illWill Review Summary

Unique art, creative weapons, and fun levels are let down by a short campaign, uneven level design, and uninspired boss fights.

Unique and beautiful art style: The art design is frequently described as amazing, unique, and visually appealing, with pleasant graphics and intentional stylistic choices. The visuals stand out among retro shooters.

Fun and well-designed levels: Levels are consistently described as fun, varied, and creatively designed, with each level having its own unique style and theme. The layout and thought put into level design are praised.

Creative and varied weapons: Players appreciate the cool, unique arsenal with a great variety of weapons that each have distinct uses. Weapons like laser rifles and leech guns are specifically mentioned as fun and well-designed.

Exceptional soundtrack praised: Many players highlight the soundtrack as outstanding, exciting, and not typical for the genre. The music enhances the overall experience and keeps players engaged.

Satisfying shooting and gunplay: The shooting mechanics feel great, with good aiming, impact, and powerful-feeling guns. The gunplay is often described as fun and impactful.

Short Campaign Length: Many reviewers criticize the game's short duration, often citing 2-4 hours to complete with no replayability. The campaign is considered too brief for the price.

Poor Level Design: Levels are criticized as linear, poorly designed, and lacking verticality. Some maps are confusing or have invisible walls.

Uninspired Boss Fights: Bosses are criticized as being just larger or recolored versions of regular enemies with more health and no unique mechanics. They lack challenge and creativity.

Performance Issues: Many users report frame drops, stuttering, and low FPS, even on high-end hardware. Specific issues include drops to 5-10 FPS on a 4060 and CPU bottlenecks.

Difficulty Imbalance: The game is often too easy on normal or hard difficulty, but some fights are frustratingly hard due to enemy damage and accuracy. Inconsistent difficulty curve.

Unique weapons like piranha gun: The arsenal includes distinctive weapons such as the piranha gun, double-barrel SPAS 12, and others with varied uses.

Classic boomer shooter style: The game is widely described as an old-school, retro FPS reminiscent of classic boomer shooters.

Similar to Doom and Serious Sam: Many reviewers compare the game to Doom, Serious Sam, Quake, and Blood, especially in its fast-paced arena combat.

Modifications unlocked after completion: Upon beating the campaign, players unlock three modifiers that can alter levels, and additional achievements require multiple playthroughs with them.

Puzzles and secrets in levels: Levels contain puzzles and hidden secrets that encourage exploration and extend playtime.

Severe stuttering and frame drops: Many players report stuttering, frame drops to very low FPS, and janky gunplay, especially when many enemies are on screen. Some see drops from 240 fps to below 40 fps or even 5-10 fps.

Unreal Engine performance varies: Some players experience perfect performance with no stutters or shader issues, while others see FPS chugging in a few places, which they attribute to Unreal Engine. This suggests optimization varies by system.

FPS artificially capped at 60 or 120: Players note that the game is artificially limited to 60 or 120 FPS. The peak setting appears to be 120 FPS, preventing higher refresh rates.

Runs smoothly at high FPS: Some players achieve very high frame rates, such as 230-240 fps at 1440p, and report no noticeable performance dips. This indicates the game can run well on capable hardware.

DirectX 12 mode fixes performance: Starting the game in DirectX 12 mode resolves performance issues for some players. After the fix, they achieve stable frame rates like 120 FPS at 1080p ultra.

Recommended for Genre Fans: The game is particularly recommended for fans of boomer shooters, fast-paced FPS, and old-school shooters. Many say if you like the genre, you'll like this game.

Positive General Recommendations: Many users highly recommend the game, expressing strong endorsements such as 'highly recommend' and 'absolutely recommend'. This sentiment is widespread across multiple clusters.

Worth the Price: Several reviewers find the game worth its base price, full retail price, or the asking price, indicating good value for money. Some even suggest buying without a discount.

Not Worth Full Price: A number of users feel the game is not worth the full price, citing short duration or overall value. They recommend waiting for a discount instead.

Demo Recommended: Some users suggest trying the demo first to see if you like the game before purchasing. If you enjoy the demo, you'll likely enjoy the full game.

Community fair range: $9.99 - $14.99.

Game completion: 5.5h.

Story completion: 5.0h.

Endgame: 10.0h.

Players generally find the game fun immediately through strong pacing, enemy variety, and satisfying guns, though some report late repetition and minimal progression.

Boomer Shooter Connoisseur: Speed-focused arena combat, using double jumps and rapid repositioning against waves of enemies in the Doom/Quake tradition. Motivation: Fast, fluid movement and satisfying retro gunplay that stands alongside genre classics. Stance: buy.

Nostalgic Old-School Veteran: Replaying the familiar classic flow of blasting through monsters and waves, valuing nostalgia and the old-school feel. Motivation: Reconnecting with the childhood-era shooters and classic old-school run-and-gun formula. Stance: buy.

Value-Conscious Sale Hunter: Tries demos and watches trailers first, wishlists the game, and buys when a discount makes the value feel fair. Motivation: Getting a worthwhile amount of action and content without paying full price. Stance: sale.

Short gameplay duration around 4 hours: Players report the game takes about 4 hours to complete, with some variation depending on difficulty and playstyle. It is considered short but enjoyable enough for replay.

Game length varies by difficulty: Completion times range from 3 to 9 hours depending on difficulty and exploration. On hard difficulty, it takes about 7-9 hours, while casual playthroughs are around 3-5 hours.

Developed by a small team: The game is developed by a small team, possibly a solo developer or a few people. The credits show 3 people, and the developer is from Russia.

Comparison to Dusk and similar games: The game is compared to Dusk, Amid Evil, Ion Fury, and other boomer shooters with unusual design and level structure. It is Dusk-inspired and influenced by Serious Sam map making.

Arena-room level design: The game consists of a set of arena-rooms. Each stage is set up to hint at emotions, with 10 large levels that take 10-15 minutes each.