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
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.
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.
- 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.
Personally, I’ve only played Dusk and Iron Fury.
Here is a recent video of LevelCapGaming talking about a few good/interesting “boomer shooters” (Prodeus, Ultrakill, Dusk, Ion Fury, Selaco, HROT, Cultic, Brutal Doom)
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
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