I got this game in a bundle, i.e for very cheap, so my expectations weren't that high. Still, Project Warlock really failed to impress me. My main complaint is that the game just isn't very difficult. I played on hard mode, and for the first half of the game my only deaths were to bosses and my own weapons. Ammo is never scarce outside of one boss stage, you kill enemies fast, and until the very last two areas (~4hrs into it in my playthrough) non-boss enemies just don't do very much damage to you. There's no tension in combat when you don't feel the need to dodge enemy attacks or carefully consider which weapons to use. The sound design and sprite work are great, but that didn't save the experience for me.

It's fast, the artwork and music are really good, the controls are solid. There is the reward for play in the exp/levels/perks. It's intuitive, Wofenstein/Doom-like with a touch of classic Dark Fantasy.

Criticism: The unrelenting contrast of all the black outlines on everything in the graphics can be straining over time; The movement, while appropriately Doom, might be a bit too fast for the tight corridors and above-mentioned outline-contrast.

This is a game I'll be playing as much as possible just to see where it goes, enemy and art-wise.

Top modern, pixel "boomer-shooter" without the cute.

What a blast! Project Warlock has nailed a really fun game loop - the enemies loop great, have varied attacks, you have a large number (20+ including the variants) number of weapons that all feel different and fun. Its easy enough to find the secrets, each level is quick to play, and due to the RPG nature of the game I think there is replay value here (next game Im tempted to go 100% melee). But I think I might leave this here, and instead play Project Warlock 2 instead!