Project Warlock

Last updated
Project Warlock
Project Warlock logo.jpg
Developer(s) Buckshot Software
Publisher(s) Gaming Company, Crunching Koalas
Designer(s) Dawid Konrad Korzekwa
Iain Lockhart
Programmer(s) Jakub Cislo
Artist(s) Damian Bajowski
Composer(s) Jerry Lehr
Luke Wilson
Engine Unity
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 4
Nintendo Switch
Xbox One
ReleaseMicrosoft Windows
October 18, 2018
PlayStation 4
June 9, 2020
Nintendo Switch
June 11, 2020
Xbox One
June 12, 2020
Genre(s) First-person shooter
Mode(s) Single-player

Project Warlock is a 2018 first-person shooter video game developed by Polish studio Buckshot Software and published by Gaming Company. Project Warlock is notable for being created by 18-year-old Jakub Cislo, who developed the game while still attending high school. [1] A sequel, titled Project Warlock II, is currently in development. [2]

Contents

Gameplay

Project Warlock takes inspiration from classic 1990s shooters [3] such as Blood , Doom and Heretic . [4] [5] The player explores a progression of non-linear levels while battling varied enemies and bosses. In order to survive to the exit, the player must seek out keys, power-ups, loot, weapons, and ammo; some of which are hidden in secret areas. Each level consists of one to four short stages. Levels are grouped into episodes, with the levels in each episode sharing a common theme.

Project Warlock adds light role-playing elements to the classic first-person shooter formula. The protagonist, an unnamed warlock, can wield both conventional weapons and magical spells. After completing each level, the player returns to the warlock's workshop where upgrade points and experience points collected in each level may be used to purchase new spells, weapon upgrades, and player perks such as increased health points.

The workshop is also used to save the player's progress between sessions. The game does not allow quick saves. Each level must be completed in its entirety for progress to be saved upon return to the workshop. Project Warlock also features an arcade-style lives system. The player has a limited number of lives, and running out will send the player back to the beginning of the current episode or, on the hardest difficulty, back to the beginning of the game. [6]

Development

Though he was born after they came out, Project Warlock developer Jakub Cislo was introduced to classic first-person shooter games like Blood, Heretic and Doom by his father. [1] He enjoyed aspects of the older games compared to the more modern games of his time, and eventually decided to try and replicate the fast-paced action and complex levels in a new game of his own. The new game would be a rogue-like 2.5D shooter with items and enemies rendered as billboarding sprites.

Cislo's first iteration debuted with a small round of crowdfunding on Kickstarter under the name Exitium 3D. [7] The campaign was successful but also earned Cislo a lot of negative feedback. [1] He persisted, improving the game and changing the name to Cataclysm 3D. In April 2017, the game was approved on Steam Greenlight, [8] however the Greenlight service was discontinued shortly afterward.

The modest success allowed Cislo to put together a small team including an artist, level designer, and sound designer. The team further developed the game, now called Project Warlock, eventually attracting the attention of a publisher, Gaming Company. [1] A version for Linux and MacOS has been stated as "planned" as of October 2018, only requiring "additional testing". [9] A sequel published by Retrovibe, Project Warlock II, was made available in early access via Steam on June 10, 2022.

Reception

Project Warlock was released on GOG.com as a timed exclusive on October 18, 2018, [13] followed by a wider release on December 6, 2018. [14]

The game received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. [10] YouTube reviewer Gggmanlives (now GmanLives) called Project Warlock "a damn good game" and praised the pixel art visuals, sound design, and fast-paced gun play; while criticizing the unbalanced spells and overly dark atmosphere. [15] Destructoid also praised the sprite work while calling the soundtrack "superb". [11] Dark Side of Gaming took a more critical view, describing the boss fights as "poorly constructed". [16]

Related Research Articles

<i>Rise of the Triad</i> 1995 first-person shooter video game

Rise of the Triad: Dark War is a first-person shooter video game, developed and published by Apogee Software in 1995. The player can choose one of five different characters to play as, each bearing unique attributes such as height, speed, and endurance. The game's story follows these five characters who have been sent to investigate a deadly cult, and soon become aware of a deadly plot to destroy a nearby city. Its remake was designed by Interceptor Entertainment and released by Apogee Games in 2013. The shareware version of the game is titled Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins.

<i>Sin</i> (video game) 1998 video game

Sin is a first-person shooter video game developed by Ritual Entertainment and published by Activision in 1998. It uses a modified version of the Quake II engine. Sin is set in the dystopian future of 2037, where John Blade, a commander in a security force named HardCorps in the megacity of Freeport, is tasked to rid the city of a recreational drug that may be tied to the rival biotechnology megacorporation, SinTek.

<i>Descent</i> (video game) 1995 first-person shooter game

Descent is a first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Parallax Software and released by Interplay Productions in 1995 for MS-DOS, and later for Macintosh, PlayStation, and RISC OS. It popularized a subgenre of FPS games employing six degrees of freedom and was the first FPS to feature entirely true-3D graphics. The player is cast as a mercenary hired to eliminate the threat of a mysterious extraterrestrial computer virus infecting off-world mining robots. In a series of mines throughout the Solar System, the protagonist pilots a spaceship and must locate and destroy the mine's power reactor and escape before being caught in the mine's self-destruction, defeating opposing robots along the way. Players can play online and compete in either deathmatches or cooperate to take on the robots.

<i>Blood</i> (video game) 1997 video game

Blood is a 3D first-person shooter video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by GT Interactive and developed using Ken Silverman’s Build engine. The shareware version was released for MS-DOS on March 7, 1997, while the full version was later released on May 21 in North America, and June 20 in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Build (game engine)</span> First-person shooter engine

The Build Engine is a first-person shooter engine created by Ken Silverman, author of Ken's Labyrinth, for 3D Realms. Like the Doom engine, the Build Engine represents its world on a two-dimensional grid using closed 2D shapes called sectors, and uses simple flat objects called sprites to populate the world geometry with objects.

Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons, and can be used in combination with other tools such as grenades for indirect offense, armor for additional defense, or accessories such as telescopic sights to modify the behavior of the weapons. A common resource found in many shooter games is ammunition, armor or health, or upgrades which augment the player character's weapons.

Cube 2: Sauerbraten is a first-person shooter released for Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Mac OS X using OpenGL and SDL.

<i>PowerSlave</i> 1996 video game

PowerSlave, known as Exhumed in Europe and 1999 AD: Resurrection of the Pharaoh in Japan, is a first-person shooter video game developed by Lobotomy Software and published by Playmates Interactive Entertainment in North America, and BMG Interactive in Europe and Japan. It was released in North America, Europe and Japan, for the Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and MS-DOS over the course of a year from late 1996 to late 1997. On May 24, 2015, Powerslave EX, an unofficial remake of the PlayStation version appeared on GitHub. The MS-DOS version of PowerSlave was added to the GOG store on November 19, 2020.

<i>Catacomb Abyss</i> 1992 video game

Catacomb Abyss is a fantasy themed first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Softdisk and released in November 1992 for DOS. It is the fourth entry in the Catacomb series of video games. Its predecessor, Catacomb 3-D, was developed by id Software as part of a contract with Softdisk. When the contract ended, Softdisk kept ownership of both the 3D engine as well as the intellectual property of Catacomb 3-D. The company formed a new, in-house team to develop three sequels, known as the Catacomb Adventure Series. This trilogy consists of Catacomb Abyss, Catacomb Armageddon and Catacomb Apocalypse. Softdisk published a shareware version of Catacomb Abyss, which could be freely distributed and played to encourage gamers to purchase the full trilogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Silent Cartographer</span> Level in the video game Halo: Combat Evolved

"The Silent Cartographer" is the fourth level in the first-person shooter (FPS) video game Halo: Combat Evolved. Taking place on the Halo ringworld, it follows the Master Chief and a group of UNSC Marines as they wage a daytime beachfront assault on the Covenant alien race in search of an ancient Forerunner installation known as The Silent Cartographer.

Wolfenstein is a series of World War II video games originally developed by Muse Software. The majority of the games follow William "B.J." Blazkowicz, an American Army captain, and his fight against the Axis powers. Earlier titles are centered around Nazis attempting to harness supernatural and occult forces, while later games are set in an alternate history in which Axis powers won World War II.

Duke Nukem is a media franchise named for its main character, Duke Nukem. Created by the company Apogee Software Ltd. as a series of video games for personal computers, the series expanded to games released for various consoles by third-party developers. The first two games in the main series were 2D platformers, while the later games have been a mix of first-person and third-person shooters.

<i>Eradicator</i> (video game) 1996 video game

Eradicator is a 1996 science fiction-themed video game developed by Accolade for MS-DOS compatible operating systems. The game was re-released on Steam in 2014 and on GOG.com in 2016 with support for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux.

<i>NAM</i> (video game) First person shooter video game

NAM, sold under the name Napalm in Walmart retail outlets, is a first-person shooter set during the Vietnam War. It was developed for MS-DOS by TNT Team and published by GT Interactive in 1998. A direct sequel, World War II GI, was released in 1999.

Pie in the Sky is a 2.5D and 3D first-person shooter engine most popular in the mid-to-late 1990s by Pie in the Sky Software, also known as Power 3D and the 3D Game Creation or 3D Game Creation System engine. The engine was used in two games by the company as well as many other independent games and amateur projects after it was turned into a commercial game creator, largely because it minimized the amount of computer programming knowledge needed to make 3D games in its editing tools, making it suitable even for beginners with no game-design experience.

<i>Dusk</i> (video game) 2018 video game

Dusk is a 2018 first person shooter created by American developer David Szymanski and published by New Blood Interactive for Windows, Linux, macOS, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. The game is produced by Dave Oshry, who previously co-directed the 2013 remake of Rise of the Triad.

<i>Ion Fury</i> 2019 first-person shooter video game

Ion Fury is a 2019 cyberpunk first-person shooter video game developed by Voidpoint and published by 3D Realms. It is a prequel to the 2016 video game Bombshell. Ion Fury runs on a modified version of Ken Silverman's Build engine and is the first original commercial game to utilize the engine in 20 years, the previous being World War II GI. An expansion, Ion Fury: Aftershock, was released in October 2023.

<i>Wrath: Aeon of Ruin</i> 2024 video game

Wrath: Aeon of Ruin is a first-person shooter developed by KillPixel Games and Slipgate Ironworks and published by 3D Realms and Fulqrum Publishing. Wrath: Aeon of Ruin is built on a modified version of the Quake engine, making it the first major game release on that engine in nearly 20 years. The first episode was released on Steam Early Access on November 22, 2019, and was fully released on February 27, 2024.

<i>Prodeus</i> 2022 video game

Prodeus is a first-person shooter game developed by Bounding Box Software and published by Humble Games. The game was crowdfunded by a Kickstarter campaign in April 2019. An early access version was released on November 9, 2020. The full game was released on macOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in September 2022. A DLC was announced for the game in 2023.

<i>Amid Evil</i> 2019 video game

Amid Evil is a first-person shooter video game developed by Indefatigable and published by New Blood Interactive. The game's dark fantasy theme, action-oriented gameplay, and retro-inspired visual elements have earned it frequent descriptions as a spiritual successor to 1994's Heretic and 1995's Hexen. A version for the Nintendo Switch is planned for release.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Grayson, Nathan (2019-10-19). "Teen Developer Makes Game Inspired By '90s Shooters That Came Out Before He Was Born". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  2. ↑ "Project Warlock II now available in Early Access". Gematsu. 2022-06-10. Archived from the original on 2022-07-29. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  3. ↑ J Capel, Chris (2018-10-12). "Project Warlock is badass '90s FPS by a developer who barely remembers the '90s". PCGamesN . Retrieved 2024-05-29.
  4. ↑ Cuzzucoli, Delano (2017-04-26). "Project Warlock Is A Retro FPS That Harkens Back To Heretic And Blood". Hey Poor Player. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
  5. ↑ Grodman, Jesse (2020-05-24). "Project Warlock Is A Retro FPS That Channels Hexen and One Unit Whole Blood, Coming To Consoles Soon". DreadXP . Retrieved 2024-05-29.
  6. ↑ Horti, Samuel (2018-10-14). "Project Warlock is a frantic old-school shooter coming to GOG this month, other stores later". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  7. ↑ Smith, Damien (2016-11-25). "Retro FPS Title Exitium 3D Receives Full Funding on Kickstarter". www.gameskinny.com. Archived from the original on 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  8. ↑ Smith, Damien (2017-01-18). "Interview With Jakub Cislo Sole Developer of Retro-Style FPS Cataclysm 3D". www.gameskinny.com. Archived from the original on 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  9. ↑ "Linux support? - Project Warlock GOG.com Forum". Archived from the original on 2020-01-28. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  10. 1 2 "Project Warlock". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2019-05-13. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  11. 1 2 Glagowski, Peter (2018-12-09). "Review: Project Warlock". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  12. ↑ Leri, Michael (2018-10-23). "Project Warlock Review - A Super Shotgun Loaded With Nostalgia". GameRevolution. Archived from the original on 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  13. ↑ Tarason, Dominic (2018-10-18). "Chunky retro FPS Project Warlock is out now". Rock Paper Shotgun . Archived from the original on 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  14. ↑ "Project Warlock on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Archived from the original on 2019-05-02. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  15. ↑ GmanLives (2018-10-18), Project Warlock Review (It's Really Good) - Gggmanlives, archived from the original on 2018-10-21, retrieved 2019-05-03
  16. ↑ Naude, Pieter (2018-11-18). "Project Warlock – Review". Archived from the original on 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.