The Age of Hell - NEW 2023 demo initial playthrough
3The new Age of Hell demo dropped on November 24, and I'm absolutely floored by how much of an advancement it is over the original demo from 2 years ago.
The most prominent advancements in the new demo come from its level design. With the exception of one arena, this demo has entirely new maps, which are far more streamlined, and really show off the type of ambitiously gargantuan architecture players should expect from the game. Mechanics are carefully introduced one by one, and it's usually clear where the player needs to go. The environment does open up a bit towards the end, and there are still plenty of secrets to find (I didn't find a lot of them, but I'd like to think I found the most important one...though perhaps not quite as intended.)
In addition to being more streamlined, the new maps are _far_ more well-lit, which was really my biggest concern when I played the original demo in 2021. Enemies are usually much more easily distinguished from the environment this time around, though they can still end up hiding in shadows occasionally.
The mechanics of weapons and powerups will feel very familiar to anyone who played the original demo, as the crusader's arsenal is much the same as before, and the same powerups exist (such as the hammersphere and pentasphere). Weapon upgrade choices are also still a thing, but seem far more purposefully placed throughout the maps this time around.
Overall this demo feels like it should be far more approachable to more people. While the difficulty settings were already set up to try to appeal to a wide audience even the first time around in 2021, the level design this time around is far less likely to make players feel lost, and there's a lot less long-distance enemy sniping (and when this does happen, it's usually not from as many directions at once). If you're a fan of arena battles, don't worry: there are still plenty of those, and some of them are still quite challenging.
While I did get through an initial playthrough in this video, there are other things I didn't have time to check out in my first session on the night of the release. Expect a follow-up with even more.
Download the demo and wishlist the game on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1779060/The_Age_of_Hell/
If you want to see what the old demo looked like to better understand how far the game has come in 2 years, see my 2021 playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX7D3v79Tr8
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