Slayers X Terminal Aftermath Vengance of the Slayer

Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer is a retro first-person shooter wrapped in an elaborate framing device. The conceit is that the developer, Zane, started designing the game in 1998 as a teenager, lost the notebook, and his friend Chase later rediscovered it on a burnt CD-ROM — now they're finishing it together, with Chase doing the coding because Zane forgot how. The whole presentation, from the marketing copy through the in-game art, is committed to that voice with conviction.

Underneath the joke is a genuinely well-made boomer shooter. Seven weapons cover the bases the era demanded — the S-Blade for melee, dual pistols, the Glass Blaster, the Explosive Sludge Launcher, the X100 Rapid Mutilator, the Triple Helix Missile Launcher, and Hackblood Power for when standard tools won't do — and every map is built with the kind of full destructibility that the late-90s shooter scene rarely managed. The soundtrack is original work by Seepage and Psyko Syndikate, deliberately matched to the period the framing pretends to come from.

The story, narrated in the voice of a deeply earnest 17-year-old, sends the X Slayers against the Psyko Sindikate, who are stealing Hackblood power to bring evil enemies to life. Levels travel from the Steel Sewer through the playground, the Dollar$haver store, the laundromat, Professor Pizza, inside a computer, and the South Boise July 4th fair, among other locations. The game knows exactly what it is, the joke holds up across the full campaign, and the underlying shooter is good enough to stand on its own without the metafictional scaffolding.