DUSK

I'll be honest, DUSK is a game I've been excited for and waited to come to PS5 for so long and now that it finally came, I bought it as soon as it released, but I think I was expecting something to be on the same level as Quake or Doom and while this is a decent retro style shooter, its just not as good. I think my 2 main issues are the enemies in this aren't interesting, I didn't really care for the design and they didn't really present much challenge, and 2 is that the game felt a bit easy. Also the guns weren't that unique, you get to dual wield some weapons but you get the usual weapons, a shotgun, machine gun, pistols, launcher, rifle. I feel like the levels were kind of hit or miss too, like some levels were annoying and had a bit of platforming or annoying traps you had to avoid, and I feel like the good levels didn't get to the 3rd World. Also there are only 3 Worlds in this so this game is one you could really beat over a single weekend.

Yeah I guess at its core its alright, but I just didn't feel the design was super strong and I'd rather play the original Quake over this any day. The graphic style was decent but some levels just felt a bit too empty and like too much open space. This is definitely a step in the right direction and I'd love to see more games done like this but I feel like this game isn't exactly the gold standard. I wanted to like this more and kept wanting it to get more interesting and thought it would improve after the first few levels but it never did. Its really just an above average retro shooter that is fun enough but why play this when you can play Quake or the classic Doom games.

Back to back to back some of my favorite levels in FPS history, combined with some of the most satisfyingly juicy movement ever committed to a 3d engine. Throw in lots of fun enemy/weapon designs, multiplayer as good as any quake game, and some truly genius hidden mechanics and you get my favorite FPS of all time.

Was so good I did a melee-only playthrough on hard and still had a blast.

If I was supposed to be impressed with a mediocre Quake-like, this does not deliver at all.

Dusk is a surprisingly average game that does nothing to really capture my full attention or desire to complete another playthrough. The game contains many unnecessary mechanics (seriously, what's the point of rolling?), boring enemies / AI, extremely simple/underpowered weapons, maze-like maps that are worse than DOOM 1/2's, and an artstyle that screams hipster.

Every single time this game was about to throw me a curve ball, it is immediately circumvented by something being poorly designed. For instance, when the invisible enemies are introduced. As soon as they were shown for the first time, I wasn't spooked but I was sort of intrigued. Then, basically 1 minute later, their attacks are just bland melee hits and their AI is just as bad as every other enemy.

I was seriously expecting some interesting combat but got almost the same copy-pasted melee or ranged units from Quake.

Even the bosses here are average, not a single one has an interesting mechanic and they all function relatively the same.
All you really have to do to win in this game is strafe to the sides of the enemies, as the projectiles do not track or predict movement. Even the 2 final bosses are a joke. The ONE TIME I've seen projectiles track, it's nearly undodgeable and forces you to hide behind cover because the slide mechanic is terrible. This is most apparent in the level The Dweller In Darkness, where you have to fight multiple of the homing enemies.

There is also a gravity changing mechanic for 1 level that is really bad if you have any amount of weakness to motion sickness.

The unlocked y-axis does nothing. The dodge/slide is really bland. Even the climbing mechanic is tedious. It really feels like this game does not do anything over-the-top, just average/okay at best. There is a long list of mechanics and enemies that I can easily say should either not be in the game, or be more fully implemented.

The worst thing a game can do is bore its player, and this one makes me want to sleep. It doesn't even learn things from DOOM or Quake, such as melee still being overwhelmingly useless and underpowered (except for the sword which is only good at full health). As another note, maybe ULTRAKILL messed up my expectations, but this games secrets are so asinine and ridiculously hard to find that they're just not worth exploring for. I realized this after finding 1 secret and being granted 1 SINGULAR grenade as a reward.

One thing I can say is not average is the soundtrack, which is pretty good.

2.5/5, what a shame.

DUSK is a game that boldly wears its influences on its sleeve. It feels like a blend of Heretic, Blood, and of course Quake. Though Not only those games but a sprinkling of references and callbacks from other classic and "boomer shooters" titles. This is its Achilles heel. There is almost nothing here regarding original ideas or anything that would make me want to play this game over the other games it took its inspiration from.

First, let's touch down on what I like. There are some very memorable levels. Episode one has Down on the Farm, Sawdust, and Ghost Town. The sophomore episode has The Infernal Machine, The Escher Labs, and Neobabel. The last episode has City of Shadows, Homecoming, Crypt of the Flesh, and the best level in the game, As Above, So Below. The rest of them quickly faded from my memory or stayed because of flawed design.

The gunplay here is great. The Riveter, Crossbow, Sword, Hunting Rifle, and Shotguns were my absolute favorite weapons and were a blast to use. Even the far less memorable and fun-to-use weapons (the rest of them) all felt beefy and punchy, thanks to their superb sound design.

The story here isn't anything spectacular, but the way it's told really impressed me. It's all told passively, even more so than games held in that regard like Dark Souls. It's to the point where there are conflicting takes on what the story is about or the backstory of Duskdude. It's a nice pace change from games with constant exposition dumps and really forces you to think about the story if you want to.

Easily the game's strongest aspect is the enemies. From when I started the game to when I finished, not a single non-boss enemy left my memory, mainly thanks to how most of them are introduced. In fact, the game's most memorable moment is when the Horrors are introduced in Crypt of the Flesh. The game flexes its horror muscles and shows what it's truly capable of in that regard. Other great introductions are the Wendigos in The Unseen and, of course, the Leathernecks in Head Cheese. There isn't a single non-boss enemy that I didn't think was flawlessly designed and extremely fun to fight.

Now on to what I don't like. As I mentioned, a good chunk of the weapons are just not fun to use. Even with excellent sound design, The Pistols, Sickles, Assault Rifle, and the Super Shotgun feel so weak and pointless compared to the other weapons. When I run out of ammo for the weapons I enjoy using, these basically serve as filler until I get more, which never feels fun. How do you mess up a Super Shotgun?

Besides the final two bosses, every single boss is not only unmemorable but just bad. Episode two is the worst offender in this aspect, but the rest aren't that much better.

A much more minor critique I have are the secrets. Episode one seems free of this, but two and three have a very odd issue with the secrets. The secrets are one of two, they are tough to find, or they're so easy to find you seemingly pick up an item off the ground, and it just tells you it's a secret.

While a few songs in the soundtrack are stand-out jobs, the rest are either too subtle or too generic sounding, and they fade into the background and serve as glorified elevator music.

This game feels like nostalgia bait. It's good nostalgia bait, mind you, but once the appeal of the nostalgia starts to wear off, you quickly realize these classic titles outclass it. These other games will mostly have a better soundtrack, levels, guns, engaging stories, and better enemies. DUSK isn't even a bad game, it's quite a good one, but it feels unnecessary unless you're desperate for a "boomer shooter" fix.

The student tried to beat the master, but failed.

You know what you're getting, right off the bat. Cult oldie shootin. Pixels and polygons, sharp corners and stairs that only sometimes work. Absurd weapons, fast movement, and dorky ass voice lines. I mean the blueprint was already laid out from the get go, but this breath of fresh air gave the culture something to really work with. Such fun maps and enemy designs, such great sound and music, it just all works being the stupid gory excessive mess that it is because it's all well thought out and engaging. Well, for the most part. That's the charm of the jank. While the movement and everything about the way the player moves is completely torn from older games, the world that's crafted around it really works well with that gameplay, in a way that's just really inspired and realized. It's damn fun, and it's basically just a cool Quake mod but like, who cares? If it ain't broke...

I love old school fps games like with quake and doom and considering this set off a trend of more old school shooters being made i can say it was pretty fun but i think overall the lack of a story and the same gameplay routines over and over again made it boring after a while too play. it didnt help i dropped the game for a couple months before coming back and my save file didnt work so i had lost 2-3 hours of progress but it didnt matter too much i didnt care since i couldnt remember what i had played previously anyway.

it wasnt bad or anything just kinda boring a lot of the time. Id rather play half life or something