Tom Vs. The Armies of Hell – Early Access – Review (PC)

Tom Vs. The Armies of Hell – Early Access – Review (PC)

Described by its creator as a cross between Army of Darkness and Office Space, Tom Vs. The Armies of Hell (or AoH for short, apparently) is a comedic isometric shooter that places emphasis on challenging combat and flavourfully dry humour.

Developed by Darkmire Entertainment (effectively a studio of one), AoH is currently in Early Access. I will be honest with you; the original draft of this review poked fun at this fact, and made some rather cheap jokes at the expense of the game about how this has become an industry standard. However, these jokes were cut. Firstly, because the jokes weren’t actually all that funny and secondly, well… this game doesn’t deserve that kind of mockery. It wouldn’t be fair.

Tom Vs. The Armies of Darkness early access

Tom looks out over a see of junk; the thoughts running through head are probably not dissimilar to how I feel when look at the new releases list on Steam.

Currently available for purchase on the Steam store with its first 3 levels playable, a further two levels are to be released shortly. The gameplay is for the most part finished, with the developer tweaking, bug fixing and patching the game while it is live. The word ‘tweaking’ suggests minor additions, but the changes are quite noticeable. When I began playing the game on Saturday all guns had infinite ammunition, however when I booted the game back up on Sunday suddenly there was an ammunition system in place. This left me very confused. By Monday night there was now a game breaking bug on the third level where enemies did not drop ammo or health. However, the developer, Sean Burgoon, is keeping a close eye on the game and listening to feedback while implementing these changes. He is essentially using early adopters as beta testers.

AoH highlights an interesting conundrum faced by any small or solitary indie developer. Do you slave away, working on this passion project behind closed doors, hoping to one day release a solid build that takes the Steam Store by storm and finally rewards you for all of your hard labour? Or do you release it in ‘early access’ and bug test and update the game as players buy into it and test it for you? In the case of small, one man, independent and self-funded outfits like Darkmire Entertainment I can certainly understand the allure of the latter option. Personally, I quite like the idea. It makes the project feel all that more personal. However, as debates around ‘value for money’ and game length rage in the mainstream gaming media, we need to look at these titles in terms of value; are they worth your time and money to buy into in this early stage? And more specifically, is Tom Vs. The Armies of Hell?

The game’s stand out element is the tone, humour and aesthetic. There is a familiar, almost web comic-esque feel to the proceedings. The scenario Tom finds himself in is suitably absurd; mauled by a demon and left for dead on the floor of a men’s restroom, Tom awakens to find some emergency lifesaving procedure has left him with a demonic arm and a debt to be paid. Accompanied by his sarcastic saviour Beezle, Tom needs to find a way out of Hell. The premise sets up enough room for confrontation with the local inhabitants such as demons and killer robots. All of this is accompanied by some genuinely amusing writing, humorous dialogue and a solid and fun soundtrack.

Tom Vs. The Armies of Darkness early access

That personal touch: do some of the jokes hint at the feelings of the writer or developer?

The game has a real charm about it. The visuals really ‘pop’ with nice little details; bullet shell casings litter the floor as you unload lead into the hordes of enemies, while comic book styled numbers erupt between blood splatters to denote damage dealt. The game’s visual design and colour palette carry a sense of character that fits really well with its humour and tone. However, the animations and some of the models and textures don’t stand up under closer scrutiny and betray the fact that this project is the work of just one man.

The initial office space environment appears detailed and interesting at first, but the opening level soon begins to show that it suffers from copy and paste asset placement, while the second and third levels resort to generic caves and drab brown backgrounds. It is a shame, as the opening cinematic and the dialogue throughout the first level hint at this satirical take on work place bureaucracy and office life, but this theme falls to the wayside shortly thereafter to make room for combat and gun play.

The gun play is fun for the most part. The weapon animations and sounds coupled with the physics on dead or gibbed enemies culminate to give a nice frantic and rather kinetic feel to the combat. You shoot whatever gun you have equipped with your left click, and punch with the right. Middle mouse button activates special demonic powers such as an area of effect ground slam, and demonic vomit. I found myself using a mixture of the abilities, fist fighting and gun play to defeat the enemies I faced. The combat is intuitive and easy to pick up allowing you to get stuck in, whilst the enemy density does provide a challenge that tests your mastery of the combat system. Unfortunately, one of the most challenging enemies you will face in the game is the camera. The isometric view point means that you are walking blind into groups of enemies at times; this proves even more frustrating when you are on low health and need to be able to plan your next moves carefully.

Tom Vs. The Armies of Darkness early access

The colour scheme really helps the visuals take on that comic book feel. Vibrant red blood a stark contrast to the dull hues found in the second and third level.

Tom’s biggest and flashiest tool is a little bit of a disappointment; the ability to store energy and transform into a fully-fledged demon is a powerful ability used mainly as a necessity. It gives you greater melee damage, health regeneration and reduces all incoming damage to next to nothing. The ability just doesn’t feel as flashy or as exciting as demonic transformation perhaps should. The fact that the demon actually loses the ability to fight at range or use any powers other than simply punching things is quite frankly odd.

Ultimately I found enjoyment in what little time I got to spend with Tom Vs. The Armies of Hell, however there feels like there is a lot of work still to be done on the title. Ammo bugs and awkward camera angles hiding enemy placement all seem like negatives that can be addressed over time. I look forward to seeing on going improvements, and playing through new levels when they launch. If for nothing else I look forward to more dryly sarcastic tool tips and stories about how Beezle ‘accidentally’ killed his best friends girlfriend by injecting her with heroin.

The score may change as the game does, but at the moment, when considering whether people should adopt the game in its current state, we give Tom Vs. The Armies of Hell

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
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