Following up the elegant Star Wars: Darkish Forces Remaster was at all times going to be robust. Somewhat than deal with one other well-known franchise, Nightdive Studios has properly chosen to revisit one of many weirdest forgotten gems of the ‘90s with PO’ed: Definitive Version. Utilising the identical rules as Darkish Forces, Nightdive’s newest challenge breathes contemporary air into the Any Channel-developed FPS which debuted on 3DO, modernising it in all the correct methods whereas sustaining a good degree of authenticity.
We must always stress proper from the beginning, although: this can be a bizarre recreation, and it received’t be for everyone. The Darkish Forces Remaster was primarily based on an already well-known title, and even in the event you hadn’t performed the unique, it was crammed stuffed with recognisable imagery from the Star Wars franchise to assist ease you into the old-school expertise.
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PO’ed: Definitive Version has none of that. Its setting, enemy design, construction, and extra are very a lot ‘exterior the field’ — if that appears like your factor, then you definately’re in for an exquisite time. We suspect, nevertheless, that in case your FPS expertise is proscribed to extra fashionable examples of the style, you may wish to attempt one thing a bit, nicely, much less bizarre earlier than getting into the world of PO’ed.
You play as a chef who occurs to be caught in a hostile, alien world and should use every thing from frying pans to rocket launchers to outlive. See? We advised you it was bizarre. The story admittedly takes considerably of a backseat to the motion right here, with separate ranges propelling you thru the expertise with no added fluff in between. We appreciated this quite a bit; the sport locations lots of emphasis on enjoyable and freedom above all else, so not having to take a seat via cutscenes or textual content packing containers is a giant win in our eyes.
As for the degrees themselves, they’re typically huge. Actually huge. Early within the recreation, you acquire a jetpack that may traverse wherever inside any open house. With this in thoughts, you’ll typically discover ranges made up of huge areas with brief corridors sprinkled in between. Breaking out the jetpack in smaller areas can show a bit fiddly, however zooming round in an enormous room is nice enjoyable, and it’s some of the well-realised makes use of of a jetpack we’ve seen in any online game.
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Regardless of this, lots of the ranges in PO’ed are, fairly frankly, a nightmare to navigate at occasions. Usually, the required pathway is extremely nicely hidden; as in, it’s a must to cross via what appears to be like to be a totally stable wall however is definitely an phantasm – that sort of factor. It is undoubtedly irritating, and we now have to confess to resorting to a YouTube walkthrough of the unique on one event so we might work out the place the heck we have been imagined to go.
The fight, in the meantime, may be hit-and-miss. There are a lot of enemies all through PO’ed, and the sport tallies what number of you managed to wipe out after every degree, so there’s a superb incentive to hunt all of them down. That mentioned, your weapons aren’t essentially the most correct at one of the best of occasions, and even after we enabled the crosshair function, we have been spraying bullets in every single place; nearly like we’d simply accomplished primary Stormtrooper coaching. Enemies are sometimes extremely correct, so even in the event you strafe backwards and forwards, most main encounters will depart you lacking a hefty chunk of well being.
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Not all weapons are created equal although, so whereas the throwing knives and the fundamental pistol require extra focus in order to not miss your shot, others such because the Uzi, drill, and rocket launcher are a bit extra forgiving; you may comfortably waltz right into a room all weapons blazing and be assured that you simply’ll eviscerate a number of enemies in a single fell swoop. What helps drastically is the inclusion of gyro aiming — a staple of Nightdive’s ports at this level — and you’ll tweak the sensitivity to fit your wants. By default, aiming is executed with the analogue sticks whereas gyro is there as a sort of ‘fine-tuner’, however you may enhance the sensitivity and have or not it’s your major technique of management, if you want.
By way of its visible and audio design, we’ve already talked about that PO’ed is a bizarre recreation, and that is solely bolstered right here. The enemies embody what appears to be like like a pair of pink lips with sharp tooth jutting out, a pair of muscular legs with a bizarre mouth, uh, there, and a lot extra. It’s odd, we inform you. The audio is analogous, and whereas there’s no music to talk of, which is unlucky, a few of the sounds you’ll hear can have you creased with laughter. One among our favourites must be the kung-fu-esque “Hwaaaah” the principle character emits when performing a backflip. Oh sure, you may carry out backflips at will on this recreation. It’s fairly nice.
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As regular for Nightdive’s ports, PO’ed: Definitive Version ran flawlessly on Change at 60fps with not a single noticeable drop. The visuals are crisp, and several other enhancements comparable to view bobbing, HUD messages, and extra have been included right here. For those who’re after a purer interpretation of the unique, nevertheless, you may disable any or all the enhancements inside the choices menu. So whereas we wrestle to supply up a blanket suggestion for the sport itself, there’s no denying Nightdive’s efforts and ability in modernising the expertise.
Conclusion
PO’ed Definitive Version is yet one more wonderful instance of Nightdive Studio’s glorious work in preserving distinctive, oddball video games of yore whereas including some welcome mod cons. With this one, nevertheless, the core expertise is somewhat bit too bizarre to suggest to simply any FPS fan. The overall premise is odd, the enemy design is unsettling, and the format of the degrees can show irritating, particularly for newcomers unaccustomed to its old-school methods. Regardless of this, the jetpack is truthfully some of the enjoyable mechanics we have sampled in gaming, and the weird audio design had us in matches of laughter at a number of factors. For those who’ve performed the unique or fancy trying out some of the distinctive FPS video games from the ’90s, it is nicely value a punt.