Ashes - Doom total conversion

[gerey]

After a long wait, the newest installment of Ashes is out. This time around it's a prequel featuring a different protagonist.

For those unaware, Ashes is a set of Doom total conversions consisting of Ashes: 2063, Ashes: Dead Man Walking, Ashes: Afterglow and finally, Ashes: Hard Reset. The games feel and play more akin to Build-engine titles than they do standard Doom fare - lots of interactivity, an inventory system, locales that resemble real places etc. There's also light RPG elements, since there's plenty of scraps (in-game currency) hidden in the levels for your to collect, that you can then barter with in towns for new equipment or upgrades to your weapons.

The games take inspiration from a wide variety of sources, ranging from Fallout, to Escape from New York, Mad Max and so on. The closest equivalent to another game would be Metro - there's a lot of supernatural events going on, and when the games wants to, they can get very scary and tense (Afterglow is a masterpiece in this regard).

Ashes: 2063 is a mostly linear affair, you go along a set of levels, interspersed with towns where you can trade, pick up quests, and occasionally have the opportunity to explore a secret map. Additionally, some levels are more open, letting you move around with your bike and stop along the road to explore side areas for goodies (very akin to Episode 2 of Half-Life 2 in that regard).

Ashes: Afterglow represents a quantum leap in terms of scale and ambition. The game now consists of three huge, interconnected areas (each with a hub settlement) you are free to move around, unlock and explore, a much more substantial system to upgrade your weapons, new gadgets, more engaging quests, choices and consequences and some pretty incredible moments. And yes, you will **** your pants at two points in the game.

Dead Man Walking is an expansion of the first game, made by a friend of the lead developer, but no less worth a playthrough.

The mod author has combined all games into one handy-dandy package, completely free. Do yourself a favor and play, quite possibly, one of the best retro FPS of all time.

Link

[Element]

Awesome. I still have to complete episode 2, but what I've played of it it was very good. Great music, some memorable set ups and ensuing fights, side missions etc. I don't usually play doom mods but had to make an exception for this.
Despite the amateur VA here, it's strangely fitting.

[Xenich]

I see things like this and I think... That is awesome.

Funny how these types of projects are more exciting than anything new coming out these days.

[Tweed]

0:51 WAS THAT A HECKIN' LE BACKROOMS REFERENCE?! OMG!!!!11

[J-12]

I remember playing the first part back what feels like a decade ago, glad to see the guy still around doing the good stuff.

[rusty_shackleford]

gerey shilling a ****** game

[gerey]

If what wunderbar says is true, it makes me genuinely sad.

[gerey]

https://i.imgur.com/oQhN00b.jpeg

wunderbar claims the picture on the right is *****-coded

https://i.imgur.com/lN81fKr.jpeg

Dogshit ***** boomer shooter reference though

https://i.imgur.com/UlKMA7S.png

uwu anime waifu

Credit to wunderbar for taking the pictures.

[Xenich]

gerey shilling a ****** game

We can't have nice things.

[Zothique]

gerey shilling a ****** game

This one too?

[gerey]

Haven't played the latest episode myself yet.

While I don't doubt wunberbar, calling the painting *****-coded is a stretch. The mutant's voice can be down to bad voice acting (the protagonist in the trailer also didn't have the best VA). No excuses for the Sealco reference though.

[Tweed]

If all else fails you could change the textures and make some people really, really angry.

[wndrbr]

Got to the map 12 (out of 14).

2063 and Afterglow were roughly 60/40 horror/action. Hard Reset, however, strongly skews towards horror. Most of the maps are horror-themed, and even the ones that are focused on fighting against raiders still have this tense and foreboding atmosphere. All of the new enemies are also horror-coded, and their designs are pretty creative. Not going to spoil them, but it's some good ****, especially the mall level. The difficuly is much higher than in 2063 and Afterglow too, which works neatly with the increased emphasis on horror - the game is very stingy with supplies to the point that I literally never hit the ammo limit on any of the guns, and very rarely had HP/armor at 100%.

I didn't like how the important NPCs now have portraits made out of photos of real people. Some look OK, but some are really immerson-breaking (mostly women, and especially that one female (?) mutant with an anime face and deep voice). One of the main characters, General Gray, has a distractingly badly photoshopped mustache.

Overall it's pretty good, but not as good as Afterglow. Afterglow was a near masterpiece, Hard Reset is just a good mappack with some sloppy moments here and there.

[wndrbr]

The crossbow is really good. At first i thought it was kinda ****, but I changed my mind after the stealth mission. One-shots human enemies, secondary fire deals decent damage to big mutants, spent bolts can be picked up and used again which is very useful considering the lack of ammo in this game.

The double string upgrade is a must, though. Lets you down two enemies in quick succession.

[Tweed]

But is it ***** coded?

[wndrbr]

Finished the game.

The first bunch of levels were really good, but the deeper into the game I got the more of a retread of 2063 it became. Even the final stretch of levels is just Michonne circle + The City + The Spire.

Overall it's OK. Definitely worse than Afterglow, a bit worse than 2063, but still worth playing.

[rusty_shackleford]

Is this a game made for people who play a lot of doom, or would I be fine playing it?

I beat the dork forces game earlier this year without much issue

[gerey]

Is this a game made for people who play a lot of doom, or would I be fine playing it?

What do you mean by "play a lot like doom"?

It draws inspiration from Build-Engine games in terms of exploration and puzzle solving. As for combat, it adheres to "boomer shooter" design philosophy, having a combination of melee enemies, hitscanners, projectile enemies et al, that require the use of different weapons to tackle different tactical situations. You do have access to inventory items like in Build-engine games that you can hoard and use as necessary.

Since it's a post-apoc game, resource management can also be a consideration (though I never really hurt for ammunition).

Arguably, it's somewhat more difficult than the original Doom 1/2 campaigns, but if you didn't have trouble playing STALKER games, you shouldn't have trouble with the Ashes games either.

[rusty_shackleford]

Is this a game made for people who play a lot of doom, or would I be fine playing it?

What do you mean by "play a lot like doom"?

It draws inspiration from Build-Engine games in terms of exploration and puzzle solving. As for combat, it adheres to "boomer shooter" design philosophy, having a combination of melee enemies, hitscanners, projectile enemies et al, that require the use of different weapons to tackle different tactical situations. You do have access to inventory items like in Build-engine games that you can hoard and use as necessary.

Since it's a post-apoc game, resource management can also be a consideration (though I never really hurt for ammunition).

Arguably, it's somewhat more difficult than the original Doom 1/2 campaigns, but if you didn't have trouble playing STALKER games, you shouldn't have trouble with the Ashes games either.

play a lot of doom

There's a bunch of boomershooter games made for people who play a lot of boomershooters

[gerey]

There's a bunch of boomershooter games made for people who play a lot of boomershooters

If you didn't have trouble with Dark Forces and its labyrinthine maps, you shouldn't have a problem with the Ashes games, the maps are much better designed and do a much better job of subtly guiding you from one task to another.