First Impressions With Project Warlock 2 (Early Access)
Project Warlock was a game that I played back in 2020 and it was the game that got me super into the retro FPS revival that’s going on nowadays. It was heavily evocative of Wolfenstein 3D and the original Doom in that the game threw you into a collection of mazes, tossed some guns your way and went “Have Fun”. And as the first time project of the then 19-year-old designer Jakub Cislo, it was an impressive labour of love. In the three years since then, his outfit Buckshot Software has expanded to a four-person team and announced a sequel. When I got wind of Project Warlock 2 finally hitting Early Access, I just had to snatch it up. So we’re talking about Project Warlock 2’s first episode.
Picking up immediately after the first game’s ending, you play as one of the Warlock’s three apprentices, Palmer, who’s the focus character of episode one. The game looks to eventually follow the standard three-episode structure that so many throwback FPS games these days roll with. Two other apprentices look to be the focus of the later episodes, but for now, it’s just Palmer. He’s the most like the first game’s play style, focusing on guns and magic in even doses. I feel that the other apprentices will go full magic or full firearms based on the balance of things, so I’m okay with it.
The main structural difference in Project Warlock 2 is in the level design. The original game’s levels were short, bite-sized levels that could be finished in 5 minutes or less. The early access build of the game changes this by having six massive levels that are bigger than most of the stuff in the first game and are littered with secrets. I’m personally kind of iffy on this change because my lousy sense of direction kicks in and I get super lost, but I can see the merit in it for the most part. The level design is still in the early parts of the development, so it might change for all I know. This also ties into how the movement has changed. You can jump now for starters, and that alone changes traversal and combat with the wider, more open spaces.
The next part I want to talk about is Palmer himself. As the first of three player characters, he is the most like the Warlock from the first game. You get several weapons and spells to deal out the punishment of hordes of demons and undead that you’ll inevitably slaughter. You start with a kind of crappy assault rifle that does its job, but I stopped using it the second I got my hands on a sword that uses Stamina instead of ammo that kills a bunch of enemies in a single swing and the super shotgun that because my go-to workhorse weapons for my time with the levels in the game currently. From there, you also get a magic staff that serves as your plasma rifle equivalent and a cannon that’s a rocket launcher. All of these can be upgraded with upgrade stations hidden throughout the level that radically changes your arsenal. You can change the assault rifle into either a higher damage Heavy Cannon or not accurate laser rifle that’s got no recoil and an alternate fire that’s a fucking rail gun, the super shotgun can be turned into The Harvester from the first game (a quadruple barreled shotgun) or an autoloader shotgun, etc.
And these are some of the more mundane options to boot. You also get an arsenal of three magic spells and they all feel infinitely more useful compared to the stuff in the first game, at least for me. You got an on-demand Guns Akimbo powerup (use two of your equipped weapon at the same time) a frost spell and a flamethrower spell. They all do exactly as advertised and compliment the firearms wonderfully. And your gonna need them because the game throws way more enemies at you this time around. The interesting thing is that I’ve played through episode 1 twice now on both of the included difficulty settings and they are both really easy and really hard with no in-between, I looked into it and there doesn't appear to be a normal difficulty setting. There’s just the “Walk in the park” easy mode and the “Come Get Some” Hard mode. At least that’s what the save files referred to them as and I’m inclined to believe them because of the way Come Get Some throws an order of magnitude more dudes at you, a practice I call “Dude Throwing” (Trademark Me). If you want a challenge go with that one because Walk in the Park has enemies that are easier to deal with, but also way fewer of them. To the point where the areas outside of combat feel barren and empty.
All in All, Project Warlock 2 isn’t without its issues; between the somewhat too large levels and inconsistent difficulty levels on top of several technical issues (its early access, it’s part of the process), it’s a bit hard to recommend at the moment. But I’m still super into it because the moment-to-moment shooting is just that damn satisfying. I’m gonna keep tabs on this one, but for others, I’m recommending that you wait for it to be fully out before sinking money into it.
