Quaking

DUSK perfectly captures and reloads the joy of classic ’90s shooters.

- Ian Birnbaum

I was just about hip-deep in corpses and spent shotguns shells when I read the writing on the wall. Scrawled in blood, a message: ‘Don’t go in the ruins.’ I heard a raspy noise behind me. It wasn’t quite an animal sound, but it wasn’t human, either. I turned and found something much worse than a bad guy. A closed door marked Ruins Access. The raspy breathing came again from just behind it. I felt an actual chill run down my back.

Dusk is a homage to late ’90s corridor shooters like Doom, Quake and Half-Life. It’s also a love letter to weird cultist horror films like The Hills Have Eyes and Deliverance. More importantly, it’s great.

Waking up hanging from a meathook is at least the third-worst way to wake up. At the beginning of Dusk, I’m meathooked, trapped in a hostile world, and mostly unarmed. Like the ’90s shooters it draws inspiration from, the first tool Dusk gives players is speed. Pressing the forward button zips me along the ground, and, charmingly, bunnyhopping adds momentum just like it used to in the old days. With a heavy W-finger and a lot of jumping, exploring the creepy farmhouses and industrial buildings of Dusk’s first chapter felt like touring a videogame art museum on a motorcycle.