I’d have been fine with no vending machine at all, but putting them where I can see them but not reach them is just rubbing salt in the wound. Worse, one of the most important elements is a vending machine that lets you buy armor or extra ammo for piles of scrap dropped from enemies, and often these get placed right underneath acid-spewing turrets that are sometimes impossible to avoid. For example, because of the ancient-looking art style and its intentionally blocky textures, sometimes it's hard to make out the elevating platforms from the surrounding walls, making me wonder for a bit if Strafe had created a level that's impossible to escape. The trouble began when I started to notice I was being led astray too often. You start off by choosing a permanent one – a shotgun, a laser gun, or a machine gun – but I had the most fun when picking up the rocket launchers, nail guns, pistols, and other firearms scattered about the entrail-splattered floors and emptying their limited ammo before switching back to the defaults.

It helps that Strafe’s gunplay usually satisfies, even though the guns always feel like they would benefit from a bit more 'oomph' or originality. It bleeds '90s personality and nails so much about the early shooter experience while mixing it with today's craze for roguelike-style procedural generation and single-life runs, but too often it shoots itself in the foot with its unfair randomization, miserly access to armor and ammo boosts, and some lethal bugs. That's been my experience for much of Strafe.

And that's why I howl in rage when I take an elevator down and get instantly slaughtered by swarms of enemies from both behind and in front when I arrive at the bottom. I know now that death in Strafe comes far more easily than it ever did in id's landmark first-person shooter, and this is the first time in hours I've made it so far without taking much damage. And yet here I am, three stages in, carefully and methodically picking off charging Gluttons and waist-high robots who aim annoyingly well. I felt it pushing me to blaze through its levels as quickly as I used to race through the original Quake in 1996, and I'd love nothing more than to oblige.

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