Game #1256: Dusk

 Ok, boomer. 

 Ion Fury was the calm before the storm, for you see, the boomer shooter is back, baby! Dusk is a Quake/Blood hybrid, it's a first person shooter featuring the same kind of jaggy, rudimentary graphics as Quake, but with the comedic horror elements of Blood that make for a very interesting retro-style FPS.

 Much like old PC FPSs, the game is divided into different episodes, three in this case, with 10 stages, as well as a secret stage on each. You can tell that each episode was released at different dates because each one shows the developers getting better and better, with stages becoming larger, more complex and more interesting. The first Episode is made up of small stages that you can finish in 3-5 minutes, but later episodes become longer and harder. Each episode also introduces new monsters, and sometimes removes a few, into the mix, although the armament remains the same. Kinda, as Episode 3 reworks the sword, a very secret weapon in previous episodes, but given to you from the start on the third one.

 Gameplay is exactly what you'd expect out of a boomer shooter, emphasis on speed and strafing around enemies to bring them down. The game is incredibly fast, there's no reloading, and you can even bunny-hop to make yourself even deadlier and nimbler. There are about 8 different weapons too, and not enough ammo for each, forcing you to use your entire arsenal if you wish to survive. What's more, ammo seems to become more and more scarce as you go through Episode. Besides slaying monsters, you'll also need to find different colored keys, Yellow, Blue and Red, in order to get to the end of every stage.

 It's not entirely retro, it also takes a page from Half-Life, so you can pick up boxes and other items, either use them as projectiles or as platforms to help yourself to get to areas you shouldn't or even find secrets. There are a few neat details to this, for instance, you can pick up gibs and place them on top of fire to cook them, there are 'madness crystals' that if thrown against an enemy will make them fight their own kin, and there's even Soap, the deadliest item in the game, as it will cleanse, AKA destroy, anything it touches. Oh! And there's a designated button to flip you gun, just for kicks and giggles.

 The Switch port runs beautifully, and why wouldn't it, it barely looks better than a PS1 game. While the retro look is pulled off really well, there's even a filter you can toy around with to make it jaggier up to ridiculous amounts, these blocky 3-D graphics do nothing for me. But hey, it runs buttery smooth! On the other hand, the Switch's analog's sticks have never been the most precise when it comes to games like this, but the hitbox on your shots seem to be rather generous to compensate.

 Included in the Limited Run Games' release is Dusk '82, and atari-esque take on the game. It's not bad, but it didn't hold my interest for more than a few minutes.

 Dusk is an absolute treat of a game. I loved the fast-paced gameplay, and even though I don't dig the PS1-like graphics, the creepy locales you visit were fun to traverse. It does nothing new, but everything it does it does extremely well, and it feels like a very polished game that stands above the games it's paying tribute to.

 9.0