Like a demon summoned by fresh blood to its altar, Wrath: Aeon of Ruin first emerged at the height of the retro-shooter resurgence. Developed on a modified Quake engine with levels designed by contributors to mods like Arcane Dimensions, it looked ready to conquer everything in its path when it arrived in 2019. Its early access showed off incredible weapons, destroyed enemies, an intricate hub world full of secrets. and maps you would sell your soul for.
Then he slept again for five years. In 2021, developer KillPixel admitted that the project had been severely hampered by the Covid 19 pandemic. But the full game would come out in summer 2022. That became spring 2023, which then became February 2024. In that time, the retro shooter continued to evolve, giving us its Doom (Prodeus), its Duke Nukem (Ion Fury) and its Hexen. (IN THE MIDDLE OF EVIL). Meanwhile, Wrath's presence faded, seeming less like a spiritual successor to Quake and more like a rehash of Daikatana.
However, now Wrath is finished and unlike John Romero's white elephant, you can see why it took so long. This isn't so much a first-person shooter as it is an ode to 3D level design, a dimension-hopping adventure of colossal scale and variety that bends the Quake engine in downright obscene positions. Unfortunately, this is both a criticism and a compliment, as in their effort to offer the greatest shooting galleries out there, the shooting itself gets a little lost along the way.
Wrath: Aeon of Ruin – Realms Deep 2022 TrailerThis has nothing to do with Wrath's fundamentals, all of which are meticulously designed. The premise is typical FPS fare. You are a lone warrior known simply as Outlander traveling through an abandoned kingdom, attempting to purge the infestation of its catacombs and monuments with swords and bullets by the Shepherd of Wayward Souls. There are three episodes that take place in three different worlds, each containing five levels. From these levels you must recover five magical runes that, combined, will unlock a portal to the boss of that world.
The first few hours of Wrath promise joyful FPS mayhem. Your starting weapon is a broadsword strapped to your right forearm, capable of a charged attack that propels you forward in a fierce lunge that doubles as a double jump. The pistol you pick up shortly after has a punch that rivals most shotguns, while the shotgun sounds like you're slamming the door on your opponent's miserable life. Later weapons include the Fang Launcher, a mechanical pistol that literally shoots teeth, and the Crystallizer, whose charged alternative fire mineralizes even the toughest enemy, shattering them with a single pistol shot.
The cannon fodder that Wrath trains you with is also deliciously soft. Slow-moving zombies lose an arm when you first shoot them, then explode in a shower of giblets when you hit them a second time. Horribly mutated undead warriors will continue fighting even after losing their minds. My favorite thugs are the Afflicted, walking bags of gangrene that hurl gobs of their own green seepage at you. Exploding them with both cannons will cause them to explode like a six-foot blister, and it's exactly as unpleasant and satisfying as it sounds.
As fun as all of this is, it's nothing that hasn't been done in thousands of other shooters. Where Wrath stands out from the crowd is in its level design. Each of its fifteen maps is a masterpiece of 3D world-building, a work of art that rises, twists, tunnels, twists and turns. As each center offers some flexibility in the order in which it addresses its challenges, I can't say which one you'll encounter first. Going to probably be The Undercrofts, an extensive necropolis that passes through snowy cemeteries and underground tombs that took me 48 minutes to complete. But it could also be The Mire, which takes you to the most elaborate sewer level in the world and forces you to climb a castle on the cliff. It could even be the Gardens, an ingenious spiral design that continues to feed you toward its greenhouse center, like the world's deadliest hedge maze.
It's not just the scale of these maps that is striking (although in some, like The Burrows, it's hard to focus on much else), but also the loving details poured into them. The way each room has shape and contour, the way its paths wind and overlap, the way KillPixel sculpts the rough polygons of the Quake engine into elegant curves and crenellations. I especially like the spaces in episode two, where Wrath's vast architecture and bloody action combine with a mystical desert theme, to make you feel like Conan making his way through an ancient, forgotten kingdom.
I can't emphasize enough how much I appreciate and admire the craftsmanship in these spaces. The talent, imagination and generosity on display is astonishing. They're also fun to explore, filled with secrets and unlockable chests that provide additional items you can deploy in combat, such as a heart that drains the health of slaughtered enemies and an energy shield that deflects projectiles. But this is where I drop the other shoe. There's a difference between good level design and good shooter design, and for all its geometric spectacularity, Wrath fails to consistently convert the former into the latter.
It took me a while to figure out why I didn't enjoy Wrath as much as I should have. At first, I thought the problem lay with Wrath's save system, which combines infrequent, one-use checkpoints called 'Shrines' that replenish your health, with quick-save collectibles called Soul Tethers that you can consume at willpower. I've been skeptical about this system since Wrath debuted in Early Access. But now that I've played the entire game, I can confidently say that I hate it.
For starters, limiting saves like this means that dying can cost you huge amounts of progress, which can make Wrath's already huge levels feel like they'll never end. The biggest problem, however, is that this system meant I was constantly thinking about saving, rather than how much fun I was having turning enemies into minced meat. Should I save here? I thought as I turned each corner. What if there's a big fight in the next room and I lose a lot of health, or an ambush kills me before I have time to react? What if there is a Sanctuary right in front of me and I actually waste this salvation? It began to affect my approach to combat, making me reluctant to throw myself into the mix, experiment with weapons, or risk feeling like a fight.
Then, about three levels from the end of the game, I discovered an option that allows you to save infinitely. I had never checked a box so strongly in my life and it certainly made the experience better. Now I could jump into combat freely, enjoying the challenge of the fight itself instead of worrying about resource management. But it didn't solve the problem instantly as I expected. Over time, I realized that Wrath's save system is simply a symptom of a larger problem, which is that Wrath doesn't always know how to create exciting combat encounters in its massive levels.
It's a difficult problem to explain, but ultimately it comes down to flow. In a shooter like this I want to be in the middle of a tangle of enemies, weaving, ducking and jumping to avoid their projectiles. Wrath's combat can be like this, but it's generally more staggered and incremental. You either advance in staccato rhythms to shoot two or three enemies at once, or sneak around corners to shoot enemies located at great distances.
I don't care too much about the first. In fact, Wrath can be a lot of fun in this mode, frequently deploying two of my favorite enemies to keep you on your toes. The Widow is a screaming witch with teeth that reach to her navel who attacks you from behind corners. It's a lot of fun to counter with a close-range shotgun blast or a timed slash. Then there's the Prowler, a spider-like creature that can turn invisible as it sneaks through rooms, each of which provides a quick game of hide-and-seek that always ends in a satisfying disaster.
The corner that appears, however, is a real tube between the spokes. There is an enemy called the Miserable that I came to completely despise. Imagine if Doom's imp spammed his fireball attack every half second, then imagine he had to spot one of the little parasites on the other side of the map every ten seconds. They're not especially hard to kill, but Wrath spreads them all over the place, turning large sections of the game into miserable sniping gauntlets where you're simply trying not to lose too much health in the process of taking them out.
Some levels have better pacing than others. Shadow Pantheon is the most tedious, a seemingly endless expanse of winding corridors that has little verticality, few notable encounters, and no memorable moments. The Priory, by comparison, manages its reach better. It's a huge level, but it compartmentalizes that scale into clearly defined sections, creating interesting combat encounters in each of those areas. There's the initial exploration of the complex perimeter, followed by a twisting battle through its intricate dwellings. There's then an uphill fight through the guard tower to open the main door, culminating in a big twist that introduces a new weapon and a new movement system.
My favorite level, however, is Twilight Archives, as it's where Wrath feels most like a spiritual successor to Quake. It's a classic three-pronged affair, as you venture along a trinity of routes to activate three switches that unlock the rune in the central hub. It's the shortest level in the game (although still substantial at 25 minutes), as well as the most humble, as it takes place entirely indoors in a nondescript brown maze. But it's full of fun traps, well-designed combat encounters, and a clever gimmick revolving around invisible platforms. It's excellent.
Wrath: Aeon of Ruin can be a frustrating and exhausting experience. But in levels like The Priory and Twilight Archives, it's as exciting as any retro shooter. And no matter how tired some of its levels made me feel at the end, I always jumped straight to the next portal, simply because I knew there would be wonders to behold. There is something demonic about making a pact with this game. He never quite satisfies me the way I would like, but his promises are too good to resist.
3D Realms provided a copy of Wrath: Aeon of Ruin for review.
