The Never Ending Maze of Death

The Never Ending Maze of Death is an FPS like the old PC Doom games.

The Graphics:

The game’s graphics range from crude to awesome. The maze itself consists of alternating black and white tiles, which doesn’t give it any sort of identifiable setting. But, there is an advantage to this approach. Because the tiles alternate and contrast with each other so much, you can easily tell when there’s a hallway, alcove, or pit. You never have to wonder if you’re looking at a wall or a passage. The graphics for the enemies are much more complex, and some foes blend into the maze walls better than others. The only real problem I had with the graphics was that of the panorama outside the maze. Based on the maze design, something technological would’ve been fitting. But, it was a mountain range instead, which did nothing to help the confused setting. While I also would’ve liked the maze walls and floor to be more detailed, I can understand taking functionality over aesthetics here.

The Audio:

The game’s music is pretty much perfect. You have some good rockin’ songs that put you in the mood for sneaking around and shooting robots, and you can even change the track at certain points in the maze. The weapons all have distinct firing sounds/styles, so you’re never unsure of what it is your using. It can sometimes be hard to tell if the enemies are shooting at you or not, but that encourages you to play carefully. The sound that stood out most to me, though, was the voice of the villain in charge of the maze: Microsoft Sam. Windows’ default computer voice will taunt you with the impossibility of your task or warn you when you find something you’re not supposed to. My only gripe here is that it’s hard to tell when you’ve been hit by an enemy’s attack, as the sound for that is very quiet. Otherwise, the audio department is all good.

The Gameplay:

I’m not usually a fan of FPSs (I’m terrible at them), but this one plays quite well. You WASD your way around the maze and use the mouse to look around and aim. It makes moving around and strafing very easy, although it doesn’t quite stand up to dual analogs. The game itself is pretty tough. Fending off your robotic adversaries without running out of ammo can be tricky. Finding new weapons and armor is key to making it through alive, and conserving your health and ammo is important, too. But, the game does partially make up for this level of difficulty by letting you save anywhere. As long as you're careful and don’t save with too few resources left, you should get through the game just fine. Er...scratch the “just fine.” You’ll get through the game.

We don’t get a lot of FPSs here on RMN, and this one’s somewhat refreshing after playing so many RPGs in a row. The gameplay is solid, the music’s awesome, and it remains interesting in spite of its total lack of atmosphere. And so, I give this game a:

6/10