DUSK Review Summary

Great atmosphere, movement, and shooting are let down by poor level design, repetitive enemies, and disappointing bosses.

Overall positive experience: Multiple reviewers describe the game as good, addictive, and fun. They highlight a strong first impression and a cool retro style.

Excellent atmosphere and set-pieces: Reviewers praise the well-executed atmosphere and excellent set-pieces, noting the retro look and good texture feel.

Varied level design: Maps are described as varied, with decent level design and enjoyable lab levels, especially in episode three.

Good movement mechanics: Players appreciate the excellent character movement, including speed, crouch slide, and bunnyhopping, making the gameplay fluid.

Strong first episode: Multiple reviews mention that the first episode is a 10/10 experience, starting out great and being enjoyable.

Poor level design and navigation: Level design is consistently poor: confusing mazes, cramped or open spaces, lack of visual landmarks, and excessive darkness masquerading as difficulty. Navigation is frustrating and reduces shooting pleasure.

Repetitive and frustrating enemies: Enemy design is bland, repetitive, and annoying. Only 3 enemy types (melee, shooter, hybrid) with reskins, plus frustrating cowgirls and invisible bullet-sponge enemies. Horror jumpscares are more annoying than scary.

Tedious and boring progression: The game quickly becomes tedious and boring after the first episode, with drag-on levels, boring puzzles, and momentum-killing darkness. Even good aspects feel like a chore.

Inferior to similar games: Better to play Quake, Blood Fresh Supply, Selaco, or Severed Steel. Dusk is a shameless Quake rip-off with nothing new, less fun than Postal 97, and one of the least interesting boomer shooters.

Broken and anticlimactic bosses: Specific bosses are broken: final boss Jakob is one-shottable, Nyarlathotep feels cheap, and the guardian is impossible. Boss design is ugly and uncreative, with 13 bosses being too many.

Boomer shooter genre praised: Players describe the game as a classic boomer shooter with secrets and varied maps. It is consistently compared to the retro first-person shooter genre.

Repetitive and confusing levels: Multiple reviews state that levels feel repetitive with only cosmetic changes, and the maze-like layout is confusing. This negatively impacts the gameplay experience.

Simple gameplay and dark levels: The gameplay is described as simple, and levels are generally dark. Some arena-based levels and boss fights exist.

Fast-paced run-and-gun core: The core gameplay is fast-paced run-and-gun with circle strafing as a primary combat strategy. Shooting is a fundamental mechanic.

Varied enemy and weapon types: Enemies include melee, ranged, and hybrid types, with similar boss variants. Weapons include pump shotgun, dual pistols, assault rifle, hunting rifle, crossbow, and explosive weapons.

Severe crashes on Linux: Players report frequent crashes on Linux, leading to system freezes and failure to start the game after repeated crashes. This is a critical stability issue for Linux users.

Positive performance feedback: One player reported smooth overall performance, indicating that the game runs well at least on some systems. This contrasts with the crash reports.

Minor world collision bug: A player experienced a minor glitch where they fell through the world once. Such issues are isolated and not widespread.

Play Quake or its alternatives: Several reviewers suggest playing Quake instead, noting it offers similar or better value. Some recommend free Quake mods or mappacks as an alternative.

Overpriced, wait for deep discount: The current price of $20 is considered too high; many feel the game is only worth around $2 and recommend waiting for a deep sale.

Recommended for boomer shooter fans: The game is recommended for fans of classic boomer shooters like Doom and Quake, as well as newcomers to the genre.

Cannot recommend the game: Multiple reviewers cannot recommend the game, with some stating they would not have bought it if they had known.

Only buy at a deep discount: The game is not recommended for purchase unless it is at a deep discount, with emphasis on waiting for a sale.

Community fair range: $8.00 - $15.00.

Game completion: 12.5h.

Story completion: 6.5h.

DUSK starts with a repetitive, slow first half of Episode 1 that can feel like a slog, but after that initial hurdle the gameplay becomes fast, addictive, and varied with better weapons, enemies, and level design.

Friction: repetitive early levels; boring, braindead enemy AI; lack of visual landmarks causing disorientation; tedious backtracking for locked doors; difficulty spikes that feel unfair.

Unlock drivers: new weaponry (e.g., dual shotguns, ring of wall-walking); new enemy types; outdoor areas and fresh environments; faster pacing in later episodes.

Old-School FPS Purist: Aggressive, fast-paced movement (bunny-hopping, circle-strafing), seeks challenge on higher difficulties, appreciates authentic retro gunplay and level design. Motivation: Nostalgic FPS action and faithful recreation of classic 90s shooters. Stance: buy.

Movement Master / Speedrunner: Agile, optimizes movement exploits and routes, replays levels to improve times, enjoys physics-based tricks and bunny-hopping. Motivation: Mastering movement and achieving fast completion times. Stance: buy.

Secret Hunter / Completionist: Thorough exploration, seeks out every secret, hidden soap, and award, often replaying levels to find all collectibles and complete achievements. Motivation: Satisfaction of discovery and 100% completion. Stance: buy.

Both hardware cohorts report good performance, with minor frame drops on lower VRAM configurations.

Windows <8GB VRAM: positive. Reports generally smooth performance, though some users note occasional sudden frame drops.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: positive. Reports excellent frame rates and high-quality graphics.

Steam Deck: The game offers a polished native Linux experience with cloud saves and controller support, but a critical crash on Proton when entering a specific area and distribution-specific incompatibility require tinkering (e.g., switching Proton versions or adjusting system dependencies).

Linux and Proton: The game ships with a native Linux build that runs without crashes on at least one distribution (Manjaro). However, one user reports a crash when using Proton, and another user reports incompatibility on Linux Mint. Overall, the experience is positive for most users, but minor distribution-specific tweaks may be required.