I think I finally understand why people like Cruelty Squad now.

It's bad enough that this shitpost of a game is actually a good retro shooter and better than most games genuinely trying to replicate that era of shooters, but the length to which the game keeps committed to the bit; that bit being this game was made by a sad loser who never went anywhere in his life and dug out this old high school project as a hail mary attempt to make it big and leave his job at the dollar store run by his step-father.
Not only does it have the layer of a cringe edge lord high school project that's amateur at best, but it also has that hidden layer of sadness when you start realizing all of the maps in the game are just places from the main programmers life in Ohio which range from a dollar store and a fast food place. AND ON TOP OF THAT you have the meta context where it's replicating how kids and teens in the 90's and 2000's would get into Doom map making by primarily recreating their homes or other buildings in Doom.

For a game that has this stupid shitpost veneer this had so much more going on under the hood and I kinda admire it.