Strafe Reviews
If you feel like playing an old-style game brought to today’s standards, there are plenty of other games that are more deserving of your money.
STRAFE as of now feel unfinished, and is too reliant on its successful marketing campaign. If you are an absolute diehard for these type of games, I implore you to look up Brutal Doom instead. It is a free mod that gives the original Doom a bit more oomph and visceral feedback, while changing some of the controls to feel both familiar and fresh.
A loveable slice of 90s nostalgia, but compared to shooters both new and old it's surprisingly limp and inappropriately difficult.
Strafe has the look and style to stand out, but Pixel Titans should have been focusing on making sure the game was not only fully functional, but actually fun to play, as well.
STRAFE wants to be a shooter from the 1990s, but has worse mechanics than any of the games it hoped to imitate.
While there are hints of fun to be had if you search hard enough, I don't think Strafe ever makes the small moments in between worth scavenging.
Strafe tries to be a fun game in which player should laugh after sudden death and start again. But stupid AI, bland weapons and unbalancing system of random generated levels reducing the great idea to 30 minutes try out. So if you want to feel the crazy 90s again and refresh the feelings from old school shooters - just play the original Doom or Quake - they still better than newcomers like Strafe.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Strafe strives for old school difficulty and scores a little too well. Level design is not varied enough to endure the countless run-throughs required to proceed. Tight corridors, coupled with unfair monster spawns make your deaths feel cheap. The core gunplay is just not meaty enough to carry the game.
Strafe is a love letter to 90s FPS games with a lot of potential that falls to the wayside due to a lack of polish as well as a slew of generic and boring design choices.
As it stands it's still a few meaningful patches from becoming something that we'd recommend.
Strafe isn't bad, but there are many better ways to satiate your nostalgia for '90s FPS titles.
Where it sets itself apart from actual ‘90s-era shooters is with its light sprinkling of procedurally generated elements.
Unfortunately, Strafe is no more than an attempt of tribute to the FPS of 1996.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
I really tried with Strafe, spending a good six hours with it and getting only as far as the fourth level before dying. I liked the overall tone, and the gunplay is solid fun, but really this is one of the more punishing Rogue-Lites out there, with a high skill ceiling that sets you right back to the beginning once you die without any meaningful progression unless you somehow find the key to a teleporter. A lot to admire, but for most it'll seem utterly impenetrable.
The deadly dangers combined with randomization make for a frustrating inconsistent mix that's more about ‘90s nods than entertainment
When it works, Strafe is a generally entertaining retro-styled shooter that mixes procedurally generated levels into an experience strongly reminiscent of Quake. It's a great concept that usually comes together, but between the quirks of randomization, powerful enemies that run almost completely silent, lethal bugs, and hefty costs for vital armor and ammo powerups, a lot of the time it feels as challenging as rolling the dice and coming up with double sixes.
This throwback to 1996 isn't what we hoped for. The underdeveloped roguelike aspects and lack of variability can't be salvaged even by the awesome soundtrack. In short bursts, it can be enjoyable, but continuous playtime will suffer from massive repetition.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
There is certainty some fun to be had, but you’ll tend to only find that in the first hour that you play.
STRAFE will certainly attract a very specific crowd, likely one filled with gluttons for punishment. The core game provides a solid offering, but nostalgia and gory gunplay need a bit more to make this game rise above the monotony and frustration that settle in over time.