BUILD ENGINE MEGAREVIEW! (Patreon-exclusive bonus video)
Added 2025-05-16 20:46:52 +0000 UTCMan, the Build engine has so much to offer... do we really want to stop at TekWar? I sure don't. That's why I'm digging into the history of Build to bring you, my illustrious Patrons, a savory collection of Build Engine game minireviews! Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior, and many more. I'll attempt to answer the question: Which Build game is the greatest of them all?
YouTube link for those who prefer it:
https://youtu.be/lU5zv8rI3sw
Comments
Also, more random thought, I haven't noticed it as much with your footage of Dosbox titles, but I remember trying to play dark forces from the steam version and the screen tearing was awful, even on my vintage CRT. Had to change the output to surface or something for it work fine. All that being said, if you want a pre-made setup for PCem, which I've used in the past to play those games that were made for that weird DOS/Win3.1/Win95 era, I can set one up for you. I couldn't wrap my head around getting Win 3.1 to work well with the emulated video cards (I think I used the S3 Dirge?), but I got Win 95 working great. You'd probably want Win 98, but I think Windows 98 might still need an existing DOS installation like 95, or a specific floppy boot disk image, to install. Sorry, tl;dr for that, never had the screen tearing issue with PCem, whereas most steam retail copies of DOS games seem to have that issue (gog isn't as bad, but it's also a different beast, since I'm often used to the Win95 versions of many DOS games, like HoMM2). I set it up mostly to play a random assortment of childhood games I had or played as demos, like A.M.O.K., Scorcher (the only two games published from the Scavenger collective of Amiga scene devs), Ice Breaker, and Iz and Auggie: Escape from Dimension Q. I'd include Fury³, but that game plays natively on Windows to this day amazingly enough, though in either case, PCem or Windows 10/11, playing on fullscreen has some border artifacts that bug me, so I just play maximized windowed.
Metaleggman
2025-09-20 08:37:10 +0000 UTCAren't most of the best build engine games customized? Both 3D Realms DN3D and SW, along with Monolith's Blood, seem to run custom versions of the engine, whereas a majority of titles (not Capstone's surprisingly) are just using DN3D. Iono, I could be wrong, but that appears to be what the Build Engine Wikipedia article implies with their two lists of BE titles. I looked it up after Aqua Walrus, a great Canadian YouTuber with a small fan base, but some amazing crpg content, called three great build engine games Duke Nuke 3D, Blood, and Redneck Rampage. I hope it was tongue and cheek, or, as you put it, because of the dicey content in Shadow Warrior (which, even if you took out all potentially offending content, would still be the third best title in the original run of BE titles, imo lol). Also, random fun fact, be glad you played the Night Dive version of Blood. I would imagine the source engines have fixed this, but some or all of the original versions of the game had a nasty save game glitch, where loading a save changes the difficulty. Something weird like that, according to PC Game Wiki; after watching so much Civvie19 coverage of the game, I wanted to try it out and realized how many issues you can have trying to run it vanilla.
Metaleggman
2025-09-20 08:22:27 +0000 UTC/enjoyed
Nicolas Gutierrez
2025-05-29 09:21:11 +0000 UTCi had a demo of blood's first level as a kid, and never the full game, so i think i scoured that first level for every possible secret. i remember looking up both 'akimbo' and 'kewpie doll' trying to keep up with it
disk-kun, the mascot for the famicom disk system
2025-05-17 07:59:32 +0000 UTCI do think you did Redneck Rampage Rides Again a little dirty, though. It's easily the 4th best Build Engine game. Its level design is a massive improvement over the original, and if you play it with RedneckGDX, the keys become colored. It's a fun time, and it has my favorite vehicle level in any Build Engine game, Gamblin' Boat, which I will die on the hill is better than Phantom Express.
MangleMan25
2025-05-17 00:02:55 +0000 UTCBanger bonus video
Andrew Clark
2025-05-16 23:38:54 +0000 UTCTwo in one week?! Let’s go! Thank you, good sir!
Charles November
2025-05-16 22:21:51 +0000 UTCOh this is dope
UwUwizard
2025-05-16 21:38:17 +0000 UTCOh I haven't taken leave of my senses Jojo... I've come to them.
Majuular
2025-05-16 21:33:17 +0000 UTCIf isn't Blood then I'm afraid, sir, that you have taken leave of your senses. Thanks!
Jojo Evans
2025-05-16 21:25:25 +0000 UTCHELL YES
MangleMan25
2025-05-16 20:52:50 +0000 UTCOh sick!
In The Navy
2025-05-16 20:51:31 +0000 UTC
