Nightmare Reaper Is A Doom-Style FPS That Doesn’t Rise Above Its Influence

thegamer.com:

Nightmare Reaper is crafted in the crimson, pulpy mould of ‘90s FPSes Doom and Quake, complete with rapid player movement, non-stop stabbing and gunning, and oodles of blood and guts in bouts of all-out battles against hellspawns and undead monsters. It’s also said to be a mix of these retro shooters, as well as roguelike elements that will breach “the wall between classic and modern gameplay”. Like the sum of its influences, the game is wafer-thin on story, and heavy on satanic theatrics and violence. Even the snarling face sprite of its gunslinging heroine is a throwback to the the classic Doomguy status bar; sustain just a little damage and the face only suffers from a minor nosebleed, but get way too injured, and the same face will be haemorrhaging litres of blood from her forehead. You know the drill.

With such a presentation, there’s already some level of familiarity, perhaps even polish, that you would expect from a game like this, but Nightmare Reaper never quite surpasses this precedent set by the legions of Doom clones that have been created over the years. Nightmare Reaper wastes very little time when it comes to dousing you right into the midst of murder: you begin by materialising from a bloody pentacle with very little fanfare—just simply plonked into the level with no context. You’re given a knife too, and instinctively you know what you must do: stab someone with it. You venture out into the mouldy dungeon, spot some shambling corpses, sink your knife into them, and watch as they explode into a fountain of pixelated gore and viscera. Then you sprint around the room in search of more flesh, more guns, and more doors to raise your body count. This is the sort of rhythm you would expect throughout Nightmare