Dusk: Dusk was pretty loudly recommended to me by Steam frequently for years since its Early Access release and I finally gave it a go after seeing a nice discount and news of an HD upgrade. It's a good game, but ultimately I wasn't all too impressed.
I think my favorite thing about Dusk was that, from a level design perspective, it certainly tries to keep you guessing. You'll pass through a variety of sights, starting with the swamps and foundries and ending up in Escher-inspired labs and Hellish atria. There are the classic Doom-like levels with a couple colored key cards, some hallways and some rooms/areas clearly designed for shootouts, and then there are “narrative” levels that'll remind you of a faster paced Max Payne nightmare sequence: pretty on rails and maybe too much voice over work in the background, but it is never enough to really annoy you.
Problem is I don't think it's enough to ever really excite you, either. The intro is cool, with you just starting in a basement while three chainsaw-wielding psychos try to murder you and you fight back with dual sickles; an interesting melee weapon choice. But after this intro? It's pretty stock stuff.
Don't expect to learn anything about a plot except for two text dumps between the next chapters. I don't need a plot in a game which is focused on the gameplay, but that just means the gameplay has to be tighter than my uncle's grip in the garage that one summer, and I don't think it was. It never hit the highs of any good Doom game and isn't really all that clever, either.
Maybe it's partially the weapons, they're just not that good. The sword is overpowered, especially with its charge attack when you have 100+ health; the dual pistols quickly become completely worthless; the akimbo shotguns and super shotgun can burn through ammo very fast and have a low ammo cap (though the akimbo shotties were very fun); the machine gun is boring and so close to sounding punchy enough but not quite; the hunting rifle is fun, but like the shotguns has a low ammo capacity and not very practical in most of the close quarters areas; the crossbow is the hunting rifle but weaker/faster; and finally the riveter and mortar are very strong but almost identical to one another and probably should just be combined into one explosive weapon, or just lose the mortar entirely.
It has all the staples you'd expect with secret areas inside secrets areas, rooms that turn into enemy-spawning ambushes when you pick up a key, and lame bosses who don't know when to die. Fortunately, there's only one area in the game where you're stuck and deal with wave after wave of enemies, having you kill about 230 of them. A worse developer would have thrown in one of these per chapter, I'm happy restraint was shown because I was done after the one time.
So the gameplay is the game. Is it good? It's fine. I don't think you'll see anything in Dusk you haven't seen elsewhere, but that's not necessarily the worst thing as long as it's done well (see: Lies of P). Unfortunately, I don't think this is done that well. I'm certainly happy I got it on discount, especially since the HD upgrade looks terrible and its saves don't work with the original game, which I ended up sticking with. The worse graphics are better, who woulda thought.
I can see myself coming back to Dusk some day for a little bit o' murder, but no day soon.
I sorta recommend Dusk, but never at full price.
I think my favorite thing about Dusk was that, from a level design perspective, it certainly tries to keep you guessing. You'll pass through a variety of sights, starting with the swamps and foundries and ending up in Escher-inspired labs and Hellish atria. There are the classic Doom-like levels with a couple colored key cards, some hallways and some rooms/areas clearly designed for shootouts, and then there are “narrative” levels that'll remind you of a faster paced Max Payne nightmare sequence: pretty on rails and maybe too much voice over work in the background, but it is never enough to really annoy you.
Problem is I don't think it's enough to ever really excite you, either. The intro is cool, with you just starting in a basement while three chainsaw-wielding psychos try to murder you and you fight back with dual sickles; an interesting melee weapon choice. But after this intro? It's pretty stock stuff.
Don't expect to learn anything about a plot except for two text dumps between the next chapters. I don't need a plot in a game which is focused on the gameplay, but that just means the gameplay has to be tighter than my uncle's grip in the garage that one summer, and I don't think it was. It never hit the highs of any good Doom game and isn't really all that clever, either.
Maybe it's partially the weapons, they're just not that good. The sword is overpowered, especially with its charge attack when you have 100+ health; the dual pistols quickly become completely worthless; the akimbo shotguns and super shotgun can burn through ammo very fast and have a low ammo cap (though the akimbo shotties were very fun); the machine gun is boring and so close to sounding punchy enough but not quite; the hunting rifle is fun, but like the shotguns has a low ammo capacity and not very practical in most of the close quarters areas; the crossbow is the hunting rifle but weaker/faster; and finally the riveter and mortar are very strong but almost identical to one another and probably should just be combined into one explosive weapon, or just lose the mortar entirely.
It has all the staples you'd expect with secret areas inside secrets areas, rooms that turn into enemy-spawning ambushes when you pick up a key, and lame bosses who don't know when to die. Fortunately, there's only one area in the game where you're stuck and deal with wave after wave of enemies, having you kill about 230 of them. A worse developer would have thrown in one of these per chapter, I'm happy restraint was shown because I was done after the one time.
So the gameplay is the game. Is it good? It's fine. I don't think you'll see anything in Dusk you haven't seen elsewhere, but that's not necessarily the worst thing as long as it's done well (see: Lies of P). Unfortunately, I don't think this is done that well. I'm certainly happy I got it on discount, especially since the HD upgrade looks terrible and its saves don't work with the original game, which I ended up sticking with. The worse graphics are better, who woulda thought.
I can see myself coming back to Dusk some day for a little bit o' murder, but no day soon.
I sorta recommend Dusk, but never at full price.