DUSKwas released on PC in 2018, and is a retro-styled first-person shooter designed to evoke the low-poly 3D models and low-resolution textures of classic shooters likeDoom,Half-Life, and in particular,Quake. It was developed by David Szymanski, a supremely talented one-man team, and has performed so well that it has received a Nintendo Switch port, with other console ports to come.
In creatingDUSK, Szymanski said one of his biggest challenges was convincing the Unity engine to stop doing things to visually improve the game. He was determined to make his title as close as possible to his experience of his favorite 90s FPS games, warts and all, and the positive reaction from fans suggest he has succeeded.
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What Made Quake So Special
Quakewas released in 1996 by Id Software, and is regarded as a technical landmark in video gaming. Dispensing with the “fake” 3D employed by titles likeDoomandDuke Nukem 3D, Id’s talented team created a fully 3D environment in which players could run, jump, swim, and blast their way through eerie medieval castles and haunted military bases.
Despite its age, the game remains popular, and aremastered version ofQuakewas recently releasedacross a number of platforms. Bringing high-resolution graphics, a 120 FPS frame rate, and brand new bonus episodes to the game has helped the release prove a hit, but has certainly upgraded and changed the game from the original late-90s experience.
BecauseQuake’s source code was made freely available, fans have also found the game very easy to make mods and maps for in the 25 years since its release, and as a result there is ahuge amount of fan-madeQuakecontent available online. This may have inspired Szymanski to create his magnum opus, and although he created his own game from scratch, he has undoubtedly infused it withQuake’s DNA.
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How DUSK Perfectly Recaptures the Feel of the Original Quake
DUSKsets out its vicious and grisly stall immediately, with the player assaulted by chainsaw-wielding, dungaree-clad cultists, armed with only a pair of sickles to help them slash their way out of trouble. As well as the low-poly models and low-res textures, veterans ofQuakewill also recognizeDUSK’s limited color palette, with brown being leaned on very heavily in the architecture of the first episode, “The Foothills.” Styled afterThe Texas Chainsaw Massacreand evoking revered horror FPSBlood, it forces the protagonist through a series of disturbing and lunatic-filled locales.
The gameplay also blasts itsQuakehomage into players' faces with both barrels, with the protagonist unencumbered by weapon reloads, slow movement, or stealth mechanics. Instead, they run and gun their way through sinister swamps, (seemingly) abandoned mines, and sadistic sawmills like theold-school FPSglory days have been restored.
The game’s structure also mirrors Id Software’s classic, withDUSKcomprising three episodes, each containing around ten maps. Throughout the course of these adventures, the player will gradually accumulate increasingly powerful weaponry, and encounter more harrowing and formidable monsters against which it must be deployed.DUSKeven surpasses its ancestor in a number of areas: the game’s boss encounters are a huge improvement onQuake’s meagre menagerie, and the variety of its locations is also a refreshing departure fromQuake’s citadel-centric designs.
The game has received abundant praise, including for its riotous soundtrack byAndrew Hulshult, ofDoom Eternalfame. Fans hope thatDUSK’s creator will add more content in the future, as well as bringing the title to a new batch of bloodthirsty gamers with its upcoming Xbox and PS4 ports.
DUSKis available now for Mac, PC, and Switch.
