Game Check: Project Warlock 2 – The Wizard invites you to the second round – News

Three and a half years after publication of Project Warlock (to the game check) developer Buckshot Software sends the successor Project Warlock 2 into Early Access on Steam and GOG.com. The biggest innovation: In part two, the world consists of vertical areas, which are also many times larger and more open. Which provides a new game element: Your character can jump! For this early access check, I blasted through the first chapter of Project Warlock 2 on easy difficulty.

Currently, you can only go into battle with the Palmer character.

Rock-solid shooter craftsmanship

Friends of classic first-person shooters will quickly feel at home in Project Warlock 2. You set your arsenal of weapons against masses of enemies that are closing in on you. For close combat you use your sword, at a distance a rifle, shotgun, grenade launcher and a magic wand prove their worth. At upgrade stations, you can expand your weapons with additional options, for example the sword acquires elemental damage and the shooting club an alternative fire mode. In addition, three magic abilities support you. The currently playable character, Palmer, briefly switches to Akimbo style, freezing enemies or searing them with his hands of fire. Of course, the skills have a cooldown, which you can shorten by picking up the appropriate items.

Akimbo-style, Palmer briefly harnesses the firepower of two weapons.

Huge maps with few surprises

As mentioned at the beginning, Project Warlock 2 says goodbye to the clear level structure of the first and now sends you into large, winding areas. In order to get to the boss fight and the exit of the area, you look for pressure plates and buttons – which make barriers disappear – different colored keys with which you open doors into the previously unknown. Besides, heaps of secrets are waiting to be discovered.

The gameplay is extremely fast, the clashes with the enemy hordes are mostly entertaining and fun. To which the again successful heavy metal soundtrack contributes its part. However, for my taste, the flow dries up too often, especially in the later areas, since there are fewer and fewer interaction options and surprising elements such as destructible walls. And of course the areas offer enormous course potential. There is a map, but it doesn’t really help me in its current form.

I can only guess at the level architecture with the current map, since only a small part of the area is shown.

Early Access construction sites

The Early Access version of Project Warlock 2 currently offers you the first of three chapters with six worlds and one of three playable characters. Weapons and enemy types are also missing.

When I went through, I noticed a few things that I hope will be eliminated in the course of Early Access: Although you will encounter several hundred enemies in number, I find the extensive areas to be too empty and unsurprising. The opponents are often far too passive for this and cannot be disturbed even when fired on from a safe distance. Overall, the enemy behavior still seems uncoordinated, unbalanced and not yet well balanced, especially in the boss fights.

Technically, the Early Access version is already running quite stably, although I had to complain about crashes. In addition, enemies occasionally glitch into the textures and can no longer be hit, pacifistically remain in place or “slide” from elevated positions onto my plane – which looks bizarre and makes them easy targets.

A challenging boss fight awaits you at the end of each area.

Conclusion

Project Warlock 2 has mostly been fun for me in the five hours so far, the retro shooter plays quickly and fluently in its good moments. The gunplay is convincing, the individual weapons are massive and smashing enemies line my path.
In terms of play, however, the huge areas do not completely convince me. They seem unnecessarily complicated and too empty to me in places, which means that they slow down the flow of the game. The map could help players who are no strangers to graphic progressions. However, in its current state, it is more of a secret for me. The enemy behavior and occurrence in the areas still needs fine-tuning.

Despite the named construction sites, Project Warlock 2 definitely makes me want more and retro-affine old-school shooter friends should keep an eye on the title.

• First person shooter for PC
• single player
• For beginners and advanced
• Price: 15.99 euros
• In one sentence: Classic first-person shooter that is fresh in Early Access and that is still lacking in fine-tuning and content.