A moderate-length spree through some nostalgic FPS eras, Bedlam is a very average game with an interesting premise. Despite seemingly wishing to be a love letter to past classics, we are never truly treated to the things that made those games great and instead are indulged with but a mention of the matter.

The guns, for a start, are appalling. Each and every one of them lack any sort of feel and all but one even shoot in the direction they are pointed in. The sniper rifle, in a twist of fate, is one of the least accurate things I have ever attempted to hit a stationary target with. That is if the hit even registers. The accompanying sounds also feel devoid of relation to many weapons, most notably the sword making the sound of rattling chains when swung.

In addition the movement cannot decide which way it wishes to be so it is stuck in a horrible low gravity, low friction limbo that can grind one to a halt on but a small incline or pebble in the road. It feels worst during the many jump pad sections which have more a habit of throwing up more than forward leaving huge uncertainty of making said jump. Although you never need actually make them, rocket jumps also lack any sort of control. Any sort of explosion seems to just throw force randomly about.

I'd say my final grievance with the game is the main character: wee gamer lassy Athena. Every other sentence out of her mouth is to remind us that yes, she is a girl, and, yes, she does play games, ugh I am so much better than all those silly boys I used to play with being a girl gamer is hard. Lots of name dropping of other games for, from what I made of it, no better reason than to do so and appear hip with the kids. Any dialogue that isnt exposition of the world is a small travesty unto the world.

But there is an interesting story on it, which is something. Theres a large build-up and very limited character interaction before its just rushed off, spawn deus ex and ♥♥♥♥♥♥"boss"fightend. So actually its not a great story, just a good premise of living in a game world(s) and having to break the system to prevent AI simply over running.

I can only speculate that the book handled it better. Hell, the book probably handled the controls and gunplay better too. Oh well.

A moderate-length spree through some nostalgic FPS eras, Bedlam is a very average game with an interesting premise. Despite seemingly wishing to be a love letter to past classics, we are never truly treated to the things that made those games great and instead are indulged with but a mention of the matter. The guns, for a start, are appalling. Each and every one of them lack any sort of feel and all but one even shoot in the direction they are pointed in. The sniper rifle, in a twist of fate, is one of the least accurate things I have ever attempted to hit a stationary target with. That is if the hit even registers. The accompanying sounds also feel devoid of relation to many weapons, most notably the sword making the sound of rattling chains when swung. In addition the movement cannot decide which way it wishes to be so it is stuck in a horrible low gravity, low friction limbo that can grind one to a halt on but a small incline or pebble in the road. It feels worst during the many jump pad sections which have more a habit of throwing up more than forward leaving huge uncertainty of making said jump. Although you never need actually make them, rocket jumps also lack any sort of control. Any sort of explosion seems to just throw force randomly about. I'd say my final grievance with the game is the main character: wee gamer lassy Athena. Every other sentence out of her mouth is to remind us that yes, she is a girl, and, yes, she does play games, ugh I am so much better than all those silly boys I used to play with being a girl gamer is hard. Lots of name dropping of other games for, from what I made of it, no better reason than to do so and appear hip with the kids. Any dialogue that isnt exposition of the world is a small travesty unto the world. But there is an interesting story on it, which is something. Theres a large build-up and very limited character interaction before its just rushed off, spawn deus ex and shitty"boss"fightend. So actually its not a great story, just a good premise of living in a game world(s) and having to break the system to prevent AI simply over running. I can only speculate that the book handled it better. Hell, the book probably handled the controls and gunplay better too. Oh well.