Requiem: Avenging Angel

[Mother Russia]

Will a possible sequel to this fine FPS ever be made?

Now, I normally loathe FPS's. However, this one was different. You played a fallen angel, who had to destroy evil scum in order to get back to Heaven, or something like that. In addition to guns, you had access to divine angelic powers. It was kinda like the Jedi Knight series, though not as good unfortunately.

But it had tons of potential.

Any idea of a sequel in the works? Could someone Kickstart this?

Discuss!!

 

[FeelTheRads]

I only have a weird memory of this, playing it a very early and cold morning.

Also: pistol with Holy Mary stamped on it.

Pretty crappy with a mildly interesting setting, if I remember correctly. I don't see any reason for this to get any funding.

 

[lefthandblack]

I played the hell out of the demo when it came out. Then I bought it and found out that if you had played the demo, you had basically played the whole game.

 

[Don Peste]

The devs are M.I.A., and Ubisoft owns the rights...

 

[SoupNazi]

I remember a much cooler game about angels: Messiah, where you play a baroque stylized angel with no way to attack enemies, but the ability to posses anyone (and then use their guns etc). I don't really remember if it was very good, but the concept was excellent.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I remember using blood boil on enemies until they exploded. Also fun turning them into salt. Good times.

 

[markec]

I liked the opening meaty level but later on got bored with brown metal walls.

But I would pay for sequel of Shogo.

 

[Phelot]

It had really cool models and weapons. Very satisfying knocking down one of those armored soldiers with a shotgun and the guy staggering back up. IIRC there are respawning enemies because I remember when you get that spell that reanimates dead soldiers you can create these massive battles by getting a bunch of them. In the demo, near the end of it especially you could do this. Pretty damn fun.

Ahhh the glory of particle blood.

 

[shihonage]

I played thru demo about 75 times. The full game didn't appeal to me, oddly.

Same goes for SiN.

 

[CrimsonAngel]

I remember being impressed with the fact that if you turned some one into salt they would disintegrate.

 

[Mother Russia]

Oh yeah Messiah, that was a good game. Well, lots of fun at least. But then it got old.

 

[MaroonSkein]

This thread reminded me of a Polish action game called Archangel. It was about a Geralt lookalike who died in a car accident and became an angel. He had a demon form too, for some inexplicable reason. I don't think I got very far into it because of how clunky the action was.

 

[Don Peste]

 

[poocolator]

I liked the opening meaty level but later on got bored with brown metal walls.

But I would pay for sequel of Shogo.

Yes, Shogo. The vehicle levels were done well, but felt too few in number. I was impressed with the FPS/vehicle duality of the game when I played it for the first time ages ago.

I remember a much cooler game about angels: Messiah, where you play a baroque stylized angel with no way to attack enemies, but the ability to posses anyone (and then use their guns etc). I don't really remember if it was very good, but the concept was excellent.

Yeah, it's the game where you play as a cherub, right? I don't remember much of it, but do remember that that period stands out in memory as having cool FPS's.
Same goes for SiN.[/quote]

I remember using blood boil on enemies until they exploded. Also fun turning them into salt. Good times.

I was one of the guys who played the hell out of the demo, too. I remember having a lot of fun converting guys to your side, getting them to follow you and fight former comrades.

 

[random_encounter]

I remember being impressed with the fact that if you turned some one into salt they would disintegrate.

I abused the hell out of Pillar of Salt. Loved that power.

 

[.Pixote.]

The game had its crappy moments, yet I was still captivated with some of the magic/angle powers, such as slow motion and resurrection. I recalling having a small army of about 20 resurrected enemy following me around and killing yet more enemy. So the army only grew larger. Sadly the game won't play nice with Windows XP and above. I would be happy if GOG took it under its wings and released a working version.

 

[Don Peste]

Just a note, I'm playing it right now with Wine.

 

[Mother Russia]

Awesome Don.

What's Wine btw? Some operating system, like Windows and Linux?

What's your favorite power? Favorite gun?

Also, I don't fully remember, but if I recall correctly you never got a flaming sword or something to weild as a weapon. That is kinda unforgivable, since Angels are typically supposed to weild swords...

 

[Don Peste]

Wine is an application for Linux that allows you to run Windows-based software.

I'm in the first levels. The best thing I've got is a submachine gun (that doesn't need to reload ever) and Pentecost.

Anyway, it still has some bugs. But you can bypass them with these savegames: http://www.fileplanet.com/202363/200000/fileinfo/Requiem:-Avenging-Angel---WinXP-Saved-Game

 

[Grim Monk]

Finished "Requiem" on Hell Difficulty (hardest)
Did not run into any performance problems on Windows 7.

My thoughts below:

The religious themes are underused and are mainly an excuse to let the player have magical powers.
After the intro “purgatory” level you never again have any extended visit to a mythical location.
You do get yanked back to “purgatory” for the boss fights, but those consist of single room arenas.

The majority of the game takes place in “New Damascus” which is a mix of brutalist architecture and cyberpunk visuals.
The developers went for a somewhat East Asian aesthetic.

The level design is 40/60 split between good and mediocre/horrible.

It suffers from many levels which undercut themselves by being too cramped.
The developers attempt to portray a train station or city street but everything so tiny and clumped together that it comes off as silly.
It might have been engine limitation, but other levels seem much more open or mask it by clever design.
Also game periodically gets bogged down in nondescript industrial environments and sewer/maintenance tunnel levels.

It feels like they found one good level designer and brought in backup 2nd raters to bang out dull filler locations for padding.

The game also sometimes starts endlessly spawning in one or two enemies in the cleared rooms behind you.
They were trying to simulate pursuit and make you push forward, but it just makes looking for health and ammo pickups annoying.

Enemies are mostly human soldiers backed up by robots and some demonic creatures.

The are 4 demon bosses in the game and all are very easy except for bullet sponginess.
They have gimmicks but those are quite easy to figure out as the game will visually indicate when your hurting them.
The one (slightly) tricky boss will even helpfully shout “MORTAL WEAPONS HAVE NO EFFECT ON ME!” if you try using guns.
Damage avoidance is ludicrously easy with three boiling down to constant circle strafing, and ducking behind pillars on the one “tricky” fight.


Of the weapons the Pistol, Assault Rifle, Rocket Launcher, and Railgun are fun to use.
The Assault Rifle has an insane fire rate and can stun-lock enemies, while the Railgun is very powerful but you can carry only a tiny amount of ammo.

But the other weapons you get are basically broken, and not in a good way.

The Grenade Launcher has a short range and the projectiles have poor bounce.
This makes trying to lob grenades a huge pain. It feels like gambling with self inflicted
splash damage rather then actually hurting the enemies.

The sniper rifle is too weak and seems to have limited range.
Meanwhile the enemy soldier is able to hit you with SMG fire from across them map…

The shotgun is powerful and kills or knocks down most enemies in one shot.
But it has a lengthy reload animation which if you fight multiple enemies or mess up the first shot lets them unload on you with impunity.

Angelic Abilities are is basically magic super powers.
They are powered by “Divine Essence” which regenerates.

A good chunk of you passive and defensive Angelic Abilities are never utilized after being used to solve a singular progression puzzle.
You don’t ever seem to use super jump after the intro, and super speed is needed only once.

There is a spell to stun demonic enemies in place, which is useless after the one boss fight where you get it.
Other bosses are immune and basic demons are too easy to kill in regular ways.

The ability resurrect enemies as zombie allies is a big disappoint.
I was hoping to have a posse but the AI is so poor they usually can’t even follow you through a doorway let alone rush the enemy.

There is a mind control ability which works the same as resurrect except it has a timer and can be used against only one living enemy.
Also its actually useful as you can duck into a room filled with enemies mind control the strongest one and hide while they fight each other.

Angelic “bullet time”.
An annoying limitation is that it slows down not only the enemies but your own reload animation
This makes getting more then one shot with many of the weapons difficult.

Meanwhile with “Possession” ability you can jump into any enemy human soldiers body and control it for about minute before it dies and you re-spawn on that spot.
While in a possessed body enemies will not react and will only aggro if directly attacked.
Plus damage they inflict doesn't count against your actual health but only hurts the body your possessing.
Its basically a “skip me to the next level” spell...

Offensive angelic powers are either wildly OP or nearly useless.
Also most seem work poorly again robot enemies.

The first power in the game “Pentecost” is an explosive ball of lightning that when fully charged up will annihilate everything non-robotic in 1-3 hits.

The “Brimstone” is like a slightly weaker rocket launcher which you will spam against the demon bosses.

“Turn enemies to Salt” spell equals one hit kill against most enemies even robots.
In combo with slow-mo ability it utterly breaks the game.

“Blood Boil”, “Locust Swarm” and “Apocalypse” felt too finicky to use much while “Lighting” was powerful but only unlocked on the last level.


Overall I can see why this game is unsuccessful and became obscure.
About a third of the time I spent playing it was fun, with the rest devolving into a mediocre slog.
Which directly corresponds to the proportion of good to bad level design.

All the other problems are manageable but boring levels is what kills "Requiem: Avenging Angel".

Okay for one play-though for the cool Angelic Powers and the few good levels but its not something I’ll want to replay.

 

[pippin]

https://af.gog.com/game/requiem_avenging_angel?as=1649904300

 

[Cadmus]

Thanks for the overview, Grim Monk
I remember playing the demo and the atmosphere in the game being stellar and the powers fun but I was a kid back then and can't be arsed to reinstall again to confirm. Sounds like a waste of time from your post.

 

[Grim Monk]

Thanks for the overview, Grim Monk
I remember playing the demo and the atmosphere in the game being stellar and the powers fun but I was a kid back then and can't be arsed to reinstall again to confirm. Sounds like a waste of time from your post.

After a weak beginning there is a segment of 5-6 levels which are good.

Really nice urban cyberpunk feel.

Convinced me to finish the game hoping for a repeat.
But for rest of the game you consistently got 2-3 bad levels sandwiching every good one.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I played thru demo about 75 times. The full game didn't appeal to me, oddly.

Same goes for SiN.

Sin was WAY better than Requiem. Unlike the latter, it had excellent level design all the way through and gunplay was actually quite good.

Not much that i can say about Requiem that hasn't been pointed out already. I think it is definitely worth one play through. It is not a terrible shooter but it doesn't really have a lot of lasting power. Of course, second or third rate for that time means first rate by today's standards so that's something to keep in mind. If you like shooters and you played all of the good ones i would definitely recommend trying something like Requiem over any modern shit.

 

[J_C]

I LIKE REQUIEM THIS MUCH!