Dusk (PC)

Developer:

David Szymanski

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Release Date:

2018

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Systems:

Win, macOS, Linux, Switch

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm taking a look at indie first-person boomer shooter Dusk! I've been meaning to get around to this for a while now. Partly because it's a critically acclaimed, highly recommended game in a genre I love, partly because it was a present and I should probably play the games I've been gifted!

I've been avoiding learning anything about the game so I'm going in fairly blind. I didn't even know it had a multiplayer mode called 'Duskworld'. Though it doesn't feature co-op or bots and I think I'm going to stick with the single-player mode. The regular one I mean, not 'Endless' mode, which seems like it'd take a while.

Not that I'm planning to finish the whole game. I'm just going to stick with it for an hour or so to see if I'm satisfied with its shooting.

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Oh cool, it starts with a faux DOS boot-up sequence, complete with the beep. I'm not sure why it boots up straight into the game instead of the command prompt though. Maybe they had to launch it with a boot disk to give it more expanded RAM. 

Anyway, the important thing is that it's found my soundboomer card. In fact, my PC passes the minimum specs for the game, which is always a nice surprise when I see it. I tried to run Marvel's Midnight Suns the other day, and that was a real 'Your rig is a whole generation behind, mate' moment for me.

Most of the graphics options have defaulted to 'off' but I think this is probably more of an 'intended experience' thing than a 'your computer can't run this indie game from five years ago' thing. In fact, one of the options that starts off disabled is a 'Low Spec Mode'. There's a question mark next to all of them I can hover the mouse over for more information, and after due consideration, I'm just going to leave it all as it is. Even the pixelization, even if it apparently just halves the resolution.

I'm going to leave the HUD Type alone as well, as I have no idea what any of them look like. Options are good though.

There are five difficulty settings and I'm going to go with the default, "I Can Take It", because that's how I roll. It makes it much easier to compare how challenging it is to other games if I play them all on normal difficulty. I've already got one comparison for you: it doesn't have a difficulty select fortress like Quake does. That's a bit of a shame really.

Alright, I'm holding two sickles and I'm facing three dudes with chainsaws and bags over their heads. I'm pretty sure this isn't a fair fight but I don't know yet which of us is at a disadvantage.

Okay, it's me, I'm the one who's in trouble! I mean I killed them all, but I had to really hack away at them and I lost half my health doing it. No regenerating health in this it seems. I also lost all my morale, so I'm demoralised now I guess. Whatever that means.

Hang on, I just noticed a message saying I can pick something up.

I grabbed this tiny red gas can with my invisible arms and got to see some nice janky physics in action, as the barrels around it sprang out of the way to reveal a spinning low-resolution pistol stashed inside the wall! Then there was an explosion that took off 24 health, so I guess I did something wrong. But hey, I got a pistol out of it so I'm calling it a win.

I was a bit stuck after that as it's too dark in here to find a way out. Fortunately, the game gave me a helpful hint, saying "Press 'F' for flashlight". So I pressed it and nothing happened. Then I pressed the button I'd remapped the flashlight to and that worked out a lot better, revealing a staircase leading up.

Oh, it's doing the 'messages scrawled all over the walls' thing. That's not very retro. Wait, yes it is, System Shock did it. I also found a second pistol and killed a couple of new enemy types! There's that guy in the white cloak, he fires fireballs at you, and there's a monster with antlers who also fires stuff at you. They're much easier to see in motion than they are in screenshots.

It seems that I'm in someone's basement and there's a way upstairs. But I found a lever hidden away that opened up a secret passage, so I'm going that way first.

The secret passage brought me outside! I really expected that there was going to be more to that underground area, but it's cool to be out in the fresh air. Also, I found a shotgun and then a second shotgun, so now I've doubled my DPS. Shame it hasn't doubled my max ammo as well, but whatever.

I've only played the game for five minutes but I'm already getting the impression this is one of those 'weaving between fireballs while blasting everything up close with a shotgun' kinds of first-person shooters. Projectiles are dodgeable, enemies don't even know what cover is, and staying mobile is recommended when the wildlife is charging at you with glowing red eyes and hatred in their hearts.

Oh, I'm done already? That level really flew by.

Okay, it clearly says it took me over 9 minutes, but most of that time was spent looking through screenshots and taking notes.

DOWN ON THE FARM (E1M2)

Level 2 started me outside a barn, next to a bunch of enemies and a mysterious sparkling rune. The thing turned out to be a fast-fire totem, which has increased my guns' rate of fire for a bit! So that's cool.

Now I just need to find a totem which increases my guns' polygon count. I mean I know the game's supposed to look retro, but I don't remember them ever looking quite this bad. Not in first-person shooters anyway.

Quake (PC)

Okay, I guess Quake's weapons are pretty low polygon as well, but the game does a better job of hiding it with its textures. Plus it had a little face on the HUD! Where's Dusk's little face, huh?

Oh, I just remembered it has other HUDs to pick from so I suppose I can't really complain until I've tried them all.

Unreal (PC)

Here's some Unreal as well, released two years after Quake. I'd say that this is where Dusk lives, somewhere between these two games. Any later than this and you end up getting into Half-Life territory, and Dusk is definitely not that. Even if the environments are a bit more 'real world' at times.

Here's an interior in Dusk, looking a little less shadowy maybe, but considerably more recognisable as an actual place. It also has a weird bubbling puddle in the corner on the right and a Rise of the Triad-style bounce pad in the middle of the floor! I stepped on it and it launched me right to the roof. Though I think I'll drop down a floor to grab one of those medkits.

Oh by the way, the health kits in this have a green cross symbol on them, which is a reasonable substitute now that games can't use a red cross. Better than a pill symbol for sure.

Okay, this scarecrow just scared the crap out of me, which I guess is its job to be fair.

I was just wandering through this corn maze (maize?), sharing some bullets with all the cannon fodder enemies I met, when suddenly this thing broke free of its stand and started blasting away at me with a shotgun! I should probably switch to a shotgun myself, as he's shrugging off all my bullets like he's made of straw. He's probably not though, considering all the blood that's spraying out.

Oh, he exploded into straw when he died so I guess he was a proper scarecrow after all. If he only had a brain, then he would've been smart enough to stay at his post and let me walk by.

Oh, so we're doing this red key thing, are we? How quaint. Alright, I'm going off to find a red key and then I'll be right back. I'd check the map and make a mental note of where this door is, but the game doesn't have a map, so I can't. 

It's times like this that it makes sense that the game doesn't have a blood-pumping industrial metal soundtrack. The music's like atmospheric horror ambience; much more suitable for a key hunt in the spooky forest.

Oh okay, now the music's kicked in! It was just waiting for me to turn the corner and run into a half-dozen enemies. Yes, I turned a corner in a forest, some forests have corners. Especially if they're in a classic video game.

I feel like I should be writing more about the combat, but I'm just pointing the crosshair at things and making them dead, while trying to avoid all the glowy things they're shooting back at me. Chainsaw guy's not shooting at me though, he just wants to cut my character's head off, or his legs, or something. I'm pretty sure he's not after the protagonist's hands, because he doesn't have any. I mean the guns are just floating, there's nothing holding them.

Anyway, I carried on down the path, got the key, backtracked, opened the door...

... then I somehow leapt over the exit gate by accident. At least the game gave me a health pickup thing for it. And an achievement!

OLD TIME RELIGION (E1M3)

The game is telling me I need a red key to get over this gate, but it seems to have forgotten that it gave me the immersive sim power of being able to pick up boxes! I can use it as a stepping stone to sequence break.

Okay, it turns out that I can't jump over and also the box exploded. It was worth a try though.

Aha, there you go. I had the right plan I was just doing it in the wrong place. I can bypass the church's locked door by leaping in through the window, and then this will presumably lead to the red or blue key. (Lots of colour-coded locked doors in this map).

Also, all these farms and churches and dudes with chainsaws are reminding me of Resident Evil 4.

Resident Evil 4 (PlayStation 2)

See, it's basically identical. Except for the graphics.

Inside the church, I found a massive hole leading deep underground, which isn't generally a good sign. I mean that's basically how Diablo starts. I didn't have anything better to do though, so I leapt in and dropped a long long long long way down.

Turns out there's a machine gun down here!

Oh crap, picking the assault rifle triggered the emergence of the evil rats! They're so small I can barely see them behind the low-res muzzle flash, but it's obvious that they're chipping away at my health. I hadn't really noticed before now, but the player hurt sound is kind of weird. It's like a mix between an 'oof' and a 'boop' sound. I guess it means I'm always aware when I'm taking damage, but it kind of downplays how much I should be worrying about it.

Defeated enemies sometimes drop purple potions to give me a hit point back, but they're not really a substitute for a health kit. I could also do with a way out, as I'm extremely underground right now.

LATER

The game tricked me! I got all the way back up to the surface, went to use the key I just picked up and the ground collapsed, dropping me into the magenta zone. It's like a ZX Spectrum game in here. Fortunately, it turns out I don't have any fall damage, so the only thing I have to worry about are the fireball-shooting cultists surrounding me. They're way easier to fight than the hitscan machine gun cultists from Blood though, so I'm not overly concerned.

I fought my way through and found myself back at the church again, so this is definitely one of those levels that's designed like a plate of spaghetti. Lots of paths behind lots of locked doors and they all take you back to where you came from.

But that's all done now and a health bar just appeared on screen, so I think I'm about to face my first boss...

The INTOXIGATOR! It's like an alligator except it shoots fireballs sometimes.

I just sort of walked around it, firing my guns and it died. So that's done now. Probably not the best boss I've ever fought in a video game, but it didn't make me want to tear my hair out and throw stuff at the screen, so I'm okay with that. Also, the health bar is very appreciated. It's always nice to know if my attacks are actually doing anything.

I got to hear a creepy voice saying "My pet... you'll pay for that," and then continued on through the exit.

SAWDUST (E1M5)

Oh hell yeah, I've found a sniper rifle too! Well okay it's just a regular rifle really, but it deals a lot of damage and it zooms in more than any of the other weapons when I hold the zoom button, so it's close enough. The game doesn't seem to have headshots, but this thing can take out scarecrows with two hits and they're the toughest regular enemy I've come across. You can see a scarecrow trying to shoot me on the right, but their projectiles are physical objects and they've scattered quite a bit at this range.

I also found a tin of hash to eat on the floor, so that's cool.

Crap, the game did that thing again where the floor collapsed and the industrial metal loop started playing. Though this time it's got me fighting a new type of enemy I've never faced before, some kind of scarecrow mage, and they're tearing through my health.

Oh damn, they were the last two enemies on the stage as well! At least I can cross 'get my dude killed' off my list of things to do. And now that I know what happens I never need to do it again.

The game's given me a helpful hint, saying "Press 'E' for live again". So I pressed it and nothing happened. Then I pressed the button I'd remapped it to and that worked out a lot better. There are no checkpoints or autosaves during a map. Fortunately tapping the quicksave key is a habit I developed a long time ago, so I've lost basically no progress.

Also, it turns out that scarecrow mages are weak against sustained machine gun fire. It interrupts their train of thought and also their life.

THE CUTTY MINE (E1M6)

Yeah sure, I'll just make my way around a maze with only this much screen visible.

Okay, I officially hate this level. I'm here for shooting and exploring and fun, not going around in circles in the pitch-black darkness, seeing the same bits of scenery over and over again. This isn't the first time I've gotten temporarily stuck, the game's got some old-school level design, but I've never gotten this frustrated.

Creepy voices saying "I see you…" don't help. Oh hang on, yes they do! That means I'm close to an enemy I haven't shot yet. Awesome, I'm making progress again.

Did they seriously put a spooky ghost floating by?

It makes sense I suppose. The game's more of a Halloween shooter than a horror shooter. The game plays everything straight, especially the music, and there are no quips or dumb jokes in the scenery that I've seen, but it's a bit goofy just by its nature.

DEAD OF THE NIGHT (E1M7)

It's certainly nice to be out in the open again for map 7, with a bunch of buildings to run around... and over. Even the enemies are using the bounce pads to get around, though I'm sure it's all accidental as they're not very bright.

On the other hand, they're very bright, by which I mean they glow and you can actually see them in the distance or in the dark. Not being able to spot the enemies is one of my biggest problems in shooters, so I can definitely appreciate this.

Hah, nice cat.

The second boss is two giant cultists firing slow homing fireballs. It's another piss-easy fight on normal difficulty, with the only tricky part being that the slow-ass cultists sometimes get in my way as I'm circling the room.

THROUGH THE GATE (E1M8)

Hah, someone was playing Dusk.

Those wine bottles can be drunk to restore some morale, but a loading tip warned that if I down three of them I'll get drunk. I can eat all the hash I want though! (Because it's just meat, potatoes and onion in a tin). I can also recover morale by collecting gems. Nothing cheers this dude up more than finding massive diamonds. He's a very relatable protagonist.

Hang on, is morale actually just armour with a different name? That would make a lot of sense.

GHOST TOWN (E1M9)

This level has a very different vibe to it. I feel like this is kind of what Doom II's city levels would've looked like if they'd looked remotely like a city. Except slightly more 3D.

I mean it's 3D enough for me to have made it across to this cable above the street, but not 3D enough for me to jump any higher. I think I've reached the skybox.

Aha, I've found a secret area! I saw a suspicious crack on the wall that reminded me of the ones in Duke Nukem 3D, so I fired my new mortar at it and blew a hole in the building. It wasn't the most spectacular-looking explosion, but it got the job done. Also, they probably should've called the weapon a grenade launcher, because that's what it is.

Hang on, is that another crack on the right-hand wall? Secrets within secrets! Funny thing is, I'm not actually hunting for secrets right now, I'm just looking for the exit. It's one of those kinds of games.

CREATIONS (E1M10)

Alright, I'm on level 10 now so this flaming horse monster has to be the final boss of the episode. He's more of a threat than previous bosses as his rapid-fire fireballs are harder to dodge, but I think I can handle him.

Yep, I came out of it with only 52 health left, but that's another boss defeated. In fact, I haven't seen a single game over screen in the second half of the episode so I think I've gotten the hang of the game.

Uh, what? A six-switch Duke Nukem 3D-style trial-and-error combination puzzle? There's got to be hundreds of possible combinations!

Alright I've got to press something, so I'll try the top left switch.

Oh crap it released a second fire horse! I don't like this, I don't like this.

The horse reacquainted me with the protagonist's mortality, so I've been suitably humbled, but I think I know what I did wrong: I got hit by too many fireballs. If I can find a way to not get hit by fireballs I'll do a lot better. Hang on, is the door I came in through still open?

Oh damn, it is! I can just sit up here plinking away at the horse with my pistols and he can't even hit me!

I've won some hard-to-read ending text! Turns out that we're leaving the town of Dusk now, so the name's only getting less appropriate from this point on. Episode 2 is The Facilities. So I'm going from Resident Evil 4 to Resident Evil 5.

Here's my question though: why wasn't this first episode released for free as shareware?

Oh hey, the level select screen has a map on it, just like in Doom (but not Doom II). It also lets you customise your loadout, so if you want to replay a level with a full set of gear and all of the bullets that's certainly an option. On the other hand, you can set it so you start off every level in the campaign with just the sickles, no matter what you picked up in the last map.

It's also nice that it keeps track of your best results for each level and even gives you awards to achieve. If you're the kind of maniac who'd want to do a pacifist run of a classic-style FPS, this will acknowledge your achievement. Hang on, how do you do a pacifist run of a game with boss fights?

Okay, I've finished a third of the game, so this seems like a sensible place to turn the game off. I just want to take a quick peek at episode 2 first though, to see if it does anything radically different.

UNSEEN (E2M2)

I'm pretty sure these invisible deer monsters are new.

Their gimmick is that they're invisible until you shoot them, which can be hard due to the fact that they're invisible. They do knock objects around though, which is a clue that they're around, and they make a bit of a sound. The other clue is how they keep kicking my ass.

Enemies in episode two are more resistant and more deadly. I've got a grenade launcher with remote-triggered grenades though, so I just need to find a cosy spot overlooking the room and I can carpet-bomb the whole area. That'll make them visible for sure... as clouds of red mist.

INTO THE THRESHER (E2M3)

Man, things have gotten very claustrophobic ever since I climbed inside a giant machine full of spinning spikes. I turned the things off first, I'm not crazy! Though I couldn't turn off this row of piston-like cylinders which keep sliding in and out of the wall.

Messing up the timing here is instant death, which is probably why there's a subtle hint written in glowing graffiti on the wall over there. The game's not going to save checkpoints for you, so it's smart to hit the F5 key occasionally.

Damn, I was already feeling really trapped and claustrophobic before I entered the room surrounded by spinning blades. It's funny, it's not like the level's doing anything all that different to the rest of the maps I've been playing through, they're all a string of rooms and corridors leading to a single exit, but this time I feel like I'm stuck inside something and I need to get out.

THE ESCHER LABS (E2M5)

Man, if there's one thing this game excels at, it's showering the player with blood after an enemy explodes.

Wait, what does that say? "Time only moves when you move." Holy crap, the game has a Superhot power-up! I also found a Spider-Man power-up on the last level which let me climb walls, for a limited time only. Where were these power-ups back in the 90s?

Oh no, the wall has become the floor and the ceiling is also the floor. I kind of saw this coming to be honest, when I saw that the level is called 'The Escher Labs'.

Oh hey, now I'm in Constantine's Mansion from Thief: The Dark Project! There's no way the similarity is purely coincidental; you don't remake an iconic corridor like this by accident.

The game gave me another bit of 'save' graffiti on the wall before this room and I soon figured out why. It's a low-gravity jumping area, like Xen in Half-Life! Also, it's a boss fight!

I've been getting the hero killed more and more the further I go, as the difficulty ramps up, but this has to be a new record for quick loads. I can jump around the floating platforms just fine when I'm not being shot at, but her rockets tend to send me falling off into the inky abyss. Also, there's exploding barrels everywhere, which complicates things. I tried to complicate things for her by taking the barrels, carefully dropping them into her lair without triggering her to come after me, and then detonating them with a remote-triggered grenade. It probably even worked, but bosses have a lot of health, so this is still going to take a while.

Anyway, I won the fight and carried on into the second half of episode 2... but if I keep showing screenshots I'm going to spoil the whole game so I'm cutting this off here.


CONCLUSION

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The thing that got me curious about Dusk is that it's been getting an immense amount of praise for a game with triangular shotgun barrels and only occasional shadows. It made me wonder if people love it because the gameplay is just that good, or because there's something more to it that no one talks about. Is it one of those games which seems to be one thing at first, but then sneakily transforms into something you're not expecting? Is the Dusk in the screenshots actually the real Dusk?

Yep. Dusk is pretty much exactly what it seems to be: a 2018 first-person shooter straight from 1997. In fact, it's like someone took a whole bunch of classic shooters, blended them together and turned them into a Quake WAD. Except it's actually made in Unity. It's got that classic id Software feel, but it starts off on a farm right out of Redneck Rampage, with Rise of the Triad jump pads and Blood cultists, and so on. I even started getting Hexen-style "A door opens," messages coming up after I flicked a mysterious switch, which is the kind of retro throwback design I don't need. Generally though, they only included the good bits and it's got quicksaves to make any frustrations it does have less annoying. Doesn't help when you're stuck in a pitch-black maze though, or any of the game's other mazes for that matter. The game has that problem sometimes where it's easier to find the secrets than the exit. A map might have helped!

Enemy projectiles are all dodgeable to an extent, there are no hitscanners here, which means you get to gracefully weave through the mayhem instead of losing 30% of your health in an instant every time you peek up above a wall. It doesn't seem like scoring headshots helps much, but the arsenal's well up to the task of sending enemies flying back or blowing them up into a satisfying shower of crimson pixels. At the very least you're going to make them flinch and interrupt their shot. A game like this has to get the feel right, as it doesn't have much else going on, and this pretty much nails it. It's got fast movement, a whole bunch of weapons you'll have reason to switch through, and no reloading. Also you can slide and do flips, but I generally didn't.

The graphics can be more basic than the games that inspired it, but that's not a huge surprise considering it was done by one person and they were some of the most graphically demanding, visually impressive games of their time. It wasn't really an issue for me either, as it adds to the PlayStation horror game feel and I could always see the enemies just fine. The audio's also going more for horror ambience... usually.

Overall I really liked this. It feels like the kind of game I could just leave installed next to Doom and Duke Nukem 3D, and come back to when I've got 30 minutes spare, or a video or podcast to listen to. I just have to be ready to pause it quick when the action music kicks in. I don't know if I rate it as the king of all boomer shooters, but it's definitely right up there in my rankings.

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Next on Super Adventures, I'm playing something a little bit older. I won't tell you any more than that however, because I don't want to make it too easy to guess.

Though I have made it incredibly easy for you to leave a comment and if you don't believe me you should try it yourself. Try it even if you do believe me!