GoldenEye Doom 2

Nobody who has even a slight knowledge of gaming history can deny the significant role of the DOOM games. Released back in 1993, DOOM caused a revolution in first-person shooters and became one of the most popular action games. Some of the implemented ideas, such as the graphics, the level design and the steady working multiplayer possibilities, made a vast impact upon the genre and the gaming culture as a whole.

James Bond hardly needs words of description. GoldenEye, released in 1995, was the first film to feature Pierce Brosnan as the famous fictional British spy and received mostly positive opinions. In 1997, GoldenEye 007 made its way to the console game shelves - as an arcade FPS, released for Nintendo 64.

So much for the history. What I present today is not a free game in a strict sense - it is a DOOM 2 modification never seen an official release. Yet, it is distributed freely and can be played without owning any of the DOOM games.

The story sticks as close as possible to the film. The Bond atmosphere has been meticuluously transfered. The intro is well-known and the musical theme comes in the typical Doom-ish style.You will see the treacherous Trevelyan, get the chance of exploring various locations that can be seen in GoldenEye and use a tank and a rocket launcher just the way Pierce Brosnan did back in 1995. You'll even find a Vodka Martini in some of the levels, raising your health above normal!
If you've ever played Doom, you'll feel at home here - the HUD is absolutely the same - choice of weapons, health, armor. Most of the levels are structured as if you're in the original game - labyrinths, strong opponents, red/blue/yellow cards used to proceed.. I've never had the chance of playing the GoldenEye 007, but a few YouTube videos convinced me that the delevopers have even tried to reproduct some of the levels there! Speaking of them, this is the place to point out that GoldenEye Doom 2 features 32 levels, vastly differing from one another - you'll pass through secret laboratories and open spaces where you'll have to plan every step carefully. Or else you'll get easily shot. Being a Doom mod, the game offers 5 different difficulties (named after Bond films, e.g. "The man with the golden gun"- the easiest of all. I recommend "You only live twice" - challenging, but fully playable.)

I could go on praising that game for hours, because it fully deserves it. Being both a Bond and Doom fan, it was a real pleasure for me to come across such a game at the Internet. No matter if you are, you should try it. The developers' hard work and dedication can't be simply ignored. Download it here and have fun!

8bit killer

An old-school FPS

One thing is certain - game industry evolves rapidly. Games nowadays offer photorealistic graphics, high quality sound and a much more complex gameplay, require better computers and consoles and all this goes with an enormous budget, enough to direct and produce a decent movie. Some 15-20 years ago games were designed to entertain. They were pieces of intellectual challenge, some of which - pure diamonds. Various quests, RPGs and FPshooters - today forgotten, offered people a way to enhance their logical thinking but never stopped entertaining them.

I won't discuss here the benefits and disadvantages of having a consumerist game industry. Instead, today I'd like to draw your attention to a game, coded primarily in 90s traditions.

8bit killer is a reminiscence. A product of today, bearing the feeling of long gone times. Built in the style of DOOM or Wolfenstein 3D, it is actually a game, developed in 2008.

8bit killer is a first person shooter. The story, inspired by various futuristic games and films, is a good excuse to jump into the action. The gameplay will leave you with a specific nostalgic feeling - a weapon located in the middle of the screen, no pointer, labyrinth-like level design, using keys to unlock doors in order to finish the level and so on.

Graphically, the game has a distinctive early 90s style. Yet, using modern coding techniques, it offers a really good atmosphere. Once you get used to its specific outlook (in case you haven't played some 90s shooters) I can promise you an hour of endless fun. An hour? Yes, it took me a little over an hour to finish the game.

This, together with the complete lack of a save option are the two and only flaws of the game. There is no way you can save your progress throughout the game, but you actually don't need it.

The game isn't hard to beat, the difficulty is balanced , which I consider a plus, compared to the sometimes impossible to play difficulty levels of the old shooters.

Final conclusion? Download and play. Just be sure to have about an hour of free time ;)

kkrieger

A minimalistic First-Person Shooter

No, there's no mistake in the name of this post.

kkrieger is actually a project of a few German developers who aimed to show that modern first-person shooters don't need to be run by big and expensive engines. Using very advanced coding techniques, they managed to create a game with the size of only 97 kilobytes!

Again, no mistake in numbers.

kkrieger offers a very minimalistic HUD. Your life and ammo is the only written information you'll get. You'll have to fight your way through one level. Yes, the game is that short - about 15 minutes of gameplay if you're curious enough to have a look or two around. Luckily, there are many enemies and a rich variety of weapons - spanning from a simple laser pistol to a very imposing hand-cannon. The graphics, as of 2011, could be addressed as "decent". Yet, the game was released in 2004 and back in those days I was pretty impressed with it. Those 97 kb, by the way, include also some musical background and sounds - walking, jumping, shooting and so on. Impressive!

Of course, the game has its flaws. You'll notice that it is actually a beta version. There was a one and only version released, with no further modifications. kkrieger needs improvement in every aspect.

I really hope that one day kkrieger will have its official release. No matter if it will be freeware or not. At present, you could download the beta from here and give it a try.