Nightdive Studios is back with another classic banger in the boomer-shooter genre. The studio that has seemingly mastered the remastering of classic PC and console games brings us PowerSlave Exhumed. The title might sound familiar as it did see a PC release back-in-the-day that ran on the famous Build Engine, but this release is a little bit different as it’s based on both the Sega Saturn and later PlayStation port that most people remember. It tries to combine the best of those two versions with lots of modern new features.
PowerSlave Exhumed is a classic first-person-shooter title that came out at the height of the genre on the PC. It’s an interesting meld of two generations as the game features flat enemy sprites, and weapons like DOOM but it also features full 3D aiming and jumping like you’d see in Quake; this is probably why the game was reworked for PC to use the Build Engine that powered Duke 3D which used the same idea. We are clearly post DOOM but pre Quake and it’s this mixing of the two that gives PowerSlave Exhumed its unique look and feel.
Most importantly though, is the fact that the game stands out from the crowded crowd of boomer shooters at the time thanks to its Egyptian setting mixed with weird aliens. You are a member of a team sent into the Egyptian city of Karnak and it’s up to you to save the world from insect-like aliens that have turned Egypt and its creatures and mystical history against you. It’s a neat concept that gives just enough to explain why ancient characters from Egyptian mythology and weird bug-like aliens with laser pistols are running around trying to kill you. The Egyptian setting really helps the game stand out even when coming back to it in 2021.
Gameplay is as solid as ever, or can be expected. Nightdive Studios has proven that they understand what made these games work back in the day and know when to tweak something as well as when to leave something alone. This isn’t something like what was done with the atrocious XIII remaster that missed the mark on just about every single level. PowerSlave Exhumed is a great updating, but it sits in a weird place in terms of how it plays. You have to remember that this originally released on the Sega Saturn, then later ported to the PlayStation.
This is years before Halo and right around the time of Goldeneye. I mention this because at this point the industry had yet to figure out how to get a console FPS game to work as well as they did over on the PC. Playing this with a controller that lacks thumb-sticks and shoulder buttons (Saturn) really limits what can be done, something that was bettered when moving to the PlayStation. This means that the aiming is a lot more finicky than in something like DOOM or Duke3D on the PC. PowerSlave Exhumed has a distinct sweet spot in terms of its shooting mechanics.
If you are engaging an enemy at long range you are going to have trouble connecting at times, and, likewise, if you are up close to an enemy you’ll be fighting to make contact with your bullets, especially in tight spaces and with small enemies. But if you are at mid-range you’ll think it works perfectly. The issue is that you will be constantly floating in and out of the games sweet spot and it’ll leave you wondering what’s up with the controls. I’m used to playing these old boomer shooters so I adapted fine, but new players especially will have some issues. The mouse and keyboard layout helps a great deal, and those console gamers can use a gamepad here as well for a more authentic experience.
Another issue that these old console FPS titles tend to have is a lack of enemy variety. You are dealing with the very limited resources of the Saturn and PlayStation. This means you usually get lots of palate swaps and limited enemy variety. You can’t fill a level with tons of different enemies and expect to keep up the variety like in modern shooters, or even shooters that landed on the PC first and were later ported and downscaled for consoles. PowerSlave Exhumed tries its best by limiting enemies early in the game to essentially nothing more than canon fodder for the first few stages. You get some tiny scorpions, birds, and the occasional Anubis man.
Those enemies look fine, but the game is clearly trying to not overplay its hand too early. And while the enemies are okay, they are tiny specks on the screen and they get tiresome pretty quick. I love canon fodder to pad a level, but when the whole level devolves into that is were I take issue. You jump into a stage with a machine gun and expect to be mowing down serious baddies but end up shooting insects and birds for far too long. That isn’t to say that PowerSlave Exhumed doesn’t have good enemies, rather, it holds them from the player longer than I, and most, players would like.
But if you take the time to push through a few stages you’ll be rewarded with one of the coolest looking experiences of the era. Enemies are insane and the late game is a visual treat. The weapons also open up and get just as weird as the world you are traveling through. You’ll start shooting your pistol at tiny scorpions to wielding magic and throwing fireballs at monstrous mummies and insane aliens. The game also smartly used backtracking, something that wouldn’t get attention until Metroid Prime did it to great effect. This also means stages feel larger because you know you’ll be able to come back later with new abilities to access new parts of old areas.
PowerSlave Exhumed is a great update and while it isn’t as well remembered by the PC population, the niche Sega Saturn console owners will almost certainly remember this one as being something special. Add in those pesky PS1 owners and you have a cult classic that finally gets the proper PC port instead of the PC port that forced the game into the Build engine and losing some of the magic along the way. My only real issue is that playing on a widescreen monitor it feels like my own hitbox is a larger than I’d like.
There are times where I feel like an enemy attack was going to fly by me, but instead, hit me. Still, it’s a great end product that could become even better with a small patch or two to address some minor issues. And, to be fair, those issues are very minor and easily dealt with. Nightdive Studios have done it yet again and are quickly becoming a top developer in this space. It’s almost to the point where seeing the Nightdive logo on a product instantly means you are getting a winning experience. Oh, and coming in at under $20 sure doesn’t hurt!
PowerSlave Exhumed blends the Saturn and PlayStation port of the 90s console classic and adds some modern touches to create the ultimate PowerSlave experience that fans and PC players deserve
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