Until recently, the boomer shooter – games like Dusk and Turbo Overkill – has largely riffed on the tentpole FPS games of the ‘90s. The retro resurgence is evolving, however, as developers leave behind the decade that gave us the first Half-Life and Quake, and look now to the early ‘00s, when Doom 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Prey, and Half-Life 2 first landed. Inspired by all these hits and more (there are definitely traces of Monolith’s Blood, and also the often overlooked The Darkness), a new Steam shooter is available to try for free right this second.
It’s 1945. The Third Reich is losing the war and desperately looking for new and alternative weapons. As a five-hundred-year-old occultist, you’re not going to let that stand. By harnessing ancient magic, and infusing it into an arsenal of chunky rifles, handguns, and shotguns, you’re on a mission to end WWII for good. This is Kvlt (pronounced ‘Cult’), a new FPS game influenced by the classics of early ‘00s PC gaming. A sprawling single-player shooter with a Lovecraftian twist, it lovingly captures the aesthetic and energy of games like Doom 3, Half-Life 2, and Prey.
As well as your standard weapons, you can discover arcane runes that unlock a range of magical attacks and abilities. My favorite detail is the little spellcasting animation, when your character launches a barrage of thaumaturgical energy by making the iconic, heavy metal, demon horns hand gesture. Fast, bloody, and dripping in grimdark atmosphere, you can combine runes and spells to customize weapons however you like.
We’re still waiting on a full release date for Kvlt, but you can try it right now thanks to a newly revamped demo available on Steam. If you want a new kind of boomer shooter that nevertheless pays affectionate homage to some of the greatest games of PC’s past, just head right here.
Alternatively, enjoy some nostalgia with the best old games, or maybe look ahead with the best upcoming PC games arriving in 2024 and beyond.
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