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
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.
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
Both those look awesome! Dusk especially looks right up my alley, but I just bought both on Steam, will be starting with dusk tonight :)
Dusk is fantastic.
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.
Prodeus hasn’t been mentioned and is excellent
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There are a lot to sift through, but I recommend:
- Nightmare Reaper You play as a woman sent to an asylum and the battle is against the horrors within her head. It has tons of fun weapons, enemies, and challenges.
- 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.
If you haven’t already played them, check out the OG Doom and Quake games. Either the Steam releases or one of the gazillion source ports.
I just played Prodeus, and it was great, I especially loved the graphics.
People rave about the New Blood Interactive games, but I have yet to really play them. Ultrakill, Amid Evil, Dusk, and a few others. Those could be worth checking out.
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.
I’d throw Painkiller into the ring. I still think of “shurikens and lightning” whenever I think of it https://youtu.be/qk7DlYcQ0uM
Alright, I did go on a boomer shooter and arena shooter romp a while back and found quite a few gems, although most of these answers will probably sound obvious.
-DOOM classic, of course. Also try with mods, like Brutal DOOM
-DOOM 2016 and DOOM Eternal are also really good, modernized takes on the formula -Quake is still really good, the remake is really nice. -Unreal Tournament '99 and 2004 might be officially dead, but they still have players if you follow the player maintained master servers
-Blood:Fresh Supply on GoG
-Hexen/Heretic is a classic -Dusk
-Amid Evil
-ULTRAKILL, really, all of the New Blood shooter projects are really good
-Prodeus is one that flies under the radar of most, but it has a kickass soundtrack and vibe, and a gameplay that is between DOOM and Quake. Probably my favorite of the new bunch.POSTAL: Brain Damaged is an interesting shooter in this genre, and a faithful addition to the series.
Not played them but Dusk and Ultrakill I think?
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.
Excellent suggestions all around in the comments! I own all of these XD There is one that wasn’t mentioned that I would highly recommend. Dread Templar is a good one.
