Cathedral 3-D

Review

Cathedral 3-D is a demonic fast-paced, chaotic, retro FPS. From the get-go, it’s obvious that the game is very much inspired by the 90’s fast-paced shooters. The game brings in some familiar and welcoming example of retro arena shooters.

Plot: A terrifying monster rests up in a cathedral, floating in the sky. The humans, in fear of the monster's incredible powers, decide to attack the only known weakness, the monster's heart.

The monster hides its heart in a chest and guards it furiously. It will attack anyone who dares to go near it.

Gameplay: Inspired by the early 90’s arena FPS, the game brings in the familiar flavor of fast-paced, wave-based arcade shooters.

The game progresses in waves; each wave teleports in a number of human warriors. The goal of the warriors is to get to the chest at any cost and attack it. Your goal as the monster is to protect the chest at any cost, and kill as many humans as you can.

The base gameplay is simple and easy enough to get familiar with. Jumping, double jumping, strafing and bunny hopping through and around the map felt great! Smooth mechanics play an important role during the waves of intense and chaotic combat.

The combat system seems easy but it gets complicated and hectic very quickly. There are 3 types of attacks that you can perform: hitting mouse left performs rapid-fire, hitting right shoots fiery cluster shots, and shift left/right will perform firebombs. You can also grab and throw your enemies by hitting F to grab and left to throw.

Most arena shooters reward you for spam attacks, but not this one; I highly recommend timing your shots and picking your targets before engaging. Ammo runs dry pretty quickly and without the chest in hand, you will regain one ammo per second.

Talking about ammo reminded me of health; you can’t get health points without carrying the chest, something that I would like to recommend that the devs change. The gameplay would have been so much better and more enjoyable if I could just drop the chest at a safe spot and go on a limited rampage without having to worry about picking up health points while holding that chest. FYI, you can’t attack while holding that chest.

UI: Minimalistic and functional, this UI reminded me of the old Wolfenstein and Doom games. It provides much-needed info about ammo, health, and score.

Map: Currently the game has one arena, which is well-designed and functional. Although the map is not big, it is spacious enough to let you double jump around the map with ease.

Sound effects: Minimalistic and theme-appropriate.

Visuals: Visually pleasing and very well designed. I very much enjoyed the pixilated graphic environment around the map.

Review written by BiteMexD for Zeepond.com!