Reviews

• Artix Studio

  Apr 13, 2023

  1999 called to ask about some tournament. I hang up, because ** Epic and I have Ghostware :D.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 13, 2023

  This is like Quake live except I don't die every two seconds
• gamedeal user

  Apr 13, 2023

  A dreamy combination of faux-multiplayer FPS and intriguing storytelling with a batch of unique characters. It's a unique blend, and to anyone whoever wished Quake III Arena or UT told a story with all those characters and settings they had, this is a dream come true. Movement's fast and fluid, shooting's solid. Enemy AI can be a little goofy at times but it doesn't detract much from the experience. Surprising horror and mystery elements are mixed in as well to keep every experience fresh. HUGE recommend to anyone with memories of the genre, or fans of im-sim storytelling.
• Bentbird

  Apr 13, 2023

  So I'm split on this so far. I think this game is doing a lot that I really enjoy: the movement, guns (mostly), aesthetic, and music. But some things feel off: - Mainly most of the maps I've played have felt really small for an arena based game, it often felt like I had way more movement than I needed for the scale of these areas. I know it wasn't an issue of movement because in the more open maps things felt fine. Side note for wall jumping: I think this feature is severely underused. I don't think there was a single instance where I felt that wall jumping would be useful or the better tech option over slide jumping. Just something to consider. - Then there was the issue of the friendly AI: either the friendly AI is able to essentially play by itself (one flag CTF), or was pretty much useless (Control mode). I would find the AI just sitting in a corner doing nothing or bum rushing the objective and dying almost immediately. This forced me to have to essentially play both the role of offense and defense, though mainly defense. - The story thus far has been rough in its' presentation. Too much is thrown at you way too quickly, and my understanding of the world is nonexistent. Your character, Molly, literally spawns into the world and is immediately informed that she is some form of undead that has been brought back to life to compete in arena shooter style combat. Cool, great launch pad for some interesting cyberpunk/hackerman energy. But very quickly after your first clue that things are not what they seem, the story ramps up way too fast without any build up. You're introduced to a cast of character that you very quickly realize don't have a whole lot to do outside of being unique skins for the AI to use in combat. I got the sense that these characters are supposed to be the main cast you're dealing with, but they have next to nothing to do or say - I just don't care about them. Only one of them gives off a memorable first impression and that's because you have to kill him in the arena. The story also introduces a character that further calls into question the things that have been going on, except the issue is that you haven't had a long enough time to actually see what things are normally like in this world to actually question what had been established. Going forward I would recommend that the story team be a little more patient with showing their hand. Just establish the world that Molly first spawns into: who brought her here, what is their reason, where is she, who are these other characters, what are the basic rules of this world? Let the player understand SOMETHING and have a reason to care about it before you try and subvert what you've established, or begin adding in stakes for characters that I don't have a reason to care about. - This is my last issue, but it is related to story: the dialogue. It is often ROUGH. The tone is jovial and light, but it is entirely at odds with everything else. The humor is pretty shallow and frankly I wished it was toned down a lot. The dialogue between characters is pretty pointless. It gives you pretty much no extra information about the characters or the world. They seem entirely disconnected from everything going on around them. - Final thing: The pistol feels off, I don't know if its damage or rate of fire (for either firing mode), but it felt wrong in comparison to every other weapon. Not a huge deal, maybe I just need more time with it. In conclusion: I like this game a lot. Playing the game was fun, and though the story hasn't impressed me, almost all of the elements they've introduced in the story are, or could be, really interesting. I have my issues but ultimately I want to see more. SO KEEP GOING DEVS! YOU GUYS HAVE SOMETHING REALLY SPECIAL HERE :)
• Pearl Raptor

  Apr 13, 2023

  I really only played the games that inspired this game way after their impact and legacy had solidified in the gaming landscape, so I only really knew them as single player games or bot games. Any nostalgia is second hand though reminiscing and retrospectives on YouTube. Yet, I know a love letter game when I see one. Similar to Shovel Knight for NES platformers, Project Wingman for Ace Combat or Undertale for Earthbound, this modernizes the spirit of Unreal/Quake but does not chase it, the focus on story is how it makes its own identity. The story that it sets up is already getting to be very interesting and even before the main plot acknowledges it, the in game websites you can browse build an interesting and terrifying picture. Also if you have stumbled across this game without finding the work of the composer Mothership Loudspeakerz give their stuff a look. I learned of this game from their YouTube channel after following them because of a remix I liked and was very excited to hear the OST in this game.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 13, 2023

  I've only played this for about an hour and a half at this point, but I've really enjoyed everything I've seen so far. I grew up playing UT and similar Arena Shooter titles, so I was very interested in this. And the dev here has really pulled out all the stops; there are so many endearing elements that drum up a lot of nostalgia, from the deep-voiced narrator announcing your kills to the wall jumping and fast movement. But, this isn't an arena shooter in and of itself but a sort of homage that plays tribute to the arena shooters, which is evident as soon as the wizard character starts talking. This game also offers slow and spooky exploration through abandoned levels, where you're hunting for hidden items and long forgotten URLs -- kind of like when I visited a bunch of the wayback machine links looking for old UT maps that I had played in my youth. All in all, it's a very lovingly crafted experience and I'm excited to see where it goes. So far my personal favorite elements have been clicking through the fake pages and the unlockable Arena mode, to really scratch that itch for old-school Arena Shooter action.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 13, 2023

  at time of writting the game is roughly 2-3 hours long (depends if you secret hunt well). the game is good but too short.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 13, 2023

  The game lags on weak PCs and the video options are rather limited. Not the biggest fan of the game's platforming sections, but old school arena FPS gameplay is good enough.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 13, 2023

  Probably the best way for the 90s Arena shooter to take form

  I'm sure we've seen our fair share of games trying to bring back the classic arena shooter to modern PC gaming, from Quake Champions fading to obscurity to the entirety of the Unreal franchise being erased from Epic Games' portfolio. Rather than retread familiar ground, Daev Team decided to take a left turn and have a story-based singleplayer game carry these familiar mechanics and level design.

  Story

  Since this is meant to be invocative of 90s arena shooters, Ghostware is a game-within-a-game story where you died in the real world and are brought back from the dead with little memory of who you were in life, forced to fight against other undead spirits in a deserted multiplayer FPS by The Wizard, a stereotypical fat nerd reminiscing about the glory days (in his point of view) of multiplayer FPS where you've probably fond memories of spawning in as a free kill and getting ganked before you could even reach a weapon spawn with nothing to defend yourself with beyond a wimpy pea shooter. As someone who has grown up with more than my fair share of ZDAEMON and Zandronum with a bit of UT2004 sprinkled on in my childhood, I was able to get into the setting of the game and while I do like how the lore tidbits are collected through URLs viewed through a totally-not-Netscape browser, it does get a little difficult and confusing to follow the game's backstory due to 90s web design being what it is.

  Gameplay

  For the better portion of the game, Ghostware can best be described as a stripped-down UT99 with fewer weapons, along with the addition of activated abilities that you can unlock as the story progresses. I personally don't mind how those abilities are implemented, though later ones that you unlock are definitely overpowered to the point where it'll be difficult to justify using whatever the upcoming Episode 2 has in store when you can just heal yourself willy-nilly during the more story-focused levels. I can say with full confidence that this game's definitely not for everyone but players who grew up with the old-school deathmatch games will likely be a fan of what Ghostware has in store

  Other

  Being a game invocative of 90s multiplayer FPS, I can't help but think that progressing through the story or collecting certain pieces of lore should unlock levels and player models to use in the Instant Action mode. So far, the only things you get for that are the abilities you use in the Story Mode. One other nitpick I have is relating to a late game spoiler but personally, I think there should be a drastic change in artstyle in 03_CTF3 due to that map taking place in the real world. Sure, I get that the low-fidelity visuals are part of the game-within-a-game setting, though I think there should be a lot more in the way of visual distinction between the game world and touching (in-game) grass Overall, this is definitely not a game for most people but I think this is definitely something to keep your eyes open for if you've grown up with the likes of Unreal Tournament and/or Quake 3 Arena.
• MrBreast6000

  Apr 13, 2023

  i need some tig ol biddy ghosts rn