Do you like that distinct "Build Engine" look & feel?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I know that this may be heresy for some, but I never liked the look and feel of Build Engine games.

Good work on the enemies, but the streets feel like a pop-up book.

I don't know exactly why, though -- maybe the sprite work hits that exact note where it's just halfway between actually being in 3D and feeling like a cardboard cutout brought to life, or maybe it's the VERY angular nature of the buildings and environments themselves, but I could never properly immerse myself in a game made on that engine, and I have only ever beat one (WW2GI), because all the rest kept broadcasting the wrong message to my brain and hijacking whatever sense of fun or wonder I'd otherwise have.

Those stairs immediately throw me off... They feel like they don't belong here.

I find this remarkable because it's an issue I exclusively have with the Build Engine -- games made on the Wolf3D/Doom/Dark Forces engines never give me such impressions, despite looking objectively much worse or having less stuff to work with.

This is actually much better... Almost seamless.

... But this one is back to being horrendous (specially in motion), almost like completing a checklist.

Am I the weird one here? I'd be ok with being... At this point I kind of just want an explanation as to why this is, why is walking behind a building that looks perfectly squared or on a street that actually looks like something feels so off when actually played through.

 

[Tonberry]

Never cared for Duke3D as a game, but I always thought the aesthetic of the engine was pretty quaint. I think I've played Shadow Warrior the most and I had fun with that.

I kind of like the feeling of playing a moving turret they give off, and the super angular environments with gigantic chairs and assets and whatever give it an almost kind of nightmarish feel with the scary skyboxes.
Combined with the usually super smooth movement where mobility mattered a lot since enemies fired missiles, the chunky 3D environments were always really readable and even kind of immersive imo.

I definitely prefer it over whatever engine the Dark Forces games used.

 

[Clippy]

Jokes aside, I love me some Build Engine games but I get that their appeal was very short-lived since Quake obliterated them on a technical level about half a year later. I'd say that in order to appreciate how realistic their architecture was for the time you have to see Doom II city maps and how, frankly, laughable they look when compared to Duke Nukem 3D's Hollywood Holocaust or Red Light District.

As I said, on a technical level they were inferior to other offerings of the time but to me those games more than make up for it with character. The snarky quips, the interactivity of the levels, the unique weapons. Some of the latter are jank central but man are they fun when you manage to wrangle them. The Shrinker and Nuke Launcher come to mind.

They have some great levels too, Blood in particular. The cheeky references to other franchises, some of which were direct competitors, are a standout that you just didn't see in other titles. These games are like a rebel child in a genre that was already under pretty heavy scrutiny of the pearl-clutching masses. The devs clearly had fun making them and that translated to my enjoyment of their works.

With that said, I know that objectively speaking they have their problems. I know there's a fairly sizeable group of old FPS fans who don't like Build Engine games for various reasons and I can see where they're coming from. I, however, love them dearly, warts and all. Very few, if any, other titles have as much personality as they do.

 

[Kamako]

DUKE3D all day. I've been a big fan of the Build Engine's 2.5D look for as long as I can remember. And it's pretty neat that its creator, Ken Silverman, released the source code for free for everyone to make games with.

Even the great Jon Carmack marvelled at what Silverman's Build Engine accomplished for the time.

 

[raiden_dj]

i like the look, i just dont like the warping when looking up or down, so, whenever i play i use true 3d rendering

 

[DanCalibur]

Never played Duke3D at the time but Blood was always one of my favorites.