No need to circle around this
Strafe, the retro-themed throwback shooter and my personal most anticipated game of 2017, is going to be available on March 28. Along with that information also comes absolute confirmation that the game is, indeed, procedurally generated. That kind of dampens my enthusiasm, but I do love old-school shooters.
According to some PR buzzwords, the game has “endless levels” and “100 percent virtualized ‘real’ environments.” I suppose The Binding of Isaac got away with having randomized levels, but I’ve always preferred shooters to have a sense of place and clear direction with their level design. To just throw rooms together often leads to scenarios where a player has no chance to survive, despite their skill level.
Either way, I’m still looking forward to Strafe and I hope it turns out well. We’ve seen a lot of recent shooters hark back to the design philosophies that made classic shooters stand the test of time, so maybe developer Pixel Titans has nailed everything and I’m just being cynical.
Strafe release date set for March [PC Gamer]
