Another year, Another Update, Another excuse to replay Dusk. Dusk is David Szymanskis bloody FPS remix of games like Quake, Blood and Thief. Its the game that really launched the Boomer Shooter explosion that we are still experiencing today and for good reason.
You play as Dusk Dude, a mute badass with an arsenal of weapons, ready to fight an eldrich cult and its hoard of horrific creatures. The hows and why arent exactly clear or important but the game trickels down enough hints through out its level design for the game to feel like a greater whole and not a collage of unrelated maps. Fun is the main focus of Dusk. You bunny hop, summer sault and slide your way through horror themed levels while picking up power ups and dual wielding shotguns, firing rocketlaunchers or sniping with wallpiercing crossbows.
It all results in a beautiful ballet of bullets and mayhem, that still is my platonic ideal of what a Boomer Shooter is suppose to be. Although as much as I love the game in its entirety, its not a perfect masterpiece.
The best part of Dusk are its open ended levels, with jump pads and all kinds of cover you can slide behind when combat gets too heated. Sadly some it seems to forget that philosophie for about a 1/3 of the game, specifically in Chapter 2. Its basicly swaps the open maps for tight corridors that need to be navigated with a tiny flash light, sometimes even in pitch darkness and that doesnt work at all. Dusks Combat simply isnt build for those kind of sections. Enemies frequently soak up to many bullets, allowing them to push you into a corner until you run out of health. Higher difficultys become especially egrious and for someone like me who doesnt want to play with midlevels saves, its the point where I become so annoyd at its bullshit that I just turn the game off. Shout out to the Cowgirls, who like to come out of nowhere, blasting explosives at you that can kill you in only a couple hits.
Fortunatly Chapter 3 mostly remedys that design flaw, dropping you in shorter but more bizzare campaing that leads you to the endfight with the Ultimate evil. Chapter 3 might be my favorite, having the best level in my opinion when you get to the mindbending map that is Homecoming. And that is ultimatly the reason why I love Dusk so much beyond its flaws. The willingness to be bizzare and experimental in the limited framwork of an 90s FPS. Its what made me fall in love with this new genre in general, even making me go back to older games I didnt know I would love as much as I do now. And with its new HD coat of paint and full mod support finally here, there no better time than to fall in love with Dusk all over again.
You play as Dusk Dude, a mute badass with an arsenal of weapons, ready to fight an eldrich cult and its hoard of horrific creatures. The hows and why arent exactly clear or important but the game trickels down enough hints through out its level design for the game to feel like a greater whole and not a collage of unrelated maps. Fun is the main focus of Dusk. You bunny hop, summer sault and slide your way through horror themed levels while picking up power ups and dual wielding shotguns, firing rocketlaunchers or sniping with wallpiercing crossbows.
It all results in a beautiful ballet of bullets and mayhem, that still is my platonic ideal of what a Boomer Shooter is suppose to be. Although as much as I love the game in its entirety, its not a perfect masterpiece.
The best part of Dusk are its open ended levels, with jump pads and all kinds of cover you can slide behind when combat gets too heated. Sadly some it seems to forget that philosophie for about a 1/3 of the game, specifically in Chapter 2. Its basicly swaps the open maps for tight corridors that need to be navigated with a tiny flash light, sometimes even in pitch darkness and that doesnt work at all. Dusks Combat simply isnt build for those kind of sections. Enemies frequently soak up to many bullets, allowing them to push you into a corner until you run out of health. Higher difficultys become especially egrious and for someone like me who doesnt want to play with midlevels saves, its the point where I become so annoyd at its bullshit that I just turn the game off. Shout out to the Cowgirls, who like to come out of nowhere, blasting explosives at you that can kill you in only a couple hits.
Fortunatly Chapter 3 mostly remedys that design flaw, dropping you in shorter but more bizzare campaing that leads you to the endfight with the Ultimate evil. Chapter 3 might be my favorite, having the best level in my opinion when you get to the mindbending map that is Homecoming. And that is ultimatly the reason why I love Dusk so much beyond its flaws. The willingness to be bizzare and experimental in the limited framwork of an 90s FPS. Its what made me fall in love with this new genre in general, even making me go back to older games I didnt know I would love as much as I do now. And with its new HD coat of paint and full mod support finally here, there no better time than to fall in love with Dusk all over again.