Forgive Me Father

Well, it has a great potential. This game plays like a little bit oversimplified Doom or Blood on their maze levels with tons of monsters, but unique art style makes everything right. Level design is a bit linear (honestly, I didn't play too much, but this is the first impression you will get), but it's also nice - reminds me of some simple levels in Clive Barker's Undying. Don't expect that you will get Dusk-like game which provides a way mooore of Quake exprerience - now it's just a solid shooter from 90's. I hope developers will polish their game - now it seems like they have everything they need.

Let me start by saying that this is definitely a fun game. The weapons are generally very satisfying and the upgrade trees for them each have a unique feel. Firearms are punchy and even the lowly knife feels good to use in a pinch. The art style is, of course, absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and easily one of the most unique looks for any shooter, classic or otherwise. Gibs are not only plentiful but very well-designed, making killing even the weakest enemies a treat. Sound effects are wonderfully impactful and visceral, and the soundtrack is excellent and kicks in at all the right times. That said, the game is still in early access, and with that comes about what you'd expect. Glitches weren't super common for me, but there was definitely some crashing and the occasional freeze, mostly on later levels. Additionally, while the combat is very fun as a rule of thumb, it can occasionally feel "off" in minor ways. As of the time of this writing it can be a bit hard to keep track of your health in the middle of a firefight, but some minor tweaking to damage feedback could fix that right up. The madness mechanic is a good way to spice things up as well, granting you use of special abilities and making you stronger the more you chain kills. However, I do think the game could benefit by explaining the core mechanics a bit more. Additionally, the levels can feel a bit linear at times. Later levels toss in secrets and alternate routes, which are much appreciated, but a lot of the time you won't do much level navigation like you would in something like Duke, Blood, Quake, or Doom. What does definitely help with this is the game's story, which you can find scattered about the levels as you kill lovecraftian horrors and level up your abilities. The newspaper clippings, logs, images, and miscellaneous lore are very well-written, and piecing together the horrors that happened to the small city the game takes place in is very rewarding. Overall? Wonderful. Definitely recommend.

The game starts strong. The story hints of strange otherworldly happenings. The levels are fun, with some nice combat arenas. The art style really cohesive and things just click well. Towards the last half of the game, things just fall apart. The hints of the story just disappear. You just run and shoot anything that moves. The combat arenas go from well though out and fun to lets put you in a tiny room with no line of sight breaks, no health, and bullet sponges for enemies. Fun for a bit, but tedious in longer stretches. And Boss 4 still plays like trash. The latest patch, v 1.2.3, may have resolved the occasional crash to desktop during the level, but it is still a stuttery mess. The hardest part about the fight is trying to hit the boss when the eratic framerate breaks the shooting part of your shooting game. And this is with an 11700K, RTX3080, and 32 gigs of ram. I can only imagine how bad it is on the recommended 1050 Ti or minimum GTX 950 systems with 16 or 8 gigs of ram respectively. So I give it two stars. It doesn't crash your system, but either the listed system requirements/minimums are wrong, or it really needs some more time for patching and optimization.

"Forgive Me Father" has got 12 levels and 2 bosses so far, and even though the game is - as of this moment - still incomplete, what's there is already quite good. The Lovecraftian aesthetic is pretty tired at this point, but the comic book style graphics sell it anyway. The shootouts are fun, though the game could do with less cramped in-doors combat arenas. The soundtrack is fine, the weapons are okay, there's not really anything to complain. If I were you, I'd give it a try.