What are you playing?

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

It's funny how Nintendo (or rather a third-party buddy) made the right decision for once by turning Metroid Prime into its own sub-franchise.

Also I hope this trend dies soon, because it's already confusing to have two different games with the same title. Add in a third or even fourth, and it gets out of hand.

[Guest]

There's a weird thing in marketing where execs get really antsy about franchise numbers getting too high. There are exceptions obviously, but it conjures up images of shitty b-movie sequels that are all out of ideas, so instead they title it to sound fresh and new. I work in marketing myself so I can kind of understand that shit, although I also understand why people get pissed off at it.

It used to work for porn. I wanna say Gangbang Girl was up to 143 or something before Brazzers took over the world.

[Kugelfisch]

Based Charlie B called it years ago.

Sadly, he's anything but based these days.

[Angelfire Memes]

Based Charlie B called it years ago.

Sadly, he's anything but based these days.

Black Mirror is normie as fuck now but I still enjoy it for the most part. I do wish he'd go back to Screenwipe at some point though.

Nathan Barley is still one of the best TV comedies I've ever seen, he is permabased for that alone.

[Kugelfisch]

DUSK!
So I just finished Episode 1. I thought I was in Episode 2 already but I was wrong. The first one is just much longer than I anticipated and due to the change in location I thought I was in the second Episode already. That means I've got much more DUSK to play than I thought.
So far, the difficulty is very much in line with DOOM. I play on the third difficulty and it's pretty easy. The enemies do okay damage, especially the bosses do, but the movement is so fast and with bunny hopping being even faster and crouch during movement leading to a really nice slide I barely get hit in the first place. I'll go on with this difficulty and after Episode 2 will start over in the second to last hardest difficulty.
In the highest difficulty you die in one hit.

What's interesting is that all levels allow for a pistol start, or sickle start as it were. There's an option to start of with sickles every level. So the most difficult way to play would be in the highest difficulty with no weapons but sickles from the start.
You can also play every level you've beaten at any time and complete secrets not found yet.

[rabidtictac]

Dusk looks pretty alright. I saw those best friends guys play it and it didn't look like shit.

[Kugelfisch]

Dusk looks pretty alright. I saw those best friends guys play it and it didn't look like shit.

It's pretty fucking rad, actually.
Atmosphere of Blood.
Weapon balancing of Doom.
Movement and vague look of Quake.
Pretty much that plus something of it's own style. It's not nostalgia bait. I've played and seen plenty of "old school" shooters and DUSK is really the first to completely live up to the premise. It's not pretending to be like those kinda FPS, it just is.
I can't tell you how refreshing the game feels to me.

[rabidtictac]

Blood is a great game. It was the stylistic inspiration for the Priest manwha series.

[Kugelfisch]

All the more of a shame that emulation is shoddy and that there's still no source code released. Unironically, if I'd ever find myself winning the lottery or something, buying the rights to Blood would be my first action.

[Kugelfisch]

Just one more level to play in DUSK Episode 2. The game really throws you several curve balls and levels go absolutely crazy.
I've said that the game is easy on "I can take it", what's essentially "normal" difficulty. Episode 2 throws many more enemies at you and I got hit more frequently, showing that the damage enemies do is actually pretty scary.
Some random high priority mob that shows up toward the end of EP1 and is absolutely everywhere in EP2 hits you for 25 with full armor (called Morale in this game). The apex mob in EP2 two-shots you at 100 armor and 200 HP, the absolute maximum.

Both projectiles are easily dodged from those enemies but being put into a large room with six of the former, one of the latter plus several other mobs puts your movement skills to test and requires you to combine it with smart weapon choice, good priorities and abusing the in-fighting system of the game. Bob and weave, dodge and body block, pick your target and chose your weapon to thin out the ranks.

The game loves to just fuck your shit up as well with unexpected stuff. While in early EP1 you visit places that you'd expect if you watched videos of the game. That goes out of the window real quick and it ups the stake constantly. The locations go from nice to uncomfortable to fantastical to benign and right into creepy and switches up real good.

I'm far from soft on indie retro shooters. There's tons of gay shit out there. So when I say that DUSK lives up to Quake, Doom and Blood, that's the highest praise I could give a pure FPS. It lives up to the hype. Jump in now or look forward to the full release.