EDIT: Spoilers are now open.

PRIOR POST:

READ ZOMBIEPIE'S WARNING FIRST COMMENT BELOW

Welcome to the Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club. Our 16th game of 2023 is Slayers X. The target completion date is August 14, 2023.

We ask that until that date you use the forum software to mark any spoilers, either story based or mechanical, in the discussion below. Ideally the bulk of the discussion will occur after August 14, but if you want to comment before then you are welcome to so long as the spoilers are marked. We ask that if you leave a comment before that date you also come back to the thread after it to read other people’s comments and respond to them, though of course we cannot force you to do so.

All are welcome to participate regardless of whether you have stated a preference to or not and there is absolutely no commitment. You do not have to finish the game to participate but please let us know if you have not.

You are also free to come back any time after the completion date and share your thoughts! This club is meant to be open to all whenever you want to join in the fun!

You can find out more about the Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club or suggest future games for it here.

What is Slayers X?

Slayers X is a parody old school FPS game with narratives ties to the Game Pass hit Hypnospace Outlaw!

How long is Slayers X?

How long to beat lists it as 3.5 hours long.

@bigsocrates: Hey there, when I promoted the group on social media, the lead developer let me know this about the Game Pass version:

So, don't break vents to try and find health and ammo in this specific level and in this specific version just yet.

I did not get a chance to play this one because of some stuff going on in my real life (family member needed serious surgery, survived, thankfully, but a lot of hospital visits and work to get his home ready for his discharge) but I hope others had fun. Spoilers are now open!

Played it when it came out. At least for me, the joke doesn't overstay its welcome and the whole thing was a light and breezy experience. It plays like a completely adequate Boomer Shooter and I chuckled once or twice.

Had a bit of a journey with this one.

When I first started, I was kinda in love with it. The kind of Duke Nukem-esque boomer shooter (I kinda hate that term despite being a card-carrying millennial but considering all the time period stuff this game's doing, it feels appropriate) it's parodying was, for better or for worse, a big part of my childhood, and this game clearly loves its lineage. You could say it doesn't nail every detail. Mainly, some of the graphics are, well... too good, and some of its gameplay ideas are too clever. (Glass for ammo, etc. And yes, I realize that fiction of the game is that it's being made now.) However, Slayers X does such a good job of evoking the old boomer shooters that I didn't care. It was true to nostalgia and my memories, but not necessarily to reality.

Then I found myself bouncing off. I'll grant that it takes me forever to play even short games because I like playing in 20-30 minute bursts (it took me a few days to play this), and thus I prolonged this experience well past what it was supposed to be. But I felt like the game was running out of ideas, and the shtick was getting old.

Then I had another shift. I stopped thinking of it as boomer shooter pastiche and, instead, I started thinking of it more as a psychological deep dive on Zane, a character I grew weirdly attached to from a game I love. Then it became way more interesting. The settings you go to (the fair, the trailer park the strip mall, etc.) and how much adolescent rage is directed as his boss and his stepfather and so on. Once that dimension hit me, the game took on a little bit of melancholy. It never stops being silly, mind you, but there's a sadness underneath. Or at least something I perceive as sadness because he clearly grew up in the kind of meaningless suburbia that I project a great deal of depression onto.

As 90s FPS pastiche, you'll hit a point of diminishing returns or you won't. But as a deep dive into Zane, it takes on a lot more depth.