Incline Dusk, by New Blood Interactive: a frenetic FPS inspired by olDoom and Quake (2017)

[Multidirectional]

I FINISHED THIS FUCKIN GAME 3 TIMES AND NEVER KNEW YOU CAN DEFLECT PROJECTILES WITH YOUR SICKLES WTF

I found that out by accidentally deflecting some bullets when I was more than halfway through the game, and then soon enough I was in episode 3 where I got the sword that does it much easier. Cool stuff though, I'll be sure to utilize it when i replay some time. Slower projectiles like fireballs from cultists are actually pretty easy to deflect with sickles.

 

[Boleskine]

8-hour anniversary stream.

 

[Biscotti]

Where's the damn SDK at

 

[Curratum]

Where's the damn SDK at

Expect more SOON(tm) and assorted meme bullshit from Oshry and company.

My opinion of NewBlood in general has gone pretty far south. Even Szymanski, who seemed like a decent individual, has devolved into 100% shitposting and memeposting.

 

[Biscotti]

I never liked Oshry, but I don't follow anyone involved with Dusk on social media so I wouldn't know what they're up to these days. I just periodically check any news feeds hoping they'll have finally released the modding tools they keep hyping up, only to be disappointed over and over again.
They need to hurry the hell up while there's still interest in the game. I don't expect the modding scene for any new game to flourish in this day and age, but releasing an SDK when everyone is short of abandoning your game isn't going to do it any favors either.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

They need to hurry the hell up while there's still interest in the game. I don't expect the modding scene for any new game to flourish in this day and age, but releasing an SDK when everyone is short of abandoning your game isn't going to do it any favors either.

I agree with you, but I feel like they've already missed the boat. Their only hope now would be some hardcore mappers getting into it, making an impressive campaign or something, then game journos blog about it to draw attention. Think they're SOL for pulling in randos who might find they enjoy it and turning into a big thriving thing.

 

[Curratum]

I don't expect the modding scene for any new game to flourish in this day and age, but releasing an SDK when everyone is short of abandoning your game isn't going to do it any favors either.

The original Doom modding scene is at an all-time high, for one.

 

[Biscotti]

Yeah but that's the Doom modding scene, it has been going for well over two decades now. I was specifically talking about newer games that have yet to actually develop a community of their own, which isn't easy in today's environment where dedicated modding communities are rare, and the tools for them to develop even rarer.

 

[Baron Dupek]

They're not only busy with shitposting
Even worse - they started publishing indie

not sure what's worse

 

[Venser]

I've heard really good things about this Faith game.

 

[LESS T_T]

They did non-classic FPS games before.

 

[ColCol]

Dusk was great, one of my favorite shooters in the last few tears. IF it had the the features it promised at launch or ASAP it would have flourished. Now it will likely not grab the attention it deserves.

 

[orcinator]

Picked this back up on a whim and finished EP1 on DUSKMARE (I previously just skipped ahead to ep2 after three levels).
Didn't make me regret skipping it when I first played DUSK, that enemy roster and the hideous looking n64 nature bits didn't get any better but I enjoyed it a bit more than if I had just breezed through it the normal way.
Especially the ghost city since it being my first time in the level I had to scramble looking for a gun to fight the bullet spraying enemies with instead of just tanking the hits or beelining for the secrets.

 

[Lemming42]

Playing this again after dropping it the first time and I honestly still don't get it at all.

Previous posters who've said Episode 1 is boring are right. The uptick in quality in Episode 2 is staggering but its still honestly pretty dull, most of the problems from Episode 1 carry over, they're just tempered by decent level design rather than episode 1's huge flat plains with featureless rectangular rooms. Never got to Episode 3 before, let's see how that goes.

Also while it's obviously far from being the biggest issue with the game, the constant callbacks to other games are proper annoying - Escher Labs alone has direct lifts from Superhot (literally just introducing Superhot's core gameplay mechanic), Half-Life (the exact same VOX voice pitched down slightly), Thief (architecture from The Sword), System Shock 2 (the boss is literally just a cyborg midwife) and Duke Nukem 3D ("aint got time to be playing with myself"). Ok the Duke reference is just silly and inoffensive but what's the point of making the actual gameplay and level design just a pastiche of better games you'd rather be playing? Bad idea. It's irritating because when the game does its own thing in levels like The Infernal Machine it generally turns out well.

Since Amid Evil gets mentioned a lot in this thread, would it be a good game for someone who's not enjoying Dusk much? I'm very wary of any "throwback shooter" at this point - Ion Fury is the only one I've enjoyed, mostly because it largely abandons the design conventions of Blood/Duke/etc to go off in its own new direction.

 

[Durandal]

Since Amid Evil gets mentioned a lot in this thread, would it be a good game for someone who's not enjoying Dusk much? I'm very wary of any "throwback shooter" at this point - Ion Fury is the only one I've enjoyed, mostly because it largely abandons the design conventions of Blood/Duke/etc to go off in its own new direction.

Amid Evil is by far the worst of the boomer shooter resurgence, basic bitch Painkiller-tier combat with highly uneven level design and unique enemies getting cast into the shadow realm every four levels. At least it has pretty graphix. But people seem to like it enough for whatever reason.

 

[Curratum]

Ion Fury is the worst of the three games and is full of much more "hurr durr we're retro" ducksucking than Dusk, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

 

[Lemming42]

Ion Fury is the worst of the three games and is full of much more "hurr durr we're retro" ducksucking than Dusk, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

DUSK literally starts with a "fakeDOS" screen that makes you sit around waiting for the main menu.

Really though I didn't get too much "hurr durr we're retro" dicksucking from Ion Fury. It feels like an FPS that just happens to be (pointlessly) designed on the Build engine rather than a crappy throwback thing. DUSK meanwhile seems to be what people who haven't played Quake think Quake was - huge ugly spacious arenas with enemy spam for you to circlestrafe around in as you dodge projectiles. That was basically all of episode 1, and episode 2 is only partially course-correcting.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

All three games suck, okay?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

DUSK literally starts with a "fakeDOS" screen that makes you sit around waiting for the main menu.

I assumed it was an actual loading screen and they were just showing you "fakeDOS" to make it amusing and thematic, rather than DUSK COPYRIGHT 2018 BUILT ON UNITY SPONSORED BY NVIDIA "THE WAY IT'S MEANT TO BE PLAYED"

 

[Silentstorm]

Honestly, my main problem with DUSK comes from a personal preference, AKA, i hate the ending, not because i hate endings where things go bad, oh no, it's just, beating an eldritch abomination is always freaking awesome, and having the whole fight revolve around pretty much cracking darkness to shine what may as well be Holy Light and all that just made it feel like i would win, that it would end with a Lovecraft creation laying dead after pratically destroying most of it's cult.

And then you get BS and annoying ending where the boss only has 1 HP left and casually brainwashes you, i am sure the purpose of the ending what with the final battle feeling epic if really easy was to make the conclusion that more suprising and frustrating to the player, but it just felt really damn frustrating and lame, an obvious twist ending that makes your last fight pointless.

Sometimes i think of DUSK as that one game that lets you think you are going to shoot an eldritch fucking abomination to death only for the boss to say "Just kidding!" and beating you.

 

[Ivan]

 

[Multidirectional]

Got excited for a bit until I clicked on video and saw it's just some wave mode bullshit. Never liked those.

 

[Zombra]

Got game as part of a bundle. Is it worth my time to play it?

 

[ADL]

Got game as part of a bundle. Is it worth my time to play it?

Yes it's the best FPS since Blood

 

[LESS T_T]

Halloween updates. https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/519860/view/2943625883096424368

Halloween 2020 Update
This year is different...


INTRUDERS.

Been a minute, yes?

Well it's Halloween so you know the DUSK Dudes were gonna come visit ya.

But this year we're not just bringing back Spooky DUSKWorld...

Even though we have totally done that and you should play DUSKWorld with us this weekend in

OUR DISCORD.

We've also updated both the DUSK SDK... AND THE MAIN GAME?!

That's right, thanks to our work on the Nintendo Switch™ verison of DUSK (which we just delayed, sorry) we've been making lots of performance improvements to DUSK.

GOOD NEWS is that some of those improvements are making it back into the PC Version.

STARTING TODAY.

Loading tunes? WHAT TUNES.

You will now load into DUSK almost instantly after the initial DOS bootup sequence. YOU'RE WELCOME.

Don't ask how we did it...

(You can also now add a "-skip-dos" launch option to skip the FakeDOS intro screen entirely.)

But you shouldn't because it's super cool and retro.

We've also re-written the achievement manager, as it contributed to a significant performance loss.

Shorter loads. Better performance. For DUSK. In 2020. Damn right.

But the DUSK SDK has also gotten a host of updates!

BEHOLD

• Heavily optimized startup code, which fixes the infamously long "loading tunes" screen.
  
• Fixed health and armor being incorrect after loading a save on a custom level.
  
• Lighting accuracy in Quake 1 BSP (v29) maps has been improved.
  
• Cartdogs no longer spawn without a model.
  
• Wendigos now correctly spawn invisible.
  
• Missing models will now display as a cube.
  
• Idle animations in custom models will now play correctly.
  
• Added a -skip-dos launch option to skip the FakeDOS intro screen.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused music (and possibly other assets) to occasionally fail to load.
  
• Significantly reduced texture allocations when atlasing lightmap data, resulting in faster map loads and better performance.

And YES, Custom weapons, Steam Workshop and Co-Op are still coming.

In addition to that, some things we've added to the console version (like the weapon wheel) will be making it back to the PC Version... SOON™

(You can see the weapon wheel in action below)



However, the PC version will also be getting ALL NEW features such as...

A CLASSIC HUD
(By the one and only HDOOMguy)

Oh yes.

What, did you think we were ever even close to done here?

DUSKMods.com grows EVERY DAY.
The NEW BLOOD GALLERY grows EVERY DAY.

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

Thanks as always for your support

It's been a pretty crazy 2 years since we were SUPPOSED to launch DUSK 1.0, but you have proven time and time again that you are all...

WORTHY