YMMV / AMC Squad

• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Fans are split down the middle with Zaxtor Znort. On one hand, he's an easy character to follow and has some really good weapons to use, as well as some witty one-liners. On the other hand, he's seen as a carbon copy of Duke Nukem if he was an anthropomorphic fossa, and his one-liners are just Duke's lines repeated in a scratchy voice. It doesn't help that the missions tailored to him are some of the most difficult missions in the game.
  • Mikko Sandt. Some fans see him as a cool cyber-cultist CEO who runs his own company and has some of the best gameplay in a Build Engine game. Some other fans see him as an unlikeable character in his own right, what with his mentality and lack of concern over most events that transpire over the course of the game's story, as well as his playstyle being seen as overpowered. Compounding this further is his seeming lack of loyalty to the Squad, if the vats in his room in the new base are of any indication.
  • Geoffrey. While he has a few fans for his comedic attitude and interesting weapons, he also has a few detractors, citing his lack of personality or role in the overall plotline and being sidelined by other characters, save for one mission in Episode 3 where he takes center focus. He doesn't get as much attention compared to the other characters, though, but some players wish that he gets more focus in later episodes.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Good luck finding anyone who uses a loadout that includes at least one weapon that has armor-piercing capability, due to the many enemies that wear either body armor or heavy armor and therefore making regular weapons have reduced effectiveness.
  • There's also at least a few players who equip at least one gold weapon in their loadouts before running missions. Since the weapons are unlocked by completing Episodes 1 & 2 on Expert difficulty or higher and then purchasing them from the Shopkeeper for astoundingly high prices, and on top of that can damage all enemy types (including supernatural enemies, such as the dreaded Sorcerers), gold weapons are often seen as essential for surviving harder missions.
  • Also, anyone running missions on Professional or higher will equip their characters with the Personal Energy Shield. For more information, check Game-Breaker below.
• Demonic Spiders: There's plenty to go around in this game, which means no shortage of frustration for players.
  • Pig Cops have been upgraded to this status compared to their vanilla counterparts in Duke Nukem 3D, as they now wear body armor, which makes them resistant to regular attacks and forces players to equip weapons with armor-piercing capability. While they're not that common in the missions featuring Cycloids as the enemy faction, they're a LOT more prevalent in the EDF missions, and they're very capable of dishing out hurt with their shotguns. And they're very accurate with their shotguns. Also, should you defeat Pig Cops, they'll have a random chance to get back up and shoot at you with a pistol, which forces you to waste more ammunition just to ensure they stay dead.
  • In later missions, you'll come across Riot Cops, which are Pig Cops decked out in full body armor and equipped with automatic shotguns. And you'll hate these enemies more than the regular Pig Cops, as they love going prone before pumping you full of lead in seconds. Naturally, they appear a lot in the hardest missions, such as the exit path to Jungle Base and the end of the first part of Micky Begins.
  • Converted Grenadiers, which are zombified soldiers packing automatic grenade launchers and body armor, and they love to shoot large volleys of grenades at you. Better equip a weapon that has armor-piercing capability, since regular bullets won't penetrate their armor. Of course, they also tend to be placed in areas above the player, which nets them an advantage over you as they continue to rain hell on you. On the plus side, shooting them with the MIA Gun nets you a research project.
  • Maephistos rarely appear, which is a good thing since they tend to dish out a lot of damage and are extremely tanky to boot. Better hope you still have ammo left for your stronger weapons when you encounter them early on.
  • Flesh Wizards. While they don't have a lot of health, they can deal a lot of damage with their rapid-fire blood projectile attacks, and they appear rather commonly when you engage them in missions featuring Abyssal forces. Also, they're never really by themselves when they appear, and by that, they tend to show up in pairs at the very least.
  • Cultists appear in different flavors, but the ones in either dark brown robes or purple robes are the worst of the lot. In the case of the former, they're basically the Fanatics equipped with nets that they love to toss at you, forcing you to mash the use key to escape while they perforate you with their Tommy Guns. In the case of the latter, they're armored and wield powerful FN FAL rifles, which can rip you to shreds while you scramble to find a weapon that can pierce armor; they also love to toss grenades at you.
  • Bird-masked Cultists, available in two flavors: red and blue. Red bird-masked cultists wield flamethrowers while the blue ones wield plasma rifles, and both of them are capable of depleting your health faster than you can react. Thankfully, they're uncommon and they don't have a lot of health, but that doesn't mean you should put your guard down when you're in the clear. You may never know when one's sneaking around to find you.
  • Sorcerers. Immune to regular attacks, can cast damaging spells at you, and they can cast spells that either push you away from them when you're too close to them (and they love to do that every time you're within breathing distance of them), or teleport closer to you should you get too far away from them. Thankfully, they're vulnerable to silver bullets, silver bolts, magic attacks, and energy weapons, so you have plenty of options to defeat them, and hitting them with the MIA Gun nets you a research project that better protects you from their attacks.
  • Footsoldiers, who are infantrymen equipped with laser rifles that can shred your armor like a hot knife through butter and are always found in squads of at least 5. You'll be seeing them a lot in The Revolution, where they'll make short work of Highwire and his rebels.
• Evil Is Cool: Some players have this reaction toward Mikko Sandt, who is the ruthless CEO of his own corporation and enforces loyalty through cultish behavior, where his own employees revere him as a god and look down on anyone who dares to think otherwise. His player sprites, arsenal, and abilities help his case, and his missions do have some spectacular moments.
• Game-Breaker: The Personal Energy Shield, which grants the player character an energy shield with 25 HP. While this doesn't seem to be much, the PES is rechargeable just by standing still outside of combat for a few seconds, absorbs more damage than armor does, and has a fast recharging rate, all of which allows a player to remain in combat a lot longer than with just armor itself. If that's not enough, there's two research projects that buff the shield by doubling the amount of hit points it has to 50 and let it regenerate energy just by moving, thereby making combat less stressful on higher difficulties. The caveat here is that you can only get the Personal Energy Shield by blasting a shielded Elite Enforcer with the MIA Gun, and Elite Enforcers make their first appearance in Episode 3, but by the time you start it, the new player character Snowfall will have his own Personal Energy Shield, which can grant players an early preview of the equipment before they unlock it. Another caveat is that the PES itself is expensive to research and equip, costing 150K base budget to research and 8K supplies to equip, but as long as you have enough base budget and supplies to cover it and other projects & equipment, these issues won't be a bother in the long run.
  • The gold weapons, unlocked by completing Episodes 1 & 2 on Expert or higher and then purchasing them from the Shopkeeper for very expensive prices. The gold bullets they fire are capable of damaging all enemy types, including supernatural enemies (that would otherwise shrug off shots from regular bullets), and some of them also possess light armor-piercing capability, which allows them to damage enemies such as Pig Cops and Merc Riflers. These weapons also possess staggering base damage output (for reference, James' Golden Jericho deals a flat 23 points of damage to enemies; in comparison, the strongest regular pistol he has, the M1911, deals 14-18 points of damage), which can potentially dwarf the other weapons the player characters can use. Overall, gold weapons have earned a place in the game as great all-rounder weapons and a necessity for tackling the game's more difficult missions.
• Goddamned Bats: The Losts, evil spirits resembling floating skeletons, don't have a lot of HP and are weak to anti-supernatural attacks, but they're hard to find and can deal a lot of damage to your character if they don't have a Spirit Shield equipped. And their main method of attack involves blisteringly loud noises while the textures rapidly shift.
• Growing the Beard: While Episode 1 was well-received, it has received complaints from fans regarding, among other things, pacing issues, level design quirks and its short length. Episode 2, however, blew fans away by addressing those issues, providing larger, more satisfying levels, a more cohesive story & engaging plot, better pacing, and a wider variety of locales and enemy factions.
• He's Just Hiding: While the in-game lore claims that Duke Nukem is, in fact, dead, some believe he's simply taking a long-overdue vacation from constantly saving the world. A readme file for earlier versions of the game even posited that angle, but it's since been removed from more current versions.
• Memetic Mutation: "OOoooOOOH"^Explanation Micky, at low health, will let out a groan of pain that sounds akin to someone in the throes of passion, so to speak. Because of how ridiculous it sounds, fans have taken to mocking it in voice calls and streams whenever possible.
• Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page now.
• Scrappy Weapon: The MP40, widely considered to be the worst SMG and temporary weapon in the game, owing to it's lackluster damage output, low accuracy, and inability to pierce body armor. To add insult to injury, it has a higher loadout cost than the P90, another temporary weapon that lacks the MP40's drawbacks, which makes the MP40 a waste of space and supplies.^{For Comparison} The P90 costs 0.1 supplies to equip and use, while the MP40 costs 0.25 supplies to equip.
  • In older versions of the game, James's OTs-33 pistol was widely considered to be this, since it was just a fast-firing machine pistol and nothing else. A fully-upgraded Glock pistol would outshine the OTs-33 by a country mile by virtue of being James's default pistol, available to him from the beginning of the game, whereas the OTs-33 has to be unlocked by rescuing Matvei from the Palace Bunker in The Revolution and then buying it for a slightly steep price from the Shopkeeper, making the whole endeavor pointless. Recent updates have alleviated the weapon's status by making it fire silver bullets, which not only makes it capable of damaging supernatural enemies, but also grants players who haven't attained the Colt M1911 in the game a chance to fight supernatural enemies before other options are available.
  • James's G36K is this, compared to his other Slot 8 weapons, especially the LR-300. It's seen as a direct downgrade of the LR-300, in that it trades that rifle's 60-round quadstacked magazines and AP rounds for 30-round magazines and hollow-point rounds, while still retaining a red dot sight and underbarrel grenade launcher. Adding to this is that the G36K is obtained much later in the game compared to the LR-300^* The LR-300 can be obtained as early as Episode 1 by heading to New Los Angeles on the Moon and getting a license from Major Nelson's Guns; in comparison, the G36K is obtained in a secret area in the Catacombs in Episode 3, which makes the G36K's drawbacks even more apparent.
  • The Dartgun, which suffers from a serious case of Crippling Overspecialization in that it's an underwater rifle that excels at - you guessed it - aquatic combat, and struggles everywhere else. While it can fire explosive micro-torpedoes with its alt-fire, the micro-torpedoes only work when underwater. The darts do travel far while underwater, but will travel in short arcs when on land. And since this started as a Duke Nukem 3D mod, almost all of your weapons can work underwater, which makes the Dartgun rather redundant unless the player is running low on ammunition.
• That One Boss: AMC Squad isn't messing around in this department, as you'll be facing off against some really tough bosses.
  • Prokhor Vilmos, the boss of The Revolution (see below for more info), fights you in a giant powersuit and attacks by firing volleys of grenades at you, forcing you to be constantly on the run while fighting him, and his arena is rather cramped, with a few stacks of crates here and there as your only cover. Oh, and he is immune to most of your attacks save for your sniper rifle or a missile launcher that can be found in the area, meaning you have to be careful in landing your shots lest you either run out of bullets or rockets, or you get blown up. Thankfully, the one saving grace is that there's a checkpoint just before the boss's arena, meaning you won't have to hightail it to him should you die and reload a save.
  • The Cycloid Emperor at the end of City Under Siege. By this point, you don't have your weapons with you, so you have to make do with the Cycloid weapons found on the mothership. When you face off against the Emperor, he'll start spamming volleys of rockets at you, and the irritating part about this fight is that he is damn good at leading his shots, which makes dodging his rockets a pain in the ass. You do have plenty of health pickups dotted around the arena, but good luck getting them while avoiding his rocket spam. And on top of that, once you defeat him, he activates the ship's self-destruct, giving you two minutes to escape via fighter craft and hoping that you don't run into a wall while flying down the escape tunnel.
• That One Level: AMC Squad isn't pulling any punches when it comes to missions, and you'll be mashing Quicksave and Quickload a lot in some of the harder ones. As a general rule of thumb, any mission that has 5 purple squares as their difficulty rating will be guaranteed to be this.
  • From Episode 1, we have The Revolution. A long gauntlet of Footsoldiers guarding chokepoints in the city streets, on top of escorting your pal Vladmir alongside a squad of rebels through these chokepoints as you get torn apart by the footsoldiers' laser beams. While Vladmir has a ton of health, is capable of catching up to you, and packs a machine gun, he, as well as the rebels accompanying you, suffer from the issue of getting stuck behind level geometry, which means you having to hightail it back to their positions and get them unstuck. There is a breather in a segment where you play as James, which is just him crawling through a parking garage and then ziplining to a rear yard containing a power generator, but the majority of the mission has you playing as Highwire, who is rather fragile even with body armor but packs some damaging weapons. And on top of that, the second half of the mission has two frustrating segments: one where you have to rescue a rebel weapons supplier from a trio of footsoldiers, and a boss fight against a heavy powersuit, which can only be damaged by missiles or your sniper rifle's rounds. Your reward for this, if you play your cards right, is a new supply of special weapons for some of your agents, which makes the whole ordeal worth the trouble.
  • City Under Siege, the opening mission of Episode 2, is just brutal. It's a large city level filled with Cycloids, mostly consisting of heavy hitters with occasional low-level enemies, and your objectives are spread across the whole map. One segment, in particular, has you getting shrunk by a shrinker trap, which forces you to engage enemy forces in a LEGO house and then ride out of the room on a toy motorcycle, which is much easier said than done. The worst part has to be the bank assault, which, after fending off a massive ambush of Cycloid forces, has you clearing out a Federal Loan & Trust building of Pig Cops before grabbing a key, then fending off Assault Commanders during your escape. And when you think you're in the clear, the second level of the mission robs you of your equipment, forcing you to use Cycloid temporary weapons while making your way through the alien mothership. To cap it off, you fight against the Cycloid Emperor, who will mop the floor with you multiple times, and then have to make a mad dash against the clock in a spacecraft while the ship explodes around you.
  • Jungle Base, an optional mission in Episode 2. The first half of it consists of you hopping across tree branches while fighting off Cycloids and cultists, all to find a keycard to enter the eponymous base. It is much, much easier said than done as the branches are thin and spread apart, and the paths are extremely confusing to navigate, even with the advice the fossaman gives you at the start of the level. Drop off of a branch at any point in the level? Gotta start off all over again. The second half isn't that better, as you navigate a confusing series of corridors in the base while fighting numerous heavy-hitting enemies such as Battlelords, Pig Cops, Sorcerers, and Converted Soldiers. At one point, you have to activate a switch to reroute power to the doors leading to the base's reactor, which prevents you from retracing your steps back and forces you to take an alternate route to the reactor. And to add more salt to the wound, opening the reactor itself has you jumping across tiny platforms to reach a switch, then retrace your jumps back to the reactor entrance and flick a series of switches. And the cherry on top of the backbreaking difficulty cake? You have one minute to escape the base, which is now full of enemies, including Riot Cops and Protector Drones, before the base explodes. Better prepare extensively for this mission.