Nightmare Reaper Reviews

A retro-infused boomer shooter inspired by Quake, but with randomly generated levels instead of carefully crafted linear maps full of secrets and well-designed scenarios. No, I’m not talking about the decent (albeit largely forgettable) Strafe, released back in 2017. Nightmare Reaper is a game drinking from the same (several) fountain(s), which already made me worry it would suffer from the same issues which plagued that game. Retro shooters are my bread and butter, and I was eager to try i...

While I have issues with a few parts of the game, mainly the lower-quality skill tree stuff and gripes related to rogue-lites and old shooters in general, the total package on offer is really strong. At the time of release, the game is only available for PC, which I think could be the biggest negative here. It’s clearly capable of running on less-capable hardware, but I worry that it may go unnoticed unless the team at Blazing Bit Games can find a way to make console ports work financially. If you are already smitten with boomer shooters or rogue-lites, this one is an easy recommendation. I suspect many others will find fun in the myriad easter eggs and tributes to other games (the main menu UI is a Game Boy Advance SP) quite delightful if they aren’t too scared to keep sleeping. 8/10 gib mops

If you have any interest in the old days of FPS gameplay when you were expected to wade in, unleash firepower at top speed, and leave a mess in the process, you will want to play this game. And if you’ve tried to play those games but can’t get over the gap in technology, this is going to be a darn fun experience for you as well. Give this one a shot; it deserves everything it’s asking and then some.

Nightmare Reaper is filled with content, and all of it’s packed into a highly replayable experience. It’s a fast, furious, and liberatingly violent action romp based on a mostly successful procedural structure. But it’s still worth checking out.

But all that will come, as sure as sausages come tumbling out of the hole in the wall in the basement where I live. Nightmare Reaper is one of the better examples of the new and increasingly populated genre of retro-styled shooters and a chance, if ever it were more needed than right now, to slip backwards in time and pretend that the last few years were some horrible dream.

While its procedurally-generated nature produces some annoying issues, Nightmare Reaper has a creative story, punchy edge-of-your-seat action and a deep, entertaining arsenal. This is one bad dream you won't regret ripping and tearing your way through.