I love oldschool FPS’s, but somehow the whole boomer shooter resurgence just passed me by. I just finished Boltgun on the hardest difficulty and had a great time, would love to hear some other suggestions
ULTRAKILL is the most fun I’ve had with an oldschool FPS in ages. The difficulty ramps up perfectly, it’s super approachable for new players, and the skill ceiling for what you can do when you’re good is absolutely insane. The soundtrack is also fire.
Clips like this make me want to do another playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdHVt7cTwXc
Holy shit. I love movement tech, this looks amazing. Added to my list!
Ion Fury:
It doesn‘t try to emmulate the look and feel of those build engine games like shadow warrior or duke nukem 3d… because it is one of them.
It is legitimately running on a modernized source port of the build engine. It has fantastic level design. It somehow feels modern and old at the same time. If you grew up playing games from that era this one is a must play imo
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Absolute romp. Loved my time with Ion Fury. I’d also recommend Turbo Overkill, and for something a bit slower – more akin to System Shock – Hyper Violent.
Both those look awesome! Dusk especially looks right up my alley, but I just bought both on Steam, will be starting with dusk tonight :)
There are a lot to sift through, but I recommend:
- Nightmare Reaper It has tons of fun weapons, enemies, and challenges. You play as a woman sent to an asylum and the battle is against the horrors within her head.
- AMID EVIL A magic themed FPS that reminds me a lot of Hexen/Hexic. It has a superb soundtrack as well.
- Forgive Me Father A horrific adventure to fight a cult and its otherworldly summonings. Has a perk progression system that sets it apart from most.
Seconding Amid Evil, it’s a lot of fun. Sometimes I fire it up for a quick game. Cool weapons.
Nightmare Reaper is an absolute blast. I found it scrolling YouTube a year or so back and have enjoyed almost every minute with it.
I haven’t tried Amid Evil yet, just the VR edition. The VR version has been incredible so far.
If VR is of any interest Compound is another great game. It gets more into rogue-like territory but the Doom era inspirations are apparent immediately
DUSK and CULTIC come to mind. The original 1993 DOOM and 1996 Quake are also absolutely still worth playing, but it sounds like you may have already played them. Maybe Post Void, Cruelty Squad, or HROT if those seem up your alley.
I’ve heard great stuff about ULTRAKILL, but I would wait for it to leave early access before getting it.
Fwiw, Ultrakill is essentially a complete experience as-is. It is early access, but it’s the kind of early access where I’d have gladly paid even if it was only the current content.
As mentioned here, DUSK is GOATed I can personally attest to that.
ULTRAKILL i need to spend more time in, loved what i played but i haven’t had the time to perfect my play in it
Prodeus hasn’t been mentioned and is excellent
I second this.
Prodeus!
It’s in PC Game Pass if you’re subscribed to it by any chance
Otherwise it’s $25 on Steam
It’s a shame that the devs will never fix the checkpoint system, it kind of ruined the game for me.
Check this thread. AFAIK, the author updates it regularily.
From me, personally, I very much recommend Dusk, Prodeus, Ion Fury and Cultic!
I’d throw Painkiller into the ring. I still think of “shurikens and lightning” whenever I think of it https://youtu.be/qk7DlYcQ0uM
Not played them but Dusk and Ultrakill I think?
It’s been a while since I played it, but Sauerbraten / Cube 2 had a very old-school FPS vibe to it. It’s open source, so just download and play.
POSTAL: Brain Damaged is an interesting shooter in this genre, and a faithful addition to the series.
Personally, I’ve only played Dusk and Iron Fury.
Here is a recent video of LevelCapGaming talking about a few good/interesting “boomer shooters” (Prodeus, Ultrakill, Dusk, Ion Fury, Selaco, HROT, Cultic, Brutal Doom)
Dread Templar was great fun, and a very smooth experience. It even has melee weapons that aren’t crap.
Wrath Aeon of Ruin was a mediocre experience for me. The shooting was fun, but there was a real lack of enemy diversity. I remember the checkpoints being funky somehow?
Og games like Quake, Doom and Unreal hold up really well. They can be modded to your hearts content too. Brutal Doom is just way too much fun
Blood is super fun, but unfairly difficult on the highest difficulty. It kicks your head in, until you learn, but every minute of the experience is fun. Until the maze-like levels and actual mazes make you dizzy.
Cultic is like a modern Blood, but an even more deliberate version. The demo is good fun and the game is cheap.
Poweslave Exhumed is something I remember enjoying as a kid. Iron Maiden themed romp through mummies. It kinda reminds me of…
Amid Evil and Hexen//Heretic. Both feature mystical weapons, mana for ammo and fantastical locations and monsters to kill. Amid Evil is a great shooter with survival modes, a full campaign and all Heretic and Hexen are older, more dated games that will hurt you. But I love them for it.
Dusk was rhe first new retro shooter I played, and it’s fun. It’s slick, has a nice deathmatch mode and the campaign doesn’t overstay its welcome. I hear it has been surpassed by Hrot.
Blood West tricked me hard. It’s not a boomer shooter, but more like a single player version of Hunt, or a wild-west monsterhunting Dishonoured? It’s fun and unforgiving, but not a boomer shooter, even if it has guns.
EYE Divine Cybermancy could qualify, I guess. It’s a trippy grimdark warhammer inspired rpg shooter. Very boomery in it’s visuam style and lack of handholding, but definitely more modern than Quake.
Black Mesa is Half-Life, and it’s good. Nuff said.
Haven’t played enough of Hedon, Project Warlock, Ion Maiden, Incision, Prodeus, Graven or Rise of the Triad to say more than they exist.
