Wrath: Aeon of Ruin

Wrath: Aeon of Ruin's gunplay is tight and fast-paced, but it doesn't stand out with mediocre level design, low enemy variety, and overall aesthetic.

KillPixel's shooter demonstrates breathtaking ambition in its 3D level design, but that can come at the cost of pacing and fun.

Wrath: Aeon Of Ruin is too light on content to recommend purchasing just yet. Wait to see if subsequent releases of new levels and monsters can eke a bit more variety out what is, in early access, a barebones throwback to the golden age of running around in very brown rooms looking for secrets and thinking about Satan.

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin welcomes new players without holding your hand all the way through.

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin is a very fun time, but it's not for everyone. You’ll find expansive levels and worthy challenges to conquer for those willing and ready to face what it offers.

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 b...

It is for these reasons I issue it a score with my recommendation for serious genre fans, who will likely eat this one up as it presses the right buttons. But for those of you who weren’t around for games like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Unreal, or Hexen, there may be better entry points to the classic FPS genre.

A retro-styled, first-person shooter with gothic imagery, published in tandem by 3D Realms and Fulqrum, in which you start off a game by being transported to a wicked land via a mysterious boat. The fact there are two games by the same publishing duo coming out just a few weeks away from each other is downright bizarre. A while back, I tackled Graven, a quasi-love letter to Hexen and Heretic, and ...