Reviews - The AMC Squad

Short Review of Episode 1:

A very interesting and ambitious mod to say the least.

My absolute favourite aspect of the mod is the additional gameplay depth granted via new mechanics: sliding, leaning, sprinting, wall kicking, karate kicks, alt fire modes, alternate ammo, weapon upgrades, rolling/dodging, weapon reloading, melee weapons, temp weapons, basic loadouts, interaction with more object types, PDA/scanner & inventory.

These mechanics are what drew me to the mod in the first place but I was disappointed to find a notable portion of these mechanics were not utilized in the level design to their full potential, but they all had their uses at some point regardless.

There are new effects also such as dynamic skyboxes, footstep sounds, new sprite anims, camera effects, ridiculous but very welcome cutscenes and so on.

The level design is a mixed bag of quality and style, more good than bad, and when it is good it's top-tier, but when it's bad it's Duke Nukem: Forever bad unfortunately.

Voice acting is bad for the most part, the story however is very developed for Duke Nukem, the writing at times is good enough and it's worth reading all in-game text if you care for a fleshed out world, What is unique about the story is it is told from the perspective of the AMC team, all of which you control (all at least in episodes to come), sometimes even in the same level. Other FPS games have done this (Project Eden) but AMC TC does it well.
A problem with this concept is standard aspects gameplay you'd expect in a FPS such as ammo conservation, and long-term reward for finding secrets are non-existent due to constant switching of characters.

Sound design and music may not be original, but it is fitting.

This is better than some professionally designed FPS games, and I wish James and crew luck with releasing the mod in it's absolute entirety...they'll need it.

Edit: episode 2 has released since I last made comment, and whilst it is more of the same (which is good) with the exception of some improvements and unique creative scenarios, I'm updating this to a 10/10 out of the dedication of the developer & the principle alone.

Have been eagerly awaiting for this release since the first time i heard about it many moons ago so I went in with fairly high expectations. Many hours and a couple plays through and I can only say that my expectations were completely blown away. The AMC TC has given me quite the feeling of nostalgia while still managing to keep things fresh and new with all of its cool features. A word of warning to those who have never played any FPS from the 90s there is no hand holding other than a basic training course, and you will have to do a little thinking and explore the environments especially in the later level's. Can't wait to see what happens in the next episode although there is still a lot of things left for me to do with this. Great job!

This is a lot of fun as a game, despite some engine issues. There is a nice tongue in cheek tone and it seems like a lot of work as put into almost every element. And man, it seems like everyone had such fun making it.

This has been a major inspiration for helping me through my day to day life at the moment, as it is entirely a work of craft and love.

Wow!

I adore FPS. The genre as of late has been beyond lacking. Frankly, I'm proud to say that the AMC Episodes I and II take old school FPS action blending it with a plot akin to an 80s action movie. Lessons learned from modern FPS serve as a catalyst for this game. Download this game now and enjoy.

Level Design: Brilliant maze-like levels await you.

Weapons: A broad selection! All are fun.

Power-Up Placement: Good!

Enemy Placement: Challenging!

Story/Characters: You'll love them.

Gameplay: This is a remarkable game that you'll love. You'll even tell your friends about it and they'll play it too. God bless Stanfield, Sandt, & Company for making an incredible work of art!

Con: This game had some initial problems like menu trouble after aborting a mission, etc. James fixed that in a patch. So it has been remedied. It was a frustration at first, but no more.

Overall: Quit reading this review and download this game now.

This game is AMAZING.

I've followed these guys work through out the years and what they have made in the Build Engine is something from another world.

The art work, combat system, the level design, plot and soundtrack are amazing.
I love this supernatural/sci-fi mix, it's amazing.

I still think there's ground to be covered when we talk about User Experience, there were times that I didn't know how that feature worked or how to used, and I couldn't find anywhere (inside the game) how to proceed with it. BUT, i've seen changes over the versions and things are progressing. Though I've brought this point, I cannot give anything less than 10, because of what has been done in this tech, with this kind of love, you guys deserve it.

Congratulations, you are a inspiration for all of us. One of the best games ever.

Not to sound biased as i did VA for the game but this game i've been growing from playing it contributing it, the gameplay is admittedly not something you get in a instant but as soon as you learn it, it kind of starts to get better and better with time, and you get to apricieate it more and more.

Incredible Episode 4 in one of the greatest adventures in the build engine games. Arround a Duke Nukem universe with a wonderfull characters, weapons and habilities. Multiple awesome maps with diferent backgrounds, A intriguing history, and a fantastic style of shooting gameplay with a perfect balance between a boomer shooter and modern shooters

Clearly, one of the best (if not the best) Build TCs/games. Go play it. The amount of effort put into it is pretty impressive. The devs should be praised for that alone; what they built over the years is incredible.

With that being said, there are still plenty of issues. For one, the map design varies in quality a lot. Some maps are genuinely amazing, and I wouldn't mind comparing them to Levelord's greats. Other maps seem to be literally designed to be as annoying and time-wasting as possible, deploying every cancerous trope there is (underwater time limit, platforming, nonsensical map layouts, extreme backtracking, teleport games, spawning hitscanners pretty much IN your back, etc.) often in one go.

Another issue is a map balance. On higher difficulties, it is pretty common to be completely out of ammo, even if you really count your shots. This, coupled with the inaccuracy of many weapons, creates a lot of, again, very annoying situations. Not fun, not tense - annoying. I would also like to point out that creating huge maps with long-distance foggy environments and basically 95% of enemies being hitscanners was never a good idea in Build games.

Ammo system. This should be fun, but it is not. Especially in the first 2 episodes, this issue is blatant. There is no reason to make some enemies COMPLETELY immune to certain kinds of ammunition and then limit you severely on ammo you can hurt them with. Again, it doesn't make the game more fun; it makes it annoying. Especially when you combine it with the near-constant problem of being low on ammo in general.

This might be more of my personal gripe, but spawning/putting cheap jumpscares in more or less obvious places is not really a horror but, again, an annoyance. If you want to see how tense, scary atmosphere is done, look at Ashes/Afterglow, those underground bunker sections.

AMC Squad is an incredibly creative and well put together mod project that is very clearly made by a group of talented and passionate people. While some of its elements can be silly, I don't think its intent is to be entirely serious, and the light heartedness is a tone majorly appreciated, especially in an FPS game where so often things feel like they can be taken too seriously. To the devs, thank you for all your hard work! And to anyone reading this review... WHAT'RE YOU WAITING FOR, GO PLAY THIS NOW!

Essentially a build game in it's own right.

It contains the very spirit of what made build engine games so great.

To call this a simple Duke3D total conversion is quite insulting really.

Unique characters with their own weapons and equipment, a loadout system with various unlocks and upgrades.

Levels that feel like they belong, with their own style based on the setting.

In another life, it is almost the Duke Nukem Forever that we never got. But better than it ever could have been.