Outlaws

I'd always wanted to play this because of its reputation as a hidden gem of the 2.5D FPS era. It turns out it's pretty mediocre. It also only has 9 levels! Doom gave you that for FREE. There are side missions probably from an expansion pack, but there's only 5 of them and the game's not good enough to leave me 'hungry for more'.

All of the enemies are hitscan and enemy types are almost indiscernible from one another. There are a lot of stupid switch puzzles, and the weapons aren't anything special. The revolver you start with is the best weapon in the game because the alternative shooting mode allows for rapid fire. There's a repeater rifle for sniping, and then 3 different variants of shotgun (of which, only one is particularly useful). There's also dynamite, but the arc and collision on it are terrible (Blood did it better) as well as throwing knives-- they actually thought someone might play a 2.5D doom clone using half-assed and unnecessary stealth mechanics. Finally there's the traditional super weapon: a gatling gun you can't move while using. The punch also seems to kill in one hit. It's about as awkward a weapon set as a Marathon game.

You also have to reload your weapon, which I suppose is novel, although all this does it ruin the flow of the gameplay loop. The reloads are so fast it's just an annoyance to have to hit an extra button. But this is also what makes the shotguns pretty much useless and the pistol the best weapon.

Some maps have inventory puzzles. Some have jumping puzzles. Often these puzzles suffer because it's hard to tell what can be interacted with because of the art style.

The cutscenes are cool looking and well directed and acted even though the story is as simple Bandits Stole Yer Daughter. The soundtrack is great because it mostly consists of ripoffs of the music from the Dollars trilogy. Problem is the music is all redbook CD audio so it just sort of plays a track, then goes quiet for a second, and cues up another track. If you pause the game at all to save or adjust your options it will cut the music track and the music will go silent until it's track has run its course and the next one cues up. Maybe this is a bug with the GOG version, but it's even lamer playing a mediocre Doom clone with no music.

Also, word of warning: The final boss starts with a cutscene, but as soon as it ended the boss shot and killed me in one hit even though I had full health. That soured me a bit on the game and is possibly why I didn't even bother with the extra missions.