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Ashes 2063

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  • Awesome Music: The mod features a full CD-quality soundtrack by John S. Weekley packed with great John Carpenter-esq Synth Rock:
    • Wasteland, the first level theme for 2063, gets things started on the right note with its mix of post-apocalyptic rock guitars and 80s synths that set the tone for the rest of the journey.
    • Back in the Game, the first level theme for Afterglow, is a remix of Wasteland from the first episode and a fantastic track to open the game with, perfectly capturing the feeling of the Scav knocking the rust off and getting back to business.
    • To Ashes is widely considered to be the best track in 2063, if not the best track in the whole series. It eventually got a remix in Hard Reset, appropriately titled To Dust.
  • Demonic Spiders:
    • Matangos are very fast, very durable (they can survive a fully-charged Junker Driver shot, something very few non-minibosses can boast of), hit like an elephant, and have an acid spit that travels obscenely fast. Their only weakness is the Master Blaster, everything else is only moderately effective. The worst part is, the Botanical Gardens are infested with Matangos, but that's not where you first find them, no: their first appearance is in the nuclear site by Prosperity, where you round a corner and there one is, ready to rip your skin off.
    • Hard Reset gives us the Wendigo. They move incredibly fast, dole out two claw slashes in sequence that deal 50+ damage each, can take several double-barrel shotgun blasts or explosive bolts to the face, and their screams and roars range from unpleasant to unsettling. Getting cornered by just one is a death sentence, and they tend to crop up in packs of two. Made worse by how in the level they appear in, you're still a ways off from getting the best weapon to kill them with, and by the time you have it, you only face four more in the last ever encounter with them. Wendigoes were so bad that later updates nerfed them, upping their mobility but reducing their toughness to make them more bearable to deal with.
  • Even Better Sequel: While the first episode was warmly received, Afterglow blew away expectations with its greatly increased scale, RPG elements and deeper narrative with Multiple Endings. It wasn't much of a surprise when it was placed in the top tier of Doomworld's 2021 Cacoawards, and there's even been calls to release the mod as a standalone retail game.
  • Friendly Fandoms: The game enjoys a lot of fan overlap with Hedon, both being acclaimed GZDoom shooters released around the same timeframe. Ashes: Afterglow even includes a few Shout Outs to Hedon in several Easter Eggs.
  • Nightmare Fuel: If you return to the Spire underground, you can access a computer terminal. Do so, and when returning to the lobby you'll be greeted by a pair of pure white, basketball-sized eyes staring at you out of the darkness of an open elevator shaft. This is your reintroduction to the Haunts.
    ???: There! (singsong) I see you!
    • With the added context of Hard Reset, it's implied that this is the same spirit that has been stalking Walker ever since his wife died.
  • Paranoia Fuel: In the Array, you need to get an access keycard behind a long sequence of big, slow airlock doors. With the game's tendency to spawn enemies offscreen the moment you pick up a key, you will be wondering how fast you can get through the airlock sequence in reverse... And then they start opening one by one. Then you descend into the lower levels, pick up the key necessary to exit the level... then you hear footsteps approaching behind you. Then they start getting faster. Except there's nothing there.

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