So I've played Strafe for a few hours and I've come to a tentative conclusion: This is a fun game but it really, truly isn't for everybody.
Specifically, I've come to decide that the game isn't for me.
That's not because it's a bad game by any means, it's just that some of the design choices really don't click with me and my current gaming preferences. This is obviously a personal opinion, not an objective judgment about the game's quality. Let me explain.
Strafe is a retro-inspired shooter that draws on the aesthetics of classics like Doom, though not necessarily the gameplay of said classics. Like Quake and other classic shooters, it's really fast and bloody. Unlike these games, it's a "roguelike" meaning that when you die, you start over from the beginning and have to make another run.
It's also a game that uses procedurally generated levels rather than fixed stages, meaning that each time you dive back in you'll be playing a slightly different version of the same area. Some games use procedural generation to map out vastly different stages each time, but Strafe's levels are less drastically altered.
This is because developer Pixel Titans wanted to blend the nature of procedurally generated levels with a more authored experience. Pixel Titans liked the idea of playing through new and surprising levels each time you came back to the game (with new secrets each time, as well) but didn't want it to be too randomized. So they came up with a neat solution.
Writing on their blog, the dev explains:
We started by creating a large collection of rooms that fit together like a puzzle and randomize every play. I build each room to have multiple entrances that the game will choose to plug or open depending on the generation.
Essentially, these rooms are pieced together differently each time, with enemies and items and other elements randomly generated throughout. This means that within any given level, you'll notice similar rooms and areas repeat, but they'll be ordered differently to various degrees. I like this as a bridge between structured level design and the randomness of procedural generation.
Still, the combination of permadeath and levels that never quite match the games that Strafe is paying homage to, left me feeling uninspired after a while. Again, this is personal preference, but I'm just not up for permadeath in most games these days. I like to progress.
Meanwhile, I love a well-crafted stage. I still remember playing the original Doom and finding secret doors and areas that I hadn't discovered the first or second time around. I loved memorizing the levels as I played, and each time getting further and better. Pixel Titans have come up with a clever and interesting middle ground, but I still find it lacking in the end.
I also wish Strafe was less stingy about guns. To be fair, this is a complaint I have about most first-person shooters. I hate being confined to just one or two guns in a game when there's usually no reason I can't have one mapped to each number key like in the classics. But it feels particularly frustrating in a game like this, which is so overtly retro. I don't want just one gun in Strafe, I want nine guns. Meanwhile, the guns you loot off enemies are only useful until they run out of ammo and then it's back to your basic weapon.
And while I love the gore (the game advertises "near never-ending fountains of blood") I feel like the shooting itself is just a tad too floaty. I want more impact when I hit an approaching monster. I feel like my bullets are cutting through butter and air rather than flesh and bone.
Many of the game's little problems will likely be fixed by a patch. That's great. The subjective stuff, the core elements of the game, won't change, however, and that's fine. It may not be for me, but it may be for you.
If randomly generated levels, enormous mobs of very deadly enemies, gory retro graphics and permadeath sound fun, this is a game you shouldn't miss. It's a good game, if not a great one. Oh, and it has a really terrific soundtrack that adds tons to the experience. It's my favorite thing about the game.
Check out the Strafe Steam Page here.
Fun Trivia: Pixel Titans started out as just a two-man team. Now it's comprised of 10 developers. That's actually pretty retro. After all, the original Doom features just 15 names in its credits. From small things, big things one day come.
