My thoughts after finishing 1.0

[GamerX]

Hi there,

I´ve recently beaten the game on normal (however had to switch to easy in some parts, see below).

I think it´s a step up from the previous game, I liked a lot of the improvements such as:

+ Quicksaving / quickloading (major problem of the first game)
+ Hub World with upgrade system (nice idea)
+ better gunplay / feedback (feels really good)
+ much better level design and level variation
+ more cutscenes and spoken dialogue

However, this is still not a "s-tier boomer shooter" for me (played through most of them):

- story is meh
- important story pieces are still delivered through letters (-> people usually don´t want that in a fast paced FPS game, this is not System Shock or Prey 2017 where reading is a vital part of the game)
- quality of level design declines drastically in last episode, in particular the "teleport" level is a joke. "Egypt level" is a complete slog to play through!
- Upgrading weapons isn´t fun since most weapons become unprecise and overpowered (-> take the pistol for instance, having achieved the last upgrade the game becomes a joke)
- huge balancing problems within the arena sections -> I had no problem on "normal" whatsoever but had to switch to "easy" in some of these arena sections (only because of the fact that enemy count was too high)
- like in the first game, most powers are useless and boring (-> played through the whole game with 3-4 powers, rarely changed them)
- end boss is a joke (I mean - really?)

All in all, it´s a good boomer shooter like the first one, however, still not exceptionally good. Like the first game, it stands out for its unique presentation / art design, not so much for its gameplay. Gameplay is just standard / oldschool / doom-like with some upgrading, that´s about it.

Dusk, Cultic, Hrot and Turbo Overkill still are my favourite titles in the "boomer genre" and offer better gameplay. Dread Templar was better than Forgive me Father 2 as well.

What do you think of 1.0 of the game, especially of the last episode? It really seemed to me that these guys ran out of time towards the end, quality of episode 1 and 2 is so much better than episode 4.

[Slogra]

I really like Forgive me Father 2, better than 1 but i will replay 1 soon to see.
I did the game on hard my first time and was intense, i agree some arena are a bit annoying and random, too much firing ennemies or poping in your back the most annoying enemies.
I liked all the levels, even Teleport had fun arenas but yeah, the endings levels are a bit disapointing and feel rushed.
The last boss was a fking joke too, sad to see this giant thing just for fighing this little jumping thing... i replay the game on expert and try to 100% it now, and will do Reds Choices (i did the lefts choices first time) to see if there is something more.
Gameplay and ost compliment each other, very fun. I like the egyptian one personnaly.
Weapons upgrade could have be done better but its alright, i agree most powers are not very apealing but u can still do some fun things.
To me, the game talk too much too, in a grim/eerie game like that, the more its silent, the more bizarre it will feel, in a good way imo.

I will try some games you say like Dread Templar or Dusk, never tried x)

Forgive me Father 2 is still a very good game, need more recognition but it can be better in some aspects ! But you can feel the love put in the game, and this DA <3

Edit : The grenade launcher monsters and the "invincible jumpers priest" are very annoying, its too much sometimes. Between the bouncing greande with giant AoE + teleguided explosive shots it can be annoying with 10 others shooting you a bit randomly. Or when they spam you in very closed arena/corridors.

[LocoPollo]

totally agree, you said it all

[GamerX]

Originally posted by Slogra:

I will try some games you say like Dread Templar or Dusk, never tried x)

Dusk is among the best retro FPS / boomer shooters out there. Much better than Forgive me Father 1+2 gameplaywise. It´s heavily Quake-inspired so you have to get used to the low-poly look.

Dread Templar is another game published by Fulqrum, very good and highly recommended.

[Đeath’ş Aļļ | Horst Fuchs]

I just met only one boss so far, some levels are really nice, but most problems from FMF1 are back and worse.

- even worse storytelling now, now mostly throught letters and notes :(
- very bad weapon / skill buying system only from special hub
- weirdly balanced weapons, some overpowered but some very unprecise and slow too, some are ok, but have extremely low shooting lenght (not a cool find this out in the middle of arena) or they realoading insanely slowly
- most of active skills are uninteresting
- still very hard to identify which kind of ammo uses what, its chaos, maby UI or weapons itself should be marked somehow, this makes me troubles all the rime, ammo itself is also very similar, i never know what will i take

- the biggest problem atm is balancing of difficulty and amount of ammo!!! AGAIN

I started on third, hard difficulty, game looked ok for first two levels, no extreme, fun gunplay, nice athmosphere, but then came first spamy arena in dinning hall or something!
- arenas are superannoying unskippable challenges in this game, did you thought that Serious Sam Second encounter had hard arenas on max difficulty? Forget it, this is probably more annoying and definitely harder. First issue. Arenas, including early ones, have almost no places where you can cover and if have then for no longer than one second, secondly game is spamming enemies all the time, there is hardly chance to run for medkit cause game dont stop spawning monsters and its very risky to grab some medkits, and they are often just missing in arenas. Thirdly, lot of enemies are damned quick, shoot quick, move faster and king of extreme is teleporting wizard, which is ble to teleport away from your aim in few milisoconds (yeah, they are pretty hard to kill even normaly, in arenas they are trully painful. Fourthly, relatively soon (greenhouses arena) i got into situation when i had not just a problem to survive with my desperate style "8 seconds of run/jump/shoot away and in milisecond when i missing one of those thin pillars F5 quicksave and hope that some random shot dont kill me in next second) and died in there cca 100 - 150 times, but also I had almost no ammo to use here, luckily for me granade thrower guy randomly killed two groups of standard zombies which helped me a lot. Fifthly: all enemies do a masive damage, its especialy visible in arenas, if you have armor or not, not much difference, for most of time in levels i had to quicksafe like crazy cause one or two shots usualy killed me and there are not so much medkits around, at least for hard difficulty.

- when i met first boss it was disapointment too, there was same issue as for later FMF1 bosses. very spammy boss where you have to noinstop look around and also have to check sky to see incoming upper shots from boss. Extremely annoying again, no fun at all to kill it, just stressful fight.

I naively thought that devs learned from their mistakes in FMF1, but no, many problems are back and even worse this time. Again massive difficulty spikes, this time much more often. Again struggling with ammo, again bugs with teleporting enemies and weirldy redone upgrade system doesnt help at all.

[Đeath’ş Aļļ | Horst Fuchs]

Originally posted by Slogra:

I will try some games you say like Dread Templar or Dusk, never tried x)

Dusk is trully great shooter, but i cant say that about Dread Templar, very cheap, most upgrades hidden in secrets, boring gunplay and generic annoying bosses in circle arenas. 5/10 max.

[Slogra]

Yep its been years i wanted to play Dusk but i dont know why never did, and i finally forget this game, have to get him now, thx !

[the_bastarded_one]

i only got the first boss so far, i just emptied my fish into it while doing circles and i dont think it even hit me. i was a little underwhelmed by that one lol

[EL COMANDANTE]

I just finished the game, overall I would say its a an improvement over the first game but the story was a bit meh, maybe I'm dumb but I did not fully understand what happened at the end of the game. the removal of the skill tree is a shame it was a good aspect of the first fame and this upgrade system was kinda dumb, it would be better if at least we could select 5 cards instead of just 3. The combat is a A LOT better imo compared to the first game and I had a blast.

I recommend the game, its really good, it has a few downgrades but overall its a very solid game :3

[TIKTOK ZOOMER BRAIN]

I finished it the day after the release and the game was an improvement in the visual and gunfeel department especially. I finished it on hard.

For the rest it is a downgrade of the first in everyway wich had the advantage of the novelty of it's style + clearly an indie with a little budget that it shows.

Level design, story, boss etc... FMF2 is still a good game but the first is clearly a better game in most of the aspect. The most dissapointing aspect was as far as you advance the little the chapter are with only two levels on the last.

It took me 5.8 hours to finish it , wich is more or less the same lenght as the first.

[Za]

the first game had issues with bad level design sometimes, annoying enemy arena sections, teleporter hijinks nobody wants, and some frankly dumb boss fights (mixed with a few actual good ones). kinda sounds like this didnt really drift too far but possibly will addressed past 1.0 since even 1.0 release is often basically early access....

oh i will say powers for the priest in the first game were excellent. the reporter...was neat but certainly a new type of hard mode compared.

still look forward to trying this one out eventually in a fee months probably

[Za]

Originally posted by Đeath’ş Aļļ | Horst Fuchs:

Originally posted by Slogra:

I will try some games you say like Dread Templar or Dusk, never tried x)

Dusk is trully great shooter, but i cant say that about Dread Templar, very cheap, most upgrades hidden in secrets, boring gunplay and generic annoying bosses in circle arenas. 5/10 max.

huh, i disagree about Dread Templar and really liked it. i loved that the classically complex and sometimes weird FPS secrets actually gave rewards that mattered for once. i cant recall bosses much besides a neat hidden water one that felt unique enough for an FPS boss. i need to re-visit the game maybe?

but its all a matter of opinion since for me DUSK starts so string but gets worse as it goes in my for me. but ends up good overall and very fun just didnt blow me away like everyone else it seems. I just preferred the spooky countryside levels much much more than the brown rusty factory the majority of the late game felt like.

still, both are really worth playing and Steam sales for the holidays will for sure hit both games!

[Bitmap Father]

Agree with the balancing. In the cathedral chapter it's really ramping up. They gave you a machinegun, but it feels underpowered and your initial ammo is very low. (the joy of having this new toy is smashed) I felt overwhelmed by projectiles making me run in all directions with barely no rest for aiming.

Haven't had that impression with the previous EA build (not the last one but just the one before).

I also have the feeling that certain monsters are not properly introduced. There are just thrown in an arena, making understanding how they work harder in the middle of the crowd.

[Vesperas]

It kind of goes without saying at this point, but I definitely do not agree FMF2 is superior to the original. From my perspective, the only things the sequel has over the first game are shinier visuals and slightly better bosses.

That's it.

I've already largely explained why in another thread, so I don't particularly feel the need to elaborate further. However, I will say that, ignoring the one and only exception of the desert shrine level (which honestly just feels out of place), absolutely nothing in the sequel surprised me. In fact, everything is already either explained or hinted toward in the first game, including how the sequel ends.

In other words, I had already figured out the entire plot before the game even left early access.

That all said, I do kind of question if you even played the first game, because...

Originally posted by GamerX:

- like in the first game, most powers are useless and boring (-> played through the whole game with 3-4 powers, rarely changed them)

I've never heard anyone describe powers that allow you to slow time, become invincible, gain infinite ammo, stun lock enemies or go on murderous rampages with glowing, life-leeching, magical swords as "useless and boring."

I mean, I certainly don't think so.

[the_bastarded_one]

i use leech life, deep pockets so i can carry thousands of rounds...i cant remember the third but ive never changed them out apart from to get the level 2 leech life. healing mid horde battle this the only way i managed to make it past the egyptian temple massacre.

[Krpa]

Personally I'm enjoying this one as much as the first game. I think it's an improvement in many aspects, if only slightly. Basically, it's more of the same with better graphics and really fun gameplay, with occasional annoying arena battles.

Dusk is one of the best boomer shooters I've ever played, hard to top that one. Cultic plays a bit differently, like a spiritual sequel to Blood and man it's really amazing. Both games are superior to this one IMO, but i still enjoy FMF2 a lot.

Dread Templar was merely OK for me, needed something more to really stand out although I'm not a tough critic and I tend to enjoy most FPS games even if they have more flaws than I'd like. HROT definitely has charm, however its gunplay was a bit lacking for me. Buuuut even so, I definitely liked it. Turbo Overkill is awesome and in its best moments possibly the most exhilarating retro FPS.

My rambling reveals that I just can't dislike almost anything LOL, except if it's really, really half-assed. :)