DUSK is amazing. DUSk is somthing special. If I had the ability, I would make a whole video essay on why DUSK is so great. DUSK is a masterpiece in FPS design and should be put in a Hall of Fame of videogames. If you never played DUSK you should go, buy it and play it immediately.

The story of DUSK not very important, but here's what we got. You play as DuskDude, a mysterious figure with two sickles who himself knows very little of his past. For some reason he enters the territory of some cult that worships a guy named Jakob. Jakob is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ individual who knows who our protagonist is and is trying to show him, something by putting him through series of trials, where DuskDude has to slaughter a bunch of monsters, travel through impossible obstacles and prove that he's "Worthy". If you look hard enough, there is some subtle storytelling and obscure themes that are create the lore and story of DUSK, but you can easily ignore all of that and just push through the game.

The graphics of the game are very heavily stylised to look like early 90-s 3D, taking inspiration from Quake. There are also obvious influences from games like Blood with it's horror aesthetic, but instead cheesy 80-s horror it is more of Lovecraftian nightmare that is really hard to describe in words. It can put you off if you are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥ that can't handle intense stylisation and need pretty graphics to be distracted. But if you take at least 5 minutes to appreciate visual design of the game, you will understand that this aesthetic, those giant polygons, simplistic textures, chunky pixels, every last bit of the look of this game is a deliberate choice and one of the elements that make the game special. Add to that just incredible audio design, that will make you ♥♥♥♥ bricks at some moments, and some impressive creature design, and every single piece of DUSKs presentation is a work of art. I should also mention the incredible work of Andrew Hulshult on the soundtrack. His work was always great, but what he did here is nothing short of amazing and probably his greatest work so far.

The gameplay of DUSK is a pretty standart oldschool shooting with complex level design and challenging fights with monsters. If you played any shooter in the 90-s, you probably know what to expect. But you can't even imagine what DUSK does with it's simplistic concept. The DUSK is quintessential formula of a mid-90s FPS put to it's absolute limit and made 10 times more fun and crazy. First of all, the freedom of movement is unbelievable. Player runs fast by default, but additionaly you have the ability to bunnyhop, which is very easy to get a grasp on and is very important to learn, especially on higher difficulty levels. High mobility of the player works perfectly in tandem wit henemy design, all of them either have melee attacks, or shoots projectiles that you can dodge, there is no damage that you cannot avoid by using your brain and your movement, no cheese, no diffculty for the sake of being just diffcult, no stupid hitscan enemies. The game just puts you in situation that you have to utilise every single of your skills, making it an ultimate test of your abilities. Weapons in the game can be boring at first glance, but it is overshadowed by the fact that weapons have almost perfect balancing. Every weapon has it's use in any situation and there is no weapons that overshadow others, making them obsolete. Even melee weapons are useful, you think sickles are useless? Well they can deflect enemy projects so even they can be more useful than pistols in some situations. Going back to the enemy design, some enemies are brilliantly xecuted, making them some of the most unique and interesting monsters that I had to fight in an FPS. And also, level design. My god. This is something that only a complete genius could come up with. Almost over 60 years of game developmant is led to the point where David Szymanski thought to make those levels into reality. First half of the game may seem pretty good, altough not all that special set of levels, but after middle point of the game, everything just gets insane. Lovecraftian horros, non-euclidian nightmares, impossible structures, the most impressive looking setpieces that put so called "triple Ayyy" projects to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ shame. And ther is no filler, no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, you always go forward, do something, explore levels, shoot enemies, find secrets, challenge yourself in different ways. Maybe you want to be a speedrunner, there is the most optimal way to beat the level. Maybe you are a completionist, the secrets in the game are numerous and super satisfying. Maybe you want to try to beat the game without killing a single enemy? There is an option even for you!

And adding to that there is full mod support and community already creating custom levels, and multiplayer, that I never got the chance to play. But hey! At least there is potentially amazing arena shooter in my library. And possibilities are almost endless. I may have overhyped DUSK a little bit in this review, but believe me, no matter what, you will have a great time with DUSK. And if you won't, then you have not taste and should go back to your (insert generic popular game here) /s.

Anyway, buy DUSK.