Slayers X Review

While I get what Slayers X is going for and what it tries to do, I can't really say it's a game I enjoy with a straight face. If the game were honestly any longer than it was, I probably would've dropped it at some point but the fact that the game is as short as it is, does sort of make this a bad game that is worth trying out, all though in Slayers X's case intentionally bad.

So this game is a boomer shooter but it is a boomer shooter with an emphasis on narrative, is the narrative good? I didn't really have much of a clue on what was going on, whole thing felt like a edgy teenager's fever dream. The whole thing is dumb and over the top, but in a way, it's so earnest in that I can't really fault the game for it all though if the game's selling point is the narrative, it didn't do much to magically say the game is worth playing for that alone.

The positives I will say for the gameplay is that unlike many if not all 90s styled boomer shooters, melee in Slayers X actually feels like it you can actually do. I got a good number of hackblood charges and even normal melee hits can down 2-3 weaker enemies which makes it easy to save ammo. I do appreciate this melee in many other games like this tend to be useless especially when you get moe weapons.

Weapons feel "okay" but nothing really stand out, it gets the job done but nothing really stands out.

However what does prevent me from at least prasing this game as a, "quick boomer shooter" to play if you want to quickly get into the genre is the level design. To put it simpily, it's not very good, if at times outright bad. The game has some innovations to the genre like a map that is actually useable but that starts to fade away when the game doesn't really do keycard hunts that well. Environments tend to be overly large and don't require clear rules on where you are supposed to be going or which area will get you what key. You can spend minutes or long periods of time wandering around and still not even the first key to open the first door in a level so much of it can look the same due to the how ugly and drab the enviroments can look. This might be intentional on the devs' part but it doesn't make for compelling level design to me.

For example, in E1M3 there is a huge store area for you to explore but one of the keys is located behind a generic door that looks the same as every other door in the area, nothing about catches the player's eye to go there, it's just something you just guess to going to by being one of the doors you randomly interact with.

Finally, a big issue with the level design that later in the game, you get so little ammo, even with the hackblood sword and it just becomes too easy to sprint to the keys and run to the exit. You don't even need to fight the enemies after a certain point because it wastes more ammo and health trying to fight them. It's just easier to ignore them. I never even noticed this could be a design flaw with the keycard hunt style of boomer shooter level design until I played this game.

Overall, Slayers X isn't particular a good game and I doubt that was the intention but at the same time, I'll give the game credit for being over so quickly and being forgiving enough that it can be something bad that you at least get out of after a certain period of time and remark back by saying, "at least it wasn't a sub par game that wasted my time".