October Assassination #4

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Played this 20 freaking years after it was released and it's still fresh as it was back in 2005. TLDR: Seeing a 20-year old game that costs $2 being better at almost everything than recent $70 titles is literally mind-blowing. RIP Monolith, you guys had gold here.

This game looks incredible, with the exception of some character textures that are noticeably low-res (in particular Norton Mapes) and some external areas (e.g. the city as seen from the chopper or from the rooftops). Outside of that, environments are beautiful, well-lit, and full of prosp that react to your gun fights. Enemy models are detailed and well animated, and the scenario is reactive enough that anyone walking into a room after a gunfight knows there was a gunfight - there will be bullet marks on the walls, scorch marks where grenades went off, broken glass and crates, exploded barrels, reams of paper on the floor, and viscera splattering the walls. It never ceased to amaze me how beautiful and cohesive everything looked like, even after hours and hours playing the game.

Not only it looks good, it also feels good. Damn, gunplay is so much fun, part because of the portfolio of guns you're given, part because of the enemy AI. No gun is wasted here (except, maybe, the SMG), and I felt myself using the akimbo pistols as often as I did with the plasma rifle or shotgun. My personal favorite is still the penetrator which nails enemies to walls, but all of them are useful and fun to play with. If I have one gripe, is that there are not enough scenarios where the ASP Rifle excels, and ammo for it gets very scarce towards the latter end of the campaign. Enemy AI has been talked about through and through, and what I can say is that the small enemy variety is more than compensated by how vicious they are. The fact you're usually fighting squads instead of single enemies always leave you on your toes, and the game is highly lethal, with a few mistakes costing you a lot. Luckily checkpoints and health pickups are plentiful. The only enemies that suck are the turrets (and the drones to a smaller extent), but they are not super frequent so that's fine. Enemies move very fast, so using bullet time is almost a requirement for effective gunplay, as well as leaning to avoid incoming fire.

The sound complements the atmosphere created by the visuals, and it's always fun to hear the chatter from the enemy squad once they see their numbers falling, followed by radio silence once all are downed. There's a plot here that justifies some creepy sequences, but if this game was a series of linear corridors with nothing more than squads to destroy, I would still love it. Play it now, play it again, and just keep playing, this is too good to be true