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

[skacky]

And a texture artist too.

 

[LESS T_T]

...Where are we at in DUSK development?!

Well, Episode 1 is done. It’s like done done. Super duper done. Polished and QA’d to high hell by the New Blood QA team (hi guys) and ready for you. If there are any bugs or the game drops below 144 FPS at any time they will be flogged. Believe that.

Endless mode is done.

VS. Multiplayer is a thing that works. We call it DuskWorld. We’re bringing it to QuakeCon.

Because that seems like the place you take a game like this, right? You should come play it there.

The first pass of Episode 2 is nearly done. It will be iterated on and polished until it’s as ready as Episode 1. Then we’re on to Episode 3. Wheeeee…

And after that? Well I guess the FULL game we want to LAUNCH is DONE. Woah.

• Three full single player episodes.
• Endless mode with 3 arenas (one for each episode)
• Arena style online multiplayer.
• BARRELS of fun

See what we did there?

Do we have a release date yet? NO. Because if you follow New Blood then you know we will only and always say SOON™ until SOON™ is NOW. But it won't be much longer - we promise.

[/B]

 

[Durandal]

Shareware version when?

 

[Venser]

They are sponsoring the upcoming $5K Quake World tournament this QuakeCon.

“New Blood Interactive is thrilled to be bringing DUSK to QuakeCon 2017 and we can’t believe we’ve been given the opportunity to sponsor the QuakeWorld Tournament with a game that considers Quake its biggest, best, and boldest inspiration” -Dave Oshry, CEO and co-founder of New Blood Interactive.

http://www.quakecon.org/blog/2017/08/08/dusk-to-sponsor-5000-quakeworld-tournament-at-quakecon-2017/

 

[Mynon]

...Where are we at in DUSK development?!

Well, Episode 1 is done. It’s like done done. Super duper done. Polished and QA’d to high hell by the New Blood QA team (hi guys) and ready for you. If there are any bugs or the game drops below 144 FPS at any time they will be flogged. Believe that.

Endless mode is done.

VS. Multiplayer is a thing that works. We call it DuskWorld. We’re bringing it to QuakeCon.

Because that seems like the place you take a game like this, right? You should come play it there.

The first pass of Episode 2 is nearly done. It will be iterated on and polished until it’s as ready as Episode 1. Then we’re on to Episode 3. Wheeeee…

And after that? Well I guess the FULL game we want to LAUNCH is DONE. Woah.

• Three full single player episodes.
• Endless mode with 3 arenas (one for each episode)
• Arena style online multiplayer.
• BARRELS of fun

See what we did there?

Do we have a release date yet? NO. Because if you follow New Blood then you know we will only and always say SOON™ until SOON™ is NOW. But it won't be much longer - we promise.

[/B]

It looks like Quake meets Blood 2. Not bad, not bad at all.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

This game reminds me of Chasm. I've never played the full version, maybe because the levels in the demo weren't so good like in Quake 1 shareware version. Still it was made on own engine, and the ability to shoot the head and arms before SOF came out was really something. Also the weather effects in outdoor areas.

 

[ShadowSpectre]

While graphics =/= gameplay, I still wonder how this game of 2017 manages to look substantially inferior to my original Quake running in high resolution with specific mods to keep it true to the original that I picked out.

 

[Mynon]

Yes, because Blood 2 was quite a good thing, wasn't it.

It was no masterpiece, but it was fun dumb shooter. And, looking at some of the environments, then at dual wielding & gore, it is clear that authors were inspired by it to some extent.

 

[Mynon]

 

[Durandal]

Level design looks like Build-era stuff but a bit more open on the whole, but since all enemies seem to be projectile based I don't think it'll be a huge deal. One-hit kill difficulty sounds interesting. Weapons don't look terribly imaginative, but they do seem impactful. The shown boss battle sux. Movement seems great. I'm a bit on the fence about the visuals. Will check out on release.

I'd take what this guy says about the game with a grain of salt since he knows the devs personally and has been on a podcast with them.

 

[Durandal]

full playthrough of the first episode

 

[CreamyBlood]

Says the Unreal guy.

 

[Siveon]

I trust LGR a bit more.

 

[Excidium II]

I trust LGR a bit more.

LGR has absolute garbage taste in games so not gonna watch.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

This looks pretty bad. The weapon don't have punch etc.

 

[Mynon]

Every single Youtuber who knows his retro gaming seems to be loving it.

 

[LESS T_T]

You can play the episode 1 yourself IF you pre-purchase it:

THAT'S RIGHT.

Pre-Purchase DUSK and you can play ALL of Episode 1
RIGHT. NOW.



You know - we could have put out episode 1 MONTHS ago.

We thought about it. But we wanted it to be ready.

We could have asked for your money WEEKS ago when we put out the new trailer.

But we wanted to MAKE SURE it was ready.

Now, after a damn near universally positive reception from our family, friends, the press, the lurkers and YOU - we are confident that DUSK is worth your time and money.

So here it is! Well, PART of it.

You will be granted access to the FULL game when it launches SOON.

In the mean time - please enjoy DUSK: Episode 1 and spread the word like a shotgun blast if you love it as much as we do <3

 

[Lyric Suite]

Lol, you can actually make the game uglier to make it more "retro"? The fuck.

 

[lightbane]

Why is making proper 90s FPs gameplay so hard to accomplish? Like Strafe, Dusk seems to be nothing more but ugly crap that misses the point of what's trying to emulate with bad and Minecraft-esque graphics, shitty guns, unnecessary and badly done light effects, dull enemies... Hell, even the player of that 'let's play video' is retarded.

 

[DraQ]

This game reminds me of Chasm. I've never played the full version, maybe because the levels in the demo weren't so good like in Quake 1 shareware version. Still it was made on own engine, and the ability to shoot the head and arms before SOF came out was really something. Also the weather effects in outdoor areas.

The difference was that Chasm looked really good (and didn't play half bad either), maybe not for its time, but certainly for it's requirements. Crisp textures, good models, good effects, etc.
This here is 100% turds by choice, mixed with shameless ripoffs. It tries to ride entirely on "LOLOL GUISE SO RETRO XDXD - IT EVEN HAS QUAKES SSG AND ETHEREAL XBOW FROM THE VERY FIRST ATTEMPT AT 3D ASSET MOD FOR HERETIC!!!1" factor, and for that alone it needs to die - painfully and hideously, so no one else attempts this kind of shit.

The only bad thing (and by bad I mean awful) about Chasm was that not only was it 2.5D in terms of how maps were defined, but unlike any decent 2.5D game starting with Doom it was 2.5D with virtually no z-axis, each map flatter than pancake.

 

[Mynon]

If this was a mod for Quake or HL1, retro FPS edgelords would be praising it instead of shitting on it. It literally looks and plays like something made in Quake engine ffs.

 

[skacky]

No it doesn't. If you had any knowledge of Quake you'd know this.

 

[Sore Loser]

.

 

[Lyric Suite]

It definitely looks like some second rate Quake total conversion. There's literally dozens and dozens of high quality Quake maps you can play instead of this shit. Hell, even some of the low rated maps on Quaddicted i tried are better than most of those new FPSes.

 

[Durandal]

I forked over the twenty bucks so I can pre=emptively have others parrot my opinions without them ever intending to play the game for themselves because my spending habits are getting out of hand.

I finished the episode and it's OK I guess? If I had to describe what makes it different from being 'just a Quake clone', its that it's more focused on dodging very fast projectiles in large open areas and sometimes in small buildings like some kind of Psikyo game. However, there's a weird contradiction where fighting in open areas is easy as long as you pay attention from which direction the projectiles are coming from as you circlestrafe around them no matter how many enemies there are, and fighting in close quarters is easy because you only fight a handful at once with plenty of opportunity to break line of sight as the super shotgun will take care of most enemies in one hit. The reason for this is that for the outside most of the projectiles you'll have to dodge are just straight-forward fireballs and enemies are incapable of leading shots, and inside the enemies are not bulletsponges so you can waltz over them like it's nothing with the SS or double shotgun. In any case, tight quarters and bulletsponge enemies is what made Quake work. Dusk could either do that, or opt for more traps where you're stuck in a sticky situation and can only push forwards to survive.

The outside fights suffer the problem of being too circlestrafe-centric with no geometry or projectile types to mix things up beyond circlestrafing and crouchsliding in a certain direction. We could have had homing projectiles, wide projectiles, bouncing projectiles, spread projectiles, lasers, and so on. But the only things you'll dodge are fireballs, faster-than-fireballs bloodballs (?), cyan arrows which are just fireballs which deal more damage, very short streams of bullet projectiles, and a shotgun spread of really fucking fast pellets fired by scarecrows and by extent worth strongly paying attention to. The only way you can reliably dodge scarecrow blasts is if you stand really far away which gives you enough space and time to dodge them properly, or to get up very close and crouchslide away the moment they start to fire. The only thing I wish to change is that the random shotgun spread will at least always allow you to slide underneath it. Maybe I could bait them to fire higher by jumping more often? Scarecrows certainly are a high priority threat, and I wish other enemies in the game had more well-defined roles like that other than being minor variations on the Imp. There's also the occasional boss monsters which in turn do fire more interesting stuff like homing projectiles and wide spreadshots, but are still incredibly simple to deal with.

There's farmers with a chainsaw in their hand and a paper bag on their head, and they feel like neutered Ogres. They have to briefly stop before attacking with their chainsaw unlike the Ogre, and they don't have any ranged attack capabilities either. This makes them an absolute joke to deal with outside given your massive maneuverability and the power of the super shotgun which can fell them in one blow. And even inside you have plenty of time and space to deal with them. They really need some kind of buff.

The weapon balance is decent. Dual shotguns are better at controlling crowds than the SS, especially with the fast-fire totem. The assault rifle is for laying down continuous fire and stunlocking enemies from longer ranges, the crossbow can penetrate through enemies and walls which makes it useful if you memorize all enemy positions, and the hunting rifle acts as a sniper rifle which is capable of dishing super-shotgun level damage on a single target from any range. You also get the Riveter which fires rockets at a ridiculous rate and is pretty fucking overpowered, but ammo for it is very scarce. There's also a Mortar which fires arcing grenades to bounce around corners, but they need to be manually detonated and don't detonate on enemy impact. I feel like the Mortar and Riveter should have been fused into one gun, but since this is a Quake clone alternate fire modes are out of the question. I only wish that the pistols were removed outright and replaced with the shotguns instead. It's not like anybody ever uses the pistols after getting the shotgun given the liberal amount of shotgun ammo scattered everywhere. The pistols don't even share their ammo pool with other weapons. The shotgun could function just fine as a starting weapon given that it can be 'upgraded' by picking up another shotgun and dual-wielding it. Even though the pistol is dual-wieldable in the same manner, it has no business with having a role as starting weapon since the shotgun does everything better anyways wheras later levels start off with shotguns instead of pistols too. I also wish that binding multiple weapons to one input was a thing. I don't want to reach all the way over to fucking 9 to equip my rocket launcher.

Another important thing to note is that the levels in Dusk are balanced around pistol starts which you can enable for each level by ticking the Intruder Mode checkbox when starting a new game (though technically you'll spawn with only your starting melee weapon instead of a pistol, but you can kill enemies by picking up shit and throwing it at them, so no biggie). Though this still brings with itself the problem which the original Doom had, namely that by balancing each level around pistol starts instead of one continuous campaign players who are playing without pistol starts will find themselves swimming in ammo and health. And even then from what little I've played on Intruder Mode the amount of ammo placed is a bit too forgiving even on the second-highest difficulty.

Sound design-wise it's incredibly underwhelming. The soundbites of the cultists or any of the enemies have fucking NOTHING on any other first-person shooter out there. Instead they will only whisper things like HERETIC or BLOOD in a Batman voice, but also stuff like DOOM, MARATHON, and DUKE NUKEM 3D: WORLD TOUR. I found it pretty silly to be honest. The Mortar and Riveter literally sound like wet farts, there's no way explosive weapons can produce such underwhelming sounds. The only weapon with a really good kick to it is the Super Shotgun, and maybe the dual shotguns as well. Enemy pain grunts aren't satisfying either. Music is mostly dark ambience and heavy metal when you get into a serious encounter, but rarely anything special.

Visually it's rather amateurish, even compared to old 3D games like Quake. The models for the cultists and chainsaw guys are too blocky and end up looking too cartoony as a result. It kind of suffers the same problem most modern pixel art does where the art is built as pixel art from the ground up rather than normal 2D art being downscaled to fit the restrictions of the sprite sizes. There are too many models (like some of the weapon viewmodels) which are more low-res then they have any right to be. Even the visual effects are amateurish. Blood splatters are just strings of red squares. Devil Daggers did a much better job at nailing the Quake aesthetic.

It's also rather unfortunate that Dusk does very little to offer it's own unique things on the table. Most of the weapon and enemy designs are stock standard, with the crossbow being ripped from Heretic. Using MOUSE3 to whip out your sickles gives you the message MIGHTY SICKLE ENGAGED, and you'll also come across a computer displaying a screenshot of the game itself as a message saying I DON'T HAVE TIME TO PLAY WITH MYSELF appears on screen. It's one thing to go full reference county, but to copy quotes from other games is just lazy.

Level design-wise I think it's alright. The levels themselves are pretty varied in terms of setting and combat encounters, with plenty of secrets hidden everywhere. There are some signs that the guy in charge knew what he was doing, as there are several subtle tricks used to keep you on the right path while there's still a ton to explore. It's pretty much Build Engine-style but with more open areas as a result of there being no hitscan enemies whatsoever. There's plenty of shit you can interact with, like flushing objects down toilets and cooking meat, but that's about it.

I still liked it overall, but when I consider the direction Dusk takes for its combat I think it could have been explored much more thoroughly to provide a more tight experience. Who knows what the upcoming two episodes will have to offer. Many people have been saying that even on the second-highest difficulty (whereas on the highest difficulty you die in one hit) the game is too easy, so hopefully the developers are working to rebalance their game for the better. I'm going to do a full playthrough on the one-hit kill difficulty with pistol starts, all secrets, and no mid-level saves and see how I feel about Dusk then.