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May 9, 2017 4:16 PM   Subscribe

STRAFE® [YouTube] [Mature Content] The megahit video game of 1996 is now the motion picture event of a lifetime.

• Strafe: Difficult, randomly generated Quake-like kicks ‘90s ass [Ars Technica]
“You only get to hold one default weapon throughout the game, and your gun of choice can be powered up with boosts that you find along the way (magazine size, strength, accuracy, grenade power, etc.). Other guns, including beefier versions of the ones you didn't choose, will appear as pick-ups, usually with roughly 10-20 bullets loaded and no way to get more ammo. You'll also eventually find interesting boosts outside of your weaponry, including assistant drones and ways to boost your health or armor mid-run. Once you die, all of these boosts are lost, and you start from the beginning.”
• This is the run. [Gamespot]
“At first glance, Strafe looks as if it's resting on the laurels of the old-school, hyper-fast, and gory first-person shooters from the '90s. Oftentimes, it actually does lean heavily on the likes of Doom and Quake, but working within those confines and introducing a roguelike structure, Strafe emerges as a uniquely thrilling shooter with plenty of charm in its own right. It teeters between being mindlessly fun and cautiously strategic to the backdrop of a perfectly executed electronic soundtrack, teaching you something new with each run.”
• Blast from the past! [Destructoid]
“Reveling more in that late ‘90s style, STRAFE also has extreme gore. When you blast enemies, their limbs will go careening across the map and blood will gush from their heads like an early Tarantino movie. In a surprising show of depth, this actually factors into the gameplay. Certain enemies will spit acid (or have acid blood), so goring a regular meatbag over acid on the ground will completely cover it and negate the damage that you would have received..”
• Where it sets itself apart from actual ‘90s-era shooters is with its light sprinkling of procedurally generated elements. [Slant Magazine]
“The procedurally generated approach also causes a disconnect between the game's intended pace and the end result. The Doom reboot is the perfect representation of a balls-to-the-wall shooter that pushes players to think on their feet and move at breakneck speeds, stringing kills together in a nonstop symphony of death and destruction. Strafe attempts to emulate that same experience, and succeeds in a way, as its frenetic movement and deadly weaponry allow you to cause havoc on a grand-scale level, but the game's systems don't necessarily incentivize a high-risk, high-reward style of play. ”
posted by Fizz (15 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Devolver Digital! You have my interest.
posted by Going To Maine at 4:24 PM on May 9, 2017 [1 favorite]


It's not just pixel art. There's bad aliasing. The screen seems like it's designed to fuzz and glow slightly like your flat screen is trying to be an ancient CRT.
posted by Slackermagee at 4:26 PM on May 9, 2017 [1 favorite]


That is one copy.
posted by ckape at 4:57 PM on May 9, 2017 [3 favorites]


maybe the real world... was ALWAYS strafe?!

MAYBE WE ARE, THE DEMONS
posted by Sebmojo at 6:55 PM on May 9, 2017


Can you talk to the monsters, though?

(This is only tangentially nostalgic to me, I'm afraid. I played barely any Quake, back in the day. But I played an absolute shitload of QuakeWorld Team Fortress. If there's like a Strafe Fortress or something, sign me up.)
posted by tobascodagama at 7:01 PM on May 9, 2017


There's actual team fortress, for what it's worth. It's great.
posted by shmegegge at 7:30 PM on May 9, 2017


Can you talk to the monsters, though?

If it's on xbox live, sure.
posted by adept256 at 9:17 PM on May 9, 2017 [11 favorites]


This sounds like the FPS retro-experience of Spelunky. Which both delights and terrifies me.

Circle-strafing has been burnt into my bones. I can't not do it, even when it's totally ineffective, such as in Euro Truck Simulator.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:13 AM on May 10, 2017 [4 favorites]


Circle-strafing has been burnt into my bones.

Same. It is one of the few skills that has helped me while playing Overwatch.
posted by Fizz at 4:41 AM on May 10, 2017 [1 favorite]


Early in college, I played so much Doom that I found myself circle-strafing around corners in real life. The only other time I've been so deeply trained by a game was with the first Sims, when I frequently found myself tapping my steering wheel in an attempt to speed up time.
posted by drklahn at 8:14 AM on May 10, 2017 [4 favorites]


That is why I avoid realistic car racing games and avoid the in-cockpit camera positions of the unrealistic ones.
posted by ardgedee at 8:15 AM on May 10, 2017 [1 favorite]


Can I get a procedurally generated chatted to run through the game so I don't have to? We can user it add am experiment in artificial learning.
posted by happyroach at 8:58 AM on May 10, 2017


I've been eagerly awaiting this ever since an early gameplay video showed off ToyTree's (composer for Kingdom and a few other games) incredible squealing guitar and electronic soundtrack- seriously, it sounds like Trans Am or Maserati were hired to score 2016 Doom.
posted by Merzbau at 9:07 AM on May 10, 2017 [1 favorite]


IDSPISPOPD! IDSPISPOPD!
posted by Splunge at 9:55 AM on May 10, 2017


Be warned: Other reviewers are not that happy with the game, and it has a user rating on Steam of 61%.
posted by ymgve at 1:03 PM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]


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