My thoughts on Homebrew Software's GateWorld

[A Kick in the Pants]

I originally played this game years ago, and I decided to play it again. I sort of like it, but I feel some parts could have been a lot less "weird". It's a trilogy similar to Bio Menace, Duke Nukem, and Commander Keen.

First of all, the storyline is just bizarre. What is this "GORG" asteroid thing? Why are there human-like "Eloi" creatures inside it? The overall plot just seems so weird.

What are the bearded "wise men" that are sitting around? They rise in the air and say a message when they are approached, but are they supposed to be helpful or not? The first "wise man" says "You will die!" suggesting they are unfriendly, but the other wise men seem to give some sort of hints. But usually, this "hint" is some strange message that I can't even come close to understanding...stuff like "Seek solidity. It may let you pass." and "Asteroid is factory, factory is asteroid" or whatever. It sounds like random gibberish.

The camera is atrocious. In games like Commander Keen, the camera centers on you, but in GateWorld, it's just annoying. You have to "drag" the camera around by moving, so that for example, if you want to see what's to the left, you have to move all the way to the left of the screen and drag along the camera...and you can barely even see what's in front of you! Often, things will fall on your head, you'll land on stuff where you can't see what's below you, you'll enter teleporters without knowing if it will teleport you right into an enemy, and so on.

The music: The music is just awful. I tried the General MIDI setting and the OPL settings, but none of them do the music any justice. The music on the first level sounds like several songs playing together at once. It's a jumbled mess. Another song sounds like a bunch of random screwy notes on random instruments, and the boss music is extremely lousy. Most other DOS games like this, especially Apogee's, EPIC's, etc. have very well-composed mood-setting music. But the GateWorld music doesn't even fit the theme of the game. Some of it is so bad it sounds like someone opened up their MIDI sequencer and drew a bunch of random notes everywhere without even attempting to make it sound "musical".

But aside from that, the game is ok, and I still actually managed to enjoy some of it. It's kind of nice and still playable, but I think Homebrew could have done a better job.

[Cobalt]

It's my second favorite DOS game next to commander keen! how dare you!

edit: the sonic 3& Knuckles pc port doesn't count.

[Levellass]

Eh, it was ok, but as noted, the storyline was... out of this world.

[Keening_Product]

You have to "drag" the camera around by moving, so that for example, if you want to see what's to the left, you have to move all the way to the left of the screen and drag along the camera...and you can barely even see what's in front of you! Often, things will fall on your head, you'll land on stuff where you can't see what's below you, you'll enter teleporters without knowing if it will teleport you right into an enemy, and so on.

Afraid of surprises? That's half of what makes this game fun - you don't quite know what's coming and you really do have to explore to find out. It makes dead ends a whole lot more... challenging.

As for weird - it makes it not dull. Don't fear creativity.

The maps can be a bit repetitive at times, but it's always a challenge. Which is good - if I wanted a walk in the park I'd go for a walk in the park.

[VikingBoyBilly]

2 word review:

It sucks.

[Levellass]

Can you trim that down a bit?

[VikingBoyBilly]

Ok I'll expand a bit.

There was an entire thread about why this game sucks so bad.

It's so bad, Apogee dropped it and handed it off to somebody else to finish because they were too embarrassed to put their name on it.

The previews screens are a clusterfucl of legendary proportions.

I tried playing it and experienced some sporadic slow down, awful sounds and music, graphics that make my eyes puke, and such bad control and annoying enemies I didn't even have the strength to play past the first level.

The character is just duke nukem with a space suit. And he's the alien invader killing everybody to steal their treasure as far as the intro story goes. He's a horrible person. Why do I want to play as this guy?

It just blows hard.

[Flaose]

My biggest problem with it is the fact the your shields will protect you from some enemies but not others for seemingly no rhyme or reason. What's the point of giving the player a shield if hazards and most enemies cut right through them anyway?

Also, as was mentioned, the camera and music are atrocious. The game really isn't any fun to play.

[Levellass]

It's so bad it causes you to double post, just to emphasize how bad it is.

[Roobar]

It's so bad it's a second topic about it.

[Levellass]

It's so bad:


* Bill Gates called it buggy.
* Sonic 2006 fans hated it
* Piracy has fallen by half since the sentence for it was changed to playing this game
* Viruses won't infect it out of professional courtesy
* I couldn't post it anywhere on 4chan, apparently they have standards
* When you go online it sends spyware to shady sites.
* Installing it immediately upgrades your system to window 8

[Flaose]

It's my second favorite DOS game next to commander keen! how dare you!

edit: the sonic 3& Knuckles pc port doesn't count.

Well, the Sonic 3 & Knuckles port is for Windows, so you're right!

It's so bad it causes you to double post, just to emphasize how bad it is.

Exactly. Though I'm good enough to erase my mistakes.

[MoffD]

When watching VBB's playthrough
First I was like:

But then I was like:

[Levellass]

VBB did a playthrough? How long did he last?

[_mr_m_]

2 word review:

It sucks.

Apt, and to the point. A perfect review.