "slimmed down Half-Life" approach of two weapons per key works, but the fact that the mouse wheel (next/last weapon functionality) is inconsistent as to what it considers the last/next in line makes quick scrolling unreliable. I found myself having to use the double-tap functionality entirely too often because I needed to quickly switch to my Flak Cannon (3-3) or Heavy Bolter (4-4). My suggestion would be to bind one row to each method: Mouse wheel cycles through the upper OR lower tier (option for either preference), number key quick-selects the option that isn't considered by the mouse wheel.

- The game has relatively few key binds, which is great. So why do we have to use a key combination to switch spells (Use+weapon selector)? Letting us bind spells directly, or use a "next/last spell" direct keybind would improve usability.

- Sound volumes seem to a bit off. I don't even hear the Warlock say anything other than the "Augh" after an axe slash.

- I entirely approve of the fact that PW plays like a top-down shooter that was put into first person perspective; It enables players to use maneuverability as defense, and it's underscored by the fact that almost all ranged attacks have actual travel time. My criticism stems from the fact that there is - at least to my estimation - a slight imbalance between player speed, player hitbox, available room to maneuver, and enemy projectile speed: Either I move too slowly, or the projectiles are too fast/close, or my hitbox too big, or I haven't got enough room to outstrafe that fireball in time... In any case, I think that any one of those needs a slight tweak so that it's more consistent to pull off, and more rewarding to actually dodge an attack.

(- Some levels seem too dark, but since you're aware, I'm merely mentioning it for completion's sake)

Aight. That's all i can think of now. Lastly, I have to mention that this was the first game in quite some time that gripped me so much I spent almost an entire Sunday plowing through it. I have a backlog full of unfinished popular games, but what's the game that captured my heart and time? A little indie game that doesn't even need a key for jumping. Well done!

So one of the things people have noted is that the upgrade system feels off since spells and weapon upgrades cost the same resource. It makes guns seem like the obvious choice to prioritize since they're always good compared to spells which have niche usefulness and rely on your limited mana resource.

I have a suggestion that might not be very practical, but why not just make spells unlock as soon as you pick them up, same as weapons? I think it would have made more sense to spend upgrade points on upgrading spells rather than simply unlocking them, that way your spell arsenal increases naturally just like your weapon arsenal does, and since you'd be allowed to freely experiment with different spells it would be easier to tell what's worth investing upgrade points into.

I don't expect the developer to actually do this since it would seriously mess with the balance of the game and would require an overhaul of the spell system, but I think it's something to consider for potential expansions or even a sequel.

Good game. Just finished it and I hope it is the beginning of a great career as a developer for you, Jakub.

That being said, I'd like to mention a few things I personally found frustrating (won't be listing the positives as I agree with what most of the people here have already said - it's a great shooter reminding people of the "golden" era of build-engine first person shooters):

- Too dark. This really needs to be one of the first things you fix in the upcoming days / weeks.
- Normal difficulty ended up being way too easy. I finished 90% of the game using the staff (upgraded it so the longer I shoot, the more damage it causes, and suddenly it became ultra-powerful, at least in my experience). At the same time, I would never try the hardcore difficulty as you only get one life and the progress is reset if you lose it. Basically, what I am saying is that normal difficulty should be more "normal".
^ In addition to this, all bosses are way too easy. Satan was no challenge at all, again with the staff.
- Secret switches can be pressed countless times. This is especially evident in the Egypt levels.
- The spells are useless because you need to buy them using the same points used for weapon upgrades. I believe 95% of players would just focus on weapons.
- Feel like need to finish the list by again mentioning that the game is simply too dark.

Again, thanks for the game Jakub. It was an enjoyable blast from the past for me. :)

YES I beat the game...
...And it was fun, way too easy but fun. Mobs need 20% (random guess) more health, some weapons are over powered (super shotgun, minigun) and spells are useless (except for magic light that help me finding secrets).The first 3 chapters are simple and quite "flat", the game gain in intensity in chapter 4 and 5 with more open spaces (with loooots of things to kill) and a clearly better level design. My last complain is about the soundtracks, they're good but don't match the action (except in chapter 5)
i really like Project warlock, it's intense and satisfaying. Thank you for all your work.

Allow me to say that I love the game, I've beaten it on Standard difficulty and I just wanted to post a few suggestions/comments.

DIFFICULTY: I found standard difficulty to be a mixed bag. I want to say that its good for the middle-of-the-road option, yet I'm hesitant to jump to Hardcore if damage is the only modifier, not to mention only one life. I feel that it would benefit the game to have a Masochist made where enemies do around 1.5x more damage and have at least 2x the health, maybe more for the bosses as they ended up being skirmishes rather than a battle. The only boss I died to, much less even got hit by really was the Antarctic boss. The final boss was almost painfully easy thanks to the BFG, I'm not sure if it was because of his health or because his hitbox was soaking all the orbs as the initial one split. By the way, is it just me or does the BFG orb pass through an enemy without hitting it if you fire point blank?

WEAPONS/SPELLS: Most spells I didn't bother with, which I hate but they seemed too situational, aside from Sammoner and the glorious flashlight spell. So, crazy idea, treat spells like weapons, you collect the tome and you can use it immediately, perhaps in a weaker incarnation, but when you get back to the workshop you can upgrade it like your guns. Example; your light spell can either be upgraded to blind enemies, stunning them briefly for a low mana cost, OR for a moderate mana hit inflict aoe burn damage effective against lower enemies. Moving on I like most weapons and their upgrades, perhaps the self loading shotgun should be full auto, but thats minor. I did find the nailgun to be slightly annoying in that it can inflict self damage, limiting it to open environments for safe use lest I hurt myself more than that enemy would have, even though cramped corridors should be to its strength. Now the Firelance seems a little OP especially against multiple large enemies that have damaged states since fire bypasses that turning them to ash, if there weren't already railgun type weapons I'd say it should be turned into one albeit with a small fire blast at the impact point.

ENEMIES: Besides thinking that the grunt types should take a little more punishment theres little to say besides I like them. The hitscanning Wraiths irk me slightly, as does the almost immediate Thingy ground attack. The Tape Worms could be revealed by their health bars making them almost non-factors. Whats a good burger without some cheese though?

LEVELS: I am so enamoured by the level settings, I'm a big fan of Gauntlet Dark Legacy and the levels immediately struck me with their similarity. Matter of fact, perhaps some inspiration could be taken from them for a future development? *nudge nudge* I wish there were more of them and that some were longer, but thats not even a complaint. Oh, and a secret count wouldn't be amiss. Nor would being able to revisit levels, perhaps things could change a second time around? A mysterious key from the Castle Keep could open a hidden section in the dungeons and lo and behold a secret boss!

At the end of the day its easy to throw out suggestions but its another thing to implement them, not to mention the work required. Let me just say thank you for this gem you've brought us, and I look forward to seeing more.

Let me preface by saying I saw you guys at Pax East this year. I found out that the dev for this was younger than me, and as a dev myself, I had to support this title. GGGMan also gave it a thumbs up, and his word is god, so I decided to pick this up.

That being said, I've been playing this for hours now, and have had some good fun with it. I'm still a cynical asshole who thinks constructive criticism is extremely valuable to a new dev, so let me rip you apart. I'm going to talk about design, art, and music, so whoever worked on those aspects, just take responsibility.

MECHANICS: The game FEELS right in terms of movement. I think the shooting feels pretty good too, almost to the point of it being an assault on my senses. I think you nail the basic mechanics and qualities a typical retro FPS had back in the day.
That all being said, I think the magic system is fucking useless, and is not fleshed out enough. You can basically go the whole game without using it, and as GGGMan pointed out, the most useful thing is your glowing hand. Please for the love of god just make a normal flashlight that can be carried with weapons out.
Now, how can I twist this constructively...hmmm, well perhaps magic spells can be easier to get, and easier to use? Please don't ever FORCE a player to use magic, just allow them more choices to approach a problem. That varied gameplay keeps palyers coming back.
I'd also like to point out that some weapons are just useless as well. That energy staff thing serves no practicality in combat. I find myself only using the shotguns, handgun, and SMG.
Oh, and when I run out of ammo, for the love of fucking god, switch me to a gun with ammo, not my god damn knife. I have been killed in heavy combat situations because my jackass character starts stabbing the air, and then I desperately try to switch to a useful weapon.

LEVELS: So I am on the Antarctic episode now, and fucking LOVING the feel. I think it is so much stronger than that generic first episode.My biggest issue is the fact that all of these levels are FLAT. Why is there no verticality to these level layouts? Why are there no ramps or steps? It drives me absolutely insane that such talent is wasted, because you people limited your level characteristics. If it's a character controller issue, fix it. If it's an AI issue, fix it. Seriously, you can't try to be Duke Nukem, Doom, Blood, Hexen, etc, and have flat basic ass Wolfensten 3D style level layouts. I really just don't like that, and I gave you the exact same feedback at Pax. I think your flat level designs are good. Most flow pretty well, with a few making me backtrack. They can also get a little claustrophobic at times. I think the two episodes I've been on are great at having a distinct theme though, which is good.

SOUND: So when I was at Pax, I accidentally told the composer I didn't like the music straight to his face. Guy, I'm sorry about that, and I still have your business card in my wallet. I think that the 8/16 bit soundtrack is good, but just out of place for my taste. The ripping guitar intro really had me excited that you improved the tracks, but then the stages still had the same "meh" bit sounding music. I think you miss the mark on some of the heavy combat sections, and boss battle hype. I know you guys are probably sick of hearing about Dusk, but if you want to improve your craft, take reference to how Andrew blends tracks together to match certain combat sequences in the levels. Not to mention most of his tracks are ripping guitar or spooky ambient tracks. I know not every soundtrack has to be rock, if your creative decision is to have those 16 bit tracks, I respect that, but please look into matching the players current experiences to trigger certain musical moments.
That wall of tough criticism aside, I actually really love the soundfx. I'm not sure if the same composer did the soundfx too, but they work great. I love the gurgling sounds of the alien in the ice block. The weapons and monsters have some great impact.

Overall I think it's a solid 7/10 title. I think some people on GOG are overly critical with little constructive criticism. I wish you success on your launch. Port it to Switch. I also would like to see some verticality in those level designs. Give me stairs or give me death. Also give me a damn jump button. Your player controller is too close to Wolfenstein 3D, and not close enough to Duke Nukem.

Edit: The staff got a hell of a lot better after upgrades, but let me say that it should be a little more useful earlier on to the player.

So far it's feeling pretty good. Just finished level 4. The revolver (now upgraded to .50) and the crossbow are cool.

1. As someone else has already said, it would be good if there was an 'oomf' sound when hitting the wall. No feedback there.

2. There's not much feedback when the player gets hit. Sometimes how much damage I've taken is surprising. He makes faint noises and curses and whatever, but in the midst of combat, the feedback is very quiet. It'd be nice if there was a jolting blurry thing when hit, or something overwhelming environmental sounds like in Hollow Knight, or at least the screen flashing red like in Doom.

3. I've listed a mouse sensitivity glitch in the glitch part.

4. So far, the perk thing is a little unclear. Does it cost skill points to buy a perk? 5 points for a perk? It's weird. After the first two levels, I upgraded Life to 5 and Carry to 2, and was somehow still able to purchase Toughness, even though I thought it would cost more points than I had.

The screen does flash red if you take a large amount of damage in 1 hit, Although it doesnt stack up very well if you take alot of SMALL amounts of damage in a tiny time span, only if its 1 big hit.

Also i think the level transitions should have some kinda material to them, Maybe just sorta EXIT sign if it isn't obvious, like in E5M3, it was just a hallway, it didn't feel like the ending to a map and i still wanted to go around and find the secrets, but was shoved to the next map thinking it was just a hallway to travel down.

This game desperatly needs more difficulty options. Normal was way too easy, died maybe thrice through the entire game and while I like the challenge of Hardcore I can't stand the perma death mechanic.

Especially since it makes the whole Extra Life mechanic completely useless if dying is next to impossible on Normal and on Hardcore there are no Extra Lifes at all. I would urge you to make the perma death an optional box the player can tick and add at least two more difficulty settings to the ones already existing.

EDIT: And another one, please consider giving the player more ammunition at the very start of the game. The first few levels I spend mostly meleeing which isn't a lot of fun and having to restart those levels on Hardcore gets boring fast.


I say this because I loved the game, but have no incentive to play it now anymore, even though I really want to

In E5 there are INSTA KILL pits, i don't mind them as much as others might, but i think instantly killing the player for moving a little bit off a ledge might be a bit too punishing, especially on the higher difficulty.

Maybe simply making them take a chunk of damage, freezing their movement for a full second and teleporting them back to their last "On Ground" position might be a bit of a better deterant for people wanting to try and "Jump Gaps" like you can in doom.

Having gotten started on a magic/spirit focused run, i can now safely say that my previous complaint about a weak staff is nil; i didn't realize that its damage scales with Spirit! Quite significantly, too. Base damage without any spirit might still be on the weaker side, but now that i've gotten a bunch of Spirit and the lightning staff (which is GOD TIER), i actually agree with the decision you've made to nerf it a little, because holy crap that thing tears through everything with surprisingly low mana consumption. Even the first boss turned into a joke with this thing, which is a far cry from the extreme difficulty i had the first time with guns. And if you couple it with Soul Collector (which you should), you barely ever need any other weapon.

In any case, maybe make it a bit clearer with the Spirit stat that it also affects staff damage? Just a bit of text in the descriptor that's otherwise informative for the other stats would be fine.

Perhaps my only beef with the lightning staff (and the few other continuously damaging weapons) is that it does jack shit to breakable objects until its damage exceeds a certain level, maybe they should have a health pool similar to enemies? Kind of a bother how some things break nearly instantly, while others need 1-2 seconds of sustained beam (which would kill all but the toughest of enemies at this point) OR one pistol bullet.

Am otherwise having a good bit of fun here! One minor complaint is that the mad explorers in E2 are absolute quick-draw champions, and their projectiles are super hard to see before they hit you. If you round a corner and see one, you've basically already been shot. Thankfully their arrows are weak.

Edit: Oh, one more thing: Storm's Rage is a really cool spell, but fact is that its damage output and flexibility is piddling compared to how much mana it costs. It would be amazing for prolonged fights, but you actually pretty rarely get into any of those, and its range is... A bit weak? Obviously my Spirit isn't super high just yet (hanging at a 10), but spending that 37 mana on just using the lightning staff would deal with the enemies present just as well, if not better. Not gonna lie, i kind of expected it to move when i first cast it, like a magical lightning BFG. Maybe if it moved and dealt more damage, it'd be worth the cost? Currently it's kinda dependent on enemies walking into its range or you sneaking in between them all instead of just shooting them.

- I'll join everyone on the need for more difficulty options, so far normal has been pretty easy with a melee + magic build.

- Secondly, it'll be nice if we had the option to have weapons scrolls differently when using the mouse wheel, rather than scrolling through all the weapons from 1 then moving to 2, it should go through 1 and 2 for each option, scrolling all the way to get to the basic melee axe isn't the most ergonomic solution.

- The game could use to be a bit brighter in some places.

- An automap tied to the tab key would be appreciated, it's not like I get lost too often, but I'd enjoy seeing the level as a whole to be sure I'm not missing anything when looking for secrets.

- Adding an EGA filter would be great to replicate the feel of older PC graphic cards.

I quite agree here

So far I've finished first three "episodes" and first two levels of "urban" episode.

My impressions are generally great - I was never a big fan of those old Heretic/Hexen games, yet this one has something incredibly fun, that I don't want to stop play! However, I"m concerned about a couple of things:

1.Description of weapon upgrades (at least in some cases) should be more detailed - I didn't know that e.g. upgrade from pistol to magnum will cause that every shot will consume 3 (sic!) bullets. Even for higher damage, I would think twice before taking this upgrade.

2.By some reason collected dynamite and arrows are disappearing after entering the workshop! This shouldn't happen, I guess.

3.Again about weapons - at this moment I personally consider crossbow as not especially useful - it has decent damage, but in opposite to other weapons with similar damage, it hold extremely small amount of ammo.

4.Some levels are TERRIBLY dark. I know about lighting spell, but you can't use weapon with it... And generally, this darkness is simply making my eyes tired. I know, climax, those things, but this "type" is IMO tiresome for eyes. And I can't even take a look to those nice levels! It especially disturbs me in such cases as f sewers levels (medieval), almost entire "Egipt" episode etc.

5.It's probably bug, but I've noticed in some levels (e.g in second "episode") if there is button revelaing secret location (so instead of "hidden wall", there is button which is revealing wall in other room), pressing it more than once is still counted as "additional" revealed secret.

6.I'm a bit concerned, that I'm so close to the end, it's so good game! Could we have something to "extend" its life?

In my opinion it would be great if we could have:

>Level editor
>Some simple multiplayer (deathmatch!), maybe also (aside from online mode) including some good, oldschool split-screen mode for 2 players?
>some kind of "roguelike" set of randomly generated levels (let's say that every "run", depending on difficulty, could contain from 10 up to 50 levels), splitted every "a couple" of levels with modified workshop (e.g. cash, aside from giving xp, is also giving you some 'currency" you can spend on buying ammo (or weapon if you had bad luck and can't find your favourite weapon in every level you've passed so far).

I know that point 6 would probably require a lot of work, but I'm really keeping my thumbs up for this. I believe that Project Warlock has so great potential, that it would be a shame if this game would be rather something for "one run" and that's it.

P.S. And my "personal" complaining - I was bored with Egipt "episode", never liked this theme in games, so probably it's just my problem. Glad that next episode ("urbanistic") is so EXTREMELY climatic!

The only thing that really bothers me is how if the gun I'm using rusn out of ammo it switches to the knife intead of another gun with ammo. Really frustrating when there are a lot of monsters attacking