First person shooters have been getting really stale in recent memory. Not saying they are terrible or you should feel ashamed if this is your favorite video game genre. Well maybe feel a little bit ashamed if these are the only games you play and you don’t care about trying anything else, but I digress. First person shooters have been getting stale and I blame the video game industry for not attempting to go outside the box. To make games that don’t mainly revolve around gritty realism or combat that isn’t just hiding behind a wall half the time so your health can regenerate. I want games that are actually games! Give me something like Metro Exodus where it’s the atmosphere that adds to the sense of immersion rather than how pretty the game looks. Doom Eternal where players are forced to exploit enemy weaknesses, manage their resources, and be on the lookout for their next target/refill. Give me Halo Infinite and the numerous options to experiment with besides just running back to cover. Give me games that actually engage with me! Triple A devs can innovate or go to new heights! Why aren’t you doing that FPS genre!? Why!? Anyways, this is where I go on a rant about how the Triple A scene fails us time and time again, and when this happens you can always head towards the indie scene to find the games you are looking for.
Games that either run with creative ideas or remind us of times when video games were fun. The one shooter subgenre that I’ve seen on the rise recently is sort of a resurgence. A crusade to bring out the best rather than the mediocre. Enter “Boomer Shooters,” or what I call retro FPS because the other name sounds kind of cringeworthy. These are shooters that take heavy inspiration from FPS titles of the 1990s. Quake, Blood, Duke Nukem 3D, and of course Doom. These games not only serve as spiritual successors to these classics, but attempt to put ideas on the table that these past titles weren’t able to deliver back in the olden days. We have Amid Evil, Project Warlock, Ion Fury, and the plethora of 2022. Fashion Police Squad, Prodeus, Cultic, Forgive Me Father, and the second act of Ultrakill. There have been a ton of retro FPS games. None of which I have played, but I’m quite impressed with the amount of indie developers who want to tackle some of the more ambitious projects in the indie landscape. However, there’s one game that helped kick the retro FPS crusade into full gear and that game was Dusk. Developed by practically one guy, David Szymanski, and published by New Blood Interactive who have helped out with a small handful of the indie retro FPS titles I mentioned a few seconds ago like Amid Evil and Ultrakill.
Dusk didn’t begin development until 2015 as David Szymanski spent a good chunk of the 2000s trying to think of what his dream game would be. He grew up playing Doom and Half-Life, and wanted to make a project that would pay respect to two of the most influential games of all time. You can see a lot of the Doom and Half-Life inspirations scattered around Dusk. The fast paced combat, arena styled rooms, and varying enemy types which force you to approach each fight in a different way like in Doom. The story of an interdimensional gateways, sci-fi elements halfway through, and things not being what they seem like in Half-Life. I know hellish interdimensional invasions also existed in Doom, but Half-Life built more upon the idea. Dusk was put into the works and it was mainly Szymanski behind all of it. Besides Dave Oshry serving as a producer, Dusk was mainly made by one person which is even more stunning as these types of games are easier to make with teams. Also explains why Dusk wasn’t fully released until three years after work started. Dusk released during late 2018 and on the same date as the first Doom. It was the 25th anniversary of Doom that year and what better way to show you are a fan than by releasing your heavily inspired game on the same date. The game didn’t sell like hotcakes, but it did appease to those old school FPS players. They were surprised with how well the game was and addictively fun it was, which was unexpected because the thing about solo development is that you tend to lose focus some way through development. Dusk received extremely positive reception on Steam and is considered one of the best shooters in recent memory.
I’ve been planning to play Dusk for quite some time now, but haven’t gotten the chance as I’ve been busy with other games sitting on my backlog. Sat down to play it this week and managed to beat it in two days. Almost five years later does Dusk live up to the amount of hype and praise that has been surrounding it since launch? The answer is “yes.” Dusk is absolutely brilliant and may just be one of the best first person shooters I have played in a very long time. It’s not a very long game and there are a couple shortcomings, but I think this is a game any FPS fan can enjoy even if they are not familiar with this style of shooters. So today we’ll be talking about Dusk and why it deserves your utter attention. Sickle and hook until the work is done….
Story
We follow the treasure hunter, otherwise the DuskDude named by the community, as he journeys to the humble country town of Dusk located in the middle of Pennsylvania. He hears rumors of ancient treasure lying buried beneath the town and makes his way there to uncover what it is. The town has been walled off by the US government for unknown reasons, but that’s not going to stop the DuskDude as he approaches the outskirts of the town. Once he enters the countryside he is approached by the residents of Dusk and they don’t seem to be friendly with outsiders. They knock the DuskDude out and drag to the basement of one of the nearby houses. He wakes up to hear a mysterious voice speak in the background, but he is unable to see who it physically is and where it is coming from. The voice orders three men in the room to massacre DuskDude, and these three men wear straw sacks over their heads and wield chainsaws. They are dressed like farmers and from what we can tell the ominous voice has managed to take control over the farmers in the area. DuskDude, armed with two sickles, managed to slice his way through the three armed men and escape the confines of the basement. More men appear, but this time they are dressed in white robes. Accusing you of being a heretic and wanting to reduce you to blood. They shoot fire out of their hands, emit a green paranormal energy, and seem to be floating off from the ground. Turns out there’s a cult in the town of Dusk and the leader of the cult Jakob, the voice speaking to you, has been dealing with interdimensional powers.
Jakob taught what he learned to the inhabitants of Dusk and began granting them unholy powers. Anybody who didn’t want to join or submit to his newfound cult were massacred and turned into minced meat. Inanimate objects around Dusk like scarecrows began to come to life, the powers of Jakob began to corrupt the wildlife, and soon the military was sent in to deal with the problem. However, upon discovering Jakon’s interdimensional practices and power harnessing they began experimenting with the problem as well. Eventually becoming corrupted and under the control of Jakob. The DuskDude no longer cares about the treasure lying within the town. He needs to fight his way through the possessed inhabitants, bring down Jakob before he becomes too powerful, and escape before the incomprehensible horrors takes him.
Gameplay
Dusk, being a retro FPS, plays similarly to games like Doom or Quake. In this case it plays more closely to Quake as both the enemies and environments are 3D, there’s a lot of verticality to the levels, and movement is more about bouncing around like a pinball rather than circle strafing around enemies. Combat is fairly straightforward, but ramps up in difficulty as stronger foes are thrown at you and in large numbers. You have the basic chainsaw men who run at you, the cutlist who throw fireballs at you, and early on deer and scarecrows armed with shotguns. Soon you’ll face the military who are armed with the same equipment as you, like the light weight troops armed with assault rifles and the heavies who fire explosives at you. You’ll face these stronger red cultists who fire large slow moving fireballs that home in on you and deal tons of damage. The invisible wendigos who don’t appear until you shoot at them. The mamas, otherwise these tall lanky figures similar to the scarecrows, who take a lot of bullets and fire deadly explosive rounds at fast speed. The knights who quickly run up to you and slash with a magic powered sword. These giant floating orbs with fire skulls everywhere as if the game was a bullet hell, and much more. In fact, this game does become a bullet hell as you attempt to out move the several attacks flying at you. So what do you do when several men are trying to kill you? Shoot them.
Dusk gives you a variety of weapons to fight back with and they all have their own benefits. You have the pistol which is weak, but has the largest ammo capacity out of all the firearms and can fire at a decent speed. There is the shotgun which has a small hitbox, but can do a bit of damage when you land it right or fight up close. There is the supershot which has an even smaller hitbox, shorter range, and consumes twice as much ammo as the normal shotgun but deals even more damage and can oftentimes one shot a majority of regular sized enemies. The assault rifle rapidly fires bullets and is good for laying down suppressing fire or mowing down a group of foes. The hunting rifle requires very precise aim, but can nail foes from afar. The crossbow is another long ranged weapon, but your shots can go through walls and can hit multiple enemies at once. The riveter is a rapid fire missile launcher, and then there’s the mortar which has a shorter range and an arch but can deal tons of damage if the projectiles are landed correctly and it has an alt fire where you detonate whatever explosives you laid along the ground. You can dual wield pistols and shotguns which allows you to deal double damage with either or. You also have two melee weapons. A magical sword unlocked later on that when you are at full health can be charged to do a one shot thrust attack. Then your sickles which are a last resort if you run out of ammo.
To be able to use specific guns longer you have to pick up more ammunition fitting said gun, and often it’s scattered around the battlefield. You have to constantly jet around to find the resources you need, and combine this with the waves of enemies being thrown at the player it forces you to be on the move and search for the next vantage point. When do you run into the hoard, keep a safe distance, or better yet what gun is best to use against specific enemies. That hunting rifle may be better at shooting enemies at high points or flying around the air, and the super shotgun is much better in tight corridors or enemies that love to run right into your face. If you do somehow get hit by an enemy attack or projectile you can pick up medkits or these purple crystals dropped occasionally by foes. These are magical health potions, and when you consume one while at full health you gain an extra health point. It’s temporary though, so think of it similar to overcharge in the modern Wolfenstien titles. However, that health increase doesn’t drain overtime so that’s a relief. There are also power ups to pick up like the one that increases your firing rate. Great for when you are using an automatic weapon like the assault rifle or shotgun. These climbing hooks to literally spider around rooms, or this one power up which is literally a nod to Superhot.
Dusk is just really fun. The combat loop is engaging, and much like Doom and all its inspirations ditches what makes modern shooters. No cover based shooting, no weapon reloading, two gun restriction, or enemies that don’t attempt to hunt down and hound the player. You are punished for either standing still or refusing to learn how to adapt to a scenario. Dusk knows what it means to be a fast paced shooter and achieves it on all fronts. “Good? Bad? I’m the one with the gun.”
Thoughts
Dusk is the best first person shooter I’ve played since Doom Eternal. It is nonstop pedal to the metal and when it’s not it finds another way to amaze the player. I ranted about the combat for a bit, so instead let’s dive a little bit deeper into what else Dusk does incredibly well. For one the game has a really retro aesthetic. Everything is made using 3D models, but consists of polygons with pixel texturing. This is the most liminal game you’ll ever see, but there are times where the environments managed to amaze me. The use of lighting, tone, and above all atmosphere. Dusk handles atmosphere and presentation really well, and perfectly sets the mood to a lot of scenes. There are a couple levels where you’ll be dumped into these dark, tight, and claustrophobic halls or caves. You’ll slowly navigate through them not knowing what is possibly ahead. You make a turn and there’s an enemy running towards you. Maybe it’ll be one of those wendigo enemies who are invisible and the only way to tell that they are is if you listen to their screams and heavy huffing noises as they run. There are times when Dusk went from action horror to pure horror, and that’s when the game managed to take me by surprise. I didn’t talk about them during the last section, but there’s one enemy type later on that will absolutely make you sh*t your pants. Oh yeah, Dusk also has really good audio and sound design. Every enemy type makes a distinct sound which helps you tell what they are, and my god the sound of your guns. Every weapon is satisfyingly fun to use. The thud of your super shotgun, the crackling of your assault rifle, the pumping of the mortar, and how it feels to land every single blow successfully.
As the game goes on it gets even more ambitious with the levels and environments. First chapter is set within the countryside and town of Dusk, but around chapter two it gets interesting. You are dumped into a laboratory similar to Half-Life, but it’s this one level midway through where you realize something isn’t right. You navigate the complex collecting keys and shooting any of the possessed guards who try to attack you. Backtracking to a previous room you notice that the walls are shifting around. The doorway you just went through is now on the ceiling, shelves are now hanging upside down on the wall, and texturing is all over the place. The more you navigate the facility the more twisted it becomes, to the point where you fight in a town inside the facility which is inside a dome which the military built themselves. Then you get to chapter three and… you know what I’m gonna stop spoiling it from here because a lot of what happens in the final chapter is best when you go in blind. It has some of the most impressive levels in the game and it ends with an epic horrifying conclusion. The story of Dusk isn’t much, in fact it’s either really light or nonexistent at times, but what is here is entertaining. Discovering the mysteries of the cult, what has been conjured from them, what happened to the government officials sent in, and meeting the being who has been pulling the strings all this time. It’s not a fantastic story, but if you combine it with the stellar presentation you have a fantastic horror plot in a non horror game.
Final complement is that the soundtrack is awesome. It was composed by Andrew Hulshult who also did the soundtracks for Prodeus and Amid Evil, and he knows exactly what it takes to make music as heavy as the tracks from Doom. Absolutely stellar music to keep your blood pumping and heart racing as you move at the speed of light and cut down monstrosity after monstrosity. Dusk is just brilliant and by now you can tell by now I strongly recommend it. However, there are a few shortcomings the game has. The boss fights kinda suck. It’s not that the bosses aren’t fun or use unfair mechanics, but besides the last two bosses none of them really stood out for me. Some bosses become regular enemies later on, or some of them are just lame. For a game with a demonic cult and interdimensional beings why would one of the bosses be a crocodile that spits acid or a fish? The levels and environments are great, but don’t always give you good direction on where to go next. That’s not to say the level design is bad. There are times when you’ll open up a shortcut that leads to an early part of the stage, which often contains the colored door you need to open using the keycard you just obtained. There are secrets hidden everywhere that occasionally give you stronger weapons earlier in each chapter. Some levels are big, but contain peculiar structures in the distance you might want to visit. It’s maze levels that require memorization.
You have the maze-like levels covered in darkness and sometimes these stages start you off with your flashlight broken. Meaning you are spending five plus minutes figuring out where you are going as half the time you are walking into a wall. Then you have the second to last level which is an awesome mess. A level that throws waves upon waves of enemies you have facing throughout the game. A test of all the skill you have built up, but this level can drag on for a bit and be difficult near the end as most likely you used up all the health and ammo refill the stage started out with. Also you better make good use of saving during that stage, because dying may send you back to the beginning which forces you to redo a bunch of progress. Other than that, Duskis great. I won’t call it my favorite indie shooter because this is the only one I’ve played and I still have a slew of them to try out, but for my first one it’s really good. If you readers have any recommendations on what indie shooter I should play next that would be great. I’m thinking of trying Neon White because a bunch of people I know were calling it a GOTY contender last year, and I preordered a physical copy of Prodeus awhile ago so expect a review on it in April. In the end I am going to give Dusk a 9/10 for excellence at best.
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