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

[Multi-headed Cow]

Jesus fucking Christ this feels good. Worst things I have to say about it are the game is almost TOO fast (On hard difficulty you're given very little time to dodge most attacks, and you move obscenely quick especially when strafejumping) and I'm a little iffy on the weapons/ammo. Might just be because I got a rocket launcher on like e1m2 so it's tearing through weak enemies, but even the super shotty absolutely wrecks everything. Some really fucking minor complaints though, the sound is incredibly well done (Soundtrack in particular. Moody and atmospheric mostly, and then ramping up during bit fight/ambush moments) and the levels have been a real joy, and that's just playing episode 1 which is supposedly the weakest maps-wise. It's also not a COMPLETE pushover like Project Warlock when I was bitching about that, but thus far it has still felt fairly easy on hard (Which is the hardest non-instakill difficulty) even though enemies do a ton of damage, simply because you're so fucking fast. That, and I've been fairly obsessively crawling over maps for secrets and finding a lot of mega health and shit. Speaking of which, A++ for the secrets in this. You've got secrets, you've got secrets you can only find with tools from earlier secrets, you've got secret-in-a-secret-in-a-secret for nesting egg of secrets. It does my heart good. Only got a full clear on one map thus far but it was the secret level for episode 1 so I'm happy. Also found dopefish.

 

[Curratum]

So glad to see people enjoying this game.

The dev sweat blood working on it, then sweat bullets over how people will receive it and he deserves all the praise he gets.

Oh, and dev is essentially one guy who did the programming, texture work, gameplay, enemy and level design... Sound design and music is one more dude and I must say they're both great.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I played a couple of hours of this yesterday, it's really surprisingly great - there's a lot of interactivity with the environments and the levels are well-designed. The dev understands classic FPS design and isn't just cashing in on empty nostalgia, which is a rare feat these days. Special mention to the sound design and soundtrack, which are excellent.

This has the potential to rank up there with Amid Evil as my favourite 'revival' FPS.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I will say the multiplayer's not really worth a damn. Gave it a spin for shits and giggles and the netcode doesn't seem stable enough/sharp enough to the breakneck speed. Even with a tolerable ping I was still getting some spikes. No biggy really since I wanted singleplayer far more, but thought I'd look at it.

Bit deeper in the campaign now, somewhere around e1m7. Gotten a few more full clears but there's been at least one map where I didn't find any of the secrets which is fairly unusual. I didn't crawl over the map with a fine toothed comb as much as I sometimes do, but I still was keeping my eyes peeled and didn't come across any. The game has gotten harder though, had a couple deaths (Including one particularly rough ambush) and changing weapons on the fly has gotten a bit more important. Super happy with it!

 

[Curratum]

Just beat the game. This thing has more Cthulhu in it than any of the Call of Cthulhu computer games ever made, is all I'm gonna say.

Easy 9.5/10 from me. This is not just a derivative even if great homage to the classics. This thing can stand on its own feet. The tone, feeling, level and enemy design elevate it well above a competent re-packaging of Quake, Blood and Doom and into its own thing that can stand shoulder to shoulder with those games on its own merits.

 

[Jenkem]

If you like Dusk check out AMID EVIL, it's by a different developer but also published by New Blood.. it's more in the Hexen/Heretic variety..

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

^^^ oo shit that looks fucking badass

Project Warlock looks good too

 

[Great Deceiver]

If you like Dusk check out AMID EVIL, it's by a different developer but also published by New Blood.. it's more in the Hexen/Heretic variety..

Amid Evil is excellent. Great level design, trippy visuals and great original weapons that feel awesome to use. Absolutely recommended.

Project Warlock is okay but not on the same level as Dusk or Amid Evil. It's a much more modest game.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I guess i'll have to check this out after all. Is it out yet, or still in development?

 

[schru]

I guess i'll have to check this out after all. Is it out yet, or still in development?

It is out.

 

[Viata]

^^^ oo shit that looks fucking badass

Project Warlock looks good too

Inspired by true classics

you can increase his attributes like any modern game

Nope, but thanks.

 

[MapMan]

Okay, Amid Evil is awesome. The only problem I had so far is that the game looked off because it's Unreal Engine rendering low res textures in high resolution. This heavily impacts how certain surfaces look like, e.g. stone walls. Move an inch and the whole thing changes visually. As an end user, the only way to combat this wobbliness is to turn on temporal anti aliasing - that smoothes things out. Less wobbly, more blurry. To get optimal results, you need to downscale from a higher resolution: I'm downscaling from 4k with TAA to 1080p and it looks amazing. If your pc can do it, I highly recommend it.

 

[Morgoth]

Amid Evil is okay, but not awesome.

Just bought DUSK and played it briefly, and it's ticking all boxes. Plays like Quake, feels like Blood. Great atmo and level design. It also smells and that's refreshing.

 

[Curratum]

Amid Evil is indeed quite allright but it's not Dusk. There's something off about it, it feels great for the most part but it lacks that extra little something to bring it to Dusk levels.

Probably a combination of controls and movement responsiveness and behavior and weapon handling and enemy hit feel and feedback.

 

[Leitz]

I saw a reviewer saying this game was too easy. 'Nuff said.

 

[Durandal]

I saw a reviewer saying this game was too easy. 'Nuff said.

The game is kind of easy on Cero Miedo. The projectile-based nature of all ranged attacks and all melee enemies stopping before attacking (except the boxdog) rather than moving while melee attacking means it's rather easy to avoid a lot of attacks, and the game is rather liberal with ammo and health, especially if you have a nose for secrets. You really have to enable Intruder Mode to disable weapon carryover so you can't roflstomp your way through with the rocket launcher you picked up last level.
Personally I'd tell people to go play it on DUSKMARE, but people look at me funny for some reason when I try to suggest that.

 

[Jenkem]

I mean any FPS is easy if you play it like a popamole call of doody shit hiding behind cover and popping out to shoot... not sure why you would play dusk like that tho

 

[Jasede]

I bought it and am enjoying it.
And now some greentext:

> implying DooM was hard without playing on Nightmare or UV+fastmonsters

 

[Curratum]

Stock Doom was never overly hard on UV but 75% of custom maps are pretty fucking butt-clenching on UV.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Been slowly going through episode 2. Was feeling overall less impressed with it (Though the secrets are much more well hidden than episode 1) but the infernal machine and the Escher labs are changing my mind. Definitely still really positive on it and one of the better shooters I've played in quite a while, although I'm still waffling on if I like Dusk or Doom 2016 more. Dusk wins for level design, but Doom 2016's combat is more enjoyable. Fortunately it's not something I give that much of a damn to nail down since they're both a lot of fun and I'm glad I picked Dusk up.

On a slightly related note to the internal machine and Escher labs, I do appreciate (And wish the game did it more often) when levels are pretty wildly different like that. Shit like that is part of what's so fun in Blood, and I hope Dusk keeps doing weird shit without worrying particularly much with keeping the levels very thematically similar or whatever.

 

[Wunderbar]

On a slightly related note to the internal machine and Escher labs, I do appreciate (And wish the game did it more often) when levels are pretty wildly different like that.

just wait for Homecoming level in Episode 3.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Jesus. The more I play of episode 2 the better it gets. Started out fairly eh, certainly not bad but it felt a bit more plain compared to episode 1, but basically around the time of infernal machine it's just been non-stop hits. Erebus reactor was a fun concept and actually was (I believe) the first and only map in episode 2 I've hunted all the secrets down on thus far, and neobabel was an absolute riot.

just wait for Homecoming level in Episode 3.

Looking forward to it!

 

[Valestein]

So is the game's final boss a nod to Quake 1's? Since they're both

Spoiler

Lovecraftian?

 

[Wunderbar]

So is the game's final boss a nod to Quake 1's? Since they're both

Spoiler

Lovecraftian?

Spoiler

While sporting lovecraftian name and look, it's basically G-man from half life, because he recruits you and then puts you in a stasis.

 

[Wunderbar]

just wait for Homecoming level in Episode 3.

Looking forward to it!

don't. This level is a gravitation gimmick gone wrong.