Project Warlock II Reviews

Great game but technical issues Chapter 1 and chapter 2 i finished but had weird fps drop on an rtx2080 super. I played at 1080p still frame rate issues. Got to chapter 3 and could not finish it due to falling through floor glitch. Once it gets updated ill be back to finish game. Cant wait till its fixed until then i would say pay less than 10$ and sure.

I played like the 3-4 first level in hard and am so disappointed, I really liked Project Warlock 1, Project Warlock 2 feels like it will never be ripe with its half assed ugly UI and poor map design imho. I think they focused on giving a lot of replayability but the core of the game suffers for it. The maps are big but you'll spend a lot of time in empty room trying to find secrets which themselves don't really feel rewarding and are very hard to read and find, and you need to find these secrets to upgrade your weapons and characters. On that topic you'll have to remember which upgrade you picked for each weapon and what they actually do because once you bought the upgrades they just disappear entirely from the UI you won't be able to find anywhere in game a resumé of your loadout, you do have it for you character but damn the UI looks like we are in the 70's, UGLY AF!!! 6/10

Project Warlock 1, while it had some flaws and design choices I didn't fully agree with, is a game I still think back to from time to time. When I heard there was a sequel, I had high hopes that they would take their experience from the first game to elevate it to the status of the best kitchen sink fantasy shooter out there. Sadly, it seems no lessons were learned. Project Warlock 2 is worse than the previous in almost every way. It's not just that I don't agree with their design decisions, but that the sequel does nothing the first game didn't already do. It has the same flaws but worse, the performance is worse, levels are just easier to get lost in without really being innovative, and the quality tapers off the longer you play it. Several reworks throughout early access have done little to help it stand out against other games like it. The gameplay is Nu-Doom with some light RPG mechanics. Killing enemies gives you health and cools down your abilities to kill enemies faster, and most encounters after the first few levels take place in arenas that enemies spawn into. The game is separated into three chapters with each having a unique character that can be remixed after beating it. There's secret hunting, boss levels, variable difficulties. Everything is really on the tin for these kinds of games, and this one is no exception. Compared to the first game, levels are bigger and more detailed, feeling more like Build or GZDoom, and the game is overall a bit harder and has more complex rpg mechanics. Personally, I rarely care for psuedo-rpg mechanics in shooters. Tight design always triumphs over invisible math, and I think Project Warlock 1 and 2 both run into the same pitfalls there. However, balance is always just a nitpick for me. The biggest problem I have is that the game looks bad. The first game had a distinct visual style, and the levels, while primitive in gameplay, invoked a kind of pseudo-retro shooter feel that not many games try to replicate. You could see enemy sprites clearly and appreciate what was going on. In Project Warlock 2, enemy sprites are muddy, and half of the time I can't even tell what I'm supposed to be looking at when a new enemy type shows up. It's overly stylized, and without the same level design, it just feels like just another inauthentic throwback. Just like the first game, the weapon upgrade system is largely unwelcome to me. Some upgrades are blatantly overpowered, while others are sidegrades, tradeoffs, or entirely ineffectual. I can't speak for every machine, but larger maps chug along for me, whereas the first game ran perfectly (likely due to its simpler design). I've had plenty of clipping, out-of-bounds, and stuck spots. Encounters can be overly cheap monster spawns or entirely ineffectual mobs running in a straight line, whereas I only felt truly disadvantaged once in the first game and never felt like an enemy was poorly placed. Making new characters and a fresh start for each chapter should have been a smart idea, but somehow it still feels like a slog. If this was the only game in the series, it would be a "meh" for me and I wouldn't be writing this. The problem is that it stacks up against it's own previous iteration and falls short. If you wanted a weird fantasy shooter thing, I recommend Hedon or Nightmare Reaper. If you want shooter rpgs, I would stick with things like System Shock 2, Peripeteia, or Sonar Shock. There might still be people who would enjoy this for what it is, but it would take so much visual and level overhauling to not say I'm disappointed in this.

Its not BAD game but its far from a good one. Every change from PW1 is basically a straight downgrade: - The biggest issue is the level design or lack thereof. A lot of the maps feel randomly generated rather than made with any sense of direction or purpose. Theres a few standouts (the train, the old west town) but most level design is 80% bland sprawling 'rocky area' or 'blocky urban something' made of featureless corridors and empty space. Each chapter has a theme of sorts but in the first two only a couple of maps in each seem to bother adhering to it, the rest being pretty interchangeable. - Whilst the gun play is fine the arsenal is all over the place, some weapons/upgrades/spells are very powerful while others are either utterly useless or just overshadowed by other options and feel unnecessary. Little care seems to have been taken balancing anything. Most perks are likewise so niche you wont see use of them. - Theres plenty of enemy variety but most fall into one of two categories, melee trash mobs that close in an instant or lumbering behemoths that slowly waddle forwards lobbing explosives. No care has been taken with their placement, tiny rooms can have a dozen enemies spawn on top of you whilst huge outdoor areas will often see only two or three goons on the horizon spending 20 seconds trying to get into firing range. This leads to numerous difficulty spikes in early levels when you're locked in an arena, several dozen enemies appear, you're swarmed by fast trash all the while being bombarded with missiles. Conversely some later levels are largely void of enemies. - A few notable bangers aside the soundtrack mostly ranges from forgettable ambience to discordant beeps and boops dirge. Sound balance is all over the place, a single music track can go from barely audible to too loud in an instant and gun sounds are either feeble or booming. - Enemies sometimes decide they can just shoot through walls... I suspect the devs simply got too ambitious with PWII. The first game was great but the sequel feels rushed and lacking an identity. Even if further updates re-balance weapons and enemies theres no escaping the boring, empty levels that quickly blur into one.

3 separate campaigns, with 3 separate characters. Pretty fun boomer shooter with some spells and jumping. Solid enemy variety, but bosses are pretty basic, and easy to spot when arena mode will startup. Better designed than the 1st game

I had a lot of fun, but there are things that detracted from the experience making me consider PW1 a better game. - Weapons while fun have some problems. Some are OP while some are useless (For example: Demon Core nuke vs. Chaos Staff). In EP2 I was starved for explosive ammo, it felt like the only way to get some was at hub. - Spells are a mixed bag - Some levels were fun, others not so much. All of Ep3 levels are very short. Levels in EP2 feel rushed in places (like placing all secrets in 1st half of the map) - Performance drops in the biggest of battles - Overall jank (though it has some charm if you don't mind it) like being able to finish rune quest on your own minions with Kirsten, kill elite enemies in bestiarium jail for more upgrade tokens, using alt-fire while out of ammo, I do recommend the game even with all the highlighted problems. Gunplay feels nice (with few exceptions) and every time I got a weapon upgrade my brain released happy chemicals. Enemies are cool and fun to fight.

This review will be seperated into 3 parts as I feel the 3 chapters, vary very different from one another in gameplay style, and at end talk about the things they share & then give rating at end: Palmer's a return to form!: Continuing the style of what made the original so great, which started the Boomer Shooters craze of the late 2010's, the gameplay is very good, art style and everything, is massively improved, whilst the original was good, it was very wolfenstein 3D/Doom looking, the spritework in this game while not massively detailed, is very good and crunchy, combine that with the variety of scenery and how much detail packed into it, having an upgrade shop for weapons, the other chapters do too, but I feel like the weapons in palmer's chapter are the best, it's very much run and gun like the game's it's inspired by. Headshots with Urd!: I still feel same about this character, I really enjoyed her weapons & although her gameplay was more focused on staying back & more tactical, getting headshots, etc. (Her pistol has an upgrade where if you get headshots, it takes no ammo away.) Level design and locations are still varied and interesting. As far as in comparison to first chapter, I'd say they are equally as fun and very enjoyable. A dissapointing finish! (Kirsten): Before I get to the bad part, let me just say the weaponry, the theme of the levels, etc. is very interesting and unique, but it felt rushed, as in the levels are way shorter up to a 1-3 minutes to beat several of the missions, the boss was also pathetically easy to defeat. The things we love and share!: The fact that all of these characters have cool down abilities that can be upgraded or changed through the characters respective shops, the music I feel for all of the levels feels like they fit nicely, it's all fun & games like this are why I love boomer shooters, it's not just a carbon copy of wolfenstein or Doom, having all these upgrades and shops and stuff for weapons, abilities, skill trees, etc. Makes the game replayable and gives incentive to keep playing and even replay the game even at a later date. So? ... Final Verdict?: While not perfect, I played this game in early alpha & alot was fixed, levels that were once too big or confusing have good pacing now, only dissapointing thing was the last chapter was too short and some of the pacing did feel off in chapter 2 a bit, but overall one of my favorite boomer shooters I've played in 2025. ★★★★☆ - 4 out of 5 Stars (Not perfect, but very close.)

Game is pretty fun, the environments are well made although you can get a little lost in some levels. Each of the characters have a nice variety of weaponry and mechanics. The one problem i have is that it ends at kind of an anti climax. It builds up this confrontation with the warlock from the first game yet this never happens.

i really really love the shooting feel and music. it's a great game

Project Warlock 1 was great. Giving it a jump button is better.