Playtime: 12 Hours
Score: 8/10
A fantastic indie shooter that is a love letter to the 90s era of FPS games! I grew up playing old shooters like Quake 2 and Duke Nukem 3D with my dad on his old PC. While I have never been a super die hard of the sub-genre, I have some good nostalgia for it. These games have come back in a big way with both AAA outings like Doom 2016 and Eternal but also in smaller indie shooters, like Dusk!
To start with the positives, the atmosphere of this game is just so on point. I like the rural, rustic look the game goes for, and as a big Resident Evil 4 fan, I love that you start out in farm land, and have to fight big guys with chainsaws and bags over their heads. The guns are all really awesome and they feel satisfying to use. Movement is fast and responsive, and the game does a good job of making you feel like death incarnate.
The real show stealer though I feel was the games level design. Some levels feel like the standard 90s goodness that you would want in a game like this, but others really do some crazy stuff. It goes above and beyond what you would have typically seen in a 90s FPS game, and I really appreciated it. Games like Prey and Dishonored made me appreciate level design a whole lot more then I did before and this game excels at that!
The music as well is excellent and I'm glad I bought the OST alongside the game. It can sound similar to the new Doom games, but it also does some out of the norm tracks that I loved.
As for negatives, while the first episode did a great job establishing the vibe and tone, the second one was just a slog to play through for me personally. It does have some good levels but it overall just dragged for me and I wanted it to be over by the halfway point. The game does pick it back up in episode 3, but ya I do wish the second episode was stronger. While I did praise the level design, some levels can be really annoying to traverse and like they took the mind-bending stuff a bit too far. Like there's one level where the gravity gets warped and you have to basically space jump across the map to get inside a house. That was not fun at all. Also the second last level was really bad and just felt like a giant horde mode section before the final boss. The final boss itself though was very strong and it ended the game with a bang!
Overall though, if your looking for a good old nostalgic shooter, look no further then Dusk!
All Games I have Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/
Score: 8/10
A fantastic indie shooter that is a love letter to the 90s era of FPS games! I grew up playing old shooters like Quake 2 and Duke Nukem 3D with my dad on his old PC. While I have never been a super die hard of the sub-genre, I have some good nostalgia for it. These games have come back in a big way with both AAA outings like Doom 2016 and Eternal but also in smaller indie shooters, like Dusk!
To start with the positives, the atmosphere of this game is just so on point. I like the rural, rustic look the game goes for, and as a big Resident Evil 4 fan, I love that you start out in farm land, and have to fight big guys with chainsaws and bags over their heads. The guns are all really awesome and they feel satisfying to use. Movement is fast and responsive, and the game does a good job of making you feel like death incarnate.
The real show stealer though I feel was the games level design. Some levels feel like the standard 90s goodness that you would want in a game like this, but others really do some crazy stuff. It goes above and beyond what you would have typically seen in a 90s FPS game, and I really appreciated it. Games like Prey and Dishonored made me appreciate level design a whole lot more then I did before and this game excels at that!
The music as well is excellent and I'm glad I bought the OST alongside the game. It can sound similar to the new Doom games, but it also does some out of the norm tracks that I loved.
As for negatives, while the first episode did a great job establishing the vibe and tone, the second one was just a slog to play through for me personally. It does have some good levels but it overall just dragged for me and I wanted it to be over by the halfway point. The game does pick it back up in episode 3, but ya I do wish the second episode was stronger. While I did praise the level design, some levels can be really annoying to traverse and like they took the mind-bending stuff a bit too far. Like there's one level where the gravity gets warped and you have to basically space jump across the map to get inside a house. That was not fun at all. Also the second last level was really bad and just felt like a giant horde mode section before the final boss. The final boss itself though was very strong and it ended the game with a bang!
Overall though, if your looking for a good old nostalgic shooter, look no further then Dusk!
All Games I have Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/