LinuxGameCast Reviews – Motörhead: Through the Ages

Your intrepid heroes wait for menus, spin in circles, and question Lloyd Kaufman’s longevity. Motörhead: Through the Ages faces the CHAIRQUISITION!

Game: Motörhead: Through the Ages
Webzone: http://store.steampowered.com/app/462290/
Devel: Haemimont Games
Engine: Proprietary (same as Tropico 5)
Price: 11.99 / CDN 15.99

Wazzat: ‘Motörhead: Through the Ages’ is a wild tour through the mythos of the loudest band in the world! Bring the mighty Snaggletooth back to life with the help of Lemmy and Lloyd Kaufman! Harness the powers of the immortal Motörhead to defeat frightening new enemies in three demon-infested worlds intertwined with the songs of the band.

Mandatory Disclosure: They Sent us Keys

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Makes with the working

V-

The menu lag is legit.
For the most part it holds 60+ on high but it has the performance drops of old.

J-

The online hiccups are still there. And with no real reason either
It gets a bit laggy when there are a bunch of enemies on screen. And this is on my box

P-

It takes almost a full second of jank for the game to show the stats when you hover over an item.
And in several of the DLC areas, especially the Orgasmatron boss fight, there’s a bit of framerate “hitching”.
I had over 30 hours of game time before this bit of DLC came out and I don’t remember it doing this.

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

V-

When VV entered Early Access in early 2015 it looked great, compared to the drek starting to flood the market.
Unfortunately in 2017 is looks mostly the same which is not so great.
It’s not fugly by any standard but this engine is definitely shows its age.
Now, graphically the DLC slaps some Motorhead posters on the walls and throws in a few Lemmy statues along with guitars, a smattering of new baddies, and some bosses from Motorhead lore.
And they are all done compantilly, however.
When the novelty of that business wears off you are still looking at VV in all its 2015 fidelity.
It sounds like VV with the added bonus-soda of Motorhead blaring in the background.
But it’s only 13 track and while that’s not bad for DLC it can get repetitive.
The only real complain for the sounds is the barkeep voiced by Lloyd Kaufman.
I read his interview in Glixel and he sounded excited to do it but I don’t think ANYONE gave him the slightest bit of direction resulting in most of his parts sounding “phoned in” even though they weren’t

J-

Same ol’ Vran Style
Normally, when you’re playing a game and you’re not into the soundtrack, you put on some other music
Through The ages has taken the liberty of doing this for you. However, one thing that does get a bit annoying is that when you change areas, the track will change.

P-

Everywhere you look there are textures fighting for the same depth coordinate.
Posters and wall textures fighting over the Z axis they’re supposed to show on are everywhere.
I’m not a game developer but I used to make areas for Neverwinter Nights. I learned how to stop Z-fighting pretty easily.
Simply move one of the offending textures 1 pixel up or down that axis and it’ll stop.
Seeing as I never noticed anything similar in Victor Vran outside of this DLC, I’m assuming Haemimont knows this too. So the who hell made these levels?
I’m also not a big fan of the Kaufmentary.
Thankfully, the soundtrack is so goddamn good I feel like, aesthetically speaking, this bit of DLC still deserves to walk away with 3 chairs.

Total-

Control

V-

It’s VV, one of the first ARPGs on Linux to shove all the business on a controller and map it logically OOTB.
My only complaint is the same as before.
The items / cards menu is wicked unresponsive to the point of forcing me to use my gerbil.

J-

Same ol’ vran, same old bad camera!
Give us a goddamn option to rotate the map! BETTER YET MAKE THE MAP ROTATE WITH THE CAMERA

P-

Total-

FUN

V-

It’s VV so you know you are going to get the Torchlight / Diablo ARPG goodness that’s going through a Goth phase.
You get weapons, you get cards, you get demonic powers and you get good…
And somewhere during all of the slaughter you learn to juggle that business so you don’t constantly get killed to death.
The Motorhead Through The Ages DLC changes exactly FK nothing about those parts of the game, and that’s good.
What it brings to the table is this, fan service.
Yeah, you get some wicked cool looking levels, a few skin-packs for existing models and attack guitars mixed in with a few (admittedly neat) demon powers.
And in all fairness you do get those 13 Motorhead tracks but lads, I’m just not feeling it.
The way they tied VV and Motorhead together is what it is… and it’s BAD.
After you get over that you have a little fun looking at statues, posters, and the new bosses all neat in their own right but after an hour or so your brain-organ puts that business on ignore and you’re just playing some new VV levels.
I’m not saying it’s bad I’m just saying that was my experience.
Also, I feel giving me the hella overpowered axe at the beginning sucked most (if any) challenge out of the DLC.
If you pick this up so you can take an interactive tour through Motorhead lore you’re probably going to have a good time.
If you are looking for much more than that, don’t bother.

J-

Why is Lloyd Kaufman still alive, but Lemmy isn’t?
Really though, an expansion should deliver a similar experience to the base game, but adds some neat stuff
This doesn’t really do that. It’s the exact same game. There are some new weapons and magic, but they’re all a bit meh.
The new levels are nice, but holy fuck they rely a ton on area denial to ramp up the difficulty, kinda like the original Vran
So, aside from a skinjob, some better sounds and a bunch of levels, if you weren’t sold on vran, this probably won’t do anything for you.
Also, am I the only one who thinks it should be called the Orgasmatrain? Orgasmatron indicates a much more intricate piece of tech

P-

I didn’t think I’d ever use the words padded, gimmicky and boring to describe anything related to Victor Vran or Motörhead… I was wrong.
Since I’m pretty sure Haemimont will be watching this review, I’ll do my best to explain.
I really like Victor Vran, it’s what the console version of DIablo III eventually became with a lot more variety.
It’s a true hack & slash game and a pretty fun one at that.
When I say the Motörhead DLC is padded, I don’t mean the sheer insane number of side objectives every single dungeon or area is loaded with. No, no! That was already case the with the base game and I’m totally okay with that.
When I say padded, I mean level design in the DLC didn’t have the same love put into it as the base game and most of the dungeons were simply thrown together and a bunch of enemies packed into random areas of the map with little to no cohesion.
It all looks like it’s there to pad out the experience in hopes of justifying the price.
With perhaps the most egregious example being how the gold reward, for defeating one of the “Rock Monument” encounters, spawns in a big ass circle around said monument and takes its sweet ass time do it. Feels like a waste of time!
Then there’s the final bossfight! I hate gimmicky boss fights so goddamn much.
I’m not the only one either, ask anyone who’s played Dark Souls which was their least favorite boss fight. My money’s on most people saying it’s the Bed of Chaos. Why? Cuz it’s the most gimmicky of all the boss fights in that game.
And the Queen of the Damned (that’s not a spoiler since she’s in the trailer) does the whole you can’t damage her until you run around the level killing lazily design Souls of Damned. And you need to do that 4 times!
Weren’t it for the fact the song Queen of Damned played on a loop throughout the whole fight, I would have said fuck it from how bored I was.
A final boss fight should never be boring.
Thankfully, outside of everything I’ve mentioned, more Victor Vran is always a good thing.