4.5/5 ★ – Yeij's review of Shrine II.

Shrine 2 is a fantastic sequel to what was a short but fun total conversion mod of DOOM. Shrine 2 doubles down basically everything from the first game. From 16 levels to 32 levels across 5 realms, from 8 weapons to 20 unique weapons (each with alternate attacks), from 13 enemies to 30 different eldritch horrors to fight, and Shrine 2 is noticeably much more challenging than its predecessor. Combat now requires more weapon swapping to juggle priorities on which monster to kill first as so many enemies can kill you before you even notice that your health counter's reached 0. The fast-paced movement, bullet hell dodging, and responsive weapons made it such a blast to play that I can't recommend this game enough. Shrine 2's bosses are also great, most of them require full attention and coordination to defeat while a couple of bosses are trivial. oh but the final boss, Azathoth, is such a hard boss fight that I struggle a lot with but cant completely hate because I love the presentation of the fight. The first Shrine had an eldritch bug horror art style very similar to its sequel. There were a couple of times where I mentally shivered at disgusting sprites and textures. Shrine 2 also doubles down on this art style, bringing the eldritch horror to cosmic horror spanning across dimensions and the disgusting factor to more biomechanical weapons and landscapes made of flesh. there were so many moments where I found myself just sitting in awe at what was in front of me on my monitor because there are so many surreal levels that had its atmosphere seep through the screen. even with how much i enjoy this game, i have some minor complaints. off the top of my head, what i remember not liking the most was the beginning to the amazing level innsmouth where i didn't realize you could use the ice weapon to walk across the freezing water. there was really nothing that hinted that I could do that besides giving me some ammo for the ice weapon. i also remember how at some point in the game, i had noticed considerably much less health and ammo drops than normal. i started one or two levels with at least 10 hp which could be entirely my fault for not collecting any health pickups i missed but i swear i remember cleaning levels of all their health pickups. the final boss is very difficult and vague in the sense where sometimes i clear through his second phase quickly but in another attempt i had used almost all my ammo and died before i reached the third phase. difficult in a good sense as it provides a proper challenge for the final boss but vague as in i don't know if some weapons are useless against him or not. regardless of my complaints, my overall experience has been fantastic and I'm sure that when i finally kill Azathoth tonight that my opinion will still stand. recommended to GZDoom enthusiasts, those who like cosmic horror, and anybody interested in checking out a great retro shooter. EDIT - okay so now I just beat the boss like 20 minutes after finishing this review and I gotta say I was probably just playing really bad yesterday because I was able to beat the second phase faster and more consistently. gotta say tho, the second phase is prob the hardest or second hardest part of the final boss. there's also a really, really odd framerate drop when I use the hand powerup with the bloodrail gun on the boss's final form so i thought i should mention that. still a good game tho