Forgive Me Father Review

Retro style boomer shooters seem to be coming out all the time now almost every few months. I remember back when Dusk, Amidevil, Project Warlock, and Ion Fury came out, these kinds of games weren't as plentiful as they are now. After the release of those 4, you got Prodeus, Warhammer 40K Boltgun and for this review Forgive Me Father.

Going to be honest and say I really had a great time with this game even if my opinions could be skewered a bit with me playing on easy since the difficulty options said it was for first timers and playing with console aim assist due to the lack of gyro aiming and with the amount of games not including them, I am starting to think it's a concept that will never really stick, and it's quite a shame. That and well I also played on easy since the game uses save stations as checkpoints rather than quick saving or just a traditional plentiful checkpoint system. That and including the insta kill platforming when you fail which is really inconsistent. I also heard the game gets really inconsistent at around Episode 4 and 5, the final reason put me off playing this game for the longest while.

With all that said, I had a blast playing FMF, and I will admit that I am biased towards this kind of game. I played as the Priest for my playthrough which I heard was better than the Journalist, that also might've helped my positive opinion on the game. The Priest did have some noteable abilites like recovering health and being immortal for a few seconds to enemies attacks and I abused the latter ability a lot during the later waves.

The game while being nothing revolutionary nails everything I want out of this kind of game, it's really well polished and made. The weapon sounds and damage animations makes Project Warlock jealous and the comic book art style really gives the game a unique look different from other "boomer" shooters.

The level design is also really good and while it is your typical keycard hunts of old, the game executes the familar adequtely enough. I rarely if ever had to look up a guide on where to go next which is something this style of game was never really consistent at. I can go maybe 3-5 levels without getting stumped in other games in the genre but then it would just be confusing and I would look up a guide, but FMF is generally pretty consistent regarding this even the infamous platforming and abstract levels in Episode 5 was mostly consistent. There are some longer levels but they are pretty enjoyable and can be pretty tense due to the fact you can't quick save or save anywhere so this is the part where some might like the save system in this game.

For example there are levels where there are invisible platforms in Episode 5 but as long as stay within the line of sight of when the blue lights are at their brightest, you will almost always never fall to your death. The only oddly inconsistent part is when during the penultimate level in E5, you are allowed to fail platforming sections and respawn with some lost health, I wonder why the whole game didn't do this rather than doing it on occasion, felt oddly inconsistent even if I did welcome it considering there was some pretty challenging platforming in that said level.

Another compliant is that even though I heard the devs fixed the lack of ammo in E4 and 5, I got to admit, during the Crystal Cave level in E4, I was really low on ammo and that level in general felt like a massive difficulty spike even on easy had to lower the difficulty furthur since the lack of ammo was bugging me, I eventually got past it and was able to beat the game without getting nearly as frustrated as the Crystal Cave level.

Boss aren't the greatest and they are pretty inconsistent in terms of difficulty with Episode 3's boss I recall being the hardest. I am just glad they weren't overly frustrating even if they aren't the greatest in the world.

The RPG skill tree which didn't really need to be there. It felt pretty half baked and it probably would've better if you just unlocked weapon upgrades through campaign progression instead, it's nothing too bad but it can feel out of place in a game like this since I don't really play this kind of game for RPG skill trees and levelling up. 

Projectiles can be a little too fast for my tastes, so fast that enemies can a good number of some cheap hits in. It's nothing too bad since I played on lower difficulties and I can tank them.  

Finally, the console port ain't that great, it needs some ironing out. There are some framerate drops, I got one crash for being idle for too long, menus aren't the most responsive in the world and load times can go on a bit longer than I would like. If you play this on console wait for a little for some patches.

Overall, FMF is a typical game in the genre, but it executes the familar with a high amount of polish and is a blast to play if you are still into this style of game even with it's odd quirks.