Eternogames Review: Nightmare Beta 2

Nightmare is a game with a noble purpose: to be the best first-person shooter, gameplay-wise, on YoYo Games. I can say, with little hesitation, that it is certainly on its way.

Graphics: 4/5
The floor and wall textures were ripped from the 3D tutorial, but otherwise, the graphics were very passable. The guns each have a unique model

Sound: 2/5
... Well, there IS sound. But not much. Only the player's gunshots and reloading make sound. However, the second star in this rating is for the use of Halo's sniper rifle sound, because I have always thought it is one of the best sound effects in video games.

Gameplay: 3/5
This may seem contradictory to my earlier assertion that Nightmare is on its way to top-FPS status on YoYo Games. However, I mean this statement with emphasis: this game has easily the best FPS base to work with, and could very simply metamorphose into something spectacular.
That being said, there is a reason for the paltry 3 out of 5 stars. Numerous small glitches plague the game.

-Some parts, especially when the player is near slopes or computer consoles, run rather slowly. This is probably the fault of my computer, but I feel I should warn potential players.
-The remnants of the Game Maker 3D tutorial haunt the halls of Nightmare. Most notably, if the player looks at a wall at an angle greater than 45 degrees, they stop. This is completely unnecessary, and downright annoying as well.
-In the same vein, shooting past corners is needlessly difficult. The bullet masks must be very large, because the sniper rifle and shotgun will clip the corner (and not hit their intended target) when aimed about an in-game foot past the wall. This makes stealth tricky, as walking all the way into a room is the only way to ensure a hit on the target.
-While crouching (which is otherwise glitch-free), moving backwards is much faster than moving in any other direction. This should be an easy fix, unless of course it's intentional.
-Nightmare features impressive-looking reticle bloom on all the weapons, but I was unsure whether it affected the gun's fire or not. Also, walking forward expands the reticle, but strafing does not, which is, again, probably an easy fix.
-While the weapon sway while walking adds a nice touch of realism, it leads to a distracting ironsight bug in which the gun will appear off-center if it is swaying to the side when ironsights are activated.
-A very minor... glitch and bug aren't the right words... detail...? A very minor detail is the ability to reload while the gun is fully loaded, or when it has no more ammo outside of the current magazine.

The truth is, these glitches were the only things that stood out as far as gameplay goes, and most if not all of them are easily fixable. And so Nightmare, still in its beta version, has the capacity to evolve far beyond this review's complaints.

Story: 1/5
There is no story. Give it a break, it's a beta.

Interface: 5/5
Clean, simple, and unobtrusive, Nightmare's menus and screen layouts are everything an FPS should be and nothing they shouldn't. Attractive ammo counters, weapon pictures, health and armor bars, and a display showing collected keys accomplish all of a HUD's tasks. Well done, indeed.

Overall: 3/5
... Well, that's the mathematical average, anyway. If you were an attentive enough reader, you'd realize that doesn't reflect my true opinion of Nightmare Beta 2, which lies somewhere in the high 3.5-4 star range. A simple, workable FPS with lofty goals and more than enough motivation to reach them, this currently stands at the top of my mental list of projects to watch.