WRATH: Aeon Of Ruin | Review

Győző "FairyEmpire" BakiMay 12, 2024Last Updated: May 12, 2024

0 4 minutes read

We truly live in one of the golden age of 90’s style first-person shooters, also known as boomer shooters. Doom’s back in style, and Quake games’ got excellent remakes, on top of lots of brand new (if nostalgic) experiences like Dusk and Prodeus. 3D Realms, of Duke Nukem 3D fame, is back to business as well, with this hardcore Quake-inspired dark fantasy shooter. It’s time to check out WRATH: Aeon of Ruin on Xbox Series X!

Don’t need a good excuse to blast demons!

Boomer shooters rarely have much of a story, and WRATH: Aeon of Ruin is hardly an exception: a mysterious character in white tasks us with hunting down the powerful Guardians of the Old World. That’s about it really, and that’s all we need to start shooting. After a first level that serves as a tutorial, showing how the player can jump, crouch, shoot, and so on (in good old school Quake fashion, so expect no ADS but plenty of crouch-jumps and extremely high speed). This leads them into a hub world, from which we get to select the next levels from here on out.

A lot of the developers involved in this project are hardcore Quake players and modders, and in many ways, it shows. Not only do the movement style, the shooting, and the intentionally retro visuals very much mimic what’s found in id Software’s groundbreaking FPS from the 1990s, but WRATH: Aeon of Ruin even dares go way beyond what’s found in that base game, going instead for a philosophy more akin to later expansion packs and mod packs by the community. As in, vast and difficult levels with massive battles. And to that result, to be frank, the developers seem to have not cared too much about a clear visual identity, with rather generic gothic fantasy atmospheres, rather forgettable enemy designs, and enjoyable though unmemorable drone ambient music.

But we’re here for the action, no?

Lost in a sea of blood

Whereas the original Quake tends to mainly feature maze-like corridors and contraptions, full of tight arenas with usually only a handful of enemies at a time, late in the game and especially in expansions and mods the game’s real potential emerges, with players having to navigate large areas with equally notable enemy counts. WRATH: Aeon of Ruin starts the same, but before long the claustrophobic corridors give way to pretty big open areas, with a lot of enemies to navigate through, all of which feature ludicrously fast melee or ranged attacks. At least, the game offers a vast arsenal of all kinds of lethal weaponry, and even multiple power-ups that temporarily increase speed, damage, resistance, and so on.

This game doesn’t hold the player’s hand at any time past the tutorial and, to an extent, the first level. These zones are big, and complex, often there are plenty of paths available, and finding the correct one requires good navigation skills and visual memory. There’s tons of backtracking, too, in these hour-long levels, even featuring convoluted secrets like old-school FPS games tend to do. All this tests the patience of the player in more than one way. But of course, it’s not all about the exploration, it’s about the boom boom.

No room for breathing

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin is a hardcore shooter for sure. The weapons are precise but require good aim. The amount of health and ammo the player can carry or find is surprisingly limited, considering how many enemies there are, forcing the player to be wary of their reserves, play conservatively, and pick the most efficient weaponry for each encounter. In a design choice that feels closer to the 90’s era of console games, rather than the PC shooters this game generally mimics, there are fixed save points and a handful of optional save collectibles the player can use wherever they like, not allowing for the so-called “savescumming” methods that we all learned back in the day. Hop into the game’s settings, however, and the save limitations can be removed, allowing for free autosaving wherever we want.

Now, such a difficult experience can be bliss for boomer shooter fans of old, but despite considering myself a huge fan of the genre and a fairly skilled (if somewhat rusty) fragger, there are issues with this approach. First of all, the controls. WRATH: Aeon of Ruin does not feature any aim assist but has the player navigate between very fast and numerous enemies and projectiles, all with limited ammo, health, and save points.

It’s very clearly a game designed for keyboard and mouse, something the game does not support on Xbox – while the controller experience isn’t bad, it certainly feels far less than optimal. Lastly, the pacing itself is problematic: a shooter like this needs some breathing room from time to time, but here enemies are spawning at almost every step the player takes, making these already extremely long levels feel neverending.

A familiar shooter that isn’t for everyone

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin takes inspiration from multiple 90’s shooters but the original Quake in particular, offering not many new ideas but a brutally difficult campaign, with huge levels featuring difficult battles at every angle. It’s certainly a lot less accessible than a lot of the new wave of such boomer shooters, especially on console, as the enemies and shooting mechanics seem to be studied for a keyboard and mouse and not a controller.

The game’s cut-throat pacing will certainly excite the hardcore players, but the lack of real breaks, meaningful exploration, and worldbuilding makes WRATH: Aeon of Ruin more of a shooting exercise than an actual memorable experience. I still feel like recommending it, maybe on sale, to skilled players looking for a tough challenge on console – but in the genre’s modern-day resurgence, there are better alternatives to choose from.