Dusk

A fun, fast-paced, minimalistic first-person shooter that doesn't take its Lovecraftian horror theme too seriously. It prioritizes gameplay over almost every other aspect—except the soundtrack, which kicks a**.

Physics are about speed, shooting, and evading, not realism. There is no fall damage, no weapon reloading button, nor anything else that take would take even a nanosecond away from the action. An excellent feature is that you can save whenever you want, which allows for lots of different play styles. Are you a perfectionist? Reload and try again until you get it right. Masochist? Play on a high difficulty and keep bashing your head against that wall. Are you a more casual player? Pick up, play, and take a break whenever you feel like it.

Graphics are simple but level design can be quite intricate and diverse. The weapons are easy to understand and satisfying to use, there's a nice variety of enemy types, several bosses, and even a basic storyline. Actually, I kinda wish there was more meat on those bones, perhaps some documents to find and read, characters to talk to, etc. But I guess minimalism means minimalism! It does the job, and I must admit that there are a few very nice set pieces that drive the narrative forward.

There's obviously retro appeal to Dusk and many lovely features as well as attention to detail to make your experience as retro as possible. But I think calling it a retro game is selling it short. Despite the 90s FPS aesthetic Dusk feels decidedly modern. Performance is the key differentiator: the original Doom was capped at 35 FPS, whereas Dusk embraces and really shines at super-high refresh rates (I played at 120 FPS).

The bottom line is that I'm sure Dusk would have been a lot of fun without leaning into retro nostalgia, but it's also nice that the veneer is tasteful and neither detracts nor distracts at the default configuration. Dusk is just a good, straightforward experience, period.