DUSK

 

DUSK is a pretty widely known and praised new-age retro FPS. I didn't know anything about it besides it have thousands of Steam reviews, which are mostly positive, and also seeing a few screenshots and brief trailer on the Steam page, the graphics caught my eye as it looked a bit grungy and Horror-inspired, so that particularly peaked my interest to eventually get around to playing it

Upon starting the game you get greeted with a quirky fake DOS screen harkening back to the days of old MS-Dos prompts and launching games through the command line, something I am pretty familliar with and have experienced myself when I was little. Its a nice little bit of nostalgia bait.

The game has three episodes, of course much like Classic Doom and 90s shooters. Then five difficulties, similarly named like classic shooters. However there are suggestions given for each one. The 'default' difficulty , "I Can Take It" suggests this is what first time players of Dusk should play. The next one up, Cero Miedo, suggests this is good for veterans of twitch shooters. Though I just went with the middle default difficulty "I Can Take It" since it does say its what first timers should play.

Then the game starts, theres not really a cutscene or any back story at all, you get a brief clip saying DUSK and the game starts, you wake up in some cave with just two sickles and immediately are being attacked by three chainsaw wielding enemies. Pretty cool start, and Its a breath of fresh air having no longwinded cutscenes or story like other games.

The first things to notice and the first impressions are:
The graphics are striking in a specifically stylized way. Its a mix of Quake 1 style retro low resolution pixelated low polygon, and an art style which is more Horror inspired. Theres surprisingly even a flashlight, and the game has common usage of darker caves and dark spooky areas which is pretty cool to see in a retro styled FPS like this. So its not like its a super low-fidelity 90s game, the game has liberal usage of modern Lighting systems and techniques, there are many moments in the game where I was like "Oh thats a nice lighting effect, Oh that lighting looks moody and dramatic." The game also features a full physics system, so plenty of objects around the world can be picked up and even thrown at the enemies to kill them. Additionally, lots of various objects laying around the game world can be interacted with in odd ways. You can drink beer, you can flush toilets, you can press E to interact with objects to get a short little message, for example seeing a computer with a DUSK screenshot the text will show up "I Don't have time to play with myself" , the inclusion of this interactive style enviornment with all these little objects is a clear inspiration from Duke Nukem 3D, which is nice to see. There are even multiple wall switch "puzzles" where you have to toggle the right sequence to open the door, just like Duke 3D. At one point the loading screen will even suggest that you can pickup meat and put it over fire pits to cook it and eat it. You can walk up to paintings on the wall and inspect them and it says stuff like "Cult Leader". The game is also a typical oldschool "Quicksave shooter" meaning you can quicksave whenever you want and quickload whenever you want. You can also save in the main menu, such as doing so on the start of each level is helpful. I'm not sure if the game ever autosaves, I always relied on manual saves. I'm actually not a huge fan of these "Save whenever you want" experiences, its actually something I'm critical of oldschool shooters for, I feel like it invalidates much of the challenge and starts to make your actions feel less impactful if you can just nullify any consequence by the press of a button, but I understand why they did it this way instead of relying on checkpoints or autosaves, as it is the traditional method, it didnt hamper the game too much, although maybe a hybrid system, maybe a lives system, or an achievement for not quicksaving could be nice.

Each episode consists of 10 levels.
Episode 1 'the foothills' is themed mostly around outback villages, farmlands, and dungeons. Its got a nice mix between almost Texas Chainsaw Masacre vibes, with gothic horror and medieval elements.
The basic premise of the game seems to just be you're surrounded by this evil Cult and you make your way through their territory, more and more encountering more of these crazy cult members. Theres plently of enemy variety and you come across them quick, Chainsaw wielding guys, Hooded enemies that are cult members that shoot fireballs at you, Scarecrow enemies with shotguns that shoot projectile based bullets at you - its not exactly like the game is cloning the exact Doom archetype enemies or Quake archetype, one enemy type for each niche, its more like theres just a lot of different enemies, sometimes some of them fulfill the same style or niche, its more about just throwing a lot of different enemies at you which can also be interesting. At times it almost gave me Serious Sam vibes, a big open field with just hordes of enemies coming at you is not too uncommon. The game wears its influences on its sleeve, they're all over the place. Like mentioned previously, Quake with the graphical design, Duke Nukem with the envionrmental interactivity, Serious Sam with the hordes of enemies, even Rise of the Triad with the jump pads on the floor and maps and gameplay which encourages bouncing all around, and even Blood inspiration from the enemy designs, being cult members and the general horror atmosphere. Its basically fun fan service for fans of these oldschool games like me, I didn't mind it at all and got a kick out of it. It makes tons of references, and I'm like "Yes, I understood that reference".

The actual core gameplay controls and movement isn't quite so oldschool retro style, though. Its not like the game plays like Doom or Duke 3D or Blood, really. It plays more like a mix of modern FPS games, with the ability to slide after running, as well as the ability to right click and Zoom in, then it has the Quake and Half Life 1 style movement, especially bunny hopping makes you move SUPER fast very quickly, even moreso than Quake or Half Life. You can move very very fast, and its almost comical and its too much. Like at some points I was just thinking "This gameplay is just a bit silly, you shouldn't be able to move this fast this easily". Just bunny hopping 2 or 3 times while diagnal strafing makes you move like a race car. Sure it can be fun, but it also kind of takes the movement of older games and turns it into a parody or satire. Its not exactly bad, its just a bit over the top. Of course theres a myriad of pickups and powerups you can get, health packs, ammo, and even all sorts of things which raise "Morale". Well it wasn't until about halfway through the game I knew what "Morale" did. It showed up on a loading screen that Morale is just another word for Armour. Why not call it armour? Why have the needless confusion and mystery, it was kinda dumb. Anyway, theres even all sorts of powerups you can get which last a short period of time, stuff like Slowing down time, the ability to walk on walls (usually required to progress certain segments), or a powerup that makes you shoot really fast. These powerups even stack, so if you pickup multiple of these Shoot fast powerups you really start to shoot at an insane pace, the powerups are fun and the pickups are satisfying to find and collect so good job there.

The weapons have a large variety also. You start with melee Sickles, but quickly get a Pistol, a Lever action shotgun, Double barrel, and then quickly Dual Wield these, then you start getting stuff like Assault Rifle, Bolt action Rifle, Riveter, Mortar, Crossbow and more. The weapons themselves look kind of hit and miss. Like of course the game is supposed to look low-res and rough, but some of these models are just hilarious. The Mortar for example just looks like a pipe with sharp edges, the pistols look like something made in Blender in 5 minutes, I mean some of the models and graphical fidelity is even lower than Quake. the Crossbow looks like it shoots penises, I mean come on I'm not the only one that thinks this am I? Though the guns feel impactful and fun to shoot, and the Shotguns have a satisfying reload animation especially the Lever shotgun spinning like Terminator reload, Double barrel is satisfying to shoot and blasts enemies so hard they go flying back with momentum, though theres no straight rocket launcher, you have a Riveter which shoots nails that then explode, and you have the Mortar which is a grenade launcher but no real rocket launcher which was a bit disappointing. The game has a lot of the classic gameplay of swapping weapons constantly depending on what enemy type youre fighting, you use the double barrel to blast tanky enemies, you swap to assault rifle for the more trash mobs, then quickly swap to the Mortar for the more tough challenging enemies although you have to be careful about blowing yourself up, its fast paced and fun and full of excitement so the general gameplay is quite satisfying and I even finished the whole game in just 1 session because the general gameplay didn't get dull, especially with the variety of level types and horror elements.


Episode 1 is visually and thematically good, although its overall a bit too easy. Theres not much to them, I understand the first few levels of these FPS games should be a bit easy and slowly ramp up, but its like the entire episode is without much challenge. It isnt until the third level or so you start needing to even find keys to progress. I hardly lost any health in this whole episode, and the pickups are so abundant and all over the place that I just started to ignore most of them because I didn't need any. Though level 6 , The Cutty Mine, was one of the lower points of the level ,its just a maze of tiny corridors where you can barely see anything, running in circles not knowing what to do with not that many interesting encounters. So ontop of Episode 1 being a bit underwhelming and too easy, it has some clunker levels as well. Towards the end of Episode 1 it introduces more new enemies, such as Soldiers, which was an exciting change of pace also. The game continually keeps its self fresh and interesting by constantly introducing new enemies, weapons, and locations. The final level of each Episode is basically just a boss arena, the ending of Episode 1 is a laboratory where you fight a giant dog, but in typical fashion with these games as long as you basically run in a circle constantly you can' take damage. Thats not to say the only bosses in the game are at the end of each episode, though, theres other bosses such as this honestly kinda lame and easy Alligator boss, but bosses do pop up kind of frequently and are fun.

Although Episode 1 is still overall good, with its thematic level design and horror influences and the way it paces its self to slowly ramp up the difficulty is nice, I just think it was bit of a slow ramp. Maybe on Difficuly 4/5 it would feel better, but again, I played on the difficulty which is suggested for the first play through by the developers.


Episode 2 'The Facilities' is as it sounds, it takes place more in-doors sections, and this episode has a more military soldier setting. Right out of the gate though, Level 1 on Episode 2 just pissed me off. Youre on the outside of this complex, first it starts off cool enough, youre fighting waves of soldiers in this big open field, but then once you reach the complex theres a bunch of Jump pads and high rooftops and I just could not figure out how to progress, for like 30 minutes. I was running in circles, backtracking, no enemies left, having the dreaded  "What the fuck do I do" moment. I kept jumping up and down these jump pads, running across the rooftops, searching every nook and cranny and could just not find it. It turns out theres this one tiny little cubby hole I missed where you climb up into one of the Silos and that was how you progress. Yeah, that was bullshit. That needed a more obvious visual idication, like some landmark near it, a sign, anything, it was way too easy to miss and really just wasted my time. Past that , though, is when you first get the Walk on walls powerup, this is a powerup that you come across sporadically where you use it to climb to the next progresss point, theres not much to it, its not really a combat item, you basically just use it to progress the level and then it runs out. A neat little quirk but thats about it.

The other levels in Episode 2 are more in a similar vein, lots of outposts, compounds, indoor bunkers, that kind of stuff. It loses a bit of the horror theme from Episode 1 which is a bit disappointing and feels a bit more generic and sterile, though at least the difficulty pacing has ramped up quite a bit and the game starts to have some challenge now, I actually cared to get pickups and looked at my health for once which was a nice change of pace. Though at points in Episode 2 the horror elements pick back up, with these weird trippy spinning metallic engine rooms lit in moody red lighting. One level in Episode 2 takes place in a series of Labs which was a pretty cool highlight of the game, almost reminded me of Resident Evil, enemies inside creepy bio tanks and stuff. Also another enemy gets introduced which is this sort of invisible stalker enemy where you can see his blood footprints and once you shoot him it makes a loud noise and it becomes visible, great enemy. Its also the enemy on the boxart I think. At one point in Episode 2 you come across a boss called Mama in this almost Half Life 1 Xen type arena , which was an exciting and challenging fight, and the game does that quirky thing where when you fight a boss, they then become a regular enemy afterwards which is nice to see.

Also I'll note that the game has a pretty suitable and good soundtrack. lots of chugging heavy metal riffs, but then moments of serene or atmospheric ambient music, creepy ambient music, the music choices and the changing when certain music plays is well done.

Episode 2 really ramps up the usage of the Jump pads, its really inspired by Rise of the Triad it seems, I actually enjoy it, even though I don't think Rise of the Triad is an amazing game, its interesting to see games be inspired by some of its more esoteric mechanics and ideas.

Episode 2 has mostly good levels, with no obvious clunkers. Its not like the setting is bad, alot of industrial buildings and warehouses, but the way its lighted and set is still in the horror vibe, lots of red dramatic skies and apocalyptic settings.  Theres onlyy really one other level in episode 2 that has a "Where the fuck do I go moment" , its E2M8, Blood and Bone, its a big facility with winding up and down corridors and one part walking in circles for 10-15 minutes unable to find the next progression door/keycard because it turned into such a winding maze. At least after I found it , the level was fun again, you fall into a pit and it says Your Flashlight Broke in the Fall and it makes you crawl around in the dark spooky atmosphere, further bringing back horror vibes which was appreciated. The game has a bunch of "Oh shit" moments like this, where things are unexepcted and its not so easy to predict which keeps it fun and exciting.

The final level of Episode 2 is this weird circular arena, you walk into a portal and get teleported into some tunnel where this standing frog monster is shooting at you, what youre supposed to do is hit some switches and it unlocks the final exit or something. But I don't know this level was kind of a mess and disappointing. Basically all I did was enter the tunnel, then leave it, and the boss followed me out by teleporting back out with me to the circle arena, then I just ran around him for 30 seconds shooting grenades at him until he died, then I kinda just teleported back in the tunnels hit the switches and beat the level. Not one of the highlights and could of been done better, I think.

Episode 3, the final episode, is called "The Nameless City"
The episode is the most fantastical, mystical, and wild of them all. It has a lot of 'trippy' elements, horror elements, and just bizarre elements. For starters, the first level in the episode takes place in some old castle, and you only get a single weapon for the whole level. A sword. Its like playing a different game, youre just going around smacking monsters with a sword, it introduces this new monster, this medevil knight that makes ear piercing nails on chaulkboard sound, its just a weird introduction to the episode and I was kinda bored by only having one weapon, although its an interesting change of pace. Then even level 2 starts off by trying to get you to do stealth. What? Who the hell wants to do stealth in a game like this. Imagine saying "You know what would make Doom better? If you could do stealth kills" ... I mean its kinda cool you can techincally do it, but I was not that interested. Thankfully you start getting other weapons like the Crossbow, but still its like the game is trying to be Medevial FPS , maybe inspired by Hexen or Heretic or something. Its not bad, it was just a funny change of pace. Finally around Level 3 of Episode 3 you start going back to normal, getting the rest of the guns, Shotgun, Rifle, etc. Theres even a Wintery section, theres a lot of variety in locations and weird situations in Episode 3 which consistently keeps it fresh. Take this for example, Level 3 even seems to be inspired by the Underwater town in Mario 64's Wet Dry World. Its a similar sort of layout and structure, and at one point you even raise the water level to flood the town to swim to new areas. Pretty cool reference and idea for a FPS level.  Episode 3 keeps introducing new enemies, such as this crazy dog enemy on a cart, but it kinda looks buggy and rough around the edges how it moves towards you. Its just constantly a lot of new "WTF" moments and fun oddities which prevent the game from being boring. There's one level where the whole sky is red and its like a flat desolate landscape with a church in the middle, you go around pressing switches killing mobs of enemies, then a freaking Tornado comes and destroys the church and lets you progress down further into it, just more WTF exciting moments.  The general atmosphere and vibe of this episode is like descending further into Hell/insanity or strange otherworldly dimensions , which is great. Game definitely picks up in challenge and starts to get difficult and you actually have to try to play good, which was very pleasent to see, it actually starts to challenge the player.

Although not everything is that amazing in Episode 3. One level, called Homecoming, is this experimental level where at first it seems kinda cool, its this serene Green skies floating islands level with a House, however theres this object you press which turns the whole world around and shifts gravity around. This is completely infuriating, disorienting, nauseating, and just completely miserable. It turns into this sickening experience of floating all around, your camera is spinning and shifting all over the place, your controls feel inverted, you hardly find any enemies the whole level is just trying to corrdinate your movement to reach certain new areas, falling all through orbit its a complete fucking mess and I was stuck at it for like 20 minutes, feeling sick, having to walk away from my PC to prevent myself from puking. Just why. Why the fuck. I get its like a cute little quirk "Haha what if we make a level that just totally screws with the players perception" but video games should not make you physically fucking sick. It's not exactly a great FPS level ,as you barely fight any enemies, its like a level for some silly experimental game like, I dont know, Stanly Parable or something (I havnt played that game but rough example.) Simply put this level fucking sucked. On paper maybe its cool, conceptually maybe its cool, but the execution was just miserable and I was begging for it to end. To make things worse, this level either has intentional programming to ruin your manual quicksaves (to further troll the player?) or I had multiple bugs which broke my saves. Because I would keep saving as I made progress, then loading back my save, and it would suddenly have me in an endless void where I'm constantly warping into nothingness with a voice over laughing at me, forcing me to reset the level and do it all over again. Just terrible. Like, one of the worst experiences I've had in almost any game, ever, it was that bad.

Moving on past that total shit show of a level... The episode continues with more decent levels thankfully,  more strange half-horror, half medevil, half industrial levels, its like a mix of everything all at once, its pretty great. Lava segments, every enemy in the game coming back, and it even introduces new horror enemies such as this one enemy with a giant gaping mouth which suddenly comes at you from the darkness which was another "OH SHIT" moment and was great to see. There's a few more bosses, like this underwater fish enemy, but it looks so hilarious and poorly designed it again, looks like something made in Blender in 5 minutes with a texture made in MS-Paint, like I get the game being lo-fi and stuff, but theres a certain point when things just look way too amature to take seriously. This could of been touched up a bit.

Then the second last level of the game takes place in this flat Blue arena, where it essentially just has waves of enemies spawn at you and you have to survive. Thats it. Kinda feels like a lazy level, like they needed some filler to have 10 levels for the final episode, but it works well enough, its just a bit bullshit at times, it spawns items after each wave but its an exhausting gauntlet of trial and error at times.


And then the final level. You basically fight in an arena, fighting another Human kind of enemy, which almost acts like another real player. He's this guy that bunny hops around, almost like a Quake player, its a pretty fun fight, but kinda really easy. Infact easier than the second blue last Arena survival level. After you kill him though, you come across the real final boss. This giant stationaly almost Lovecraftian inspired monster that swipes at you with his arms. This is really simple, though, you just shoot the cracks in the ceiling and make light shine on him, then you can deal damage. Rinse repeat until boss is dead, simple, but amusing enough. Also the boss looks like he has a MS-Paint texture and model again that looks like it was made in Blender in 5 minutes, maybe could of been a bit more threatening looking, kinda looks like a child made it frankly.

And then the game ends, short cutscene with an ominious voice, almost like to say now you, the player, have become the evil cult leader. Cool.

Its a fun game, out of all the retro style shooters to come out, this is among the top ones out there. Not many of them are very horror inspired, or have dark and gothic vibes, many of these new-age retro shooters lean more into fantasy or silly humor stuff, all bright multicolored and stuff, but this game is more-so in the vein of Blood which is really cool to see. The gameplay is fun, although the pacing could of been a bit tighter from episode 1 to 2, it has tons of twists and turns, it constantly is introducing new kinds of enemies, weapons, and interesting locations with a wide variety of level designs and set pieces, the game never gets dull. While it does have a few small totally bullshit or awful segments, they're very few and far between. For the most part, the game is just a joy to play through. I beat it in one single sitting, 4 hours long, its not a grueling game to get through or anything, its just a nice little playthrough for some throwback retro FPS action. Sure its rough around the edges, with some of the enenmy animations, or incredibly amature models and textures here and there, but you could argue it adds to its charm. I like all the references and homages to classic games of the genre, the fan-service and wearing its inspirations on its sleeve is fun to see, overall I think Dusk is a pretty good game, and I would be keen to play any sequels or further content for it.

8/10