A bit of a disclaimer, this game is in early access and by the time of this review, only Prelude + Act 1 is out for it.

Although that doesn't matter, there's really no reason not to pick it up. The game holds options to satisfy every single part of the action fps spectrum. Every single enemy design is used spectacularly, every arena is a fun roller coaster to constantly position and shoot at enemies from, and the continuous aggression leads to a nonstop thrill. Weapons have great utility and distinct use between each other, and your movement toolkit is especially impressive with dash jump, slide jumps, and combining those two to get a pseudo-bunnyhop

And in a genre rife with really bad bosses, Ultrakill manages to even break that expectation, grinding it into dust as it takes cues out of the best bosses of other games and combines them into incredible encounters. A couple bosses in particular remind me heavily of Vergil, down to somewhat similar uses of attacks.

It's definitely the best FPS that's come out this year, even if it's not exactly finished. I'll have a lot more to say and analyze when Act 2 and 3 release, but for now I can't recommend Ultrakill enough.

When he said "Prepare thyself" I was prepared
When he said "Thy end is now" I did not end
When he said "Die" I did not die
When he said "Crush" I was not crushed
When he said "Judgement" I was not judged
But when he said "Weak" I was weak.

11/10 honestly the best game I've ever played

Suggested by @MrTheMan for This list.

It seems that every indie game nowadays has to be a spiritual successor to something or a combination of two games. I can empathize with developers, as this is a good way to sell a game at the end of the day, but it means that often, the games that have the most potential to experiment will stick too close to their inspirations. While concepts like Dark Souls Castleroid, Quake mixed with Blood, and Super Metroid with more platforming can be cool, rarely do they reach the height of the games they’re inspired by.

Ultrakill is one of those few cases that just about does. You can’t deny the influences here, because typing devilmayquake.com into your search engine of choice will lead you to this game’s steam page. This game is a clear attempt to make a stylish, expressive boomer shooter-character action hybrid. While this concept sounds cool, the actually details of executing the concept seem somewhat dubious. How do you combine the flashy excess of Devil May Cry with the raw simplicity of Quake into a good game?

I think one of the best ways to demonstrate this game’s qualities is with one of its most iconic elements: the coin. Basically, you flip a coin into the air, and if you shoot the coin with a hitscan gun, your bullet will become stronger and hit the nearest enemy’s weakspot. The first positive of the coin is that it allows for a lot of strategies. You can use it to hit enemies around corners, shoot through an enemy, hit the coin, and then hit another enemy, hit a lot of coins to build up more damage, and more. This simple idea allows for a lot of strategies, and this applies to the rest of the surprisingly small loadout. Honestly, the guns are pretty conventional at a glance, but their alternate fires give a little more complexity and uniqueness, at least as much as you can have for a game so dedicated to being fast paced. The nailgun has a magnet for attracting shots, there’s these rockets that you can hold in place and let fly after a few seconds, it’s not the most unique weapon loadout I’ve seen but they’re all fun to use and fit the game.

Another positive of the coin is that it basically tells you an enemy’s weak spot when you use it. It’s a kinda genius way to show weaknesses for enemies, as while it’s a pretty simple method, it’s not overtly signaled to players. This is indicative of how the game lets the players figure out mechanics on their own with minimal guidance. When you get a new weapon, a brief summary of the weapon appears on screen, and you go through a small section to demonstrate the weapon’s properties. While this game can occasionally be overwhelming, it gives enough wiggle room and information to let the player choose their playstyle. This leads well into the third positive of the coin…

It’s just cool. This is, of course, subjective, but ricocheting shots off coins is awesome, as is a lot of other stuff in this game. You can slide around and rocket jump, punch projectiles back at enemies, you can also punch shotgun blasts after you shoot them to make them stronger. There’s a great mix of options being balanced while also just being intrinsically fun to use. In this way, Ultrakill does have some of the “Rule of Cool” appeal of Devil May Cry, although I wouldn’t call it quite as over-the-top. Unfortunately, you can’t surf on enemies or use motorcycles as weapons in this game.

The coin does show one of the issues with the games, which is that abilities are kinda easy to spam. The obvious note is that most guns have no ammo or reloading. Spam that shotgun all you want, you’ll never run out of bullets! This is fine, my main issue is how easy it is to get alt fires and dashes back, which usually return after a cooldown. Considering that one of the main mechanics is that the only way to recover health is to get up-close-and-personal with the enemy, I don’t get why they didn’t put a kill or damage requirement to earn alt fires back. I suppose this is less of a problem as the skill ceiling goes up (missing a coin-deflected railgun shot is kinda just punishment enough sometimes), but I think some of these guns could’ve used more punishment for missing shots.

Just like how the coin deflects shots from linear-shooting guns, the level design here is more linear than any of its influences. Most of the time, backtracking is minimal, which I’m honestly fine with. This doesn’t stop the developers from hiding a few secrets, which were fun to find. Most encounters take place in arenas that feature solid cover and verticality, and the enemies that populate these arenas are also pretty varied in terms of how you want to take them down. There’s a decent amount of visual variety here, and while I’d hesitate to call it cohesive in the greater game, each act’s levels usually lead naturally enough into the next one.

This game also has a story. Much how I couldn’t think of a way to tie this to the coin metaphor, I feel like the story is somewhat tonally disconnected from the rest of the experience. For how “Rule of cool” this game is, I’m surprised that they try to build lore and stuff. They even have optional history books in a few levels. The story stuff is fine, I guess. I don’t really care much about Gabriel as a character, although he is a pretty decent rival character a la Vergil or Genshin. It’s easy enough to ignore either way, and I can’t imagine the story being the main appeal to anyone.

Ultrakill is still in early access (As of now, ACT II is complete), but I’d say it’s worth buying regardless. If you’re experienced with fast-paced FPS games, go ahead and try the demo, and if you like it, toss the creators some coins and buy the full game at some point. Honestly, those who aren’t as familiar with games like this may be better off trying the essentials like Doom or Quake first, as I think this game works best with knowledge of games like that. I’m gonna give Ultrakill a 9/10, close to an 8.

I first wanted to start writing by saying "One of the best..", but I realized this is "The best..."
Ultrakill is a game that if you are thinking of getting, or just reading reviews, just buy it.
This is the best FPS I have ever seen, It's like DOOM, but with 3 polygons for graphics. This is the only minor problem the game has, ugly graphics. Now the good parts:

A fast-paced, bloody, adrenaline-inducing, male hormone generator. This game has extremely good shooting mechanics, gun mechanics, movement mechanics, and controls. You can, and will jump higher than the empire state building accidentally, at least once. You will see nothing but blood on your screen. You will kill everything that moves. You will solve (optional and easy) puzzles. You will enjoy its music.

For the "Like DOOM" part; Yes, just like that, but way faster, way more bloody, way more satisfying, and way more ultrakill. If you think that the graphics are bad, think again! The game is so violent that you just can't notice, Your focus will be on your 11-ish guns, 2 bars, 2 melees, and the abundance of movement abilities. And the interactions between all of them.

Watching someone play is like watching people play chess, you will not understand what is happening, and the only good YouTuber that captures the game's feeling is Max0r.

You have a style meter, just like in DMC. This one has a level after the triple S-es even. The meter has multiplication bonuses for how frequently are you using the same gun up to 3x, and another multiplier for your current movement speed up to another 3x.
I will just say two of the most basic but bad-ass things you can do in this game. First, you can throw up coins, and shoot them, multiplying the damage and ricocheting it to a weak point. Second, you can parry bullets, this will send them back to the sender even faster and explode on contact. You can even parry your own bullets to make them deal more AOE damage.

While playing this experience you will come across a Crash Bandicoot level in the middle of a bloodshed. (Not even a spoiler, there are much more easter eggs in the game, probably more than any other game)
If you are still reading, go to the steam page and buy it now.

PS: After this life-altering journey (game), DOOM is played with Minecraft's music.

I honestly feel like ULTRAKILL works as well as it does partially by virtue of giving the player so many tools and such a compelling moveset that even if you're not that great at executing the game's more advanced tech (I can not reliably punch the railgun's drill from enemy to enemy like I know you can, I think I've done it successfully once), having a good understanding of "how to play" ULTRAKILL will make you feel like you're incredible at it.

If you're reliably switching weapons, staying in the air, spending what time you do have to be on the ground sliding, and thinking on your feet about which enemies to prioritize/how to regain lost blood, the style meter will literally start screaming "OH!! LOOK AT YOU!! LOOK AT THAT! LOOK WHAT YOU JUST DID! THAT WAS SICK!!" and rewarding you with insanely crunchy enemy kill sfx and screen freezes. Even in a world with Doom Eternal I feel like this is absolutely the best character action-style shooter I've played due to that alone.

This is really impressive. Adding the DMC Style system to a slide-n-shoot/airdashing FPS has been done before (see: Bulletstorm, Vanquish, etc.), where this one goes crazy is that health management is done entirely through CQC kills, meaning that the only way to survive in this game is to manage the risk of pulling off stylish shit with the insurance of your evasion skills. The weapon balance is also carefully considered, the long standard of the Hitscan Machine Gun and Shotty being the go to killers in FPS is not true here: Shotty is reliable but not as efficient or stylish as other options, and ULTRAKILL's Hitscan Machinegun is not only projectile-based now but also has severe dropoff a few feet past melee range. The power nerfs of the goto duo is made up through other weapons and alt-fires: the pistol is a surprisingly powerful weapon with two really strong, yet high skill alt fires, and the Shotty has two risky yet rewarding Crowd Control alt fires. Machinegun has another interesting alt-fire as well, but I'm digressing. The impressive point of ULTRAKILL is really how well executed it is; it could of have been Bulletstorm + Vanquish and had all the hardcore FPS gamers of the 7th gen goin crazy, but it goes a step beyond in offering more combat depth and a higher skill ceiling than either game. With four different alt-fires planned and some additional levels, as well as the removal of fall deaths, this could really become a pinnacle of the genre.