Darkenstein 3D (2025)
Darksenstein 3D about a hobo trying to get his dog from the Nazis I'm not kidding. I played an handful of FPS games with a similar plot. Mostly Postal 2 that's pretty offensive compared to this game. You get a good variety of weapons. He's a hobo with a shotgun!!!
Look I had to do the joke. There's a movie called Hobo with a Shotgun surprisingly decent as well. This is heavily inspired by Wolfenstein series. It actually felt like an actual Wolfenstein game. You get a few decisions that impacts some stuff in the levels. You got to collect two keys often.
This also references Duke Nukem mostly in lines. The last few levels being Serious Sam inspired. You even get to explore a similar huge location that's well hidden. It kinda reminded me the last level of Serious Sam: The First Encounter. There's some funny jokes in the game.
I absolutely loved the gore to a degree. You could get lost in the levels. There's plenty of ammo with so many enemies. Not Serious Sam amount of them though. Your dog suddenly falls into a portal reminded me of Postal 2: Paradise Lost. When the Postal Dude's ex wife grabbed your dog Champ before going further into hell.
Now I don't know if that inspired it or not. I didn't expect much from an free FPS game. I was quite surprised it ended up being very decent. Well designed levels that truly felt like real Wolfenstein levels. You can collect similar stuff to Wolfenstein 3D. There's a few bosses that all required you to do something.
Before you can damage them thankfully it's not exclusively using explosive weapons. Yes I am looking at you Duke Nukem Forever!!! I felt Return to Castle Wolfenstein was this game's biggest inspiration. I couldn't stop comparing this to that as I was playing the game.
I love this guy you play as he's called Hobo Guy in the ending credits. Some of the things he says I almost don't know what to say lol. The soundtrack was a little better than I expected as well. My biggest issue I hope they fix it soon. I kept getting this movement glitch that limited your movements to a degree.
Otherwise I didn't have anything more serious. In fact, Darkenstein 3D played incredibly well on my computer. I also notice some secrets were inspired by the original Quake. The famous after you activate an switch. There's another one you gotta find then activate to unlock a secret area.
I felt the most annoying enemies are scientists with an experimental weapon. Also snipers when you can't hit em with a long range weapon. I kept comparing this to UnMetal for a few reasons. You also could get a rat to throw at enemies. They actually shown this in every trailer.
This sorta felt like a weird mix of FPS classics that somehow came together. None of the levels are alike a huge positive I have. There's thirteen levels I started wishing it had more. There's no boring moment in this game whatsoever. I guess I'll reveal the main antagonist you probably already figured it out by now.
The final boss so happens to be Hitler in a mech. Obviously a reference to his Wolfenstein 3D boss fight. One of my favorite mess up moments is Hobo Guy kicked Hitler's head off sent it flying a good distance. The game has a little more following the final boss fight.
Like Wolfenstein 3D, you get a few lifes. You could find some extra lifes as well. Check points has a particular icon you can go through to activate them. Thankfully if you die, enemies you killed stay dead. You can't save often to get around things either.
The campaign itself is a few hours long. I personally had a great time from start to finish. In most aspects, Darkenstein 3D was a truly fantastic game. I also loved the rat talks to a degree in the game. No he isn't Master Splinter either. Although that could've been a great joke if they had an sewer level.
I already was surprised by I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream's newer version gotten onto GOG. Now I have yet another indie FPS game I really enjoyed. Honestly, a few of them I played this year. Easily among my favorites in recent years.
Games like this is why I been respecting indie developers more than big game companies. I easily would've paid $19.99 maybe $24.99 for this game. The fact this game is free virtually mind blowing. This plays just as great as similar FPS games around those prices.
You get a weird time traveling hippie chick as your biggest ally. Let's be honest, who expects an hobo to take on Nazis? I mean of course why not add in an hippie to this madness!!! Again this guy has the option to throw a rat at Nazis. I think that speaks for itself.
I know there's suppose to be Doom inspiration in this. I kinda gotten confused regarding that because of Wolfenstein. Not a lot of people knows this. Some Wolfenstein games involves other plains of existence. Spear of Destiny with it's mission packs had hell at the end of all those campaigns.
Even Wolfenstein 3D had undead soldiers. Doom obviously had a few similar enemies. The closest aspect I did think of Doom when I saw it was a few locations with lava. Doom also involved portals to hell. Which easily could've been inspired by Half-Life as well.
I know some of the enemies were notably inspired by Half-Life. I also liked you can increase your max health. Finding particular stuff increases your health over your max. At one point I had around over eight hundred HP no joke. Darkenstein 3D clearly earned my respect after fully played it.
I knew very early on I was going to love this. I felt for the most part the difficulty was well balanced. I actually enjoyed getting achievements I wasn't even going for lol. Sometimes you just wanna play the game. Then you end up getting a lot of achievements/trophies.
Darkenstein 3D was well worth the wait. This is how you properly bring back that nostalgia. At the same time adding in your own twist to spice it up. Honestly, it's a game you don't expect to work this well. Can I be honest I actually had more fun than the newer Wolfenstein games.
No disrespect towards MachineGames except for Wolfenstein: Youngblood. In the words of Mr. Horse, "No sir, I don't like it." I do prefer a more classic Wolfenstein experience than those. Darkenstein 3D kept me going for hours. A good variety of enemies that kept things interesting.
They nailed this perfectly I'm impressed. You do have the option to buy the soundtrack on Steam. There's a huge chance I'm going to in the near future. I also gotta mention the attack dogs loves to jump at ya. I will give this developer credit. None of the bosses were alike.
The regular enemies differs enough on their own. The weapons differ for a more unique FPS experience. There's a few cut scenes in the game. Alright I gotta mention this about Hitler. How he talks at all kept reminding me of G.I. Joe cartoon version of Cobra Commander.
I almost expected Hitler to say, "Hail Cobra!!!" LOL on a more serious note I felt the perfect overall ratio on everything. Just imagine if Rise of the Triad influence was in a sequel. I would be interested in someone making an FPS game. Heavily inspired by Hexen, Quake II and Shogo respectively.
I actually felt this looked and sound better than Shogo. Darkenstein 3D suddenly made a hobo into someone you really don't wanna mess with. Just like the guy in Hobo with a Shotgun movie. I don't even know if the developer seen that movie or not.
You do get to fully see Hobo Guy late into the guy. He did reminded me of Joe Baker from Resident Evil 7's End of Zoe. Both of them were going through hell to rescue someone they cared about. Darkenstein 3D should be treated as it's own classic.
This game was truly amazing at what it does. Free or not, I still felt like I spend every penny. I gotta ask my wife for a few cents lol. She'll probably say I never had any in the first place. Darkenstein 3D was a great FPS game. I easily could recommend this to a lot of people.
One of my favorite aspects was constantly kept finding secrets. A lot of it's influences shows in those secrets as well. My favorite weapon was easily the shotgun!!! No seriously this was one of the finest shotguns in FPS games I ever played!!!
Darkenstein 3D speaks volumes in it's greatness. I wouldn't even change a single major thing about the game at all. You can customize the controls, I chosen not to. I do try to respect the original control set up. I wasn't used to right mouse button being grenades or throwing the rat.
There were times by accident I press it to throw grenades I didn't wanna threw. When you finish most of the levels. It's similar to several FPS games. 100% in a few categories being the best you could do. Honestly, Darkenstein 3D came out at a great time a couple days before Halloween.
I'm glad it wasn't a trick. We actually gotten something worth calling a treat. This is great for people wanting more Wolfenstein games. Darkenstein 3D was in all honest way better than I possibly could've imagined. Here's a free game truly worth your time to play.
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