Friendship Island Reviews

If it can not be discerned from the video and the screenshots, this game is powered by GzDoom and uses a modified Freedoom IWAD as a base, alongside making use of a certain Nash's Gore Mod for Classic Doom. Make no mistake about it though: apart from the fancy cell-shaded spritework, it is a poor attempt in all respects. A single screen intro with three frames puts you as a woman shipwrecked on an island apparently inhabited by aliens. You break out of the 'Prision' (sic, shots 3 and 5), explore 'The Isle' (shots 4 and 6) and the installation on it (shots 1 and 2), and finally, come upon an 'UFO Ship' (a featureless circle, really) in which you battle the alien overlord (a reskinned Caco). Taking my time, I finished my first run in 48 minutes (in-game display). Even the basic features you would come to expect from a game running on GzDoom are not there: no difficulty selection, no intermission screens, no secrets and no music. By default, it is not properly set up either - it starts up with no visible HUD while also lacking several crucial keybinds. The first map is the worst offender. A sloppily built and garishly-lit complex of '93 standards, it is a chore as you plow through 350+ 'zombies' (slowed down, low HP Demons) interspersed with alien vixens (HW Dudes) that only give the barest of challenges. It gets slightly better with the second map, due to another bunch of five enemies (again, Doom bestiary with somewhat different stats) replacing the initial duo and half of the trek taking place outdoors, giving (to some extent, at least) that pseudo open-world feel of such Doom maps. The spritework can be considered good enough in itself. Not much of a chance for the world textures since they are put on poor brushwork, yet the enemies look somewhat fancy and the weapons feel good to use. Alongside a pistol and an M16 that cover the basics, you got a grenade launcher and an overpowered rocket launcher that makes short work of the aliens. A severed alien hand serves as a shotgun while a head of similar kind acts as a plasma rifle. All these 2D work could be given some justice with some proper mapping and a full-featured package, yet they are sadly wasted in an all-around amateurish attempt that feels boring and embarassing to play through. On a side note, the shortcut to game utilizes a .bat file to make the engine automatically load the IWAD and the additional .pk3 in question, which is perfectly normal for any GzDoom game. Yet there are suspicious long lines of code within the .bat file before that loading (apparently created by a 'Bat to Exe Converter') that do not have anything to do with the engine at all. I removed those lines and it still worked as it should. Make what you will of it. All in all, do not waste your time and money on this. If you want a Classic Doom TC done right, go for REKKR: Sunken Land or Hands of Necromancy, both of which are 'authentic yet familiar' experiences well worth their asking prices. This, on the other hand, feels like an half-baked showcase for the 2D assets more than anything else.