I suck ass at this game, and even still, I'm having a good time!

Everything you do in ULTRAKILL feels fast, snappy, responsive. You gain a kind of machine-like intuition - an ability to quickly come up with plans and execute them. Death comes fast, but so does life- It's genuinely technically impressive how well the checkpoint system here works.

What's also executed a lot in ULTRAKILL are demons! SO many of them. You will find new and intuitive ways of spilling blood on yourself (it is your fuel, after all), and that's a great segue into talking about this game's many interconnected mechanics: I'll tread lightly in revealing them here because finding them yourself is satisfying as hell, but just know that basically anything that ULTRAKILL lets you do mechanically has several applications and interlocks with other stuff to a wonderful degree.

Thematically and story-wise- well, don't expect narrative ingenuity from this, but still, know that ULTRAKILL did a good bit of homework on the mythological and religious concept of Hell to come up with its world. This is expressed in some of the iconography used (without using any of the gimmes like pentagrams or reversed crosses I could see!) and some cool enemy designs. From literature, there's Dante's Inferno as the obvious pick (and you will see "Abandon all hope [etc.]" pretty early on), but most new levels are genuinely very interesting in how they conceptualise the place, and in how it reacts to intruders. I was half-expecting it to throw a No Exit reference at me next-- though I guess that's not really apt for a game about a robot that kills Hell Demons for their blood.

Accessibility design is also present to an acceptable degree. It's not as intricate as something like Celeste in its options, but like I said: I suck at shooters, and ULTRAKILL still allowed me to feel adequately challenged while not grinding me to dust.

Lastly - and this is a personal note, bear with me - if you have struggles with bad thoughts and the slow, grindy games that'll help some people don't do it for you, give this a try instead. It gets hard to overthink and beat yourself up when the dulcet (loud) soundscape and flashes of crunchy demon violence accompanied by sick-ass breakcore blares on in front of you.

EDIT: I've deducted a full star simply because, in the long run, it failed to keep my attention, and because the game is still unfinished, and I want to be cautious in case they mess up the home stretch. I'm really looking forward to where this team takes it, though!

Reviewed on Jan 05, 2023


Comments