ok i really like this game. I could go into all the ways about how it creatively innovates on the design of 90’s shooters, like how the arsenal is basically an improvement on Quake’s where all the weapons are actually useful here, and how the enemy design and encounters are routinely fantastic, but not only do i not have the knowledge to properly do that, that also wasn't what even appealed to me the most.

Instead the thing that stuck out to me as the most evocative of the 90s shooter era is how excellent it was tonally. Whether it's DOOMs Heavy metal soundtrack and satanic imagery, or Duke Nukem’s 80s action movie pastiche, or Quake's fantasy angst set to a moody score by Trent Reznor every one of these shooters had a tone that made it unique. And Dusk arguably does that better than all of them. From rural cornfields and timber mills under a blood red sky, to the crawlspaces of industrial machines, to a giant cityscape hidden deep beneath the earth, DUSK utilises this phantasmagorical imagery in a way that I've seen few games do. It gives that game an otherworldly vibe that i just absolutely fuck with, and it's this story-light, tone-heavy genre that allowed Szymanski and co to be able to achieve that so well